So, Eastern European food recipes, pre-WW2

Cafe Society
1

Remember that scene near the end of the Pixar movie, Ratatouille, where they cook and serve … ratatouille … to the restaurant critic? The dish was not fancy cuisine, it was, as one character puts it, “a peasant dish”. But they serve it to the critic, and he is immediately transported back to his childhood.

I want to do something like that. As I’ve mentioned in other posts here, I cook in a retirement home, mostly feeding people who are 80+ years old. One of my favorite “customers” is a woman named Annith (I’m afraid that I don’t know her last name), who will be turning 100 years old a few short months from now. (And I fully expect her to reach, and surpass, that age; at 99 years old she is still surprisingly “spry” [she still walks two miles every day], and still mentally sharp, and hilarious. She always comes into the kitchen around 6:00AM to say “good morning” to me. A few months ago, she was standing in the kitchen and talking to me, when one of the managers spotted her. That manager said (rather condescendingly, IMO), “Annith! You can’t be in the kitchen! It’s very dangerous!” And Annith replied, “Why? Is the cook going to throw something at me?!” (I busted up with laughter at the time, and I still chuckle every time I remember that scene!)

I want to prepare something special for Annith’s 100th birthday. I heard from a coworker, a while back, that Annith was born, and grew up in either Poland or Yugoslavia (I need to find out which), and moved to the USA shortly after World War 2.

I would like to prepare a dish for her that she may have enjoyed in her childhood. But, to do that, I need to find recipes for common, typical dishes that the average person in Poland/Yugoslavia would have eaten prior to WW2. I confess that this is a blank spot in my professional cooking experience; I have no idea what Eastern European people eat now, let alone what they typically ate 70+ years ago.

Are there any sources online where I can find old Eastern European recipes? And are there any “old” Eastern Europeans here who might be able to give me suggestions?

2

Maybe - borscht, stuffed cabbage, pierogies. I’m afraid this is not my area of expertise, but those might send you in the right direction. She sounds like a great lady.

3

Bigos is the national dish of Poland. I’ve never made it, but it looks authentic.

4

Question 1: Jewish or Catholic or Eastern Orthodox or other? Foodways vary significantly by religion.
Question 2: Class of her family in childhood. Maybe they owned a shop or were in manufacturing. Its not the case that every person in Poland before WWII was a peasant.

5

I grew up eating Polish cooking, and have spent a few months living around former Yugoslavia. I’d imagine the basic dishes haven’t changed all that much, but I would probably try to engage Annith in conversation about food, and see if I could glean any of her personal childhood favorites from that. There’s just so much to choose from.

6

What a great idea!

Definitely talk to her about it. It will increase her pleasure to have the pleasure of anticipation.

Ask her what her Mama used to make on Sundays (if Catholic) or Friday nights (if Jewish). Or what she liked to have for her birthday. Ask about desserts as well as main dishes.

And do keep us posted! Pictures of the event/dishes would be wonderful.

7

Goddam if that doesn’t sound delicious, but … holy crap is that recipe vague. It looks like a “national dish” that is vastly different from one part of the country to another. We had a thread here on the SDMB a few years ago, where an American asked about the difference between “burrito”, “chimichanga” and “soft taco”, and the whole thread degenerated into three Mexicans from widely different parts of Mexico arguing about how to make a taco.

So if I was going to cook bigos, assuming that Annith is Polish, I’d need to find out which part of Poland she came from, and which ingredients she would have had in it as a child. I do know that she likes kielbasa, when we serve it.

8

In our house (and the Polish households I knew), it was very much a clean-out-the-freezer type of dish. It’s meant to be a very flexible dish. Basically, it’s a sauerkraut stew with meat. The “most recipes have a few things in common” section gives a good summary of what is typically included.

9

This makes me want some Polish/German comfort food, so now I’m making this for dinner:

–Start roasting (grilling is good too) some kielbasa quartered the long way and sliced so it’s no bigger than a half-inch dice. It will take 30 minutes or so in a moderate oven. Charred edges are nice, then de-grease with boiling water; I can’t handle the fatty sausage otherwise.
–Chunk and boil a couple of potatoes
–Slice or chop and fry or caramelize an onion or two
–When those are done combine them all in a pot with a bag or can of juicy sauerkraut and warm together

Good memories of childhood meals for a cold night. Similar ingredients to the bigos but not a stew, more like a moist casserole. And leftovers for tomorrow.

