Bigos (
'big?s) is a traditional
stew typical of
Polish and
Lithuanian cuisine that many consider to be the Polish
national dish.
A savory stew of cabbage and meat, there is no standard recipe, as recipes vary considerably from region to region and from family to family. Typical ingredients include fresh and fermented white cabbage (sauerkraut, kapusta kiszona in Polish), various cuts of meat and sausages, often whole or puréed tomatoes, honey and mushrooms. The meats may include pork (often smoked), ham, bacon, beef, veal, sausage, and, as bigos is considered a hunters' stew, venison or other game; leftover cuts find their way into the pot as well. It may be seasoned with pepper, caraway, juniper berries, bay leaf, marjoram, pimento, dried or smoked plums and other ingredients.
Bigos is usually eaten with rye bread and potatoes. As with many stews, bigos can be kept in a cool place or refrigerated then reheated later—its taste actually intensifies when reheated. A common practice is to keep a pot of bigos going for a week or more, replenishing ingredients as necessary (cf. perpetual stew). This, the seasonal availability of cabbage and its richness in vitamin C made bigos a traditional part of the winter diet in Poland and elsewhere. In Poland, it was a traditional dish to be served on the Second Day of Christmas.
Bigos is said by some to have been introduced to Poland by Wladislaus II, a Lithuanian prince who became king in 1385 and who supposedly served it to his hunting-party guests. However, Polish linguists trace the word bigos to a German rather than Lithuanian origin, even though no word with which it can be identified is extant in modern German. The PWN Dictionary of Foreign Words speculates that it derives from the past participle of the German verb begossen, for "to douse", as bigos was doused with wine in earlier periods.[1]
