The Silesian Roulade: History & Recipe

rolada_kluski_kapusta_fot_rafal_mielnik_20110721_rm012.jpg, default, Beef roulade, Silesian dumplings, red cabbage, photo: Rafał Mielnik / Agencja Wyborcza, The Silesian Roulade: History & Recipe

Recipes

#polish cuisine

The historical region of Silesia is one of Poland’s most distinct areas, with its own tradition, language, identity and – obviously – cuisine. Silesian food combines Polish tradition with the flavours of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Some common dishes – like żur or karminadle (which in the rest of the country are called kotlety mielone) are Silesian versions of meals eaten in all of Poland, while others – like siemieniotka (flaxseed soup) or moczka (gingerbread soup) are purely regional and sound pretty exotic to the rest of Poles. Yet the most iconic Silesian dinner – śląski łobiod – consists of three elements: braised red cabbage, Silesian potato dumplings and a beef roulade.

Rolada & Zrazy – A Cultural Difference

Roulade actually belongs to the first category – in other parts of Poland a very similar dish is called zrazy. Its origin dates back to the tables of Polish and Lithuanian nobility, and it appears among the recipes of Paul Tremo, the court cook of the last king of Poland Stanisław August Poniatowski in the 18th century. While in theory you could roll other types of meat, a traditional Silesian rolada is made with beef wrapped around a filling of mustard, bacon, onions and dill pickles.

Research among the inhabitants of Silesian towns and villages shows that beef roulade was well known already in the interwar period. At first it was only served during the biggest of celebrations, especially weddings, since beef was quite pricy. Ethnographic research from the Dąbrówka Wielka village from the 1960s states Silesian beef roulade was such an important dish at weddings, that sometimes as much as 300 kilos of beef was used for just two days of celebration – to make either karminadle, or roulades. With time, when Silesians became richer – mostly thanks to the booming mining industry, which the region is known for still – beef roulade started being served at christenings, communions and holiday dinners as well.

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Bistro Żurownia – Silesian street food, photo: Dawid Chalimoniuk / Agencja Gazeta

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After World War II, together with rosół z nudlami (chicken soup with noodles) it became the iconic Sunday dinner – and in many homes, it’s still almost obligatory. If you go and visit someone in Upper Silesia – and are not vegetarian, although nowadays plant-based reinterpretations also exist – you can be almost sure you’ll be served this particular combination, since it’s also what you share with your awaited guests.

Legendary Dumplings

A traditional side dish to rolada are kluski śląskie – Silesian dumplings – also known as gumiklyjzy. It’s a potato dumpling made with cooked potatoes and potato starch (and therefore gluten-free), and formed into a ball with a small well in the middle, perfect to hold the sauce. The most popular ones are ‘white’ – made with cooked mashed potatoes – but also ‘black’ or ‘iron’ dumplings exist, which are made with grated raw potatoes.

These humble dumplings, which are now a traditional product of two neighbouring voivodeships – śląskie and opolskie – are surrounded by a remarkable number of legends. According to one of them, once upon a time in the Zielony Dąb village (which is now a part of Wrocław) lived the peasant Konrad with his wife Agnieszka, who made the best dumplings in the entire village. When she died of the plague, Konrad was so desperate, he almost starved himself to death. One day, he went to Wrocław and fell asleep near the Church of St. Giles. There, in his sleep his wife came to him and promised she was going to give him a cauldron filled with fresh dumplings. It would fill itself every night, if only Konrad promised to always leave at least one dumpling on the bottom of the cauldron. Once he woke up, he saw a huge amount of dumplings – unfortunately he had no control over himself and was so hungry, he almost ate them all. The last dumpling magically escaped and turned to stone on the church’s gate – which is now called Brama Kluskowa (The Dumpling Gate). Another legend dates the dumplings back to 1241, claiming they were invented in the historical town of Racibórz. Apparently they weren’t intended to be eaten though, but served as… ammunition, thrown by the women of Racibórz at the Monglos who sieged the town.

The last element of the łobiod is modro kapusta, or red cabbage braised with onions, a little bit of sugar and salt, and sometimes bacon. This particular vegetable connects Silesian cuisine with the cuisine of Greater Poland (where it is also served for festive dinners with duck and pampuchy – steamed yeast dumplings) as well as with the food of the Czech Republic, which clearly makes it a Central European staple.

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Modern Katowice, photo: Radosław Makowski / EyeEm / GettyImages

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Here are some tips on how to make a perfect rolada śląska:

1. The meat has to be well-beaten, and it’s best if the beef has as little sinew as possible.

2. Some Silesian cooks say the meat becomes perfectly tender when you soak it in soured milk for the night.

3. The meat should be seasoned with salt and pepper, spread with mustard, filled with onions, dill pickles and thick pieces of smoked bacon, and then rolled. It can be either neatly tied with a cord, or held together with toothpicks.

4. Apparently, the secret to perfectly tender roulades is slowly pan-frying them in butter or vegetable oil the day before, so that there’s no raw meat whatsoever. The next day roulades should be braised in a deep pan, basted with fat and water for around two hours.

5. The juices from the pan are used to make the sauce: water is added as well as allspice, bay leaf and pepper. In the end, sauce should be thickened with a roux.

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