Treasured Polish Recipes For Americans

What makes Polish food Polish? To an American an answer may be "potatoes" or "cabbage", however as one who grew up in a Polish household as an American my answer would be "sour cream, horseradish, mushrooms, eggs, and bread". So much bread! Joking aside, my parents cooked standard American foods for the time: meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs, pot roast, sides of mashed potatoes and green beans. Ironically, also "Polish" foods. At it's core, Polish cuisine shares a lot with French cooking: use of few ingredients and a reliance on technique to bring out the flavors instead of an overuse of spices. This is also old-school American cooking, too, and how my parents were able to adapt so well to the American diet back in the day. In reality, Poles favor foods that are savory. That is to say foods that are not sugary-sweet. If sweetness is to be added it is typically in the form of apples, raisins, or other fruit but rest assured that sweets do exist and sometimes a non-desert recipe does call for sugar.With that, this book is old school. Not just old school Polish but old school cooking in general. If you are familiar with the American cookbook The Fannie Farmer Cookbook or most basic French cookbooks you will notice they have more in common then they are different. Well, of course for the religious use sour cream in Polish cooking, that is. This book is lacking in technique and direction. That is because this book was written originally published in 1948 and is based on an assumption of home economics; that you already know what to do in the kitchen. I worked in restaurants during high school through college, so this is not a big deal for me. However, if you are newer to cooking or need direction line-by-line, you may find this book frustrating. However, the Fannie Farmer Cookbook is very similar in this vein, too.I can appreciate the book staying true to its original publishing yet modernizing the book itself would be a welcome update. For one, while the majority of ingredients are basic items that can be purchased from any grocery store, there are a few items that can stand an explanation. One of which is top milk, which is the second layer between the cream and milk in non-homogenized milk. A light cream or half-n-half can be used as a substitute. Another is kidney-fat, which is the fat around the kidneys and better known as suet. Aside from the descriptions, substitutions would be nice. There are also four recipes for creamed mushrooms one right after the other, all named creamed mushrooms and without ordinals. This is peppered throughout the book except for the three recipes for mayonnaise which are labeled as 1, 2, and 3. Chicken liver can be substituted for turkey liver and pig liver.... pig liver has a very strong flavor and if you already do not like liver you probably won't like pig liver. Anyways, if you do, pig liver might be hard to find but you can use liverwurst as a substitute.For some of the chicken recipes; in one that lists spring chicken in the ingredients list and only says to cut in pieces. Of course this is for a whole spring chicken but what does cut in pieces mean? Does that mean to start hacking it up, bones and all? Of course not. but still. In another recipe for fried chicken you are to start off with broiling chickens and then are told to cut chickens at joints. The key word here is that "chickens" is plural and that what you are to do is to remove the wings and dummies (legs). So, what do you then do with the rest of the chicken? Well, if you keep reading you will come across the recipe for chicken cutlets which can certainly make use of the left over chicken bodies, but how are you to know this? For the meat stock recipe you are to start with 3 lbs of meat, which of course you are to remove. Later on in the book the recipe for meat with horseradish sauce does mention to use this same beef, but this is not mentioned in the recipe for meat stock. For the tomato soup recipe which is season with spareribs, within this recipe we are then told to remove the spareribs, season with a favorite sauce, then bake in an oven for an hour and a half or so. Then there is the whole Soup and Additions to Soup chapters.... it would be nice if there were some more information on which additions to add to which soups, but I suppose it is cook's choice?Speaking of soup; there is a recipe for chicken with noodles and with only three ingredients: young hen, egg noodles (recipe given), and parsley. The directions start by indicating to cook the chicken in the same manner as found in "soup" on page blah blah. When you turn to page blah blah there is only one recipe of soup involving chicken yet it has a step involving boiling the chicken for some time before adding the rest of the ingredients and then to later remove the chicken meat without any indication of what to do with it. So, are you supposed to stop before you add the rest of the ingredients if you want to make chicken with noodles, or do you use the whole thing, chicken, vegetables, and all? It also states to simply cut the chicken at the joints without mentioning that the chicken meat will eventually fall off the bone. Unless you have made chicken soup using whole chicken (or had a family member who has), you might not know this and pass on what is an otherwise great recipe (if you opt to use "all", this is akin to the "American" chicken and noodles you may have had as a kid, depending on your current age). Bottom line is that it would nice if there were consistency throughout the book.Some may want pictures to help guide the cook towards what the finished dish is supposed to look like. I instead would prefer descriptions of what the dish actually is and with some indication of what to expect in taste. Anyways, this is long enough. Despite what is written above the recipes in this book are darn good, of what I have tried so far. Recipes also make use of few ingredients and with ingredients available to Americans in which the recipes were selected. Because of this I give my review five stars however I want to dock this book a star or two because it lacks the refinements of modern cookbooks.

Had this recipe book from my mother-in-law and our kids were fighting over who would inherit it. I purchased a copy for each so they can keep up with the Polish traditional dishes.

My wife is enjoying all of the great Polish recipes in this book. A must have for anyone looking to connect with their Polish cuisine roots. Viva la Polska!

My husband's Aunt was as Polish as they come, and her cooking was legendary. Sadly, when she passed, we had all hoped her recipes had been written down somewhere as we planned to make a family cookbook for anyone who wanted one . Her son eventually told us that she worked from memory and even he didn't know how to recreate her scrumptious offerings. I plan to try as many of these that seem the most familiar and host a special Thanksgiving type feast for the family.Please, sit and watch your loved ones to share their special recipes with you. Have them teach you, side by side, and write them down! So much is lost when we assume they're written down somewhere. Most of the older generation learned by doing at their parents or grandparents side. Take the time, and LEARN! You won't regret it.

My neighbors are warm-hearted, very kind Poles, and she is a FABULOUS cook, so I bought this book and ran it by her. She approved it, so I kept it, although I haven't tried any of the recipes yet. My only disappointment is that it's a very small cookbook. If you purchase it, be sure to read the foreword and the introductory pages, which I normally skip. They give you some pretty amazing - and fascinating insight into why Polish food is so wonderful and incredibly delicious. To skip them would be to shortchange yourself, unless. of course, you happen to be Polish yourself and already know this information. It in itself makes for very good reading.

This is the perfect basic guide. Add to recipes as needed to cater to your taste.It is missing some recipes like traditional Polish gingerbread but spot on all together.

My parents were given this cookbook in 1949 and it became a favorite for Nalesnikis, Pierogis, Cucumbers with sour cream dressing and Roast Loin of Pork. My mother filled the blank pages with her own favorite recipes. I was surprised to see it in print and purchased a copy. I can now give each of my daughters a book to enjoy with their families.

Let be it will be ordering another for a friend.