Cross Rich’s off the list. I stopped in but didn’t see oscypek. They do have about five varieties of copies, pastes gołka which were similarly tan and impressed with patterns.
Aye and it’s just called Polish Deli. The lady I spoke with was super nice, too.
I don’t often get to shout the word but here goes: Jackpot!
Shop & Save on Milwaukee and Devon and Nagle had no fewer than four products listed as ‘oscypek.’ Now, I’m maybe only a little less Polish than a taco and I can’t promise any authenticity or quality with any of this but it seems promising. I also hope these image links work out.
First was the pinched cylinder one that I understand is the usual shape.
It was the largest and pretty pricey at $19.99:
Next was this smaller cylindrical shaped cheese, maybe half or two-thirds the size of a 12oz beverage can.
Back of the package showing impressed pattern:
Here’s one labeled ‘covna oscypek’ with a corncob looking grid pattern:
Puly can probably differentiate.
Finally, there were these little guys, maybe half the size of my palm but very flat.
I think they were about half an inch thick.
My recommendation: Go here, buy some cheese and other goodies. It’s a great store to wander around and give into your central and eastern European impulse buys. Then, go across the street and get a Superdawg or whatever looks good on the menu. Superdawg is a longtime Chicago institution and a decent representation of a local dog.
Shoot, I forgot a FIFTH variety that they also had. White oscypek - not smoked:
Man, just when I could not be more impressed by all my Doper buddies… thanks so much, to all of you. I have a IMHO thread going for Chicago recommendations, but this was honestly one of the things I was looking forward to the most. Imma bring as much damn cheese home with me as I can physically carry.
I guess I could poke around for recipes or fancy ways to use it, but let’s face it. Slice, insert into mouth. That’s pretty much gonna be it.
Y’all are the BEST!
I’m actively salivating looking at jnglmassiv’s pics.
Nice find!
That’s pretty much the only way I’ve ever eaten it: straight, with a refreshing beverage to wash it down. I’ve heard sometimes people will grill it and serve it with cranberries (or similar), but I think that’s a more recent manner of eating it.
Heeeeey, my local grocery store. I’ll have to try the oscypek sometime.
In addition to the rec for Superdawg, if you’re in the mood for Polish food and go to that Shop N Save, I would recommend Smak-Tak on Elston, just a bit southeast of that Shop and Save. There’s also a soon-to-be only outpost of the Red Apple a bit north of Devon if you want something buffet style. Red Apple is solid (though I’ve only been to the Avondale location near Belmont and Milwaukee), but Smak-Tak is tops in my book.
Hi diddily ho, neighborino! The Butera in Harwood Hts is technically my closest grocery but I go to Shop & Save pretty regularly. My hands down favorite is the Fresh Farms on Touhy in Niles, though.
Agree, both are great. I’ve got a funny story about my first trip to Red Apple. I’d never been and, while my girlfriend at the time had visited before, it was years earlier though she remembered it was good. So we went and were seated near the front of the restaurant in a sort of odd, empty corner. Our drink order was taken and served, then we waited and waited and waited for a staff member to come take our order or give up menus, anything. My girl had forgotten it was a buffet. Luckily, before I blew my stack on the employees, we noticed another patron carrying a plate of food and it finally clicked.
The universal consensus of my Krakow friends is that in 2019, virtually all commercially available oscypek here in Poland is markedly different and inferior to what it was 40 or 50 years ago, as it is now a (relatively) large cottage industry and that many manufacturers illicitly cut corners, specifically using mostly cow milk instead of the traditional (and much more expensive) sheep (and possibly goat as well) milk, even though they still illegally label it as the real thing.
For me, when I go to the Highlands, where it is sold at 100’s (perhaps 1000’s) of roadside stands, some literally 10 feet away from each other, I usualy pick up a little bit and then reminded why I never buy it here at home in Krakow.
I LIKE salt and salty foods, and feta cheese is something that I can’t get enough of, but most oscypek is almost inedible, due to the extreme amount of salt it soaks up in the brining process.
Yes, oscypek has very stringent rules: it’s supposed to be at least 60% sheep milk, and only made with milk from sheep grazing between April and October, or something like that.
