Polish cuisine today - dairy products

Cream and yoghurt

Cream – both sour and fresh – plays a significant role in the Polish cuisine since ever. Everywhere there, where in the Balkan or oriental cuisine a yoghurt appears, in Poland we come across the cream. Therefore the cream usually constitutes the base of sauces, soups and pickles. In spite of the great tradition in cream production and sour milk manufacturing, the Balkan yoghurt wasn't practiced in Polish cuisine till modern times. On the other side eating Tartar kefir has been accepted and became widespread much earlier. Nowadays the situation looks totally different – shelves of stores bend under dairy products of all types, so as yoghurts, buttermilk and kefir. However all of them stays considered as desserts, or simply healthy additions to the everyday diet. They are not treated by the Polish cuisine as ingredients of meals. In this issue cream preserved a dominating role with ease and in the unswerving way.

Cheese

Apart from eggs, in modern and Old Polish cuisine a cow's curd cheese is next consequential dairy product. Its meaning and popularity are comparable to the role that feta cheese plays in Balkans and Near East. On the other hand sheep's dairy products are known very well in Polish mountains (Tatra Mountains), where senior shepherds produce smoked ewe's milk cheese called 'oscypek' and some other kinds of salty, sheep's milk cheeses. Thanks to a unique taste and the tradition background – all of them constitute an essential tourist attraction, both for passengers from foreign countries, as well as for Poles coming from lowland to Tatra Mountains for hiking or skiing.

Polish curd cheese decorated with garlic, leaves and pepper.

We should add that in contrast with curd cheeses, hard cheeses don't constitute the Polish tradition and they appeared in Poland only after spreading of rennet technology. Nevertheless hard cheeses belong to basic dairy products in Poland – just like they do in many other countries. Hard cheeses are not, however, elements of Polish dishes – just like in the case of yoghurts vs cream. They are eaten in the form of sandwiches (both cold and hot), that are extremely popular; as well as in extraneous dishes from other countries. Selection of yellow cheeses in Polish stores is definitely larger, than of curd and cottage cheeses. That is because of their great popularity, great significance in the ordinary, everyday, nontime-consuming 'menu' and on account of wide selection of kinds, what is typical of hard cheeses. In contrast with it Polish curd cheeses are found in a small number of varieties. Soft cheeses are completely untypical and unknown to Polish cuisine, but their popularity grows slowly for a dozen or so years. They don't constitute ingredients of Polish dishes, however soft cheeses are liked as the addition to snacks, appetizers, sandwiches and simple salads. Still however, their role in the contemporary Polish cuisine is definitely lower than that of curd and hard cheeses.

Oscypek

Eggs

What interesting can I write about eggs in Polish food recipes? Well, not much because in is respect the Polish cuisine does not differ from cuisines of other, European countries. Indeed Polish table won't shock you with something so unusual as Chinese Century egg. Hard and soft-boiled eggs, scrambled eggs and fried eggs are eaten. More unique is simple dessert made of raw yolk and sugar. It's called kogiel-mogiel or kogel-mogel. The dessert is known in Poland since 17th century (origins are probably Jewish). It became popular in the interwar period and in communist years when sweets weren't readily available. In Germany it is called Zuckerei, while in Russia - gogol-mogol. Apart from that eggs are of course one of basic elements of cakes. They are also an ingredient of coatings, creams, pancakes etc.

Polish kogel-mogel aka kogiel-mogiel. Photo from Wikipedia.

In Poland most oftentimes chicken, as well as duck's, goose's and quail eggs are eaten (lately a popularity of ostrich eggs grows).

Just like in many other countries a tradition of Easter eggs exists in Poland - these are known as 'pisanki'. As Wikipedia says:

 Many Slavic ethnic groups, including the Bulgarians (pisano yaytse), Croats (pisanica), Czechs (kraslice), Poles (pisanka), Serbs (pisanica), Slovaks (kraslica), Sorbs, Slovenes (pisanica or pirh), and Ukrainians (pysanka), decorate eggs for Easter. Many of the names derive from the Slavic root pisa which relates to writing. In Slavic tradition, the egg (similar to icons) is written, not drawn or painted. This is an Eastern European tradition, since Romanians, a Latin ethnic group, have it too.   Wikipedia

Polish pisanki. Both photos from Wikipedia:




Polish 'swieconka' - one of the most important traditions during Easter: