Bigos or hunter’s stew

Squeeze the sauerkraut out of the acid, or even rinse it if it is too sour, add a few large onions, add a piece of meat or just bones that you have at home, some bacon rinds, one small mushroom and a clove of garlic which you will later take out. Let it cook for an hour, then set aside and add the tomato puree. Separately, have diced various roast meats, such as: beef, pork, veal, leftover poultry, some cold cuts, game, sausages and a lot of bacon backfat fried until white. Then arrange in layers in the pot: pour backfat on the bottom, put cabbage, mixed meat and some pepper on top, then again bacon backfat, cabbage and meat. When everything is done, cover and put in the oven or on the burner to simmer thoroughly. Pour a little broth over it so that it doesn’t burn. Finally,  add a roux made from butter with a spoonful of flour. This bigos can be eaten right away but is better eaten later, heated. When serving, top with freshly cooked whole potatoes or unsmoked sausage, cooked and cut into slices. Pour a glass of wine and it will be exquisite. The more types of meat, the tastier the bigos.

(Janina Izdebska, Polska kuchnia i spiżarnia, Warszawa 1905)

Bigos made of sauerkraut

Boil the cabbage by pouring cold water over it, drain the water after boiling, add a tablespoon of butter, cut in appropriate quantities, e.g. for four people two units of broth, cut it finely and pour in water and simmer the cabbage under a lid. Cut the remaining roast beef into cubes, put it in the stewed cabbage, also add one thoroughly scalded and chopped onion, and when it has stewed for another half an hour, take a spoonful of butter, fry it with a spoonful of flour, spread it with the cabbage sauce, mix everything together, bring to the boil and serve covering it with whole potatoes boiled with salt. Even people with stomach problems can eat this type of bigos without any ill effects.

(Kuchnia polska, Toruń 1901)

Ciupka with peas (Greater Poland)

70 dag of sauerkraut, 10 dag of split peas, 8 dag of onion, 6 dag of bacon backfat, 2 dag of flour, pepper, salt

Boil the peas in the water in which they were soaked. Boil the sauerkraut. Add the cooked peas and a roux of bacon, onion, and flour to the cabbage. Season with salt and pepper.

(Barbara Snaglewska, Irmina Zahorska, Potrawy staropolskie i regionalne, Warszawa 1991)

Peas with cabbage (Tuchola Forest/Bory Tucholskie)

Pork with bone, a piece of smoked bacon, ½ kg of peas, mixed vegetables, 4-5 potatoes, pepper, salt, marjoram, onion, garlic clove, ½ kg of sauerkraut

Soak the washed peas in a pot overnight in 2-3 litres of water. Boil the peas in the same water with meat, vegetables and potatoes. Dice the bacon backfat and fry it with onion in a pan, add it to the boiling peas, mix well, season with salt, pepper, garlic and marjoram. Chop the sauerkraut and place on a platter or in a salad bowl. Add cabbage to taste to the peas poured into deep plates. You can also prepare croutons from whole wheat bread. For Christmas Eve, prepare thick peas without meat or bacon.

( Maria Olick, Maltych, grapa…, Tuchola 2007)

Pea soup with sauerkraut (Pałuki region)

1 cup of shelled peas, 0.5 kg of sauerkraut, 0.5 kg of smoked bones (preferably from pork loin), 20 dag of smoked bacon, 1 carrot, 2 medium potatoes, 1 onion, 2 liters of water, salt, pepper, marjoram

Rinse the peas and soak them in a litre of water for 12 hours before boiling. Pour the water and peas into the pot and add another litre of water. Add bones and cook until soft. Then we lift the bones out and take off the meat. Halfway through cooking, add diced carrots and potatoes. We don’t add salt! Dice the bacon and onion and fry. Rinse the cabbage with water. Chop it. Season the soup with spices, add fried onion and bacon, the meat from the bones, and cabbage. Cook everything for about 15 minutes. Serve with rye bread.