If you want to read the EU rules about what can be legally labeled oscypek there, read away here. (It even outlines the entire method of production, which is fun reading.)
Even the stuff you get in the Highlands of Poland can have a lot of shortcuts. I personally have no idea how much of the oscypek I’ve eaten in my life is truly to-the-letter oscypek, but there is a range of flavor. As Royal Nonesutch describes, it can get quite salty, with a clear “sheep milk” taste to it. Like I said above, enjoy it with your favorite beverage. It’s not my favorite cheese by a long shot, but it’s interesting from time to time.
I’m surprised there’s not a Polish Deli themed casino. They have virtually everything else.
I assume that probably everyone reading this already knows that at least here in Poland, oscypek is traditionally served and eaten hot, warmed on a small charcoal grill and then slathered with cranberry jam, which I assume is used to help cut the overwhelming saltiness, but as I don’t care for cranberry too much, it isn’t of any help to me.
Huh I guess it’s been about fifteen years since I’ve been in Poland, but my dad and his whole family is from Zakopane and I’ve never had it served that way. (And I’ve been to Zakopane about ten times.) Always cold, as a slice. I am familiar with it being served that way but, at least among my Oscypek eating family and family friends, only raw. Maybe they were just lazy.
I should say, though, now I want to try some grilled with cranberry and see if I like it any more served that way. For us, it was usually part of a meat and cheese plate to nosh on while you’re drinking adult beverages (we’d have oscypek, kabanos, perhaps some other kind of sausage, picked stuff, and open faced sandwiches at all our family and friends parties growing up. Nobody ever drank without a spread of some sort at the table to help soak up some of the booze.)
Besides the large cylinders, oscypek is sold in little ingots, about the size of a silver dollar, except oblong, about a half-inch thick that are perfect for the grilling treatment that I mentioned.
At every Polish street festival, concert, outdoor market, or other similar gathering, and also on the streets in the cold winter months, there are little carts (something like a NYC hot-dog cart) with small grills selling it with the cranberry puree as a hot snack, usually something like 5 or 6 Zloty ($1.50) for 3 pieces, which in Poland is actually fairly expensive for what it is, but it is apparently a popular item nonetheless.
(It might also be wrapped with bacon, now that I think about it)
Yeah, I’ve seen the little ones. We always just had the traditional spindle shaped ones. (I thought the little ones had a different name – it’s escaping me right now; legally oscypek must be between 600g and 800g, at least according to the certification authorities. I know all sorts of stuff gets sold as “oscypek,” though. For that matter, I have no idea how much of the oscypek I’ve had from Zakopane is by-the-books oscypek. I know the stuff I’ve had ranges quite a bit in smokiness and hardness. Most of the stuff I’ve had is quite hard, firmer than a cheddar, but not quite as dry as a parmesan. But I’ve also had stuff that was much younger and had, at least to me, a much more pleasant “fresh ewe’s milk” flavor to it.)
It would make sense, of course, if serving it on the street or at a restaurant, you’ll want to dress it up a bit and not just serve a chunk of cheese. At home, like I said, always cold, just sliced with a meat/deli tray is the only way I’ve had it.
I do think it would do well grated like a pecorino over pasta, though. Maybe a cacio e pepe type of dish with grated oscypek instead of pecorino. It’s odd, as I don’t recall ever coming across this cheese being used as a grating cheese, but it seems like it should do well as one for the reasons you stated: it’s really salty on its own, but as a salt-and-smoke accent to a dish, along with a bit of ewe-y cheesy funk, I think it would do great.
bump
My I.T. Guy had to be in Chicago for a business trip, so he got to be my “preview” tester. Shop and Save was a bit far for where he was staying, so on a local employee recommendation, he bought me a couple of cryopacked 4-packs of the little palm sized oscypek (plus some other goodies) at …
drum roll
Helen’s Deli, on Irving Park Rd in Wood Dale.
The pictures he sent are astonishing. So much stuff packed behind a modest storefront - meats, cheeses, bread, candy, and so damn much chocolate! Looking forward to visiting in person, in a couple weeks. In the meantime, om nom nom …