National Dish Poland: Bigos (Recipe)
In this article
Bigos is sauerkraut, fresh cabbage and several kinds of meat cooked down over days. It is reheated repeatedly, and each reheating is held to improve it. Polish households make it in enormous pots at Christmas and eat it into January.
About Bigos
Bigos, the hunter’s stew, has no fixed recipe. Sauerkraut and fresh cabbage in roughly equal parts, whatever meat is available, dried mushrooms, prunes and a splash of red wine. It cooks for hours and then gets better.
Adam Mickiewicz described it at length in Pan Tadeusz, which tells you something about its standing in Poland.
Ingredients (serves 1–2)
- 200 g sauerkraut
- 200 g browned meat, e.g. pork, beef or lamb
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Shopping for the ingredients
Use proper fermented sauerkraut from a jar or a deli, not the pasteurised vinegar kind. Dried Polish mushrooms, borowiki, are what give bigos its depth and are worth ordering. Several meats is better than one: smoked sausage, pork belly and a little game.
Preparing the dish
Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for half an hour and keep the liquid. Rinse the sauerkraut if it is very sour, but not all of it. Brown each meat separately rather than together, which takes longer and is worth it.
Step-by-step instructions
- Soak a handful of dried mushrooms in hot water; keep the liquid.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan and sauté the onion until translucent.
- Add the meat and brown it well on all sides.
- Stir in the sauerkraut and fry, stirring, for about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomato purée, sugar, vinegar, the mushrooms and their soaking liquid, and mix well.
- Season with salt and pepper and simmer, covered, for at least 1½ hours.
- Cool completely, then reheat the next day and simmer another hour.
- Repeat once more if you can; bigos is best on the third day.
Gluten-free / lactose-free version
Bigos contains no dairy. Sausages often contain wheat as a binder, so check them; everything else is naturally gluten-free.
Tips for vegans and vegetarians
A mushroom bigos with dried and fresh mushrooms, prunes and plenty of smoked paprika works genuinely well, since the sauerkraut and mushrooms carry most of the flavour. Polish Christmas Eve is meat-free by tradition and a version like this is made for it.
More tips and tricks
Make it days in advance. This is not a suggestion: bigos is designed to be reheated and the flavour changes markedly between day one and day three. Use several meats. And do not add too much liquid; the cabbage releases plenty.
Adapting the recipe to your taste
Prunes add sweetness and depth and are traditional. A glass of red wine or a splash of vodka in the pot. Juniper berries and caraway both belong.
Ingredient substitutions
Any smoked sausage, and kiełbasa if you can get it. Fresh cabbage alongside the sauerkraut softens the acidity. Beef, pork, venison and boar all work.
Drink pairing ideas
Chilled vodka, in small glasses, which is the Polish pairing for anything this substantial. A dark beer works. Kompot afterwards.
Serving and presentation ideas
Serve it in deep bowls with dark rye bread and butter, or with boiled potatoes. It is not garnished and it is not pretty. Reheat leftovers for several days running.
A bit of history
Bigos goes back at least to the fifteenth century in some form, and its association with hunting is old: it was what you cooked with whatever came back from the forest. It anchors Polish cuisine alongside pierogi and appears at every Christmas.
More recipe ideas
Summary: Bigos
Bigos is sauerkraut and several meats cooked down over days with dried mushrooms and prunes. Use real fermented kraut, several meats, and reheat it twice before you serve it.