(Krzysztof Leśniewski, Kuchnia pałucka, Bydgoszcz 2016)

Sauerkraut with mushrooms (Tuchola Forest)

75 dag of sauerkraut, 2 dag of dried mushrooms, 10 dag of onion, 10 dag of bacon, 1 dag of flour, 1 clove of garlic, 2 dag of fat (lard, butter), pepper and salt to taste

Pour over the cabbage a small amount of water, add salt, garlic and cook until soft. Fry the bacon in a pan. Separately boil sliced ​​mushrooms with chopped onion and pepper. Add to the cabbage the fried bacon, mushrooms and onion with the broth. Make a roux from flour and fat. Bring everything to a boil. Serve hot with meat, potato sausage, or as a separate dish.

(Maria Olick, Maltych, grapa…, Tuchola 2007)

Sauerkraut with marjoram (Kuyavia/Kujawy)

1 kg of sauerkraut, 20 dag of smoked bacon, 3 onions, a handful of marjoram, salt, pepper, allspice, bay leaves, dried mushrooms

Wash and boil the sauerkraut. Drain the water and add fresh water. Cook with mushrooms and spices until soft. Then add the marjoram and cook for a while. Finally, make a roux with the bacon and golden-fried onion. Mix everything and bring to boil.

(Dorota Kalinowska, Gzik, żur i prażucha…, Włocławek 2014)

Sauerkraut with apples and grated potatoes, fried

75 dag of sauerkraut, 2-3 apples, 2-3 potatoes, 1 onion, 8 dag of bacon or lard, sugar, pepper, 1 tablespoon of flour

Pour boiling water over the cabbage and cook until soft, uncovered. After about half an hour of cooking, add apples and potatoes; they should be washed, peeled, rinsed, the potatoes should be grated finely, the apple (without cores) should be grated large-holed, and immediately added to the cabbage so that they do not darken. Mix and cook for another 20-30 minutes. Cut the bacon into cubes, melt, add the diced onion, brown it, add flour, fry until light golden, add to the cabbage, bring to a boil. Season with sugar and pepper to taste. You can add a quarter glass of white wine to this dish at the end, as well as a few juniper berries and a bay leaf.

(Anna Gasik, Kapusta biała, Warszawa 1984)

Cabbage with peas or beans (szablok), a dish for Christmas Eve and not only (Kujawy/Kuyavia)

2 kg of sauerkraut, 30-50 dag of split peas or beans [szablok], 2-4 onions, oil, pepper, allspice, bay leaf, salt

Initially, cook the cabbage and beans or peas separately. Drain the cabbage as needed so that it is not too sour. Add bay leaf, allspice, a few tablespoons of oil and fried onion. Simmer until the cabbage is soft (a few hours for two days). On the second day, cook the peas or beans until soft. After cooking, puree some of it (or just mash it with a fork) and add it to the cabbage together with the remaining grain. Season with salt to taste. Simmer everything for another 1-2 hours, stirring frequently.

(Dorot Kalinowska, Gzik, żur i prażucha…, Włocławek 2014)

Cabbage with mushrooms (Pomerania)

Boil 3-4 dag of dried mushrooms, keeping plenty of broth. Put 1 kg of sauerkraut, but not too sour, in a pot, and cook, while cooking pour mushroom broth. Add 2-3 grated raw potatoes. When the cabbage is cooked, fry a tablespoon of butter with finely chopped onion until golden brown. Add a tablespoon of flour to the roux and dilute with cold water. Bring to a boil, mix with cabbage and bring to a boil again, adding the cooked mushrooms cut into strips.

(Zbigniew Przybylak, Tradycyjna kuchnia pomorsko-wielkopolska…, Poznań 2005)

Cabbage soup with groats (Tuchola Forest / Bory Tucholskie)

Pork (trotters or tails are fine), sauerkraut, carrots, parsley, celery, bay leaf, allspice, barley groats, pepper, salt, garlic clove, marjoram

Wash the meat well, cover with water, add diced vegetables. Cook until soft. Put the bay leaf and cabbage in the pot and when soft, add 3 tablespoons of groats. Continue cooking until the groats are soft and form a paste. Season with pepper, garlic, marjoram and salt. Serve with potatoes cooked separately or with bread.

