Polish cuisine (
Polish kuchnia polska) is a mixture of
Slavic,
Jewish and foreign culinary traditions. Born as a mixture of various culinary traditions, both of various regions of Poland and surrounding cultures, it uses a fair variety of ingredients. It is rich in meat, especially pork, cabbage (for example in the dish
bigos), and spices, as well as different kinds of
noodles and
dumplings, the most notable of which are the
pierogi. It is related to other Slavic cuisines in usage of
kasza and other
cereals, but was also under the heavy influence of Turkic, Germanic, Hungarian, Jewish, French, Italian or colonial cuisines of the past. Generally speaking, Polish cuisine is substantial. Poles allow themselves a generous amount of time to enjoy their meals, with some meals taking a number of days to prepare in their entirety.
A typical lunch is usually composed of at least three courses, starting with a soup, such as barszcz (beet) or zurek (sour rye meal mash), followed perhaps in a restaurant by an appetizer of salmon or herring (prepared in either cream, oil, or vinegar). Other popular appetizers are various meats, vegetables or fish in aspic. The main course may be the national dish, bigos (cabbage with pieces of meat, mostly pork) or kotlet schabowy (breaded pork cutlet). Meals often conclude with a dessert such as ice cream (lody), 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 flaczki (tripe). Many dishes contain quark.
During the Late Middle Ages the cuisine of Poland was very heavy and spicy. Two main ingredients were meat (both game and beef) and cereal. As the territory of Poland was densely forested, use of mushrooms, forest fruits, nuts and honey was also widespread. Thanks to close trade relations with Asia, the price of spices (such as juniper, pepper and nutmeg) was much lower than in the rest of Europe, and spicy sauces became popular. The usage of two basic sauces (the jucha czerwona and jucha szara, or red and white blood in contemporary Polish) remained widespread at least until 18th century.[1]
The most popular beverages were beer, including the very lightly-fermented barley-water, podpiwek, and mead -- however in the 16th century the upper classes started importing Hungarian wines. After distilled spirits became common in Europe, vodka became popular, especially among the lower classes.
