Bigos

For the American ice hockey player, see Kyle Bigos.

Bigos

250px Traditional Polish beef bigos
Origin
Place of origin	Poland
Details
Course served	Appetizer, main
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredient(s)	sauerkraut and meat (mainly kielbasa)
Variations	Multiple

Bigos (Polish pronunciation: [ˈbʲiɡɔs]), known as a hunter's stew, is a traditional meat and cabbage stew typical of Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian cuisine, and is a Polish national dish.

Typical ingredients include white cabbage, sauerkraut (kapusta kiszona in Polish), various cuts of meat and sausages, often whole or puréed tomatoes, honey and mushrooms. In very rare cases bigos can be made without meat or unpreserved cabbage, but the presence of sauerkraut is absolutely essential. The meats may include pork (often smoked), ham, bacon, sausage, veal, beef, and, as bigos is considered a hunter's stew, venison, rabbit, or other game; leftover cuts find their way into the pot as well. It may be seasoned with pepper, caraway, juniper berries, bay leaf, marjoram, pimenta, dried or smoked plums, often red wine and other ingredients.

Bigos is usually served with mashed potatoes or rye bread. As with many stews, bigos can be kept in a cool place or refrigerated and then reheated later; it is said that its flavour actually intensifies when reheated. One observed tradition is to keep a pot of bigos going for a week or more, replenishing ingredients as necessary (comparable to a perpetual stew). This, the seasonal availability of cabbage, and its richness in vitamin C made bigos a traditional part of the winter diet in Poland and elsewhere. It is a popular dish in Poland to be served on the Second Day of Christmas.

History

File:2011-04-09-bigos-by-RalfR-09.jpg

The boiling Bigos on the stove

Bigos at a restaurant in Kraków

Bigos, in medieval times known as hunter's soup, is said by some to have been introduced to Poland by Jogaila, a Lithuanian Grand Duke who became Polish king Władysław Jagiełło in 1385 and who supposedly served it to his hunting-party guests. Metaphorically, bigos means "confusion", "big mess" or "trouble" in Polish. However, Polish linguists trace the word bigos to a German rather than Lithuanian origin. The PWN Dictionary of Foreign Words speculates that it derives from the past participle begossen of a German verb meaning "to douse", as bigos was doused with wine in earlier periods.

Preparation

Recipes for bigos soup vary widely. According to some, the amount of meat should equal the amount of cabbage. Some prefer to use only fermented cabbage, sauerkraut; others combine fresh cabbage and sauerkraut in some proportion. The sauerkraut may be rinsed or unrinsed. Most recipes have a few things in common:

• The dish is based on sauerkraut.
• More than one type of meat is used.
• Kielbasa is included among the meat.
• Plenty of peppercorns.
• Dried mushrooms or brown mushrooms.
• Tomatoes in some form.

Representative recipes can be found online. Because preparation varies, many recipes have their adherents. There are also vegetarian alternatives with differing suggestions for meat replacements.

In literature

The great Polish epic poem Pan Tadeusz, written by poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz, features a poetic description of bigos eaten by members of the aristocratic szlachta returning from hunting:

In the pots warmed the bigos; mere words cannot tell Of its wondrous taste, colour and marvellous smell. One can hear the words buzz, and the rhymes ebb and flow, But its content no city digestion can know. To appreciate the Lithuanian folksong and folk food, You need health, live on land, and be back from the wood. Without these, still a dish of no mediocre worth Is bigos, made from legumes, best grown in the earth; Pickled cabbage comes foremost, and properly chopped, Which itself, is the saying, will in ones mouth hop; In the boiler enclosed, with its moist bosom shields Choicest morsels of meat raised on greenest of fields; Then it simmers, till fire has extracted each drop Of live juice, and the liquid boils over the top, And the heady aroma wafts gently afar. — Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz, Book 4: Diplomacy and Hunt Translated by Marcel Weyland

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. — Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz, Księga czwarta: Dyplomatyka i łowy

See also

• Kapusta kiszona duszona
• List of cabbage dishes
• List of stews

Further reading

• Alina Żerańska, The Art of Polish Cooking, Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1968.
• Pan Tadeusz, Księga czwarta: Dyplomatyka i łowy from the complete text of Pan Tadeusz in the Polish language

External links

• Bigos at Wikibook Cookbooks
• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations related to Bigos at Wikiquote

• Note: the hosts mispronounce "bigos" as "bigosh".