(Maria Olick, Maltych, grapa…, Tuchola 2007)

Cabbage soup „Kapuścionka”(Kashubia / Kaszuby)

Peel ½ kg of potatoes, cut into pieces and pour 1 ½ l of water, add caraway seeds and, depending on taste, other spices: bay leaf, allspice and pepper. Once the potatoes are cooked, pour in ½ l of juice with a small amount of sauerkraut. Parboil Cut the bread into cubes, fry in a pan and put into the sour soup. You can thicken the soup with flour and season it with salt. The cabbage soup was also sprinkled with lightly browned bacon and onion, and sliced ​​sausage was also added to it.

(Zbigniew Przybylak, Tradycyjna kuchnia pomorsko-wielkopolska…, Poznań 2005)

Cabbage soup /Kapuścionka  (Kuyavia / Kujawy)

About 1 kg of potatoes, salt, bay leaf, allspice, pepper, about 1 l of sauerkraut juice and a small amount of sauerkraut, some caraway seeds, bacon/backfat, onion. Cut the potatoes into cubes and pour 3 liters of water, add spices, and bring to a boil. When the potatoes are soft, pour in the cabbage juice and add the cabbage. Cook. The soup can be seasoned with a roux made from a tablespoon of flour. Season the dish with melted bacon/backfat and browned onion.

(Grażyna Szelągowska, Kuchnia z rodowodem…, Toruń 2010)

Sauerkraut soup (kapuśniak)

The tastiest is kapuśniak soup with meat. You can take pork bones, pieces of cured meat or smoked ribs. The meat is cooked with onion, parsley, 2-3 dried mushrooms and a few grains of allspice. When it is soft, remove it from the broth, add to it as much boiled and skimmed cabbage sour juice as needed to taste and thicken it with one and a half tablespoons of flour with two tablespoons of cream, or if you don’t have any, with milk or an egg. Lenten soup is made the same way but just with soup greens and more mushrooms. Served with dumplings/ batter noodles.

(Nauka gotowania do użytku ludu wiejskiego, Grudziądz 1915)

Sauerkraut cabbage soup (kapuśniak)

Pour water on two handfuls of sauerkraut and cook until soft, then add a heaped tablespoon of plum stew, and when it dissolves, season with a tablespoon of melted butter, mixed with a tablespoon of flour, and bring to boil. Add some sugar to taste. Served with grated potatoes, raw butter or sour raw cream.

(Janina Breyerowa, Jarska kuchnia witaminowa, Kraków 1927)

Polish sauerkraut soup

Cook the stock from bones, smoked meat or fresh pork, after skimming it off add the appropriate amount of sauerkraut and add sour juice to taste (exact measure cannot be given, it depends on the strength of the sour juice). Cut in two onions, put in one or two dried mushrooms and cook both the meat and cabbage until completely soft, then thicken with a spoonful of flour with butter or bacon/backfat, bring to a boil, pepper and serve on the table. Serve mashed potatoes separately. If you want to have a Lenten sauerkraut soup, cook it with just vegetables and mushrooms, add more butter, and you can also add half a quart of spelt groats.

(Janina Izdebska, Polska kuchnia i spiżarnia, Warszawa 1905)

Old Polish sauerkraut cabbage soup

50 dag of bones, 25 dag of soup greens, 30 dag of sauerkraut, 2 l of water, 1.5 dag of dried mushrooms, 5 dag of plum stew, 2 dag of flour, 4 dag of fat, salt, sugar, ground juniper berries

Cook stock from bones and vegetables. Pour broth to the cabbage and cook until soft. Boil the mushrooms, cut into strips. Add mushrooms to the cabbage  with the broth in which they were cooked. Add plum stew. Season everything with a roux of fat and flour, add spices and bring to a boil. Keep boiling for a few more minutes. Serve with potatoes.

(Barbara Snaglewska, Irmina Zahorska, Potrawy staropolskie i regionalne, Warszawa 1991)

Sauerkraut cabbage soup with mushrooms (Kociewie)

20 dag of mixed mushrooms (porcini mushrooms with bolete mushrooms), clean, rinse, finely chop and stew with 3 dag of onion. In another pot, simmer the drained sauerkraut (30 dag) in butter. Prepare some broth in advance from 25 dag of bones and basic vegetables (soup greens), then strain it and thicken it with a roux made from 2 dag of flour. Then mix everything, add mushrooms and cabbage to the broth.

