Polish cuisine (
Polish kuchnia polska) is a mixture of
Slavic, Austrian, Italian, Turkish and
Germanic culinary traditions. 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 consists of 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 (poppy seed cake), 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).
There is only circumstantial evidence of vodka's originating in Poland. The development of the distillation process in France during the 13th 14th century means that the expertise would most likely have to pass through Germany to reach Poland.[citation needed] However, the first known recorded use of the word 'vodka' comes from a Polish document from 1405.[citation needed]
With the ascension of the Italian queen Bona Sforza, the second wife of Sigismund I of Poland, in 1518, countless cooks were brought to Poland from Italy. Although native vegetable foods were an ancient and intrinsic part of the cuisine, this began a period in which vegetables such as lettuce, leek, celeriac and cabbage were more widely used. Even today, such vegetables as leeks, carrots and celery are known in Polish as wloszczyzna, which refers to Wlochy, the Polish name of Italy.
