Problem to find "cream" in Poland

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Edited by: Moonlighting Oct 22, 09, 12:59 #1

Hi,

Everytime I'm in Krakow and want to cook dishes which I cook on a regularly basis in Belgium, involving "cream" (or "creme" in French), I just can't find it in shops!!! I tried various "smietana" but they are never what I want. What I'm looking for is that very liquid cream we use for sauces, and also for soups sometimes, in such cuisines as Belgian, french and Italian, and probably a good deal of other european countries.

All the "smietana" I buy in Krakow never have the required taste. They're a bit sour or taste a bit like cheese. No! I didn't mistakingly bought kefir or maslanka. It definitely reads "smietana" but it's never what I want. The only solution I found is to buy cream in Belgium and bring it with me everytime I go back to Krakow.

Would it be, by any chance, called another name than smietana?

Thanks

OsiedleRuda	Edited by: OsiedleRuda Oct 22, 09, 13:38 #2
You're possibly looking for something like this: http://www.piatnica.com.pl/picture.php?IDS=16

MoonlightingThreads: 60 Posts: 308 Joined: Apr 28, 07 ♂	Edited by: Moonlighting Oct 22, 09, 14:14 #3
OR, I already tried that, and even some where it was written "sos". But that's not it. Maybe in Poland you have a different method to prepare cream than ours... Maybe another example. If you were to put cream in your coffee instead of milk, sothat it becomes "gęsty" but still tastes rather like milk, which product would you use? That's in fact the one I need... ;-)

Lukasz KThreads: - Posts: 108 Joined: Feb 5, 08 ♂	Oct 22, 09, 19:05 #4
Then you use "śmietanka" do kawy which is mostly sold in paper boxes just as milk but smaller... Like these: www.e-commerce.pl/zdjecia/Mleko-i-smietana/Smietanka-Lowicka-30-9746-b ig.jpg Pozdr Łukasz

♂

Oct 22, 09, 19:14 #5

Łukasz is right. The stuff for coffee is similar to British cream, but not really cream - some sort of substitute instead.

I remember when I first ate a cream cake here, and thought the cream had gone rancid.

Sometimes you can get the right stuff by asking for 'śmietana słodka' - that shouldn't have the sour taste preferred in Eastern Europe.

But French 'creme' is a bit harder to find. I saw it once in Leclerc (the big Leclerc near the junction of al. Jerozolimskie and ul. Popularna) and I think Mini Europa have it.

gumishuThreads: 17 Posts: 3,943 Joined: Apr 6, 09 ♂	Oct 22, 09, 20:24 #6
śmietana kremowa - or słodka śmietana is to be bought in every bigger shop -even though it does not find too much use in the Polish cuisine - appart from being added to coffee (

MoonlightingThreads: 60 Posts: 308 Joined: Apr 28, 07 ♂	Edited by: Moonlighting Oct 22, 09, 20:58 #7
Łukasz, you probably have the answer. I'll try it next time I'm in Poland. Thanks to all for your replies.

MEMBER ♀

Oct 22, 09, 21:17 #8

Moonlighting:

What I'm looking for is that very liquid cream we use for sauces, and also for soups sometimes, in such cuisines as Belgian, french and Italian, and probably a good deal of other european countries.

śmietana/śmietanka kremowa is what you are after and that will be in with all the youghurts and cream in any shop really. that powdred stuff is just coffee matte! if you're looking for creme, or double/single cream supermarkets like Lidl or Leclerc might have it, i've personally not seen them but then i never really looked. śmietanka should do the job.

MoonlightingThreads: 60 Posts: 308 Joined: Apr 28, 07 ♂	Oct 23, 09, 09:03 #9
Thanks JustysiaS

Bydgoszczanin	Oct 23, 09, 11:29 #10
I have a French recipe that calls for "crème fraîche". What would be the closest Polish equivalent to this?

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Edited by: Ziemowit Oct 23, 09, 12:31 #11

I think this has already been already explained. According to what has been said, I believe it's "śmietana kremowa" or "śmietana słodka". It can also be "śmietanka" (diminutive of "śmietana"). It seems to me now that using this word diminutively, the Polish language would most often indicate cream which is not sour, while with "śmietana" it tends to denote something which is most likely to be sour; if not, it is accompanied by the adjective "słodka" or "kremowa".

The French "fraiche" is "fresh", so it may indicate that the thing hasn't become sour yet, which needs some time and no conservants in it. In other words, it is still "sweet", just as it will be with the Polish term "słodka śmietana".

southernThreads: 116 Posts: 10,955 Joined: May 17, 07 ♂	Oct 23, 09, 12:50 #12
Moonlighting: Problem to find "cream" in Poland I thought you were talking about vaseline.

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Oct 23, 09, 14:34 #13

Ziemowit:

The French "fraiche" is "fresh", so it may indicate that the thing hasn't become sour yet, which needs some time and no conservants in it. In other words, it is still "sweet", just as it will be with the Polish term "słodka śmietana".

you are wrong here - creme fraiche is actually somewhat soured cream high in fat content (28%) there is an entry on it in English wikipedia - creme fraiche is not widely available in Poland but should be available in at least some shops of the delicatessen sort - eventually one can prepare creme fraiche on his/her own using Polish sour cream and the thick sweet cream (śmietanka 30 to 36% fat) in 1 to 2 proportion - you need to heat and mix both of them but not too much (60 degrees) and them leave for at least 10 hours - I found this recipe on a Polish website

creme fraiche is known not to curdle while heated (contrary to Polish sour cream) - that's why it is widely used in French cuisine as an ingredient in sauces and soups (and in many other recipes)

♂

Edited by: Moonlighting Oct 23, 09, 15:09 #14

southern:

I thought you were talking about vaseline.

Well, at the beginning, I told my gf that we needed to buy "krem" for the recipe. She laughed and explained the difference of vocabulary. Of course that evening I massaged her body with krem. And with smietana another day. She enjoyed the combination of hands and tongue ;-).

gumishu:

creme fraiche is known not to curdle while heated (contrary to Polish sour cream) - that's why it is widely used in French cuisine as an ingredient in sauces and soups (and in many other recipes)

Exactly! And that's the problem I had while cooking in Poland, besides the difference of taste.

Wroclaw BoyThreads: 57 Posts: 5,474 Joined: Jul 3, 09 MEMBER ♂	Oct 23, 09, 17:22 #15
Lukasz K: Then you use "śmietanka" do kawy which is mostly sold in paper boxes just as milk but smaller. I bought and tried that for dauphinoise potatoes, it still doesnt work it splits. It may be more suitable for soups and sacues than Smietana.

MoonlightingThreads: 60 Posts: 308 Joined: Apr 28, 07 ♂	Jul 16, 10, 15:17 #16
I confirmed that Łukasz recommended the right product. Actually the one I'm using is the "Śmietana kremowa 30%" from Mlekovita. It's thicker than "Śmietana do kawy" so it's more appropriate for some sauces. The more liquid Śmietana do kawy is however OK to mix with soups. But what they advertise as "for sauce and soup" in Poland is definitely not appropriate for sauces in foreign recipes.

MagdalenaThreads: 5 Posts: 1,389 Joined: Aug 15, 07 ♀	Jul 16, 10, 15:52 #17
jonni: that shouldn't have the sour taste preferred in Eastern Europe. And to think that back around 1994 I had tons of Americans complaining to me that they couldn't find "sour cream" anywhere in Poland! ;-)

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