Polish cuisine (
Polish kuchnia polska) is a mixture of
Eastern European (Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Hungarian, etc.) and
German culinary traditions, with some
Russian,
Italian, and
Turkish influence due to historical reasons. It is rich in meat, especially chicken and pork, and winter vegetables (cabbage in the dish
bigos), and spices, as well as different kinds of
noodles the most notable of which are the
pierogi. It is related to other Slavic cuisines in usage of
kasza and other
cereals. Generally speaking, Polish cuisine is hearty and uses a lot of cream and eggs. The traditional cuisine generally is demanding and Poles allow themselves a generous amount of time to prepare and enjoy their festive meals, with some meals (like
Christmas eve or
Easter Breakfast) taking a number of days to prepare in their entirety.
Traditionally, the main meal is eaten about 2 p.m., and is usually composed of three courses, starting with a soup, such as popular bouillon or tomato or more festive barszcz (beet) or zurek (sour rye meal mash), followed perhaps in a restaurant by an appetizer of herring (prepared in either cream, oil, or vinegar). Other popular appetizers are various cured meats, vegetables or fish in aspic. The main course is usually meaty including a roast or kotlet schabowy (breaded pork cutlet). Vegetables, currently replaced by leaf salad, were not very long ago most commonly served as 'surowka' - shredded root vegetables with lemon and sugar (carrot, celeriac, beetroot) or fermented cabbage (kapusta kwaszona). The sides are usually boiled potatoes or more traditionally kasha (cereals). Meals often conclude with a dessert such as makowiec, a poppy seed pastry, or drozdzówka, a type of yeast cake. Other Polish specialities include chlodnik (a chilled beet or fruit soup for hot days), golonka (pork knuckles cooked with vegetables), kolduny (meat dumplings), zrazy (stuffed slices of beef), salceson and flaki (tripe).
According to 10th century chronicle by Abraham ben Jacob, Poland was abundant with all sorts of "grains and meats and honeys and fish". 12th century chronicler Gallus Anonymus suggests that the basic foodstuffs were easily-available and that "although the country is forested, it also abounds in bread and meat and fish and honey". It is to be noted that at that time honey was used both as a sweetener and for conservation of meat.
During the Middle Ages the cuisine of Poland was very heavy and spicy. Two main ingredients were meat (both game and beef) and cereal. The latter consisted initially of proso millet, but already in the Middle Ages other types of cereal became widely used. Average commoners did not use bread and instead consumed cereals in the forms of kasza or various types of flatbread, some of which (like kolacz) are considered traditional recipes even in 21st century. Apart from cereals, a large portion of a daily diet of mediaeval Poles consisted of beans, mostly broad beans and peas.
