Bigos

Ingredients

• Sauerkraut1 kg
• Fresh cabbage1 kg
• Pork shoulder600 g
• Smoked kielbasa400 g
• Smoked bacon300 g
• Beef400 g
• Dried porcini50 g
• Prunes150 g
• Onions3
• Tomato paste3 tbsp
• Dry red wine250 ml
• Juniper berries8
• Bay leaves4
• Allspice berries6
• Vegetable oil60 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Soak the dried mushrooms in a cup of warm water for half an hour and slice them, straining and keeping the water.

   35 min

2. 2

   Squeeze the sauerkraut, shred the fresh cabbage and stew each in its own pot for thirty minutes.

   35 min

3. 3

   Render the bacon to crackling, brown the pork and beef in its fat, then the onion.

   25 min

4. 4

   Combine both cabbages, the meats, sausage, mushrooms with their water, prunes, tomato paste and spices in a large pot.

   15 min

5. 5

   Add the wine, bring it up and stew two hours on the lowest heat, stirring occasionally.

   125 min

6. 6

   Cool it completely and leave it a day in the cold, then bring it back to the boil and stew an hour.

   65 min

7. 7

   Repeat the cycle once more on the third day. Serve with rye bread and a glass of vodka.

   65 min

About the dish

Bigos is not cooked in one go but in three or four sittings a day apart: brought to the boil, cooled, repeated. Each cycle of heating and cooling shifts the flavour, and a one-day bigos counts as unfinished.

Two cabbages go in, in equal parts: sauerkraut for the acidity and fresh for the sweetness. Sauerkraut alone is harsh, fresh alone is bland.

At least three meats go in, and smoked meat among them without exception. The smoke is what makes bigos recognisable; without it this is stewed cabbage.

Worth knowing

• — Use a pot that is clearly too big. Bigos reduces by half, and in a tight one it catches at the first reheating.
• — Rinse very sour kraut but do not wring it dry. Some acidity is necessary — without it bigos goes flat.
• — Bigos freezes well in portions. In Poland it is made in a large pot for the holidays and eaten for weeks afterwards.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

38 g

Fat

40 g

Carbs

24 g

More from Poland

• Pierogi ruskie — Dumplings of potato and curd cheese, served with fried onion and soured cream.
• Żurek — A sour soup on a rye starter with white sausage and egg. The sourness comes from fermentation, not vinegar.
• Sernik — A dense curd cheesecake on a shortcrust base, made with twaróg rather than cream cheese.