Genuine Old Polish Bigos: Difference between revisions
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== ''Minutal alias siekanka'' == | == ''Minutal alias siekanka'' == | ||
Now, the problem is that ever since the word ''bigos'' has been used in the Polish language, it had more to do with the action of chopping than with pouring. The earliest known mention is a bigos recipe found in a herbal by Stefan Falimirz published in Cracow in 1534, entitled ''Of Herbs and their Potency''. It was a work on medicine rather than a cookbook, so this oldest known bigos wasn't so much a dish as a medicine against "Saint Valentine's illness", or epilepsy. | Now, the problem is that ever since the word ''bigos'' has been used in the Polish language, it had more to do with the action of chopping than with pouring. The earliest known mention is a bigos recipe found in a herbal by Stefan Falimirz published in Cracow in 1534, entitled ''Of Herbs and their Potency''. It was a work on medicine rather than a cookbook, so this oldest known bigos wasn't so much a dish as a medicine against "Saint Valentine's illness", or epilepsy. | ||
{{cytat | {{cytat | ||
| Może też, opłukawszy płuca wilcze winem czystym, potem je uwarzyć zsiekawszy na bigos i okorzenić pieprzem, imbirem, goździkami, szafranem, a to jeść przez kilka dni. Jest rzecz doświadczona na jednej białej głowie. | | Może też, opłukawszy płuca wilcze winem czystym, potem je uwarzyć zsiekawszy na bigos i okorzenić pieprzem, imbirem, goździkami, szafranem, a to jeść przez kilka dni. Jest rzecz doświadczona na jednej białej głowie. | ||
| | | You may also douse wolf lungs with pure wine, then chop them up into bigos and cook with pepper, ginger, cloves, saffron; eat this for a few days. This has been tried on one wife. | ||
| źródło = Falimirz, Stefan, ''[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjzyte_1s3fAhVkkosKHRd1D6oQFjAAegQIABAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Frcin.org.pl%2FContent%2F62780%2FWA248_82527_SPXVI_falimirz-ziolach_o.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3TeyeMsubMG_4qdlYqzOi1 O ziołach,''] | | źródło = Falimirz, Stefan, ''[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjzyte_1s3fAhVkkosKHRd1D6oQFjAAegQIABAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Frcin.org.pl%2FContent%2F62780%2FWA248_82527_SPXVI_falimirz-ziolach_o.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3TeyeMsubMG_4qdlYqzOi1 O ziołach,''] edited by Anetta Luto-Kamińska, Krzysztof Opaliński | ||
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There are two interesting things we can notice here: first, 16th-century requirements regarding sample sizes in clinical studies were a lot less strict thatn they are today. And second, it was possible to make bigos without cabbage or sauerkraut. You didn't need a variety of meats either. All you needed to do to make bigos was to chop something (say, wolf lungs) up and season to make it sour, sweet and spicy. | |||
[[File:Cnapius bigos.jpg|300px|From: Cnapius, Gregorius (1643, 2nd ed.) ''[http://ebuw.uw.edu.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=283674 Thesaurus polonolatinogræcus,]'' Kraków, p. 30]] | |||
A 1621 Polish-Latin-Greek dictionary defines ''bigos'' simply as ''ferculum ex concisis carnibus'', or "a dish of chopped meat" and provides the word ''siekanka'' ("something chopped up") as a Polish synonym. It also gives ''minutal'' as the Latin equivalent. As it turns out, Poles were not the first to enjoy sweet-and-sour chopped-meat delicacies; there were already known to ancient Romans. We can find some recipes for minutal ''De Re Coquinaria'' (''On the Subject of Cooking''), a cookbook that has been traditionally credtied to Apicius, but is in fact a collection of formulae from various authors compiled in the 4th--5th centuries CE. What follows is a recipe for ''minutal ex praecoquis'', or chopped pork with apricots. | |||