(W kuchni i przy stole. Ksiónzka o keściu na Kociywiu, Tczew 2000)

Common sauerkraut cabbage soup

Put sauerkraut from a barrel together with cabbage juice in a pot, add a piece of beef bone, a piece of smoked pork, sausage, and let it boil. Then add chives, one whole parsley, celery and carrots, and when everything is soft, cut a piece of bacon into cubes according to the proportions of the soup, add a roux with one onion and flour so that the soup is thick. Then, take out the smoked meat and sausage from the ready cabbage soup, cut them up nicely, put them in a tureen, pour in the soup, season with salt and pepper, and serve. You can also serve round peas separately, cooked whole without grease or fried in breadcrumbs, and if you don’t’ have any smoked meat, use fresh pork.

(Kuchnia polska, Toruń 1901)

”Kwas” sour soup (Kuyvia/Kujawy)

1 pork shank, 2 l of water, 2-3 tablespoons of sour cream, 3 tablespoons of flour, mixed vegetables, onion, allspice, bay leaf, marjoram, sauerkraut juice to taste

Marinate the pork shank for 3-4 days in water with salt and garlic. Cook the pork shank with vegetables and spices. When it is soft, add the sauerkraut juice (as per individual taste). Thicken with flour combined with water and sour cream. Serve with jacket potatoes.

(Grażyna Szelągowska, Kuchnia z rodowodem…, Toruń 2010)

”Kwas” sour soup from a barrel (Kashubia/Kaszuby)

Boil 1 ½ l of broth using ½ kg of bones and a piece of smoked meat (e.g. bacon, ribs, or even the rind of smoked ham or bacon) – the smoked meat is not necessary – with the addition of bay leaves, allspice and soup greens. You can boil separately the mushrooms until soft; cut them into strips and only then add them to the soup. At the end of cooking, add marjoram and savory and pour in ½ liter of juice from the barrel, i.e. juice from sauerkraut. Thicken with flour and cream, season with salt. Serve with mashed potatoes, i.e. purée, or potato dumplings.

(Zbigniew Przybylak, Tradycyjna kuchnia pomorsko-wielkopolska…, Poznań 2005)

Sour soup (Kuyvia/Kujawy)

1 ½ dag dried mushrooms, ½ l of sauerkraut juice, 1 ½ l of water, ½ kg of bones (pork or beef), soup greens, butter, flour for frying, sugar, salt

Soak the mushrooms in cold water, cook until soft, and chop. Boil the bones with vegetables and sauerkraut juice, add the cooked mushrooms together with the broth. Season the soup with roux and bring to a boil. Season with sugar and salt to taste. Serve with potatoes.

(Grażyna Szelągowska, Kuchnia z rodowodem…, Toruń 2010)

 Fettuccine (łazanki)

For ½ kg of flour, take 4 salted and beaten egg yolks, add a little lukewarm water and knead a very smooth dough. Roll it out very thinly, cut into strips approx. 2 cm wide, then cut them into diamond shapes, put them into lightly salted boiling water and cook. Boil the sauerkraut until soft, add the fried onion and sausage and mix with the cooked pasta.

(Wanda Dębska, Wielka Nieszawka, 2024)

Sauerkraut cabbage drink (Tuchola Forest/Bory Tucholskie)

½ liter of sauerkraut juice, 1 onion, ½ cup of boiled cooled water, salt, pepper, sugar to taste

Grate the onion, squeeze the juice. Add water, onion juice, salt, pepper and sugar to the sauerkraut juice. Mix everything. Perfect in winter, rich in vitamin C, regulates metabolism.

