You can’t ever underestimate the importance of groats in the history of Polish cuisine: although for centuries it was scorned as the food of the poor, it was also what fed generations of peasants – especially before the potato was introduced in the 19th century. Among numerous dishes with buckwheat, millet, spelt and barley at their base, the most popular were always soups, and krupnik is an important staple even now.
The name itself comes from the archaic word krupy – what we would now call kasza – which meant crushed grains of various cereals. What the soup consists of is an intense, meat-based stock (traditionally often made with pork ribs, yet nowadays also with chicken), cooked with vegetables such as carrots, celeriac, parsley root, leek and potatoes, and, most distinctly, with barley groats. The soup is usually lightly spiced with bay leaves, allspice and a pinch of pepper. Nowadays vegetarian versions are also made, and dried mushrooms are sometimes added to boost the umami flavour.
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Barley and buckwheat groats, photo: Roman Lipczyński / Forum
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Krupnik is rather delicate; there’s no acidity so typical of Polish żur, barszcz or gherkin soups, and some look at it suspiciously, claiming that with its slightly sticky, porridge-y consistency it seems suited to a retirement home or a nursery menu. For some it’s the epitome of hospital food. Yet looking at the matter from a more positive point of view, you could say krupnik is very nutritious – and that’s one of the reasons of its long-lasting popularity. With a bit of meat, vegetables, grains and potatoes all in one pot, it’s an inexpensive one-pot-wonder, suitable for peasants working in the fields and, in the times of the People’s Republic of Poland – also for factory workers.
On the list of Polish traditional products approved by the Ministry of Agriculture we find krupnik niwiski from Niwiska village in Podkarpacie. According to an ethnographic interview with its inhabitants:
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Krupnik’s preparation is very simple. In a big pot you need to put a pork bone – preferably a part of the pig’s spine called krzept – cover with water and bring to a boil. After clearing the broth, you can add the vegetables – carrots, parsnip roots, onions and celeriac – as well as a couple tablespoons of barley. Dried mushrooms really enhance the flavour. You need to soak them overnight and then chop finely and add to the soup along with the soaking liquid. You need to cook the soup for quite a long time. At the end of cooking, you can add the potatoes, though it is not necessary. Obviously, the soup must be seasoned with salt and pepper.
As such a peasant dish, krupnik does not appear in Poland’s earliest cookbooks, mostly devoted to courtly cuisine. Yet it can be found in 19th-century books designed for the bourgeoisie, such as Lucyna Ćwierciakiewiczowa’s 365 Meals (1860). She proposes two versions, slightly more elaborate and elegant than the one from Niwiska – one cooked with beef, and one vegetarian.
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Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, 365 Meals for 5 złoty, photo: Polona / Polona.pl
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As a resourceful housewife, Ćwierciakiewiczowa advised to make krupnik on a day when roast beef or beef roulades are served, so that the rest of the meat could be used for the stock. Then she emphasised the need to cook both the vegetables and the groats separately – other than pearl barley, she also considers spelt a good addition to the soup. Then she mixes the groats with some butter, chopped parsley and slowly adds the stock. Finally, she puts the soup in a vase with chopped, cooked vegetables and explicitly states that the method of just throwing the groats into the soup – which seems to be something virtually every cook does nowadays – is wrong, since it makes the elements of the dish separate instead of creating a slightly sticky porridge. As for the vegetarian version, she adds butter, cream and egg yolks to the groats, which she all whisks together before adding the vegetable stock. In the end she candidly states: ‘This is a very good soup’.
And I guess that’s what we could also say today: maybe it’s neither a showstopper nor a revelation, but krupnik is just what it is: a good, nutritious soup.
Written by Natalia Mętrak-Ruda, May 2021
