Foods in Poland
DAIRY PRODUCTS
Fresh whole milk is used mainly by children with the adults preferring
soured milk or buttermilk. Sour cream is widely used as an ingredient, as
a dressing or a sauce, blended into soups, gravies and as a side dish.
Cheeses are available, but the bland smoothness of pot or cottage cheese
is preferred both as a spread and in many cooked dishes.
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Some fresh fruits and vegetables are eaten in season, but Poles enjoy
fruits in the form of compotes and stews and they like their vegetables
either well cooked or pickled. Plums, apples, and pears are the most
readily available fruits and these are used as compotes, thick richly
sweet preserves, fillings for cakes and yeast bakeries and even as
condiments with meats for a sweet-sour flavor (but mostly sweet).
Vegetables widely used are potatoes, red and green and savoy cabbages,
beets, kohlrabi, and smaller quantities of carrots, peas, and beans. Wild
mushrooms, fresh or dried, are used in many dishes. Both mushrooms and
sauerkraut are used not only alone, but in so many other dishes they can
also be considered as flavorings.
MEATS AND ALTERNATES
Poles enjoy their meats well cooked, tender and juicy and with
accompanying sauces or gravies. Broiling or dry roasting are not a part of
their culinary practices. Pork and beef are the favorites but chicken,
duck, turkey, game fowl and game animals are eaten when available.
Except for herring in many different forms and occasional baked or poached
pike or carp, Poles seldom eat fish or seafood. Eggs are used generously
in baking and cooking, occasionally as main dish omelets, more frequently
as appetizers. Legumes are not widely used. Nuts, especially almonds, find
a place in baking or as a garnish.
BREADS AND GRAINS
Rye, wheat, buckwheat, barley, and oats are grown in quantity. Wheat flour
is used in all bakery but rye flour is preferred for breads. Barley and
buckwheat groats are used almost daily as stuffing, fillings, in soups, or
as side dishes to meat and vegetables. This type of side dish is called
kasza. Rye bread is a staple at all meals especially in the country,
but potatoes often supplant bread at a meal, especially at dinner.
No crumb of bread is ever wasted. Polonaise sauce, famed in many other
lands besides Poland, is actually not a sauce in the usual sense, but a
toasted mixture of crumbs browned in butter. Cooked vegetables, especially
green beans and cauliflower, benefit from this "sauce". Bread crumbs also
form the basic ingredient for poached dumplings served either with meats
or with a fruit sauce or sour cream as a dessert. Many fine cakes are made
from light mixtures of separated and beaten eggs folded together with fine
bread crumbs and ground nuts.
FATS
Butter is preferred for cooking and baking and as a spread. Lard, salt
pork and bacon fat, rendered chicken, goose or duck fat are also used.
Vegetable oils and margarine are used only sparingly
SWEETS AND SNACKS
Poles have an insatiable sweet tooth that encompasses a great array of
fine baked goods and pastries, tortes, strudels, and mazurkas (rich,
buttery cakes). They also enjoy munching raisins and almonds together as a
treat. There is a general use of much sugar in beverages, and honey in
cakes and drinks. Polish dishes that are purportedly "sweet and sour" are
always very sweet with only a hint of the sour. An added sprinkle of sugar
is felt to enhance everything from soups and meat, dishes to pickles and
fish specialties.
SEASONINGS
Polish seasonings include sour cream, dill, garlic, paprika, and dried or
fresh wild mushrooms. Horse radish is used alone or in combination with
finely grated beets as a sauce for fish. Lemons and the fermented juices
from grains and pickled vegetables are used for tartness, always tempered
with sugar or honey. As mentioned above, sugar is believed to enhance all
flavors.
Without diminishing the importance of that little touch of sugar in so
many Polish dishes, the Poles also retain a reverence for salt. Perhaps
nowhere else in the world is this depicted as beautifully as in the salt
mines of Wieliczka where workers have carved a small chapel graced with
statues and candlesticks sculpted from salt.
BEVERAGES
Tea is the most common beverage, served clear or with lemon and sugar.
Coffee is generally only served after a more formal meal and then it is
served strong and black or with sugar. Beer served in small glasses may
accompany meals; wine is used only by the more affluent or "more refined".
Polish vodka is believed to be the finest available, even by Russian
standards. It is made from grains or potatoes and is taken straight with
appetizers (zakaski). In recent years it has been consumed by rich
and poor alike in such quantity as to constitute somewhat of a problem.
Krupnik is a fine liqueur prepared from honey spices and vodka, served
warm.