Bigos Blog

Much of the food I ate in Eastern Europe on my ‘Journey‘ was an endless parade of red meat, bread, and sauerkraut.  As you can imagine, this eventually grew old so when I discovered a Vietnamese restaurant down the street from our apartment in Prague (Vietnamese people were invited to Czechoslovakia as a worker exchange between the two Communist nations and Vietnamese today are the third-largest ethnic minority in the Czech Republic FYI), I went there three times in a week.  Needless to say that by the time we departed Warsaw in late June, I was more than ready to expand my culinary repertoire.  However, there was one Eastern European dish in particular that I never got sick of.  BIGOS.

Bigos, AKA, Polish ‘hunter’s stew’ is made from chopped meat and sauerkraut.  Originally, bigos was made entirely of meat and exotic spices, and therefore only available to the wealthy.  As time progressed, a ‘poor man’s’ version developed, with cheap sauerkraut taking the place of much of the meat.  This eventually surpassed other types of bigos in popularity, and now is officially a national dish of Poland.

Bigos is very open-ended, and the chef can decide what kind of meats to add, leaving room for creative artistry.  So after consulting a few recipes, I have a good idea of what I wanted to make.  Because it will be Jo’s birthday dinner (happy birthday!), I pull out all the stops.

There’s a lot happening in this photo, so allow me to explain what’s going on here:

Meats: bacon, kielbasa, pork shoulder, and wagyu stew meat.

Seasonings: garlic, caraway seeds, bay leaf, paprika, cayenne, oregano, Tabasco, and Worcestershire sauce.

Vegetables: sauerkraut, carrots, mushrooms, onion, and tomatoes.

Liquids: juice from sauerkraut, red wine, and beef stock.

With ingredients like this, it’s pretty hard to screw it up.  I kick this whole thing off by dicing up the meat.

So the bacon was easy, but I don’t have a lot of experience breaking down larger cuts of meat.

Meanwhile, Jo dices up some veggies.  We end up creating a mirepoix even though our recipe didn’t call for it.

It takes a while to transform nearly 2 pounds of pork shoulder into bite-sized pieces, but look how beautifully I arrange it with the wagyu stew meat.  Vegetarians, avert your eyes.

Next, it’s time to dust it with flour so we can fry it in the fat rendered out of the bacon and kielbasa.  That sounds gross – so here’s a more appetizing explanation: we’re gonna fry two types of meat in two different types of grease.

A quick smattering of salt & pepper

I flour-dust both sides, remove the bacon and kielbasa from the pot using a slotted spoon, and plop these bad boys into the hot grease.

Throughout the entire process, Jo comments about how when she made bigos, her recipe was simpler and came out delicious.  She also may have been neglecting her duties as blog photographer (when I can’t hold a camera).  Needless to say, this results in a lot of meaningless yelling on my part.

It was like cooking with the Costanzas

After some quality ‘George is getting upset‘-esque shouting, it’s time to remove the meat in order to cook the veg in the ever-growing quantities of grease.

The veg browns for like 10 minutes, and then I pour in the liquid.  Wine, beef stock, and tomatoes are generously added to the bubbling pot.  Wait, are tomatoes liquid?  After some research, I find that tomatoes are about 94% water.  I rest my case.

Back in goes the meat, and finally, our bigos assembly is complete.  Alas, this is not a dish to be eaten immediately.  The Le Cruset goes into the oven for a few hours, and then I lug the heavy bastard into the garage fridge.  It sits there for a few days – fermenting in true Polish fashion.

We revive it on Sunday in time for the birthday celebration.  It’s completely transformed.

Before and after

The liquid from the beef stock and the tomatoes is absorbed by the rest of the ingredients, so it resembles a brisket.  The flavor profile is complex and tastes almost like a Texas-style barbecue.   

Not gonna lie though, it was a little on the salty side.  If I had to guess, I would say that the salting of the wagyu stew meat and the pork shoulder before they were floured and fried was excessive on my part.  Also, many bigos recipes call for dried fruit like prunes or dates, or even fresh apples…perhaps the addition of one of those would have counterbalanced the saltiness and added even more depth.  However, the tang and zinginess of the sauerkraut take this savory stew to the next level.  Two hairy, Polish thumbs up!