Poland

In Poland the main Christmas meal is Wigilia, the supper on Christmas Eve. The family sits down only after the first star has appeared in the sky, and a place is left at the table for an unexpected guest. The meal is meatless and traditionally has twelve dishes, one for each apostle. The table holds barszcz z uszkami, a clear beet soup with mushroom dumplings, along with herring, karp, and pierogi z kapustą i grzybami; dried fruit compote is the only drink, and makowiec, a poppy seed roll, comes at the end. Meat returns on the first and second days of Christmas, when bigos, cooked days ahead, is reheated.

The Polish chapter covers soups, dumplings and pork for cold weather. Żurek, soured with a fermented rye starter, and kapuśniak, sauerkraut soup with pork ribs, are everyday winter soups. Pierogi ruskie are filled with farmer's cheese and potato, fasolka po bretońsku is a bean and kielbasa stew for the cooler months, and golonka w piwie is pork knuckle roasted on sauerkraut and basted with beer. Rolada śląska with dumplings and red cabbage is the Silesian Sunday dinner. Racuchy, apple yeast pancakes, are an afternoon snack, and faworki, crisp fried ribbons, are eaten above all on Fat Thursday, February 4.

The Polish menu opens with Tatar Wołowy, hand-chopped raw beef with a raw egg yolk and small heaps of onion, capers, pickled cucumber and mushrooms to work in at the table. The main course is Kaczka z Jabłkami, duck rubbed with salt and marjoram and roasted with tart apples, a dish for holidays and Sunday dinners. Dessert is Pączki, yeast doughnuts filled with jam, classically rose petal jam.

The Polish menu centers on two moments. On Holy Saturday, March 27, 2027, families carry the święconka basket to church to be blessed, with eggs, bread, white sausage and babka. On Easter Sunday, March 28, breakfast often begins with sharing a blessed egg, and then come barszcz biały, a white borscht served with egg and white sausage; jajka faszerowane, mushroom-stuffed eggs; ćwikła, a beet and horseradish relish; pasztet; and sałatka jarzynowa, a vegetable salad. White sausage also comes roasted with onions. Two cakes close the table: babka wielkanocna and mazurek, a flat tart topped with milk caramel.