Kuchnia Polska · The Polish Table

Polish Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Pull up a chair at the Polish table, where bigos simmers all afternoon, pierogi crisp in foaming butter, and every szarlotka begins with a slab of cold butter. Slow, honest comfort food, the way the old kitchens of Poland have always cooked it.

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Butter✦ Smalec✦ Ghee
An elegantly plated Polish dish on a dark wooden table
✦ Bigos Myśliwski
From the recipe collection
Masło

Butter First

Polish cooking was raised on good dairy butter. Every soup is mounted with it, every cake is built on it, and every pan of pierogi finishes in it, never in a refined seed oil.

Smalec

Honest Smalec

Smalec, the slowly rendered lard of the Polish larder, gives bigos its depth and browned meat its color. It is the fat the countryside has trusted for centuries.

Nigdy

Never Vegetable Oil

No seed oils, no shortcuts. Only butter, smalec, and ghee, the traditional fats that the home kitchens and milk bars of Poland have always cooked with.

✦
From Our Kitchen

Polish Recipes

Six beloved dishes from the Polish table, each cooked with the honest traditional fats that bring out the best in every ingredient.

Myśliwski Bigos, a dark hunter's stew of cabbage and smoked meats in a rustic bowl

Bigos

Hunter's stew with smalec

3 hr·6 servings·Medium

The great national stew of Poland. Sauerkraut, fresh cabbage, pork, and smoked kielbasa braised low and slow in rendered lard until the whole pot turns dark and deep.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp smalec (rendered lard)
  • 500 g pork shoulder, cut into chunks
  • 300 g smoked kielbasa, thickly sliced
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 800 g sauerkraut, drained
  • 400 g fresh white cabbage, shredded
  • 30 g dried forest mushrooms, soaked in warm water
  • 10 prunes, halved
  • 2 bay leaves and 6 allspice berries
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste, plus salt and black pepper

Instructions

  1. Soak the mushrooms in warm water for 30 minutes, then chop them, keeping the soaking liquid.
  2. Melt the smalec in a heavy pot and brown the pork in batches until deeply colored. Set aside.
  3. In the same fat, fry the onion and kielbasa until the edges turn golden.
  4. Return the pork and add the sauerkraut, fresh cabbage, mushrooms with their liquid, prunes, bay leaves, allspice, and tomato paste.
  5. Cover and simmer on the lowest heat for 2 hours 30 minutes, stirring now and then and adding a splash of water if the pot runs dry.
  6. Season with salt and pepper. If you can wait, rest it overnight, bigos always tastes better the next day.
  7. Reheat gently and serve hot with dark rye bread.
Wigilia Pan-fried carp fillet glazed with butter and fresh herbs on a plate

Karp Smażony

Pan-fried carp in butter

30 min·4 servings·Easy

The proud centerpiece of the Polish Christmas Eve supper. Carp fillets in a light crust, fried gently in foaming butter and finished with lemon and parsley.

Ingredients

  • 4 carp fillets, about 180 g each
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Juice of half a lemon, plus wedges to serve
  • 100 g plain flour
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 120 g butter
  • 1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
  • 3 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • Boiled potatoes turned in butter, to serve
  • A spoon of sour cream, to serve (optional)

Instructions

  1. Season the fillets with salt and pepper, sprinkle with the lemon juice, and let them rest 15 minutes.
  2. Pat the fish dry, dredge in flour, pull through the beaten egg, then dust once more with flour.
  3. Warm the butter and ghee in a wide pan over medium heat until the foam subsides.
  4. Lay in the fillets and fry 4 to 5 minutes on the first side until deeply golden.
  5. Turn carefully and cook 3 to 4 minutes more, tilting the pan and basting the fish with the browning butter.
  6. Lift onto warm plates and spoon the nutty pan butter over the top.
  7. Shower with parsley and serve with lemon wedges and buttered potatoes.
Domowa Braised cabbage with herbs served in a rustic bowl

Kapusta Zasmażana

Braised cabbage with butter

45 min·4 servings·Easy

The everyday soul of the Polish table. White cabbage braised until tender, then folded through a pale golden butter roux until every strand turns silky.

Ingredients

  • 1 head white cabbage, about 1 kg, cored and shredded
  • 70 g butter, divided
  • 1 tbsp smalec, or more butter
  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 1 tsp caraway seeds
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 250 ml light stock or water
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • Salt, black pepper, and a pinch of sugar
  • 3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped

Instructions

  1. Melt half the butter with the smalec in a wide pot and soften the onion for 5 minutes.
  2. Add the cabbage, caraway, bay leaf, and stock. Cover and braise over medium-low heat for 25 to 30 minutes until tender.
  3. Meanwhile make the zasmazka: melt the remaining butter in a small pan, stir in the flour, and cook to a pale gold paste.
  4. Stir the roux into the cabbage and simmer 5 minutes more until the juices turn glossy and coat every strand.
  5. Season with salt, pepper, and a small pinch of sugar to round it out.
  6. Finish with the dill and serve hot beside anything from the Polish table.
Niedziela Zurek, a creamy sour rye soup with sausage and egg in a deep bowl

Żurek

Sour rye soup with butter

1 hr·6 servings·Medium

Poland's beloved sour rye soup, tangy and deeply savory. Simmered with white sausage and marjoram, finished with cold butter and ladled over halved eggs.

