Jan Chryzostom Pasek, a Polish chronicler of the baroque period, encountered kaszanka during an expedition to Demark in 1660:
When they slay an ox, a swine or a lamb, they won’t spoil even the smallest drop of blood but instead they will roll it into a dish, and stirring barley or buckwheat groats into that, they stuff the beast’s intestines with it, then they cook it in a pan
Unknown in Polish territory until the 17th century, kaszanka must have made its way to Poland from either Denmark or from Germany, through Silesia. Wherever it first came from, it is eaten to this day, although in the 17th century it was considered repulsive.
There exists an inaccurate belief that kaszanka is a peasants’ dish. The oldest recorded recipes for kiszki [Polish plural form for kiszka, meaning intestine] come from the cookbooks of noblemens’ chefs. In the 17th century, the term kiszka was used to designate both animal intestines (used as a casing for sausages) and the actual sausage-like products. There was a huge variety of kiszki – stuffed with capon, deer and fallow deer with the addition of rice, filled with veal offal, and a sweet version made of fish. The kiszki were cooked in broth, baked, fried and grilled. The modern versions of the kaszanka recipe surfaced only a few centuries later.
The popular pre-war author, Maria Disslowa gives a recipe for the kaszana kiszka, also called krwawa kiszka, literally meaning bloody intestine, as the kaszanka used to be called. It is supposed to be stuffed with buckwheat groats, pork neck, blood, bacon and marjoram. Those bloody intestines were also at times stuffed with liver instead of groats. The kiszki could be served sweet and spicy, with egg, milk, and raisins, and added lard and pepper. Those bloody intestines were frequently served at aristocratic tables. 100 years ago, the Potocki manor in Krzeszowic had the kiszka served in slices, fried, and topped with a demi glace sauce.
As for the peasants’ table, kaszanka was a real rarity there in the past. The monotonous menu of the farmers was based on potatoes, cabbage and dumplings, but from one holiday to another it was enriched with bloody intestine. It was usually made after a pig slaughter, an significant event for the local communities. It was also then that the fresh blood was available, which landed in the intestine along with all the offal and fat.
Incidentally, if you get the shivers from the mere idea of eating a bloody intestine, you should try a baked potato kiszka, a dish typical of the northeastern Podlasie region. It looks like a kiszka, but it’s stuffed with potatoes, bacon, onion, and at times some minced meat.
Author: Magdalena Kasprzyk-Chevriaux, August, 2014, translated by Paulina Schlosser