Half-free Christmas bigos. SMACZNEGO at Christmastime!

In families that cook at home it's good to start thinkign about your Chrsitmas-New Year's bigos alłready at this time of year. Simply keep freezing up leftover boneless roasts and chops (all cubed up), kiełbasa, even roast turkey dark meat, cooked wild game (boar, pheasant, deer) and scraps of bacon, ham, etc. Come late December and all you need to do its shred a and cook a head of cabbage or two (depending on how much meat has accumuatled), cook up some sauerkrat and combien it all with the meat. Throw in a handful of pitted prunes, a splash of red wine and let it simmer for hours on low flame, stirrign occasionally. It would be quite pricey to buy all the fresh meat, cook it and use it in the bigos. Besides you would probably not have as many different vareities. SMACZNEGO at Christmastime!

You mean I need to go pheasant hunting tomorrow? Well, I've had other plans...

And boar too. lol

Boar are pletniful in Texas and elsewhere down south. There are places you can order from online. But bigos does not have to contain any wild game -- only the kinds of meat you have managed to collect over a 2-3 month period. BTW, is there any pheasant shooting in Poland?

Not much. Please don't talk about hunting, you're making me homesick.


Don't forgot the mushrooms and bay leaves!

Turcja w Bigos ... Grzech

:)

I'll stick with my recipe :)

Ha reminds of the in laws coming to the UK for Christmas a few years back, the father in law mentioned he was cooking bigos so naturally told him to just go ahead, by the time i came home from work he chucked virtually every bit of meat i had in that pot, about £80 worth, gammon joints, rib of beef, pork, turkey the lot. Tasted nice though, still i was pretty annoyed at my steak ending up in there.

Definitely mushooms and bay leaves! A diced apple also won't hurt. BTW in recent years many PolAms (Polish Americans) have begun using fresh Portobello mushrooms (in Polish: kanie) now readily available at local supermarkets. They may not have quite the deep, dusky, forest flavour of dried boletes (prawdziwki) but are far tastier than the fresh white mushrooms (champignons or pieczarki).

I am cooking a big pot of bigos right now. Sauerkraut mixed with fresh cabbage, Polish sausage and bacon, noble mushrooms, spices. That`s all.

The funniest thing is that I cook this dish once in a few years. I don`t know what has come over me now. Perhaps I have started the male menopause - I mean the syndrome of the closing door.

@pawian
Do you also use tomato paste?

Curious you mentioned it. I have also remembered about it but my wife said you add it at the end of cooking.

There are also some different recipes, some of them with red wine or dried plums.

I think red wine is added to make bigos sour if you depend on fresh cabbage only.

Yesterday it was cooking time, today it is trying time.
The bigos is simply excellent. I am stuffed. Even my family had some.

Enjoy your meal.🍲🍞

Thanks. But .....
I like sour dishes so it is very easy to enjoy it.

With or without bread?

Amasing that you are asking about things which also gave food for my thoughts. I started without bread but then, after serious consideration, went to the kitchen and brought myself a slice of my fave brown wholemeal sunflower bread.

I also had a raw onion for a bit spicier taste.

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This one:
rye
zero yeast
all natural starter dough
no additives
no preservatives
etc
1 pound is 1 dollar.

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@pawian
Not bad, but I would prefer village bread.

Not bad and certainly goes with bigos well but too whitey for me - I need brownier stuff.

So do I. Paw is an expert concerning stuff he knows nothing about: sunflower seeds and brown bread. Could you give me a break, Paw?


Pumpernickel would be a better choice.

Exactly!!! Sunflower seeds are from Ukraine while rye dough from Poland - eating this bread, one supports both countries.


Unfortunately, I can`t, coz my free giving was used up when I gave you the photo of the bread. Now you have to take it or leave it.


Not necessarily.
I have a better idea. A lot of people eat bigos with mashed potatoes instead of bread. But I will have my bigos with corn on the cob.

It tastes much better with whole potatos.

Ptak will disagree! Potatoes are non-standard side dish to bigos. Only bread is standard.

I've never seen it with taters however the nicest one I had contained a lot of red wine.

Not a fan myself. Of all the times I've eaten bigos, only a few of them have been good. I suppose it's all down to what you like.

As a Brit, you should like sour stuff. And bigos is such.


Me - plenty of times.

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Paw, your wagon is leaving the tracks if you continue trampling on Polish traditions; you will, very soon, become airborne and disappear in the clouds, leaving us with a big hole in our hearts. So please get back on track because we love you the way you were.

I never trample on Polish traditions - I only modify them a bit to give me a bigger variety coz I get bored very easily and need constant diversion. You know my penchant for diversion.


You have always loved me for being a patriotic Pole who introduces exciting differences into long-lasting time-honoured customs.


Here you are - I have just finished the meal - WOW! Words can`t render the taste elation I was experiencing.
Today, instead of onion, I used pickled pepperoni peppers for s spicier flavour.

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Looks like dog vomit and no doubt smells like it too.
I thought bathtub carp was the Polish dish at Christmas.

Why do you insist on being such a nasty Americano boy? Have you had some serious problems in life again?
Shame on you. We are discussing a dish which was mentioned in Pan Tadeusz, the greatest work of epic poetry ever produced in the Polish language.

Bigos was heated in cauldrons; it is difficult to express in words
the wonderful taste, color and smell of Bigos;
One will hear only the clink of words and the order of rhymes,
But their urban stomach will not comprehend their content.
To appreciate Lithuanian songs and dishes,
You must have health, live in the countryside, return from a hunt.
After all, even without these spices, the dish is quite amazing
like this bigos, because it is cleverly made of good vegetables.
Chopped sauerkraut is taken into it,
which, according to the proverb, goes into the mouth by itself;
Enclosed in a cauldron, with a moist womb it covers
the chosen particles of the best meat;
And it is boiled until the fire squeezes all the
living juices out of it, until the pot's edges burst with steam,
And the air around it exhales aroma.
Bigos is ready.

W kociołkach bigos grzano; w słowach wydać trudno
Bigosu smak przedziwny, kolor i woń cudną;
Słów tylko brzęk usłyszy i rymów porządek,
Ale treści ich miejski nie pojmie żołądek.
Aby cenić litewskie pieśni i potrawy,
Trzeba mieć zdrowie, na wsi żyć, wracać z obławy.
Przecież i bez tych przypraw potrawą nie lada
Jest bigos, bo się z jarzyn dobrych sztucznie składa.
Bierze się doń siekana, kwaszona kapusta,
Która, wedle przysłowia, sama idzie w usta;
Zamknięta w kotle, łonem wilgotnym okrywa
Wyszukanego cząstki najlepsze mięsiwa;
I praży się, aż ogień wszystkie z niej wyciśnie
Soki żywne, aż z brzegów naczynia war pryśnie
I powietrze dokoła zionie aromatem.
Bigos już gotów.