The atlas · A cuisine · Poland
Polish
Cold-climate cooking of grains, potatoes, dairy and ferments — sour things, soured things, and dumplings for every occasion.
Where it comes from
Winters were long, so Polish cooking learned to keep things: cabbage and cucumbers fermented, rye soured for soup, mushrooms dried from the autumn woods.
Pierogi are the dish of home and of feast alike. On Wigilia, Christmas Eve, the meatless supper traditionally has twelve dishes, and pierogi with cabbage and mushroom are among them.
Where in it
- Kraków and MałopolskaThe old royal capital, where obwarzanki are sold from carts on nearly every corner and pierogi get a festival of their own each summer.Obwarzanek krakowski
- Zakopane and PodhaleHighland country under the Tatras: smoked sheep's cheese, oscypek, grilled at roadside stalls, lamb from the high pastures, and sour kwaśnica to come in to from the snow.Kwaśnica
- SilesiaCoal-mining country with its own dialect and its own Sunday dinner — beef roulade, red cabbage and dimpled kluski — and a bowl of sour żur on the table as often as not.Kluski śląskieŻurek
- Poznań and WielkopolskaPotato country — locals call potatoes pyry and eat them with gzik, curd cheese with onion — and home of the St Martin's crescents baked every November.Rogal świętomarciński
- Przemyśl and PodkarpacieThe south-east corner, once part of the historic region of Red Ruthenia — the Ruś that is usually said to give pierogi ruskie their name.Pierogi ruskie
How it cooks
- Fermenting
- Cabbage, cucumbers and rye, soured with salt and time.
- Dumplings
- A soft dough rolled thin, filled, pinched and boiled — sometimes fried after.
- Browned onion and butter
- The finish on half the dishes.
Always in the kitchen
Cook from it
Tonight, with what's good in October
Its classics
PolishPierogi ruskieBoiled dumplings filled with potato, twaróg cheese and fried onion, finished with more onion in butter.1 version herePolishBigosHunter's stew of sauerkraut, fresh cabbage and several meats, reheated over days until it's deep and sour-sweet.No one here has made it yetPolishŻurekA sour soup built on fermented rye flour, with white sausage, smoked meat, garlic, marjoram and a halved hard-boiled egg.No one here has made it yet
PolishGołąbkiSoftened cabbage leaves rolled around minced pork and rice, then baked or simmered in tomato sauce.No one here has made it yetPolishPlacki ziemniaczaneGrated raw potato and onion bound with egg and a little flour, fried in thin cakes until lacy and crisp.No one here has made it yet
PolishPączkiRich, yeasted doughnuts filled with rose-petal jam or plum, glazed or sugared — the food of Fat Thursday.No one here has made it yetPolishObwarzanek krakowskiA ring of twisted dough, boiled briefly and then baked, crusted with poppy seed, sesame or salt and sold from street carts.No one here has made it yetPolishKwaśnicaThe highlanders' sauerkraut soup, sour and smoky, cooked on pork ribs with potatoes, allspice and bay.No one here has made it yetPolishKluski śląskieSoft, springy dumplings of mashed potato and potato starch, each pressed with a thumb to leave a dimple for the gravy.No one here has made it yetPolishRogal świętomarcińskiA large crescent of flaky yeast pastry filled with white poppy seed, almonds, nuts and dried fruit, glazed and scattered with nuts.No one here has made it yetHow it got here
Centuries ago · from Red Ruthenia, around LvivA potato and cheese fillingThe filling of pierogi ruskie is said to come from Red Ruthenia, the region around Lviv. Ruskie means Ruthenian — not Russian.Pierogi ruskie →
