Its my understanding that in, for example, the USA, there are food hygiene regulations which stipulate that sauerkraut *must* be made with far more salt than would be used in Poland.
Depends what brand you buy. You can buy salt free if you like too.
polkamaniac: You have to add fresh cabbage to sauerkraut. That's how my mom makes it too.
I've NEVER heard of anyone doing this before. Amazing. How the heck do I get to be this age and not know something like this? It's so simple - and such a great idea. Diakuju.
correction, Polish bigos flavouring is widley available in poland and used by many people. it is just a combination of herbs and spices to add to the flavour of the dish just as we might add mixed herbs to a stew.
Negative... These recipes are really just suggestions. A real Bigos is just a concoction of ingredients which have a similar theme, but there are NO rules. If you don't like prune, don't use them. Same goes with any other ingredients. In fact I would say this about all cooking. The recipe is a guide, someone made it like this and it was good (or at least they thought it was) but you need to make stuff that YOU like.
I'm Really looking forward to making up a good Bigos. I reckon pork-wise, belly pork could be good, that's what i'm planning to use, maybe I'll salt it for a bit first, but I'm not sure yet, and I like apple, so I think I'll go for a bit of apple as well.
Oh, and I wont be having mine with beer (not that there's anything wrong with that.) I think that a real Polish meal should be accompanied by real Polish Vodka!
I'll let you know how I go
correction, Polish bigos flavouring is widley available in poland and used by many peopl
Any idea what herbs and spices? I prefer to use the herbs I'm growing, and I can usually make something good with just them and a few good spices. I prefer not to just buy some packet and use that, (not that I have never done that, I just feel a bit like i cheated :))
I had bigos yesterday, at the Polish festival in San Diego, California. The meal was tasty, but a little on the salty side. It tasted like there was barbeque sauce, mixed with with tomato paste.
My Polish family also never made bigos... they made what we all called Kapusta, (still do!) which I've found out simply means cabbage. We make it with cabbage, sometimes sauerkraut but not usually, potatoes, kielbasa, baked beans mashed, vinegar, salt and pepper. This is the recipe from Bapchi and Jaju (sp?) my great grandparents.
As many folks here have told before me: whatever suits your taste, just make sure it goes well with the cabbage (sauerkraut). My father NEVER added any tomatoes to his bigos. Our next-door neigbour ALWAYS added tomato paste into his bigos. BOTH of these dishes were "100% bigos".
For instance, I'm making now my own bigos - without any meat (I don't eat meat, although I don't consider myself a vegetarian) - but using (among others) such unorthodox spices like sechuan pepper, falafel spice mix, cummin seeds (typically, only caraway seeds are used), mild ("sweet") and hot paprika powder, coriander seeds and nutmeg.
The jury is still out whether to add a "hefty bit" of sambal belachan to this concotion - definitelly not a traditional Polish ingredient, but it seems (or, rather "smells") to me to match the content of the pot very well.
(Well, I've spent quite a few years in SE Asia and India, so my sense of flavour is kinda skewed. ;-))
And, whenever I cook, I just let my nose to make the final decision on what to add, and how much of it - I just smell the content of the pot and the spice in question, and then act "impromptu".
Not that it always brings good results - sometimes the ready dish is barely edible, but, hey, one learns from mistakes, doesn't he? ;-)
If you're interested, here's a rundown on how I made my bigos today (next time it will be probably bit different - depending on the spices available, moon phase, my mood and the amount of beer I'd have before the cooking session):
Ingredients:
3 kilos (over 6.6 pounds) of sauerkraut (well, "you can't make a little bit of bigos..."); 2 heads of garlic; approx. 5 pcs of middle-sized onions (use as many as you like); about 50-100 ml of cooking oil (rice bran oil, in this particular case - good for long frying, better than olive oil - and doesn't have that "oily taste" like canola/ rapeseed oil - and doesn't separate out from the dish like grapeseed oil);
a bit of smoked yellow cheese ("Rolada Ustrzycka" - for the smoky flavour); 2 packets (@ 390 ml each) of chopped tomatoes (but I might add some more latter on - seems 2 packets are not enough);
and a "little bit" (means, as much as you like; all amounts given are "approx. only") of following spices:
mustard seeds (white) (approx. 1 tsp); caraway seeds (1-2 tsp); cummin seeds (1-2 tsp); sechuan pepper (1/2-1 tsp); coriander seeds (1 tsp); one nutmeg (chopped); black peppercorns (1-2 tsp); allspice, whole (1-2 tsp); bay leaves (5-10); hot paprika powder (1 tsp - I'd prefer more - I like spicy food, but my wife "not really", so I have to moderate)
I've put the suerkraut in the pot, poured enough hot water just to cover it, boiled it briefly, then drained (if you skip this part, the bigos is going to be quite salty, and as sour as car battery electrolyte ;-)
You can keep the "sour water" aside, to add it to the bigos latter on, should you find it not sour enough - or use it to make some another Christmas Eve dishe, the beetroot borsch, the variety made with that "sour water" - or just to save it for the next hangover day; it does help ;-)
Then I've heated the oil in a wok (I find wok more practical for this kind of frying, where you start with small amount of stuff and keep adding on during the course of frying), and fried the chopped garlic.
