In Poland, Christmas Eve dinner is the
most important celebration of the year. Although this meal is
reserved for the closest family, it is customary to set an extra plate
and seat for an unexpected guest or even a vagrant. Most of the dishes
served are cooked specifically on this special day – and only once a
year!
Christmas Eve practices are guided by custom rather than by faith,
and so Christian (predominantly Catholic) conservative families and
modern or aethist families alike celebrate with traditional cuisine.
Meat is not allowed. What’s on the plate is based on traditional and
seasonal products available in winter. Christmas Eve traditions,
including culinary ones, are the combination of ancient pagan customs
with religious ones introduced by the Catholic Church, local traditions
and various folk cultures. The supper, which traditionally includes
twelve dishes and desserts, may last for a good couple of hours. It is
followed by an exchange of gifts. Sometimes the Christmas Eve menus
reflect its multicultural aspects, as Jews, Poles, Germans, Lithuanians
and other minorities lived together in the past.
Christmas Eve dinner starts when the first star appears in the sky.
Nothing may be eaten until all members of the family have broken the
Christmas wafers ("opłatek") together and exchanged wishes for good
health and prosperity. During the meal, all guests should taste a bit of
everything. According to traditions, bits of hay are spread beneath the
tablecloth as a reminder that Christ was born in a manger.
Christmas Eve dinner, 1966, photo: Romuald Broniarek / Forum
The tradition calls for twelve traditional courses to be served
during the Polish Christmas Eve. This number is the symbol of the
richness, twelve Apostles and represents the twelve months of the year.
But in the past, dinner consisted of an odd number of dishes. The
preparation of the traditional dishes takes a lot of time. Many
restaurants and shops offer ready products, but Poles still prefer to
cook traditional family recipes as they always taste better. Some
specific dishes may differ from various regions, but many of them are
universal.
Christmas Eve dinner often starts with a beetroot soup (red borscht) -
probably the most popular soup for that day. The Christmas version
varies from the common one. Christmas bortsch requires a sour base
("zakwas") which is to be made a few days in advance. It consists of raw
beets, peeled and cut into slices, fermented, during four to five days,
in pre-boiled and chilled water with or without garlic. It is then
mixed, for example, with both a light broth made from dried wild
mushrooms and a vegetable broth. This traditional Christmas borscht
usually is served with tiny dumplings stuffed with a mix of soaked (and
then nicely chopped) dried ceps and fried onion. These are called
"uszka" meaning "little ears" in Polish. Borscht is traditionally served
in the south of the country, particularly in the Podhale region, close
to the touristic Tatra mountains. There "uszka" are replaced with large,
white beans.
This soup which is also served very often at Christmas Eve dinner is
made from dried forest mushrooms (the best ones are ceps). The flavor of
dried forest mushrooms is part of the Polish culinary heritage. This
delicious soup usually comes with square or thin noodles. Other
traditional Christmas Eve soups are soft water fish soup (for example,
carp), white bortsch, vegetarian Christmas Eve sour rye soup or old
fashioned sweet almond soup.
The tradition of carp farming in Poland is at least 700 hundred
years old. However, it became an eminent part of Polish culinary
traditions only after World War II. It is more popular than noble fish
like sander, eel or pike. Today carp is the Christmas Eve must-have in
many families. Poles developed species of carp (for example, karp
zatorski) which are certified regional products of good quality.
Christmas Eve carp is often accompanied by hot sauerkraut with dried
mushrooms, a vegetable salad or potatoes. There are numerous local,
ancient and interesting recipes, inlcuding carp in grey sauce, carp with
dried mushrooms and cream or stuffed with parsley.
In the Lesser Poland region (Małopolska), many families continue the
tradition of preparing "Jewish style" carp fish for Christmas Eve
dinner. In the past, this was a traditional meal of the Ashkenazi Jews
living in Central-Eastern Europe. Pieces of fish are cooked slowly in a
fish stock. It is served in a natural jelly with onion, almonds, raisins
and soft bread.
Herrings are very popular in Poland at any time of year, and they are
also served at Christmas Eve. Poles in Scandinavian and Baltic nations
know how to prepare this healthy fish, and so Polish gastronomy has
quite a range of recipes for herrings. The most popular preparations are
classic herrings fillets ("matjes") in oil (the best ones are in
healthy linen oil), or with cream, sour apples, chopped onions, usually
served with the so-called root vegetable salad or potatoes.
Pierogi - the most recognizable Polish food abroad. The Christmas
version of those half-circular dumplings is stuffed with cabbage or
sauerkraut and dried forest mushrooms such as ceps. Interesting regional
varieties - most notably coming from the eastern territories - are
sweet pierogi stuffed with smoked and dried plums or with poppy seeds.
Polish Christmas Eve smells predominantly like sauerkraut. Sauerkraut
has always existed in the Polish diet and is one of the most popular
and recognizable food preparations. One can see the strong presence of
sauerkraut in the Polish culinary culture during Christmas Eve. Nearly
everybody braises sauerkraut as either filling for pierogi or as a side
dish with the addition of dried forest mushrooms or tiny white beans.
Some Poles also like it with soaked raisins.
The cabbage roll is a type of comfort food eaten all year round. In
daily cooking it is usually stuffed with meat, but it changes its face
during Christmas. In those households where they are served on that
special evening, the stuffing is vegetarian and contains cereals
(buckwheat, pearl barley or rice) and dried forest mushrooms.
Kutia is an ancient dessert with origins in Eastern European made
exclusively for the Christmas Eve dinner. Today, it is still served in
many households where families have some roots in the Eastern part of
Old Poland. It is a mixture of cooked, unprocessed wheat grains, cooked
poppy seeds, honey, dried or candied fruits soaked in a small amount of
port or red wine and various nuts - usually almonds, sunflower grains
or walnuts. In the past kutia not only had a culinary meaning but was
connected to religious beliefs.
Baking gingerbread in Poland is a tradition several hundred years
old. Gingerbread from Toruń – the city of Nicolas Copernicus – was
already known in the 17th century. Ancient Polish cuisine was full of
exotic spices, inlcuding ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. The traditional
Old Polish “piernik” which is still prepared in many homes requires a
lot of time and attention. The dough consists of honey, lard, sugar,
eggs, flour and a mixture of gingerbread spices. It must be made a good
couple of weeks in advance to maturate and gain the very special
gingerbread taste. Baking it a couple of days before Christmas Eve makes
it ideal for consumption. It is then cut along and eaten with layers of
traditional plum preserves ("powidła"). It remains fresh for a long
time. Poles also bake a lot of small ginger cookies which also serve as
Christmas tree decoration.
Poles love dried and smoked fruits and use them especially in
Christmas dishes. Compote is a traditional and popular beverage served
at the end of Christmas Eve. It is made from cooked dried and smoked
fruits, typically plums, apples, pears, raisins and apricots. Its most
appreciated purpose is to speed-up digestion.
This tiny, black grain symbolizes prosperity and must be
included in the Chirstmas menu. Poppy seed cakes are eaten by Poles year
round, but the traditional Christmas poppy seed cake is a bit different
– the layers of the dough should be thinner and the layers of the sweet
poppy seed cream should be thicker. In some regions, a few
other desserts with poppy seeds are made for Christmas Eve. "Makówki," a
traditional poppy seed-based dessert, is a must in Silesia, as well
as “makiełki," bread rolls soaked in milk or water, served with dried
fruits and honey, and a dried fruits compote.
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