(Maria Olick, Maltych, grapa…, Tuchola 2007)

Dumplings (pierogi) with cabbage

Dough: 3 cups of flour, 15 dag of butter, 2-3 tablespoons of cream, 2 egg yolks, salt

Stuffing: 50 dag of sauerkraut, 10 dag of mushrooms, large onion, half a teaspoon of dill seeds, salt, pepper, egg, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, egg white

Sift flour onto a pastry board, add butter, chop it lower down into “sand” shape, add egg yolks, cream and salt. Knead the dough thoroughly but quickly, wrap in foil, and place in the fridge for a few hours. Chop the sauerkraut cabbage, place in a pot, add the dill seeds, pour boiling water over it, cook and let it evaporate. Fry finely chopped mushrooms and onion in oil, season with salt and pepper, add cabbage and fry for a while, while stirring remove it from the heat, let it cool, crack in one egg, mix. On a floured board, roll out the dough, cut into squares, stuff with cabbage, and seal. Put the pierogi in a greased baking tin and bake in a very hot oven until golden brown.

(Halina Szymanderska, Wigilia, Warszawa 2001)

Pierogi (dumplings) with mushrooms and sauerkraut (Tuchola Forest)

40 dag of sauerkraut, dried mushrooms in such quantity that when soaked and drained the volume of mushrooms is 1:1 in relation to the cabbage, 2 eggs, breadcrumbs, semolina, 10 dag of smoked bacon, onion, garlic clove, 1 kg of flour, salt, pepper, marjoram

Soak the dried mushrooms and cook them with cabbage, diced bacon and onion. Grind everything in a grinder or chop finely with a knife. Add whole eggs. Add breadcrumbs and semolina so that the filling is not too thin. Season with salt, pepper, marjoram and pressed garlic clove. Prepare the dough for the dumplings. In a bowl, pour hot boiled water on flour. Mix well, put on the pastry board and knead thoroughly, sprinkling with flour. Roll the dough. Cut out large discs with a diameter of 6-7 cm. Put the filling in the center, fold in half, and seal the edges firmly. Put in a large, flat pot with salted boiling water. When the dumplings start to float, cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a sieve, and pour some warm water. Serve on a platter drizzled with fat and browned onion.

(Maria Olick, Maltych, grapa…, Tuchola 2007)

Sauerkraut salad, served hot

Finely chop the cabbage, add peeled, diced apples and chopped, cooked potatoes, sweeten to taste, pour in a few tablespoons of good, fresh olive oil and mix.

(Janina Breyerowa, Jarska kuchnia witaminowa, Kraków 1927)

Salad of sauerkraut, potatoes, beets and herring

30 dag of sauerkraut, 3-4 potatoes, 2 medium beets, 2-3 herring fillets, 1 pickled cucumber, 1 large onion, 2-3 tablespoons of oil, lemon, wine vinegar or sauerkraut juice, sugar, pepper

Chop the cabbage. Wash potatoes and beets, boil in their skins, peel, and cut into cubes. Cut the herring fillets into strips. Grate the cucumber on a large-hole grater or cut into slices. Leave half of the cucumber and onion for decoration, mix all the remaining salad ingredients. When serving, garnish with onion rings and pickled cucumber strips.

(Anna Gasik, Kapusta biała, Warszawa 1984)

Salad with sauerkraut, carrots, raisins, nuts and wine

Chop the cabbage finely. Wash, scrape, rinse the carrots, and grate on a medium grater. Wash raisins and soak in wine. Chop the nuts into fairly coarse pieces. Mix cabbage, carrots, raisins with wine, sugar and oil. Portion the salad, and sprinkle it with chopped nuts.

(Anna Gasik, Kapusta biała, Warszawa 1984)

Strudel with sauerkraut and mushrooms (Tuchola Forest)

½ kg flour, 4 dag yeast, 3 eggs, ¾ cup milk, ¾ block butter, ½ kg sauerkraut, 3 onions, 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs, sugar, salt, pepper, nutmeg

Prepare dough from flour, 1 egg, milk, yeast, ½ stick of butter, 1 tablespoon of sugar, knead and set aside for an hour to rise. Boil the cabbage in a small amount of water, drain, chop and fry in fat with the onion. Add the eggs, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix the mass with breadcrumbs. Roll out the dough on the pastry board to a thickness of 1 cm, giving it the shape of a rectangle. Place the filling in the middle, roll it up, and glue the ends together. Bake on a baking sheet until golden brown. While baking, brush with sweetened milk. Cut into thick slices and serve with the beetroot soup /borsch.

