Cookbook:Bigos
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Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes
Bigos is considered the Polish national dish by many. For more information see Wikipedia's article on Bigos.
Ingredients[edit]
- 2.5 kg fresh cabbage
- 2 kg fermented cabbage (sauerkraut)
- 500 g pork or venison
- 250 g sausage
- 250 g bacon
- fresh or dried mushrooms
- whole black pepper, salt, bay leaf
Procedure[edit]
- Chop the cabbage, add pepper and salt, a part of the mushrooms and bay leaf, and cook until soft (about 2-3 hours).
- Chop the bacon and let it melt in a frying pan.
- Fry the chopped meat and sausage in the bacon grease.
- If necessary, drain excess water from the stewed cabbage and add the fried meat, bacon, and sausage along with the grease out of the pan. Stew everything as long as possible - the longer, the better (sometimes it is done for 3 hours a day in 3 following days, or even longer).
- When ready, the dish should be a thick mash that does not "leak" water on the plate; it should be mildly sour and have a strong flavour of smoked bacon.
Notes, tips, and variations[edit]
There are countless variations of this basic recipe. According to some, the amount of meat should be equal to the amount of cabbage; others prefer to use only fermented cabbage as in German sauerkraut.
A very particular feature of this dish is that it can be safely stored even for a few days without refrigerating. This is why bigos used to be a common soldiers' dish.