10

Szekely Gulyas is a less elaborate Hungarian version, very very good.

Cut up some lean pork and brown it with chopped onions. Deglaze with a little water and add salt, pepper, caraway seed, and paprika. Cover with good sauerkraut, add enough water to just cover the kraut, put the lid on the pan and simmer for about 2 hours. Just before serving stir in a few tablespoons of sour cream. I usually make dumplings or spaetzle to go with, but plain boiled potatoes are nice too.

11

Yes, I need to actually sit down and have a conversation with her about various things, like her native country, and her religion, if any (I’ve gotten no indication of any religious affiliation from her after 18 months). My original manager introduced me to her on my second day at this job, but all he could tell me about her was, “She’s 98 years old!” (and at the time, that weren’t nuttin’ - we had another resident who was 102 years old).

That’s what I need to do. Except subtle-like. I want to surprise her on her birthday; I don’t want to telegraph that I’m going to do something special. But there are still a few months (her birthday is in the summer), so I still have plenty of time to research and prepare.

Can anybody suggest whether the name, “Annith” is more Polish or Yugoslavian?

That is, unsurprisingly, how I make soup (and I make awesome soup). I look in the cooler, see what’s left over, and turn it into soup.

12

I grew up in a town with a large Polish population, and I can remember these dishes being served by the buscia (grandmother) when I’d stay overnight or for dinner with a friend.

Pierogis, of course. They are totally multipurpose - they are used as appetizers, entrees, even desserts. I can’t imagine a Polish meal without pierogi. I remember them filled with kraut, cheese, mushrooms or sometimes meat. Dessert pierogi are generally filled with a dark fruit - currants, blueberries, etc… Pyzy is another popular dumpling done with potato instead of flour.

Bigos, mentioned above, is a stew with lots of root veggies, cabbage, and pork (in lieu of the traditional game meat). We weren’t doing a lot of hunting in the Chicago 'burbs.

The Poles do a goulash that is almost identical to the Hungarian version, only the spices are a little more pronounced.

A kotlet schabovwy would be something easy for you to recreate. It’s essentially the same as a wienerschnitzel - breaded pork tenderloin.

There are dozens of different types of Polish sausage. In America, they are mostly all called kielbasa.

I loved the potato pancakes (plazcki) which were served with sour cream and fresh dill.

There is a poppy seed cake commonly made for dessert that is dense and rich like pound cake, but I cannot for the life of me remember the name of that one.

I’m sure there are more I could think of if I thought on it for a bit, but hopefully you can find something here that you can use.

Polish cooking uses a lot of strong flavors - kraut, horseradish, dill, pepper, caraway, poppy seed, nutmeg and anise.

13

I thought about that. It’s not a Polish name I recognize. It’s not a Yugoslavian name I recognize, either, but I’m somewhat less familiar with those. googling doesn’t seem to help. If you get the surname, we can make a guess.

14

“Th” is a fairly unusual digraph. You do find it in some Hungarian surnames, pronounced as a plain “t,” but it’s not usual.

15

I would actually say the other way around, myself. Growing up with Polish goulash, and then living in Hungary, I was surprised at how different the Hungarian version was (and how much more flavorful.)

16

She did tell me that her husband passed away 30+ years ago. But she didn’t tell me much about him, and I have no idea if she married in her native country, or married after she arrived in the USA (she would have been over 30 when she got here). So her married surname may be of no help; I’ll have to ask her about her maiden name. Though if I’m going to ask about her maiden name, I may as well just ask where she was born. That would simplify things. She also introduced me to her daughter (who is a few years older than me, and actually kind of hot), several months ago, but that was the only time I’ve ever seen a family member visit her.

17

I don’t know much about polish cuisine, and I have no recipes, but maybe something in the style of milk bar food?

18

She is the only person I’ve ever met named “Annith”; the name may be simply the closest English approximation of her name. I know a Norwegian woman, who is older than my 71-year-old mother, who goes by the name “Renee”, but her birth name, in Norwegian, sounds like “tooted” (I have no idea how it’s actually spelled). She was given the name “Renee” when she arrived in the USA as a child, and that’s the name she has always answered to,.

19

Just ask her what she likes. Food in the region differs by class, religion, and ethnicity. You are also going to be cooking for an elderly woman for whom richer, more difficult to digest dishes are not a good idea. FWIW, potato pancakes are popular all across eastern Europe.

20

Tooted? I’m really curious. I’m norwegian, and I have no idea what “tooted” could actually be.