When the garlic started to turn golden brown I added chopped onions, and fried till golden (on high heat, stirring constantly). At the same time I added mustard seeds and cummin seeds to the frying onions. Toward the end I've added falafel spice mix to the mixture, and fried all that for another minute or so - then added chopped tomatoes and the cheese.
I've mixed it all thoroughly, brought to boil, boiled for few minutes, then dumped into the sauerkraut. Added most of the other spices (except for ginger pwdr and nutmeg - I guess these should be added later on, otherwise the flavour would get lost, but I'm not sure about it), poured enough hot water to cover the whole mix, and put on a low heat to simmer for as long as the beeer in the fridge lasts ;-)
The dried mushrooms: unfortunatelly, all the mushrooms we've had in the house were used up for making other Christmas dishes, so while I should have added them together with the fried onions and spices mix into the cabbage, I'll be able to add them only after tomorrow (during Christmas holidays nearly all shops heree in Poland are closed).
OK, thats it. Bye & cheers,
Bonifacy the Cat PS: Sorry, brevity was never my strong point... ;-)
Well, the beer is nearly finished, and seems it's time to go sleep (4:30 AM). Tomorrow I'm going to
I had a Ukrainian boyfriend who made me bigos. Although I ditched the guy, I maintained the tastebuds for bigos (among other eastern european dishes). When I typed in this recipe, up came this thread! I could not decide which recipe I liked the best, so I kinda combined all from this thread as well as a few other recipes I pulled up from some other site...thing is, now I have a can of tomato paste opened and can't figure out if I want to use it or not!
The most important thing to know about bigos is: there is no recipe, there are no rules making it and everyones version is not as good as yours. Other than that, the one thing that I do enjoy most about it is no one in the USA has heard of it, but when they try it they beg me for containers of it.
Merged: So so greasy? Help a poor English guy trying to make Bigos for his Polish girlfriend!
Hey all! Thanks in advance for the help! I am trying to make Bigos for my girlfriend as she misses home made bigos so much from poland. I have a question though, should the liquid of the stew be so so greasy? I am worried I made it wrong and I want her to love it! Please help.
I'm a bit worried for a different reason. There shouldn't be too much liquid sloshing around in bigos if you're doing things right. Bigos is a fatty food, so you can relax on that count, unless you've really overloaded on the grease part ;-) Also, if you think the proportions ain't right, you can always add more sauerkraut to even things out - that's the beauty of it! I wouldn't add more raw cabbage at this point (I'm guessing you've been cooking for some time already), as it might take too long to blend in with the rest. As long as the taste is OK, I wouldn't worry too much about the rest. But do boil most of any excess liquid off, leaving it just comfortably moist.
Oh I wasn't complaining Polson, I love the food here
Very good then ;) I'm a big fan of pierogi. Haven't had that for a while tho. I also like Polish soups, but can't remember if I tried that cucumber one...
I never cook bigos with a recipe. After so many years I learnt how to do it with my eye judgment only. ):::):). Besides, you can`t spoil the dish unless you add too much pepper.
I use both fresh cabbage and sauerkraut in equal proportions. Then I add pre-fried sausage and pork. And mushrooms. The best are noble ones but champignons will do as well. Spices are juniper, pepper both ground and whole, allspice, marjoram, bay leaves.
Aaaa!! One more thing! Tomato sauce! You need to add it for bigos to gain nice light brown colour. Forget ketchup this time!!!! Bigos as a cult dish requires original ingredients.
I made it yesterday and the consumption day is today! Even my second middle son was tempted. I made enough to go for a few days.
First photo clockwise: fried sausage/bacon/mushrooms, fresh cabbage, pre-fried pork, sauerkraut. Tomato piree in the middle. Last photo - my first serving. I had two.
So true..... my Mum and Aunts never put tomatoes in Bigos.But I went to a Polish fete and tried some with tomato in it...... now I always put tomatoes in my Bigos.
I cooked one last week and it was very much enjoyed by my extended family!