Ingredients

  • 500 ml zakwas (fermented sour rye starter)
  • 1.5 litres light chicken or vegetable broth
  • 3 tbsp butter, divided
  • 400 g white sausage (biala kielbasa)
  • 1 onion, diced, and 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 bay leaves and 4 allspice berries
  • 1 tbsp dried marjoram
  • 1 tbsp grated horseradish
  • 4 eggs, hard-boiled and halved
  • Salt and black pepper

Instructions

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a soup pot and soften the onion and garlic without coloring.
  2. Pour in the broth, add the whole sausages, bay leaves, and allspice, and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
  3. Lift out the sausages, slice them thickly, and return the slices to the pot.
  4. Shake the zakwas well and stir it in with the marjoram and horseradish. Simmer 10 minutes more.
  5. Season with salt and pepper, tasting as you go, the soup should be brightly sour and savory.
  6. Off the heat, whisk in the last spoon of cold butter so the broth turns silky.
  7. Place two egg halves in each bowl, ladle the zurek over, and dust with extra marjoram.
Pierogarnia Pan-fried pierogi dumplings with golden butter and onions on a plate

Pierogi Ruskie

Pierogi pan-fried in butter

1 hr 30·4 servings·Medium

Soft dumplings of potato and farmer's cheese, boiled until they float, then crisped in plenty of butter with golden onions. The dish every Polish kitchen is judged by.

Ingredients

  • 400 g plain flour, plus more for rolling
  • 1 egg
  • 200 ml warm water and ½ tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp melted butter, for the dough
  • 500 g floury potatoes, boiled and mashed
  • 250 g farmer's cheese (twarog)
  • 2 onions, one finely diced and one sliced
  • 100 g butter, for the filling and the pan
  • Salt and plenty of black pepper
  • Sour cream and chives, to serve

Instructions

  1. Knead the flour, egg, warm water, salt, and melted butter into a soft, supple dough. Rest it 30 minutes under an upturned bowl.
  2. Fry the diced onion in a knob of the butter until golden, then mix it into the mashed potato and cheese. Season boldly.
  3. Roll the dough thin, cut circles about 8 cm wide, fill each with a spoonful, and pinch the edges firmly closed.
  4. Boil the pierogi in batches in well-salted water. They are ready about 2 minutes after they rise to the surface.
  5. Melt the remaining butter in a wide pan and fry the sliced onion until deeply golden.
  6. Add the drained pierogi and crisp them 2 to 3 minutes per side until the edges catch gold.
  7. Serve straight from the pan with the buttered onions, sour cream, and chives.
Kawiarnia Szarlotka, a golden Polish apple cake dusted with sugar on a cake stand

Szarlotka

Polish apple cake with butter

1 hr 30·10 slices·Medium

The apple cake of every Polish cafe and grandmother's Sunday. Cinnamon apples tucked between two layers of rich butter shortcrust, baked to a deep gold.

Ingredients

  • 350 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 200 g cold butter, cubed, plus more for the tin
  • 120 g sugar, plus 2 tbsp for the apples
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp sour cream
  • 1.2 kg tart apples, peeled and sliced
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Icing sugar, to dust

Instructions

  1. Rub the flour, baking powder, and cold butter into fine crumbs, then work in the sugar, yolks, and sour cream to a smooth dough.
  2. Split the dough in two, wrap, and chill for 40 minutes.
  3. Cook the apples with 2 tablespoons of sugar, the cinnamon, and lemon juice until just soft, then let them cool.
  4. Press one half of the dough into a buttered 24 cm tin and spread the apples evenly over it.
  5. Coarsely grate the second half of the chilled dough over the apples to make a rough crumble lid.
  6. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 45 to 50 minutes until the top is deep gold.
  7. Cool in the tin, dust generously with icing sugar, and cut into squares.
A cook working at a warm stove in a busy home kitchen
Our Kitchen

The Kitchen Behind Dofrix Kuchnia

Dofrix Kuchnia is a small home kitchen devoted to the cooking of Poland, where a pot of bigos is allowed to take all afternoon, soup opens the meal even in summer, and no guest has ever left the table hungry. We write these recipes down the way they are still cooked in family kitchens and milk bars across the country, patiently, generously, and without fuss.

Our only house rule is an old one: butter from the dairy, smalec rendered slowly on the back of the stove, ghee for the hottest pan, and nothing else. Vegetable oil never comes through our door, because it never sat on the tables we learned from.

Smacznego, may it feed you well.