Bigos Recipe

1 lb cabbage
1 lg jar sauerkraut ( i use 3/4 of it)
I like a meaty bigos so I use
1/2 lb Lamb shank
1/2 lb veal
2 Pork chops ( can use w/ or wo bone)
1/2 lb Kielbasa
1/4 - 1/2 lb bacon (diced)
1 lg onion
4 peppercorns
1-2 bayleaf
2 small cans tomato sauce
1/2 cup dried mushrooms
1/2 1 cup Merlot (add to taste)
1/4 cup water

Boil cabbage with dried mushrooms for 40 min or until soft.

In seperate pot, brown bacon and simmer with sauerkraut and water . Cut onion, brown and add to sauerkraut.

Remove skin from kielbasa and brown. Brown the rest of the meat (remove fat/bone). Once browned, cut in to small pieces and add to sauerkraut, cover and simmer for 30 min.

Add cabbage and shrooms to sauerkraut meat mixture. Mix well and then add bayleaf, peppercorns, tomato sauce and wine. Cook for another 40 min. Add salt, pepper and additional wine for flavor.

Smacznego!

Mmmm sounds very tasty, thank you very much for sharing the recipe Zguby :)

I'm going to use it next week when I cook it for some friends. My mum used to make lovely bigos but I don't know the recipe. I never asked :(


Yummy stuff......<s>

It does look like it makes quite a large quantity.

I also ad allspice berries, some marjoran and a spoon of honey.....
+dried prunes - it makes a huge differance in TASTE!!!!

Lol, it does too........but I was brought up on Polish food so am no stranger to 'Bigos' I can work it out......just be nice to use a recipe that someone else has tried and used......

I could always invite PF members to come along and share ............hehehe. <joke>

Are you offering to cook for us? Zgubiony's recipe looks like it could feed the 5000.


A little bit of the Caribbean.

Haha you do need some to freeze :)

you can store in in jars, cook it to seal the lid and store it for later - the older the bigos the more tasty it gets:)

Definitely the truth :)

Make sure you eat with Rye bread

* Donkey adds various things to tomorrows shopping list *

you might say that.
Other names:English Spice, Jamaica Pepper, Clove Pepper, Myrtle Pepper, Pimenta, Pimento

We'd tried this at a market once, and decided to make it ourselves with this recipe. Thanks, this has been really useful.

[b][/b]]I have been in the cooking industry for a long time, specialising in polish cuisine. The word traditional doesnt seem to stand anymore. I have a Bigos recipe handed down to me through 4 generations and it is COMPLETELY different to the 'traditional' recipes in the cook books these days.
Coming from a chefs point of view, a good cut of meat is prefered for maximum quality also the term stew means to sit so if using a good cut of meat you are going to ruin its quality there fore using a tougher cut is more stable when cooking bigos

ALSO 'traditional' bigos does not have any cut of pork unless it is smoked on in the shoulder cut. making it bacon.
Oh and 'traditional' bigos does NOT have tinned sauerkraut for all those people keen to taste a real Bigos dish

I've only had bigos once and that was in a restaurant in Krakow. It' looked terrible if you know what I mean. But the taste was was wonderful. ..I recall that some kind of nuts were also in the mix

Zgubiony's recipe ( Edited by: Zgubiony Jan 12, 08, 13:43 reads like a very good one. Just remember Bigos started out as a "HUNTER'S" Stew, and everything that fit in the old "Witches' Cauldron"-style pot was thrown in and cooked for days OVER AN OPEN FIRE. My two older sisters and I all make VERY different "styles" of Bigos. We all swear our own version is exactly like our blessed and beloved mamusia's. So the message is like all good cooks have always done, use what you have at hand and experiment. Have a good time and enjoy one of the world’s truly great comfort foods.

Will in Ontario

Thanks Vilius. I'd love to try this on an open fire with fresh venison or whatever.... having only some ingredients that are easy to bring. I still continue to change this recipe and add what I have at hand.

I'm not sure why abcdefghijklmno has to say what 'traditional' bigos is. There's no 1 way to prepare this.

I love Bigos. Remember, I'm your black brother with all of the Polish buddies here in Chicago. Anyway a good friend of mine made some and it was so good that I have got to try to make it myself. I'll be doing it this weekend...so it could be a disaster...I'm a cajun boy from the South.

Greg

I doubt that. Not something that you can really mess up unless you've never cooked before, but you're a southern boy....i'm sure you can cook.

Yep, all my buddies here say I can cook pretty good. I try to cut fat when I cook, but sometimes you just have to let the fat be fat and think about it later, lol

Some prepare with smalec, but the bacon fat is enough for me :)

LOLOLOLOL...sometimes you've gotta have that fat though, but not everyday, lol

you add so much different meats to bigos, so an extra smalec is not necessary... leave the fat for golonko :)

I love golanka. We eat them down south in greens or black eyed peas. I had no idea when I went to the Polish store with my best friend here in Chicago, Marcin that the Polish ate them as well. Now, when you eat one...you must have a hot pepper on the side with a glass of lemonade...it will send you to the stars, :-)

it will send you for sure :)... i think that guys like to keep it simple, so golonka with a piece of bread and beer tastes perfect...

That is what my Polish buddy here in Chicago told me. Golanka and beer with mustard. He told me most people in Poland eat them at sporting events. I love them.

just wanted to say thanks to all of you, im a english-german girl who is also vegetarian and cooked bigos at the weekend for my polish boy.... of course i couldnt taste it relied on my nose and you guys tips and recipies on here.
he loved it, so now its only polish cakes i have to get to grips with, as all his fave savoury dishes i have learned and pretty well. =) i have always loved to cook.

dzieki i smacznego =)

or Vodka !