[[File:Minutal.jpg|thumb|200px|A modern reconstruction of pork-and-apricot minutal]] | |||
[[File:Minutal.jpg|thumb|200px| | |||
{{cytat | {{cytat | ||
| | | Adicies in caccabum oleum, liquamen, vinum, concides cepam ascaloniam aridam, spatulam porcinam coctam tessellatim concides. His omnibus coctis teres piper, cuminum, mentam siccam, anethum, suffundis mel, liquamen, passum, acetum modice, ius de suo sibi, temperabis, praecoqua enucleata mittis, facies ut ferveant, donec percoquantur. Tractam confringes, ex ea obligas. Piper aspargis et inferes. | ||
| źródło = Apicius, ''[http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost04/Apicius/api_re04.html De re coquinaria]'', | | Combine olive oil, fish sauce and diluted wine in a pot. Add chopped dried shallots and diced pork shoulder. Cook all this with crushed pepper, cumin, dried mint and dill. Add some honey, fish sauce [again], raisin wine, vinegar and broth. Mix well. Add stoned apricots and bring to boil again. Thicken with crushed flatbread, sprinkle with pepper and serve. | ||
| źródło = Apicius, ''[http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost04/Apicius/api_re04.html De re coquinaria]'', own traslation | |||
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I've found an interesting attempt at reconstruction of this dish. The author of the ''[http://pass-the-garum.blogspot.com/2012/10/pork-and-fruit-minutal.html Pass the Garum]'' blog, devoted to cooking according to ancient Roman recipes, hints that you can replace liquamen, or Roman fish sauce, with store-bought Thai ''nam pla'' mixed with reduced white-grape juice; and instead of tracta, or Roman flatbread, you can use cornstarch as an equally good thickener. | |||
And here's a Polish recipe of "Jesuit bigos" from a manuscript cookbook written at the court of princes Radziwiłł at the end of the 18th century: | |||
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| Weź pieczenią dobrą wołową przerastałą, upiecz ją pięknie, a polewaj masłem onę często. Kiedy się upiecze pięknie, pokrajać w niemałe sztuki, nakrajże cybuli niemało i smaż ją w maśle. W panew rybną piękną włóż ten bigos i cybulę. Wlejże wina kwartę, octu pół kwarty winnego, małmazjej pół kwarty. Rozynków drobnych i wielkich wsyp, limonię całą w talerzyki [plasterki] wkraj, oliwek garść, cukru przygarstnie, pieprzu wsypać, coby było dobrze korzenno, goździków całkowych kilka, pieprzu całkowego trochę, cytryny świeżej w kostkę, masła młodego łyżek dwie. Niechże wre dobrze w panwi, coby jeno trochę polewki [sosu] było. | | Weź pieczenią dobrą wołową przerastałą, upiecz ją pięknie, a polewaj masłem onę często. Kiedy się upiecze pięknie, pokrajać w niemałe sztuki, nakrajże cybuli niemało i smaż ją w maśle. W panew rybną piękną włóż ten bigos i cybulę. Wlejże wina kwartę, octu pół kwarty winnego, małmazjej pół kwarty. Rozynków drobnych i wielkich wsyp, limonię całą w talerzyki [plasterki] wkraj, oliwek garść, cukru przygarstnie, pieprzu wsypać, coby było dobrze korzenno, goździków całkowych kilka, pieprzu całkowego trochę, cytryny świeżej w kostkę, masła młodego łyżek dwie. Niechże wre dobrze w panwi, coby jeno trochę polewki [sosu] było. | ||
| źródło = Dumanowski, Jarosław; Jankowski, Rafał, | | Take some good beef, roast it nicely, frequently dousing with butter. Once it roasts nicely, cut into sizeable chunks; chop up a large amount of onion and fry it butter. Put this bigos and onion into a nice fish pan. Pour in a quart of wine, half a quart of wine vinegar and half a quart of malmsey. Add small and large raisins, a sliced lime, a handful of olives, a handful of sugar; add enough [crushed] pepper to make it well spicy, a few cloves, some peppercorns, diced fresh lemon and two spoons of fresh butter. Let it boil well in the pan, so that only a little sauce remains. | ||
