From Royal Tables to Market Jars: The Curious Life of Polish Tripe Stew

flaki_en_.jpg, default, Flaki (tripe stew), photo: Agnieszka Kukiela/Reporter/East News, From Royal Tables to Market Jars: The Curious Life of Polish Tripe Stew

#polish cuisine

Flaki (tripe stew) is a dish present in Polish cuisine at least since the 14th century. Reportedly, it was the favourite specialty of Queen Jadwiga and Władysław Jagiełło.

Beef stomach chopped into harmonica-shaped coils cooked in broth is called flaki (tripe stew). All the elements of the stomach are used in the making of the dish: the omasum, the paunch, the reticulum, and the abomasum (the paunch and the abomasum being most valuable from the culinary point of view). Flaki is rich in calcium compounds, containing even more of them than meat does.

The preparation of this traditional Polish stew is a demanding process. Before using the tripe, one needs to thoroughly clean it by paring it with a knife, sprinkling it with salt, then brushing it with a hard brush and meticulously chopping off all the blackened edges. Then, after washing the tripe in cold water a few times over, one has to pour boiling water over it and keep it on boil for fifteen minutes, then drain the water off and change it a couple more times during cooking. Most recipes indicate that tripe needs to be cooked for a very long time to become tender. ‘After cooking, flaczki [‘tripe’ in the diminutive, trans.] ought to be so soft one can crush it between one’s fingers’ (W Staropolskiej Kuchni i przy Polskim Stole [In the Old Polish Kitchen and at the Polish Table] by Maria Lemnis and Henryk Vitra, Interpress, Warsaw 1983).

Classic Polish flaki consists of springy morsels cooked in thick, strong, steaming broth smelling of marjoram, accompanied by a mandatory kaiser roll (bread seems to be too sour to serve with flaki), i.e. a white flour roll with a characteristic cross carved on top.

Lviv-style, Warsaw-style

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Restaurant ‘Pyzy, Flaki Gorące’ (Dumplings, Hot Tripe Stew) in Warsaw, photo: www.pyzyflakigorace.pl press materials

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Flaki is a part of multiple regional cuisines: in Podhale, traditional flaki is made of mutton tripe, whereas Lviv-style flaki is prepared using beef tripe but with the addition of savoy cabbage. In Urzędów near Kraśnik in the Lublin region, one can have a taste of beef tripe stew made with duck broth with mushrooms and millet. Flaki is also, next to tongue, kidneys, and brains, a classic dish of Warsaw cuisine – but served, somewhat unconventionally, with meatballs made with bone marrow. The restaurant Pyzy, Flaki Gorące (Dumplings, Hot Tripe Stew) is an iconic place in the Warsaw district of Praga. The bistro is located near the Różyckiego Market, where in the past food vendors would sell street food, shouting: ‘Dumplings, hot tripe stew’ – hence the name. The dishes are served in jars, just like they used to be at the Market. In Pyzy…, flaki is served with meatballs and hard cheese, according to pre-war traditions upheld after the war in the Warsaw bistro U Flisa (Flis’s). The famous flaki offered in Pyzy is made according to a modified recipe by Lucyna Ćwieczakiewiczowa, a 19^th-century Polish food writer and famous Warsaw socialite.

Flaki is a dish that evokes extreme emotions. It’s either loved or hated not only by consumers but also by chefs. Considered poor people’s food, the stew has a peculiar, though not very strong smell, perceptible only during the cooking process. Maciej Barton, chef in the hotel restaurant Ostoja Chobienice, informs:

Each part of the stomach has a different density and structure. Some are fuzzy like suede, others resemble honeycombs. I’m most keen on using venison tripe, harvested from roe deer or fallow deer. We clean the stomachs ourselves – they need to be turned inside out, in winter we have to wipe them on snow. Then I soak them, rinse them, pour boiling water over the fluff and rub it with the edge of a wooden spatula, I abrade the blanched layer of the skin. I boil deer tripe over two days, for 3 to 4 hours each day. I parboil the stomachs whole in water with vinegar to get rid of the smell and acidity – the concentration of vinegar should be barely noticeable. Then I prepare a strong, rich broth and add the chopped tripe and vegetables for about half an hour.

Moose tripe stew & ‘kruszki’ with croutons

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Cover of and a page from Stanisław Czerniecki’s 1682 work ‘Compendium Ferculorum, albo Zebranie Potraw’ (Compendium Ferculorum, or, Collected Dishes) edited by Jarosław Dumanowski and Magdalena Spychaj, photo: Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów

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Jan Szyttler, a 19^th-century author of popular cookbooks, supplies the following recipe for moose flaki:

The tripe of a freshly killed moose is to be meticulously cleaned and blanched, as is usually done with beef tripe. Boil until soft. Clean again with a knife, chop evenly, scoop into the saucepan with red cabbage and cook together for half an hour, just as with mutton tripe meant to be served with cabbage. Cabbage for ‘flaki’ ought to be prepared thus: having selected the reddest cabbage, peel the top layer of leaves and rinse the heads whole in clean water. Pick the amount needed, depending on the number of people at the table, and chop into chunky dice. Add a few chopped onions, celeriacs, and parsley roots. Heat up some butter in a saucepan, toss in the cabbage and the soup vegetables, then add half a pound of sugar soaked in water. Having doused the ingredients with some broth, cover the pot tightly with a lid and cook on a burner with no flame. When the cabbage softens, add the tripe, a bottle of red wine, a tablespoon of ground cinnamon, some cloves, dry stock, and a cup of flour sauce. Keep the stew on boil until thick. Serve together with short sauce. ‘Flaki’, prepared thus or in a similar manner, is of exquisite taste.

J. Szyttler, ‘Kuchnia Myśliwska czyli na Łowach’ (Huntsmen’s Cuisine, or, at the Hunt), Vilnius 1845

The historical version of flaki was one made with ginger and obalanka, i.e. kiszka (blood sausage) stuffed with barley. The kiszka was chopped into pieces and arranged around the tripe. The dish was then seasoned with flour roux in the white-coloured version or with saffron in the yellow-coloured version.

Stanisław Czerniecki, the author of Poland’s oldest cookbook – Compendium Ferculorum, albo Zebranie Potraw (Compendium Ferculorum, or, Collected Dishes) – referred to flaki as ‘kruszki’. In his book, he describes a way of serving ‘kruszki with butter-fried croutons’ and ‘kiszki made with veal kruszki’. He also offers a recipe for toasted bread filled with tripe, egg yolk, and parsley, seasoned with black pepper and nutmeg. The tripe was to be tossed in egg and butter fried, the remaining pieces were tossed in flour and fried as well, and then broth would be poured over everything. Kiszki was also made with brains, blood, stomachs, hearts, lungs, and spleen. In historical Polish cuisine, the entirety of the killed animal was used, from tail to snout, with no single piece going to waste.

Translated from Polish by Anna Potoczny

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