As the Saying Goes: ‘No Cabbage Equals an Empty Stomach’
'No cabbage equals an empty stomach' – one of Polish folk sayings goes, and it does seem quite accurate when you look at what most Poles ate in the course of their history. 'I ate cabbage and drank broth, I didn't see meat but happy I was' – went a popular old rhyme, which pretty much sums up centuries of peasant diet. Cabbage is without a doubt one of Poland's most cherished vegetables, providing the masses with vitamins since time immemorial. But what do we do with it?
We Ferment It
Pickled cabbage – known abroad mostly under its German name sauerkraut – is one of the most popular ingredients in Polish cuisine. While fresh cabbage is already a great source of vitamins C and K, and is known to reduce inflammation, lower cholesterol levels and improve digestion, when it's fermented, it gets another boost and becomes a real superfood, that can be eaten cold – as a surówka, often with carrots and apples it accompanies fried fish or meat and potatoes – or hot, when turned into a soup (kapuśniak), stew (bigos), pancakes (fuczki from the Bieszczady mountains) or mixed with either potatoes (ciapkapusta, a dish popular in Silesia) or peas (groch z kapustą, in many houses served on Christmas Eve; the name is yet another cabbage-related idiom, which means chaos or disorder).
Yet the most iconic combination is sauerkraut and mushrooms – you could say these two ingredients. which are so essential to the Polish culinary culture, go together like peas and carrots. When various types of meat are added along with prunes, spices and wine, you get bigos or hunter's stew – possibly the most Polish of all Polish dishes. When left meatless, the duo is often served as one of Christmas Eve dishes, or it becomes the filling to a variety of dough-based dishes.
We Fill Things With It
Sauerkraut and mushrooms are one of the most typical pierogi fillings – and always a safe option for vegans in traditional Polish restaurants. Yet there are more dumplings and savoury cakes you can fill with this mixture: among the most popular there are paszteciki – yeast-based or puff pastry patties, which you can buy in one of many bakeries and treat as a snack or serve with clear beetroot borsht – and kulebiak (the Polish version of the Russian coulibiac, which was included in Auguste Escoffier's classic The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery).
We Fill It With Things
If you have ever been to a Polish neighbourhood in the US, in Polish-American restaurants you've probably seen not only pierogi, but also gołąbki (which means 'little pigeons'), also known as glubkis or golumpki. Big leaves of cabbage are boiled, filled with a mixture of meat and rice and served with a tomato-based sauce. Meatless versions with barley, lentils and mushrooms are also quite popular. Just as pierogi belong to the great family of dumplings, gołąbki are among the wide variety of cabbage rolls served worldwide, which is only proof of the amazing versatility of this vegetable.
We Make 60 Dishes Out of It
Just as versatile it is, proves the wartime book 60 potraw z kapusty (60 Cabbage Dishes) by Zofia Piechowa, published in 1940 as part of the Radź Sam Sobie (Take Care of Yourself) series of home economic guides initiated in Kraków by the Central Welfare Council. The series comprised volumes on how to live a reasonably normal life in the most difficult of times, and food was obviously one of its most important subjects.
Bolesława Kawecka-Starmachowa wrote Sto Potraw z Ziemniaków (A Hundred Potato Dishes), while Zofia Piechowa presented one book on how to pickle, preserve and cook vegetables (Potrawy z Jarzyn. W Tym Obiady Jednodaniowe oraz Kiszenie i Konserwowanie Jarzyn, 1941) and another on how to make sixty dishes out of cabbage. She proposes various soups and salads made with either pickled or fresh cabbage, braised cabbage with apples, tomatoes or sausage, cabbage 'schnitzels', and various types of pierogi and gołąbki (even Serbian sarma).
We Put It On Our Breasts
Although health benefits of cabbage mostly apply to eating it, according to folk medicine rubbing yourself with its leaves can reduce inflammation and help to heal bruises. It might seem as typical grandma's advice, but even today maternity wards in Polish hospitals tend to smell of cabbage leaves which new mums put on their swollen breasts.
As you can see – Poland could not exist without cabbage, even if sometimes we don't treat it rightly and call stupid people 'cabbage heads'.
[{"nid":"5688","uuid":"6aa9e079-0240-4dcb-9929-0d1cf55e03a5","type":"article","langcode":"en","field_event_date":"","title":"Challenges for Polish Prose in the Nineties","field_introduction":"Content: Depict the world, oneself and the form | The Mimetic Challenge: seeking the truth, destroying and creating myths | Seeking the Truth about the World | Destruction of the Heroic Emigrant Myth | Destruction of the Polish Patriot Myth | Destruction of the Flawless Democracy Myth | Creation of Myths | Biographical challenge | Challenges of genre | Summary\r\n","field_summary":"Content: Depict the world, oneself and the form | The Mimetic Challenge: seeking the truth, destroying and creating myths | Seeking the Truth about the World | Destruction of the Heroic Emigrant Myth | Destruction of the Polish Patriot Myth | Destruction of the Flawless Democracy Myth | Creation of Myths | Biographical challenge | Challenges of genre | Summary","topics_data":"a:2:{i:0;a:3:{s:3:\u0022tid\u0022;s:5:\u002259609\u0022;s:4:\u0022name\u0022;s:26:\u0022#language \u0026amp; literature\u0022;s:4:\u0022path\u0022;a:2:{s:5:\u0022alias\u0022;s:27:\u0022\/topics\/language-literature\u0022;s:8:\u0022langcode\u0022;s:2:\u0022en\u0022;}}i:1;a:3:{s:3:\u0022tid\u0022;s:5:\u002259644\u0022;s:4:\u0022name\u0022;s:8:\u0022#culture\u0022;s:4:\u0022path\u0022;a:2:{s:5:\u0022alias\u0022;s:14:\u0022\/topic\/culture\u0022;s:8:\u0022langcode\u0022;s:2:\u0022en\u0022;}}}","field_cover_display":"default","image_title":"","image_alt":"","image_360_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/360_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=ZsoNNVXJ","image_260_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/260_auto_cover\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=pLlgriOu","image_560_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/560_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=0n3ZgoL3","image_860_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/860_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=ELffe8-z","image_1160_auto":"\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1160_auto\/public\/2018-04\/jozef_mroszczak_forum.jpg?itok=XazO3DM5","field_video_media":"","field_media_video_file":"","field_media_video_embed":"","field_gallery_pictures":"","field_duration":"","cover_height":"991","cover_width":"1000","cover_ratio_percent":"99.1","path":"en\/node\/5688","path_node":"\/en\/node\/5688"}]