the POLSKI blog

16 Nov, 2008

Polish bread

Posted by: Michał In: feeeed me!

Ask any Pole in the UK, what food they miss and I’m sure quite a few of them will say they miss Polish bread. I do. Why?

To begin with, we hardly ever eat toast. Bread is something Polish people will be picky about. Take Tarnów, for example. This city in south-eastern Poland (116,000 people) sells almost 160 types of bread, including 40 types of ‘traditional’ bread. Its bakers were recently describing on Polish TV how to recognise a well baked loaf of bread (it’s all bout the crust, since you’re asking). So toast slices are perceived as something really inferior.

Then there’s the religious aspect – in a deeply Catholic country like Poland bread has always been revered as a highly symbolic type of food. Many people still make a sign of cross on a fresh loaf before slicing it.

Bread is also an important accompaniment to many dishes and is in itself an ingredient. For example, a Christmas delicacy called makówki, made traditionally in the region of Upper Silesia in the south of Poland, consists of layers of sliced bread (or baguette) soaked in a sweet mixture of ground poppy seeds, milk, nuts, almonds, raisins, orange peel and sugar. Hopefully I’ll be able to post a detailed recipe for this closer to Christmas.

And since I mentioned Upper Silesia, I also need to mention what is probably the only Museum of Bread in Poland. It’s situated in a small town of Radzionków, near Bytom and was set up several years ago by a local man who was extremely passionate about this most basic of foods. I remember interviewing him as a young journalist in the 1990s when was trying to convince Bytom’s president, that having a unique museum in a unique pre-war bakery building in the centre of the city would be a fantastic opportunity to attract some tourists. Sadly, as far as I am aware, the building is still decaying and the museum was later opened a few miles down the road and so far has been visited by tens of thousands of visitors.

Next time you’re in that area, go off the beaten track and see for yourself why Poles are so crazy about their bread.

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8 Responses to "Polish bread"

1 | Sylwia PresleyNo Gravatar

November 16th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

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Oh, how I miss it!:( (nice design btw)

2 | MichałNo Gravatar

November 16th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

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Thanks :) I miss it too.
What happened to your gravatar btw?

3 | MirandaNo Gravatar

November 19th, 2008 at 11:57 am

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We have an excellent Polish Bakers – The Pine Tree Bakery in Tollcross, Edinburgh that supplies most of Edinburgh and Glasgow! Their doughnuts are twice the size of British ones and their cheesecake is delicious!

Does anyone have a good recipe for Sour Rye soup? I have the sour rye, chicken stock, a bit of sausage and a boiled egg – but not the ‘je ne sais quoi’!

4 | Richard BanuchaNo Gravatar

July 23rd, 2009 at 11:41 am

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Polish bread is wonderful. Please publish some recipes for the traditional breads. I have searched the internet for years but found nothing that comes close to replicating the fantastic breads I have tasted in Poland.

5 | MichałNo Gravatar

July 23rd, 2009 at 10:18 pm

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I’ll see if I can find some :)

6 | johnNo Gravatar

December 29th, 2009 at 6:25 pm

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The bread in that picture looks delicious. It almost makes me regret I don’t eat bread anymore :D

7 | barbNo Gravatar

January 9th, 2010 at 6:41 pm

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why is bread so important to the people who live in Poland?

8 | MichałNo Gravatar

January 9th, 2010 at 7:03 pm

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Good question, although I’m sure there will be as many answers as there are people. It’s the most basic food and as Poland’s economy was mostly based on agriculture for many years, fresh bread symbolised successful harvest and symbolised family, home and I guess the spirit of togetherness. And until a few years ago, when big hypermarkets flooded Poland with cheap, mass-produced bread it was really good almost anywhere you went in Poland. It still is, only now you need to know where to go.

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The POLSKI blog is written by Michał, a Polish journalist, writer, one-time language teacher and linguist, living and working in London.

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