| źródło = Dumanowski, Jarosław; Jankowski, Rafał, eds. (2011) ''Moda bardzo dobra smażenia różnych konfektów'', ''Monumenta Poloniae Culinaria'', Warszawa, Muzeum Pałac w Wilanowie, p. 139 | |||
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Nice! As you can see, this recipe is quite similar to the Roman one, even though it calls for beer, which Polish magnates valued more than pork. Again, we've got here a fusion of sour (wine, vinegar, lime, lemon), sweet (sugar, raisins, malmsey), spicy (pepper, cloves, more pepper) and fatty (butter, olives, more butter) flavours. This combination of tastes had not changed since ancient times and can be seen in all Polish recipes for bigos (and other dishes) from that time. | |||
[[File:Bigos naleśnikowy.jpg|thumb|200px| | [[File:Bigos naleśnikowy.jpg|thumb|200px|Modern crêpe bigos]] | ||
What's more, not only did Old Polish bigos contain not even a soupçon of cabbage, but even meat was only optional. As long as ''bigos'' meant "something chopped up", you could make it of anything that could be chopped. So apart from veal, capon (castrated cock), wether mutton (castrated ram), rabbit, hazel grouse or beef marrow bigos, we also know recipes for carp, pike, crayfish, oyster or even crêpe bigos (or ''bigosek'', a dimnutive form often used back then). | |||
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| Bigosek maślny z naleśnikami: Upiekłszy ich, nakrajać w siateczki i wlać wina, i octu kąszek winnego, cukru, rozynków drobnych, cynamonu i masła, i przysmażyć tego na rynce [czymś pomiędzy rondlem a patelnią]. | | Bigosek maślny z naleśnikami: Upiekłszy ich, nakrajać w siateczki i wlać wina, i octu kąszek winnego, cukru, rozynków drobnych, cynamonu i masła, i przysmażyć tego na rynce [czymś pomiędzy rondlem a patelnią]. | ||
| źródło = ''ibid.'', | | Buttery crêpe bigosek: fry some crêpes, cut them into squares, add wine, a little wine vinegar, sugar, small raisins, cinnamon and butter, and fry them in a pan. | ||
| źródło = ''ibid.'', p. 173 | |||
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Jeśli tylko nie przesadzić z winem i octem, to dzieciom mógłby smakować! ''Nota bene'' z octem w ogóle trzeba było uważać. O potencjalnych skutkach braku ostrożności w zaprawianiu bigosu octem ostrzegał Wacław Potocki: | Jeśli tylko nie przesadzić z winem i octem, to dzieciom mógłby smakować! ''Nota bene'' z octem w ogóle trzeba było uważać. O potencjalnych skutkach braku ostrożności w zaprawianiu bigosu octem ostrzegał Wacław Potocki: | ||
As long as you don't overdo the wine and the vinegar, then even modern children would find it palatable! By the way, one must have always been wary when it comes to vinegar. This is how Wacław Potocki warned against lack of caution when seasoning your bigos with vinegar: | |||
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Więc spostrzegłszy omyłki, wskażę do kucharza: | Więc spostrzegłszy omyłki, wskażę do kucharza: | ||
Niech mi złodziej nie robi z zadka kałamarza.</poem> | Niech mi złodziej nie robi z zadka kałamarza.</poem> | ||
| źródło = Potocki, Wacław, [https://polona.pl/item/ogrod-fraszek-t-1,NDkxMTc3MjQ/93 ''Bigos w żałobie'',] | | <poem>A maid who hastened some bigos to season | ||
Went to the pantry, wherein, for the reason | |||
Of frost, among bottles, stood ink in a cruet. | |||
She brought the pot with her and poured ink into it. | |||
When served on the table, I gave it a try; | |||
The dog wouldn't eat it! For the cook then I cry: | |||
Bigos in mournig is a novelty, but | |||
Don't you dare make an inkwell out of my butt!</poem> | |||
| źródło = Potocki, Wacław, [https://polona.pl/item/ogrod-fraszek-t-1,NDkxMTc3MjQ/93 ''Bigos w żałobie'',] in: (1907) ''Ogród fraszek'', ed. Aleksander Brückner, Lwów, vol. I, p. 56, own translation | |||
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