Old Polish Traditions in the Kitchen and at the Table [antikvár]

Introduction _ A cookbook? Yes, a cookbook, only slightly different, because this one is in the form of a tale where typical Polish recipes are interwoven with a briefly outlined history of Polish culinary customs. Much has been written about the Old Polish cuisine. Some criticize it for its reckless extravagance and for its excessive quantity of alcoholic beverages, others admire its unquestionable charm: its domestic intimacy, simplicity and abundance. The history of Polish cooking had various turns, but Old Polish cuisine does not solely consist of the cuisine of the magnates, which absorbed enormous fortunes and which delighted in pomp and splendour and astounded with the quantity of dishes that made up a feast. The true Old Polish cuisine consists of three culinary threads of the tale: that of the peasants, the burghers and the gentry. During the past centuries these threads either came closer together or drew farther apart, until they finally joined into a complete but differentiated and rich tale that included all elements of the Polish culinary style. At any rate, the differences between these three threads were not, generally speaking, very clearly marked; in the cuisine of the gentry, for instance, there were great differences between the cuisine of the magnates, of the middle gentry and of the yeomanry, the last one differing little from the peasant cuisine. The rich man always ate better than the poor man. In other words, one can say that in the Poland of old there were several categories of cuisine (according to Zbigniew Kuchowicz, Old Polish Customs of the iyth and 18th Centuries, there were five in that period). These did not only reflect the degree of affluence, but also the tradition and culture of given circles and individuals. In this process history also played a part, since dramatic and stormy political events and social changes had an in-