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Traditional food · Poland
Cracow ring cake, St. Martin’s croissant in Poznań, Toruń gingerbread, Tatra Mountains sauerkraut soup, Silesian Sunday lunch, pierogi and the Easter sour rye soup.
In the photo: Lago Morskie Oko, Tatras
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
The cuisine
Polish cuisine formed around rye and wheat, potato, cabbage and sauerkraut, forest mushrooms and fruits, pork and sour cream. Fermenting and smoking are long-standing techniques in the country: from them come the rye starter used in żurek, the sauerkraut in bigos and kwaśnica, and the smoked meats found in many winter dishes. The first cookbook printed in Polish, Compendium ferculorum by Stanisław Czerniecki (1682), already contains recipes for pierogi, bigos and fried filled dumplings.
The religious calendar shapes the table. On Fat Thursday, the last before Lent, the whole country eats pączki. At Easter, żurek with white sausage and egg begins the meal. On Christmas Eve, cabbage-and-mushroom pierogi and poppy-seed sweets are served. In Poznań, November 11, St. Martin’s Day, is the day of the rogal świętomarciński.
Cities keep their own recipes. Kraków sells obwarzanek on the streets, a boiled-and-baked ring bread that has protected geographical status. Toruń has been making spiced gingerbread since the Middle Ages, and Lublin bakes cebularz, a flatbread topped with onion and poppy seed of Jewish tradition. Szczecin has the pasztecik, a fried pastry born from a 1960s machine, Warsaw has wuzetka, a chocolate-and-cream cake tied to the city’s reconstruction, and Zakopane, in the Tatra Mountains, serves the highlanders’ kwaśnica.
Regions also have strongly identifiable dishes. In Podlasie, near the Białowieża Forest, are babka ziemniaczana, a grated potato pie, and vodka flavored with bisongrass. Silesia has the Sunday rolled roast with kluski and red cabbage, Lower Silesia has śląskie niebo, smoked meat with dried fruit, and Opole Silesia has kołocz, a wedding cake with streusel. Among drinks, polska wódka is a national geographical indication: only vodka made entirely in the country from Polish grains or potatoes may use that name.
17 flavors
Stew of sauerkraut and cabbage with various meats, smoked sausage and dried mushrooms, slowly cooked and reheated over days until the flavors meld. It is one of the dishes most connected to Polish identity and appears in the national poem Pan Tadeusz.
Round yeast dough pastry, fried, without a hole, filled with jam—traditionally rose petal or plum—and dusted with sugar or covered in icing. It’s the sweet of Tłusty Czwartek, the fatty Thursday before Lent, celebrated across the country.
Dumplings made from unleavened dough, boiled in water and sometimes browned in butter, with savory or sweet fillings. The ruskie, filled with potato and fresh cheese, are the most common, and the cabbage with mushrooms variety is served on Christmas Eve.
Vodka made entirely in Poland from rye, wheat, barley, oats, triticale or potatoes grown in the country. The name is a national geographical indication that applies to both neutral vodka and flavored vodkas that follow the rules.
A sour soup made with zakwas, a fermented rye-flour starter, served with white sausage, a boiled egg and horseradish. It is one of the most important dishes of the Polish Easter and is sometimes served inside a loaf of bread.
Smoked pork cooked with dried plums, pears and other fruits, served with a sweet-and-sour fruit sauce and dumplings. The name means Silesian heaven, and the dish is on the Lower Silesia Traditional Products List.
Braided bread ring first boiled in very hot water and then baked, topped with salt, poppy seeds, or sesame. It’s sold from street carts in Kraków and has a European Union protected geographical indication.
A round wheat dough disk topped with raw chopped onion and poppy seed, baked until the edge is golden. It originated in the Jewish bakeries of Lublin’s old town and has a European Union protected geographical indication.
Yeast-based cake covered with a buttery streusel, made plain or filled with white cheese, poppy seed or apple. It is the wedding cake of Opole Silesia and has a European Union protected geographical indication.
Grated raw potato cake with fried bacon, onion, eggs and a little flour, baked in a pan until the crust is golden. It’s one of the most popular dishes of Podlaskie, the northeastern region of Poland, and is on the List of Traditional Products.
Flavored vodka with bison grass that grows in the clearings of the Białowieża and Knyszyn forests in Podlaskie. It has a light green-golden color and the smell of dry hay, and the official name is a protected geographical indication of the European Union.
Croissant in a crescent shape, made from yeast-leavened puff pastry, filled with white poppy seed paste with fruit and nuts, and topped with icing and chopped nuts. It is Poznań’s Saint Martin’s pastry, eaten on November 11, and has protected geographical indication.
Beef roulade stuffed with bacon, pickled cucumber and onion, cooked in sauce and served with kluski śląskie — potato dumplings with a little indentation in the middle — and red cabbage. It’s the Sunday lunch of Upper Silesia.
Long pastry made from leavened dough, fried and usually filled with seasoned ground meat with pepper. It originated in Szczecin in the early 1970s, made on a Soviet machine from 1969, and is on Poland’s List of Traditional Products.
Honey cake with pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and other spices, molded in wooden molds or cut into shapes. It has been made in Toruń without interruption since the Middle Ages and is on Poland’s national list of intangible cultural heritage.
Two-layer chocolate sponge cake with whipped cream in the middle, covered in chocolate and often topped with a cherry. It originated in Warsaw in the late 1940s, and the name is linked to the W-Z avenue, opened during the city’s reconstruction.
A very sour sauerkraut soup with smoked pork ribs or other smoked pork, served with boiled potato on the side or with bread. It’s the dish of the highlanders of Podhale, the Zakopane region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains.
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Your questions
Stuffed dumplings, sour soups and winter stews are at the heart of Polish cuisine: pierogi, żurek, bigos and kwaśnica. Many specialties are linked to places, such as Kraków’s obwarzanek, Poznań’s rogal świętomarciński, Toruń gingerbread and Lublin’s cebularz.
On Fat Thursday, before Lent, people eat pączki, fried filled doughnuts. At Easter, żurek with white sausage and egg. On Christmas Eve, cabbage-and-mushroom pierogi and poppy-seed sweets. In Poznań, on St. Martin’s Day (November 11), the rogal świętomarciński.
Among others, obwarzanek krakowski, rogal świętomarciński, cebularz lubelski and kołocz śląski have protected geographical status from the European Union. Among drinks, polska wódka and the bisongrass-flavored vodka from the Northern Podlasie Plain are also geographical indications.
Both are sour soups. Kwaśnica, from the highlanders of Podhale, is made with sauerkraut and smoked meat. Żurek is based on zakwas, a fermented rye starter, and usually includes white sausage and a boiled egg.
