Customer Reviews

Polish Heritage Cookery: A Hippocrene Original Cookbook

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love this cookbook, the recipes are excellent, and easy to follow. I've successfully prepared many dishes I'd never heard of before I married my husband who is Polish.

I'd reccommend this book to anyone who wants to prepare authentic polish recipes.

This is the bible on good Polish home cooking.

You'll find at least one recipe for most dishes you can think of. They are clear, easy to follow, and the results taste just like my grandmother's cooking (she wonders how I do it without asking her for help).

There is an excellent section on ingredients and good directions for things like making your own bialy ser/twarog so that you can produce good Polish cooking regardless of how well or poorly stocked your local delicatessen is.

I occassionally feel that Pan Strybel is a little bossy, but the results justify it - my chicken soup has never been better.

Younger cooks may choose to ignore some of the garnishing suggestions as they are somewhat dated.

The index is really good, making it easy to find what you're looking for (in Polish or in English).

And when you're feeling a little tired and missing Poland, just curl up and read.

Just reading the pierogi dough & stuffing recipes sent me right back to Babcha's kitchen! Now I remember her secrets & will always have them at hand. This is the "bible" for all Polish kitchens & those who appreciate Polish food. I bought my mother a wonderful Polish cook book many years ago, but waite 'til she sees this one!

I had no exposure to Polish cooking until I got a Polish boyfriend. I ended up with this book and I am now a big fan of Polish food. Who knew there was more than Perogies at the local fair? This book literally has EVERY recipe even a Pole could want and I have been reliably informed that the recipes are very authentic. I know I have enjoyed making many of them and have also been very surprised at how scrumptious the results have been. You could buy this book just for the dessert recipes alone but I love the soups and special hearty foods like bigos. I do wish this book had more photos but if it did, it would impossible to lift. I have found the recipes easy to follow although a bit inconvenient in that the ingredients are listed within the directions. Then again, maybe that is good because it makes me read the entire recipe before I gather the ingredients. Some of these recipes take some time to prepare so you need to read before you make up your menu. I have other Polish cookbooks but I think this is the only one a person needs. A good investment.

Having been raised a third-generation Polish-American in Western Massachusetts (where else!), I can honestly say that this book captures the divine essence of what great Polish cooking should be. Almost everyone has tasted, or at least has heard of kielbasa, that typical sausage flavored with a lot of garlic, golabki, or stuffed cabbage, and pierogi. It is custom for most of these dishes to be served with a hearty slice or two of rye or pumpernickel and boiled potatoes, as well as a shot of good vodka. These dishes are just a tiny fraction of what should be thought of as traditional Polish fare.
When I first came across this book years ago, I was so impressed to find such an extensive recipe collection printed in the English language. To this day, Polish cuisine is highly underrated to quite the extent that both fine French and Italian cuisine were at one point. It was once perceived, almost intentionally, that French and Italian chefs here in the States always cooked the same things both at home as well as in the restaurants. It is through these influences that we culminated so many of the classic dishes we all know and love today. Now there is a huge array of recipes and cookbooks out there for those who wish to explore the specific regions that make these dishes we all have come to relish. The same can be said about Polish cuisine, which is typically represented by the few dishes that has made it popular. Even today, few cookbooks talking about Polish food can be held in such high regard as this one. Those unaccustomed to this vast art form can find recipes ranging from the typical to the atypical. There are plenty of recipes for golabki, pierogi and paczki, those jam-filled doughnuts associated with Lent. Again, though, this makes up such a small amount of a cuisine that is sure to attract many devotees. There are chapters devoted to all sorts of hors d'oeuvres and soups, both hot and cold. Soup truly is the staff of life to any Pole. Cabbage, potato and mushroom lovers will rejoice at the numerous recipes (many with their own section) found all throughout this book, but it doesn't end there, my friends. The meat and game dishes are so delicious and varied, you'll wonder why you never sampled them before. Then come chapters devoted to pickling (true Polish style brine-pickled cucumbers, forget all those insipid store-bought varieties you're used to), homemade dairy products, cheese and sour cream, the essential Polish product along with twarog, or farmer's cheese. Learn how to make your own kielbasa in the chapter dealing with sausage-making, curing and smoking, endless breads and pastries, and finally a chapter devoted to the incomparable list of Polish beverages, ranging from the national favorite tea, which includes as many as eight or nine different brewing techniques. The same is included for true Polish coffee, and a long list of flavorings and liqueurs.
Do yourselves a favor and buy this book.. it will always remain a huge favorite among your entire family!!

