My latest compilation from Culture.pl includes an article by Mai Jones listing 10 Traditional Dishes of Polish Easter. “White sausage, rye soup, cakes with poppy seed or cottage cheese… The numerous traditional Easter delicacies in Poland are surprising, sophisticated and inspired by spring.”
Here is an abbreviated list of the dishes.
Biała kiełbasa: “This white sausage is made of unsmoked minced pork, with the addition of beef and veal, covered in a thin layer of pork casings and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and marjoram.”
Żurek or żur: “a soup made of homemade or store-bought sourdough from rye flour. It’s garnished with boiled white sausage and boiled egg halves.”
Eggs: “Whether served boiled, stuffed, fried or with mayo, there’s no getting away from them. The decorative devilled egg is a hard-boiled egg, halved and filled with a mixture of the yolks, mayonnaise, mustard, onion and horseradish cream.”
Śledź: Herring “is served gutted and filleted, in pieces that have been marinated in vinegar and oil, with or without vegetable. It’s typically smothered with chopped, raw onion.”
Chrzan: “produces pungent vapours and makes the eyes water, but white or red horseradish relish pairs well with the variety of cold cuts. The fiery relish draws out more of the meat flavour. The red type is called ćwikła and its colour is due to the addition of beetroot.”
Mazurek: “The flat shortbread can be made of different kinds of dough and toppings – for example, marmalade, chocolate glazing, dried fruit or nuts.”
Sernik: “a rich creamy baked cheesecake that differs from its American counterpart in cheese. You could try to replace the exclusively Polish cheese called twaróg with country, cottage, quark, curd or ricotta cheese, but it won’t do the trick. Twaróg is more dense, sweeter, and less wet than those cheeses and less smooth than ricotta…. The Eastern Orthodox Church has a twaróg-based equivalent – the truncated, pyramid-shaped paskha.”
Babka: “The tall, airy Easter babka is a no-knead yeast cake baked in a Bundt pan. It can be laced with rum syrup and drizzled with icing, but custom dictates that it has no filling.”
Makowiec: ” a poppy seed roll spun like a strudel. With poppy seeds as the main ingredient, it uses the same type of dough as the babka.”
Easter lamb: “Made entirely of sugar and shaped like a lamb, this is the traditional centrepiece of the Polish Easter table and Easter basket. It often has a miniature red flag with a cross.”
Far Outliers 