Polish Cuisine by Region: Upper Silesia
Silesian food combines Polish tradition with the flavours of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, yet has its own unique nature due to the industrial character of the region, mostly known for mining.
Upper Silesia – or Górny Śląsk, the southeastern part of the historical region of Silesia – is one of Poland’s most distinct areas, with its own customs, language, identity and – obviously – its own cuisine.
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A still from 'The Beads of One Rosary' by Kazimierz Kutz, photo: Filmoteka Narodowa/fototeka.fn.org.pl
The Silesia region has been passed between Czech, Prussian and Polish rulers throughout its history. But as in most of modern Poland, for centuries its people’s diet was quite monotonous and mostly based on vegetables such as cabbage, peas and parsnips (large quantities of potatoes too from the 19th century onwards), and grains such as buckwheat and barley. Meat – usually pork, and sometimes rabbit – was eaten only on special occasions.
Pigsticking, or hunting boar with spears, was always a big event and all parts of the animal would end up being used; even the fat was turned into tłuste (lard spread, in other regions known as smalec) and the offal into Silesian specialties such as krupnioki (a type of blood sausage made with barley) and żymloki (where groats are replaced by wheat buns). Bacon was used to add flavour and fat in many combinations – from potato salad to pea soup, while one of the most original dishes are swallow’s nests (jaskółcze gniazda) – pork loins stuffed with bacon and boiled eggs. It was only after the region became richer thanks to the charcoal mining industry that beef and poultry were introduced, and the ‘Silesian dinner’ as we know it today was invented. The daily diet became fatter and meatier – and that’s what traditional Silesian restaurants are associated with even today.
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Krupnioki, photo: Adam Haławej / PAP
This change in diet matched the change in Silesia’s main profession: mining began in the area in the 16th century, and it’s still what the region is known for today. Working underground is hard and the hours are very long, so food has to be filling and energetic enough to keep miners going throughout their day.
There’s a particular ethos connected to this profession that was beautifully captured in a cinematic Silesian trilogy by director Kazimierz Kutz: Salt of the Black Earth (1969), Pearl in the Crown (1971) and The Beads of One Rosary (1980). The films depict a very strong work ethic, respect for physical effort and for the forces of nature, as well as a sense of collaboration and pride. These qualities were typical in miners, as was the patriarchal family model, where the father worked and the mother mostly stayed at home to raise children, clean and, obviously, keep everyone fed.
Śląski łobiod, or The Silesian Dinner
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Żur, photo: Dawid Chalimoniuk / Agencja Gazeta
The feeling that Silesian is ethnically separate from the rest of Poland at the dinner table is a linguistic one as well as a culinary one: some of the most common dishes – like żur or karminadle (called kotlety mielone in the rest of the country) are Silesian versions of meals eaten all over Poland, while others, such as siemieniotka (hemp soup) or moczka (gingerbread soup), are purely regional and seem pretty exotic to other Poles. The most iconic Silesian dinner – śląski łobiod – is also a combination of the familiar and the singular: rosół z nudlami (meat broth with noodles) is followed by beef roulade accompanied by modro kapusta (braised red cabbage) and the iconic kluski śląskie – Silesian potato dumplings, which can be either ‘white’ (made with cooked mashed potatoes) or ‘grey’ (made with grated raw ones), mixed with potato starch.
When it comes to soups, rosół and żur are eaten all around Poland, yet they do hold a special place in Silesian hearts. The most traditional żur used to be made with carp heads – as opposed to the mushrooms and eggs added in other parts of the country. But there are also other, even more curious soups, like harenczorka (herring soup, which today is virtually nonexistent), wodzionka (a poor man’s bread and garlic soup) and siemieniotka (soup made with hemp seeds). It may come as a surprise, but the hip superfood that is hemp seeds have been used by housewives in Silesia and Greater Poland since at least the 19th century and – despite its controversial flavour – is highly appreciated for its health benefits: it was believed to protect from ulcer and scabies.
Cabbage, especially sauerkraut, was always a major source of vitamins, and is also often mentioned in Silesian folk medicine. Sour apples, carrots, horseradish, garlic and caraway seeds were used to flavour the cabbage which was then put in big barrels, fermented and eaten all through the winter. Nowadays the best known cabbage-based dishes are: ciapkapusta – sauerkraut mixed with mashed potatoes and fried onions (it’s easy to notice a resemblance to the Irish colcannon); groch z kapustą – sauerkraut and onions mixed with mashed yellow peas; and obviously the iconic modro kapusta.
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Moczka, photo: Paweł Kiszkiel / Agencja Gazeta
The aforementioned siemieniotka, usually served with either buckwheat or croutons, is one of Silesia’s most original Christmas Eve dishes. The same goes for moczka (the name comes from moczyć, meaning ‘to soak’), which is a pretty fascinating dish: reading about it you soon realise it can be a sweet dessert, but it can also have fish stock as the base… Let me explain: the most important ingredient in moczka is soaked gingerbread, most often accompanied by almonds, nuts and dried fruits such as prunes and pears. The ingredients differ from household to household, yet the main point of difference is what the gingerbread is actually soaked in: nowadays dark ales (similar to Guinness) are most often used, which makes the whole concoction a sweet dessert, yet in the past moczka was also made with vegetables (mostly parsnip) or fish stock, and the result was a savoury soup.
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In Silesia, there are just five dishes on the table: fried carp, potatoes, cabbage and peas, makówki and moczka. Based on oral accounts from old Silesian families, we can be sure that these dishes we eat on Christmas Eve today were already being eaten 150-200 years ago. It is possible since the ingredients have always been available: flour, milk, sugar, poppy seeds, dried fruits, potatoes, peas, cabbage and fish.
Maszkiety, or Silesian Sweets
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Kołocz, photo: Marek Lasyk / Reporter / East News
Since everyday food in Silesia was always quite simple and rustic, there were no elaborate cakes and desserts after dinner – in the past, kids were given bread with butter and sugar or jam. There are ethnographic records of an array of very simple ideas for sweets – sugar candy with a drop of lemon juice or homemade ‘poor man’s chocolate’ made with cocoa, sugar and a drop of milk. Another resourceful idea was ‘marzipan potatoes’ made with… well, potatoes. At some point, Silesian housewives must have come across the German/Austrian Marzipan Kartoffeln – little balls of marzipan dusted in cocoa, which vaguely resemble potatoes – and made a cheaper version using actual potatoes themselves with a bit of almond essence. And since – as stated before – the ‘nose to tail’ philosophy was widely applied, there are even recipes for cookies that use pork lardons as the fatty element. Apparently, their crispness was unmatched!
The most traditional Silesian cake – often served at weddings – is the yeast-based kołocz, filled with sweetened farmer’s cheese, poppy seeds or apples, and with a crumble on top. Another typical dessert is szpajza – a creamy dessert made with egg-white foam, sugar and gelatine, and flavoured with fruit (such as lemon, gooseberry or cherry) or chocolate.
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Bistro Żurownia – Silesian street food, photo: Dawid Chalimoniuk / Agencja Gazeta
Even today, when food has become so globally unified, Silesians still keep up their culinary traditions: they love nothing more than rolady (and sniff at people calling them zrazy); they aren’t as fond of pierogi as most of us, but are proud of their own Silesian dumplings, which – they insist you must remember – taste right only after you cross the Dąbrowa Basin and Upper Silesian border… But this everlasting conflict and the uniqueness of Silesian identity is a whole other story…
Written by Natalia Mętrak-Ruda, Jan 2021