At first glance the book was disappointing and daunting primarily because the recipes are in paragraph format without a list of ingredients; however, after sitting down with the book I found it to be authentic and very easy to use. The selections are immense and covered the gamut of Polish cuisine. I would recommend this book highly.

I found this book to be extremely informative and historical. I doubt if any Polish recipe has been excluded. I like the style in which the recipies are written - not a list of ingredients, but in a narrative. There are a few pictures, but due to the volume of recipies, illustrating them all would be impossible. It is a thick book full of Polish culture and cuisine. I highly recommend it.

It's the best! Whatever my sister or I have tried from this cookbook tastes *just* like Babci used to make!!! I'd recommend this one to any cook who wants to eat like he or she used to at their grandmother's house!

If you ever wanted to know where Babcia learned to cook - this is it! Every conceivable Polish recipe can be found on these pages, provided with loving detail and insider tips. Mr Strybel makes it his business to ensure you get the "feel" of Polish cooking, not just the bare bones..He provides a very useful intro describing what makes Polish cooking unique, what kept it relatively unknown and unappreciated, what gives it its national flavour and even why Poles use the ingredients they do - fascinating insights, not just for Poles.
There are just enough photos and step-by-step illustrations to make things easy and inspiring, and whole sections are devoted to making your own produce, such as dairy products and meat products not readily available outside Europe. This is an immense help to Westerners who don't even seem to have access to natural, raw milk these days - Mr Strybel has some interesting things to say about health benefits and modern nutrition here! Though probably not his intent, Mr Strybel makes some of the most compelling arguments for a return to "slow" food I have ever read.
Although ingredients aren't listed at the beginning of recipes (to save space) it really isn't that much of a big deal - after all, when you're cooking you probably have to read through the recipe a few times anyway to get the feel for the job, thus familiarising yourself with what's required. Instead, Mr Strybel has provided an excellent index, in both Polish and English, making recipes easy to find, even by ingredient, which I think is far more useful than listed ingredients.
What I loved most about this book, however, is Mr Strybel's courage to present Polish cooking unashamedly as it is - a relatively unknown (he explains why this is so) culinary tradition, which once sampled cannot be forgotten - the kind of home-cooking that will always be chosen and enjoyed far more than any haute cuisine can be because it feeds the soul as well as the body. It's simple and stodgy cuisine, right? Wrong! This prejudice Mr Strybel blows completely out of the water by reminding us that peasant fare mixed with royal culinary tradition gives you dishes such as slow-roasted duck with wild mushrooms and juniper berries - it ain't all cabbage, folks..not that there's anything wrong with cabbage if you know how to cook it.
For the health conscious, on the face of it, Polish cooking is high fat, high everything cooking, but as Mr Strybel points out - well, you'll just have to read what he has to say about all that!
It's been said before but I'll say it again - this is the definitive Babcia's bible! Whether you're Polish or not, you'll be amazed at the breadth and depth of this book - I know I was and I've been cooking Polish food all my life. Thank you Mr Strybel :)

Anybody interested in an encyclopedic compendium of Polish recipes will not regret buying this book. This hefty tome, at over 800 pages, is as thorough a resource to the Polish kitchen as Irma Bombeck's Joy of Kitchen is to an American one. The format of the recipes may be a little daunting if you're used to a chart of ingredients preceding the cooking instructions, but the sheer volume of recipes in this book lend themselves best to this format. Sometimes, instructions can be a little non-obvious. For example, recipes will call for items like "beet sour" or "Polish pork seasoning," which, if you're just leafing through the book, you might not realize that there are recipes contained in the cookbook for those ingredients. In other words, where a cookbook may typically write "1/2 cup beet sour (see recipe on page XYZ)," the parenthetical reference is omitted, and you have to check the index. It's a minor point, but I can see it being confusing if you don't immediately realize it.

The book contains recipes for almost everything Polish food related under the sun. I was especially impressed to find recipes for homemade sausages (both fresh and cold smoked) and cured meats (like bacon), even though many kitchens may not be equipped for sausage making or cold smoking. If you have access to these things, those recipes are there for you. The spice & herbs section is a complete and informative rundown of the role of seasonings in Polish cookery. There is an entire chapter devoted to mushroom dishes (an important ingredient in our cuisine.) Five different recipes for pierogi doughs, and an entire section on Polish dumplings of all types, from pierogi to pyzy to kopytka. There's a chapter on home preserves, as well as recipes for various flavored cordials, vodkas and brandies (nalewki) that are sure to be part of any Polish bar.

In short, the breadth and depth of the research and recipes are amazing. This is the best English-language resource I've seen for the Polish cuisine.