Where To Find The Best Polish Recipes in English

sliwki-pod-kruszonka-fot-krzysztof-kuczyk-forum-0426682562.jpg, default, Plum crumble, photo: Krzysztof Kuczyk / Forum

It seems that you can find every possible recipe online in this day and age. But many of us still prefer the good old cookbook. After all, it’s not easy to find your way through the maze of digital sources when you actually need to prepare the best possible pierogi for your Polish mother-in-law or impress your date with an exciting new cuisine they may not have tried before. Here’s Culture.pl's guide to the best books about Polish food published in English.

1. ‘Polish Cookery: The Universal Cook Book’ by Maria Ochorowicz-Monatowa

Thumbnail — ‘Polish Cookery: The Universal Cook Book’ by Maria Ochorowicz-Monatowa, photo: press materials

A true classic – published in Polish in the first decade of the 20^thcentury – and the first Polish cookbook to be translated into English (by Jean Karsavina in 1979), Monatowa’s work is a product of its time: it’s a true encyclopedia as its purpose was to cover all existing recipes. There are no illustrations, just loads and loads of dishes, some typical of the Polish peasant tradition, some more universally European and bourgeois – the author spent time in Vienna and in Paris. From cabbage soup to many variations of barszcz; from pierogi to buckwheat pancakes, from baked goose to bigos and from Kraków torte to almond babka, Polish Cookery is a treasury for those who want to get inspired by old-school Central-European cuisine.

2. ‘Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans’ by Marie Sokolowski & Irene Jasinski (editors)

Another classic thick tome, this one conceived especially for American readers by the Polanie Club of Minneapolis in 1948, that has been reprinted many times since it first appeared. It’s nicely illustrated with folk art and covers many essential Polish dishes as well as some Polish-American mashups. Some of the recipes included might look a little dated or hard to make in the modern kitchen (duck-blood czernina soup with cherries which many Americans of Polish descent ask for, and hardly any Poles make anymore is a good example) and some – like those for oysters and shrimp – are hardly Polish at all, yet the book provides a fascinating glimpse into some of the more traditional Polish food and culinary customs.

3. ‘Rose Petal Jam: Recipes & Stories From A Summer In Poland’ by Beata Zatorska & Simon Target

Ten years after publication, Beata Zatorska’s Rose Petal Jam is still one of the prettiest cookbooks with Polish recipes available in English. Written by a Polish doctor and photographed by a British filmmaker, who live together in Australia, it’s an ode to the Polish countryside where Beata grew up and to the recipes of her grandmother. The recipes include many childhood favourites such as kisiel (strawberry fruit pudding), gołąbki (cabbage rolls) and pierniczki (spiced gingerbread cookies).

4. ‘Polska: New Polish Cooking’ by Zuza Zak

The past decade of publishing in Britain gave us an incredible amount of beautifully photographed culinary gems with celebrity authors such as Yotam Ottolenghi and Jamie Oliver leading the way. Zuza Zak’s Polska: New Polish Cooking published in 2016 can stand proudly on any bookshelf alongside them, as it’s a great example of how to translate the traditional into the contemporary. The author takes old-school Polish dishes and makes them look and taste lighter, fresher and more modern. From kopytka (‘little hooves’) with bacon bits and onion to salted caramel mazurek with pecans, Zuza’s dishes show what Polish food should be known for all over the world.

5. ‘Fresh from Poland: New Vegetarian Cooking from the Old Country’ by Michał Korkosz

Polish cuisine is often associated abroad with lard, kiełbasa, pork knuckle, potatoes and dumplings. Delicious? Maybe, but also a heart attack waiting to happen. Polish food writers and historians try to fight this notion, but no one has done it better than Michał Korkosz, the young author of the vegetarian cookbook Fresh from Poland. Korkosz’s food is light, colourful, modern and totally meatless. Barley risotto, blueberry pierogi, rye crumble with honey, and żurek with dried porcini are all undeniably Polish – and perfect for the 21^st century.

6. ‘A Nóż Widelec’ by Michał Kuter

If you are familiar with the basics and want to go to a higher level, this is the book for you: written by one of Poland’s leading chefs, from the acclaimed A Nóż Widelec restaurant in Poznań, this beautifully-photographed bilingual album presents a haute-cuisine approach to the food of Poland, or even, more specifically, to the region of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska). You need to be a skilled cook to take on some of the recipes included, but it’s worth it: this chef’s approach to classics such as sorrel soup, Poznań-style duck and goose terrine will sweep you off your feet.

7. ‘Polish Culinary Paths’ & ‘A Polish Table’ by Magdalena Tomaszewska-Bolałek

These two online publications, available to download for free, are this acclaimed food historian’s attempts to popularise Polish cuisine abroad. Tomaszewska-Bolałek is an academic, so she skillfully summarises the history of Polish culinary practices, yet as a foodie and a cook, she also presents the readers with delicious recipes – not just for the most popular Polish fare, but also for some regional specialties such as proziaki flatbreads, Kashubian herring and potato baba.

8. ‘Polish Your Kitchen: A Book Of Memories: Christmas Edition’ by Anna Hurning

Anna Hurning is the host of the popular blog and YouTube culinary channel Polish Your Kitchen, where she introduces English speakers – whom she calls her ‘hungry friends’ – to the basics of Polish cuisine. After working on her blog for three years, in 2019 she decided to publish a mini-cookbook about Christmas –which in Poland is possibly the most special time of the year culinary-wise. She included super-traditional Christmas Eve recipes for sauerkraut and mushroom pierogi as well as poppy Seeds with dumplings as well as some less obvious – yet delicious – dishes such as buckwheat and mushroom stuffed chicken. Anna is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publishing of her new Polish cookbook.

You could argue there’s still room for more cookbooks and culinary influencers (such as Antoni Porowski, who’s done a lot to promote żurek in the world) that would truly put Polish food on the map, yet the books listed above are a great start for anyone who wants to begin their Polish-themed culinary adventure.

Written by Natalia Mętrak-Ruda, April 2021

Language English

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