(Przysmaki Borów Tucholskich, 2008)

Pork in sauerkraut

40 dag pork ham or neck, 20 dag smoked bacon, 60 dag sauerkraut, 1 potato, 1 onion, 100 ml cream, caraway seeds, sugar, salt

Add the diced bacon to the pan, when the fat has melted a little add the whole meat and fry until golden, add the diced onion. Place everything in a pot, pour water over it and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the chopped cabbage and cook everything until soft. We take out the meat and cut thick slices. Add the grated potato to the cabbage in the pot, followed by the tempered cream. Put the meat back to the cabbage to warm up and serve. It tastes best with potatoes.

(Artur Wasilewski, Kulinaria żuławskie, date unknown)

Christmas Eve dish made of sauerkraut

60 dag of sauerkraut, 3-4 dag of dried mushrooms, 2 tablespoons of butter or 3 tablespoons of oil, 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 medium onion, optionally 3 tablespoons of thick cream, pepper, sugar

Wash the mushrooms, soak them for a few hours in cold, boiled water, then cook them in the same water in which they were soaked, drain, and cut into very thin strips. Place the sauerkraut in a pot, pour in the mushroom broth, and cook until soft. Peel the onion, rinse it, cut it into small cubes and brown it lightly in oil, add the sifted flour and chopped mushrooms, stew for a while, add it to the boiling cabbage when it softens. Stir for a while, cook, set aside, season to taste with pepper and a pinch of sugar. Cabbage can be mixed with cream. Serve on Christmas Eve as an addition to fried fish.

(MET Archives, newspaper clipping, date unknown)

Sauerkraut quick soup /”Zarzutka”/ (Kashubia)

1 ½ l of water, ½ kg of potatoes, 20 dag of sauerkraut with juice, 5 dkg of bacon, 1 onion, 1 teaspoon of caraway seeds, salt

Pour boiling water over the diced potatoes, add caraway seeds, cook and mash with a fork. Add chopped cabbage with juice, and heat it. Season the soup with salt and garnish with onion fried in bacon.

(Kuchnia pomorska, Gdańsk 1998)

Beetroot soup with sauerkraut juice (Tuchola Forest/Bory Tucholskie)

Meat with bone, vegetables, red beets, dried mushrooms, garlic, onion, sauerkraut juice, sour cream, flour, salt, pepper, marjoram

Put the meat, diced vegetables, washed dried mushrooms in a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Peel the beets, cut into slices and put them into the pot. Continue cooking until everything is soft. In a separate bowl, combine the sauerkraut juice with the flour, making sure there are no lumps, add the cream, and pour into the pot with the meat, mushrooms, vegetables, and beets. Bring to a boil while stirring. Remove from heat. Add pressed garlic, season with marjoram, salt, pepper and onion fried in a pan. Serve the soup with mashed potatoes and bacon.

(Maria Olick, Maltych, grapa…, Tuchola 2007)

Sauerkraut juice soup (Kuyavia/Kujawy)

Pork bones or ribs, mixed vegetables, bay leaf, allspice, marjoram, 1 small onion, salt

Cook the stock with the bones or ribs, add the vegetables, bay leaf, allspice, onion and marjoram. Pour ½ l of cabbage juice. Thicken with flour combined with cream, season with salt. Serve with potato dumplings or potatoes cooked in their skins.

(Grażyna Szelągowska, Kuchnia z rodowodem…, Toruń 2010)

Sour cabbage soup (Pałuki)

2 l of water, 30 dag of sauerkraut, ½ kg of ribs, mixed vegetables, 5 tablespoons of barley groats, salt, pepper, allspice, bay leaf

Boil the ribs with bay leaf and allspice. Grate the vegetables on a coarse grater and add them to the boiling broth, pour in the groats, and finally add the chopped sauerkraut. Cook until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with separately cooked potatoes (preferably potatoes cooked in their skins).

(Grażyna Szelągowska, Kuchnia z rodowodem…, Toruń 2010)