Hi, I am Chef Zara. In this post, I will guide you through Polish Cookbooks.
I love discovering new food and cooking with friends and family. One of the most common questions that I often get is for cookbook recommendations. I have created this guide for friends, family, and new friends alike. I hope that you enjoy our site.
Tradition and Intense Flavors
Poland has a rich history of court feasts and lavish monasteries resplendent with traditional dishes made from the land’s bounty: cheese, butter, berries, herbs, and game. Polish food is based on local ingredients such as pork, duck, mushrooms, cabbage, beetroot, and onion, combined and honed to perfection. Various kinds of noodles, grains, and cereals (rye, millet, wheat) also play an important role in Polish cookery. As for sweets, it is hard to imagine a more accommodating destination. For example, apple strudel, cream cakes, fruit-filled dumplings, and pancakes may make you skip the main course and jump straight to the main event.
If you are partial to good home cooking, you have come to the right place.
So, let’s go on a tour of these 10 Polish Cookbooks!
1. Polish Cookbook
Why We Love It ❤️
With over 200 recipes for any occasion, this “Polish cookbook” is a true revelation for those who want to discover Polish cuisine. Cooking instructions are easy, and photographs are colorful – the “Polish cookbook” is a visual delight. It briefly covers the history of authentic Polish food, health benefits, equipment and tools needed for cooking, tricks and tips for the best dishes, and even Vegan Polish foods. Ultimate comfort food.
The appetizers and condiments section of this Polish cookbook is worth mentioning as it contains traditional side dishes such as horseradish sauce, glazed butter-braised carrots, Polish garlic sauce, pickled cucumbers, different spreads and dips, herring in cream, and many more delicacies.
Review 📖
This comprehensive guide to Polish cookery is complete with several dishes and recipes featured here. The Polish Cookbook is divided into the following sections: Breakfast Recipes, Soup Recipes, Main Dishes and Appetizers, and Condiments.
Breakfast (Sniadanie) recipes make one wonder: do I feel sweet or savory this morning? From sweet Polish fluffy waffle, Polish apple pancake, Polish Babka bread (sweet, leavened bread), and Baked Polish Paczki (Polish doughnuts) to savory Potato and kielbasa egg scramble, Polish stuffed egg, sausage with vegetables – the breakfast choices are vast and beyond one’s imagination.
Most Polish meals start with one of Poland’s many soups. They range from clear broth to thick soup, so hearty it could be a meal. The best known is the beet soup called Borscht. The next chapter is dedicated to soups alone, and there are many to choose from: Polish beet soup, hearty potato and cheese soup, Polish dill pickle soup, Tripe soup, Mushroom soup, and Polish kraut soup (make sure you stock up on that Polish kielbasa and sauerkraut).
The main meal of the day is obiad served in the late afternoon. There are plenty of traditional Polish recipes that are featured here: Beer sausage, Goulash, Golabki (stuffed cabbage rolls), Polish smothered chicken, Polish pork roast with wine, different varieties of pierogi (filled with potatoes and cheese, Kielbasa and cabbage or sauerkraut and dried mushrooms), Kotler schabowy (thinly pounded pork loin cutlet coated in breadcrumbs), Beef roulade, Polish meatballs and famous Bigos (Polish Hunter’s stew). The Poles like their meat and vegetables cooked until they are very tender. A sweet dessert, usually cake, is served at the end, with a beverage.
About the Author ✍️
Carly Tillery is the author of the “Polish Cookbook.” She will take you on an exciting and delicious adventure to Poland from your kitchen.
2. Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans
Why We Love It ❤️
Whether you crave traditional Polish recipes like Kielbasa (meat sausage) or Kapusta Swieza na Kwasno (sweet and sour cabbage), Kapusta Czarwona (red cabbage), Sledzie marynowane (pickled herring), Czarina (duck soup with kluski, Polish style egg pasta), Pierogi (different varieties filled with cheese, cabbage and mushrooms, fresh berries, ripe plums, and sauerkraut), Paczki ( fried doughnuts with filling) and those Tortes (almond, chocolate, lemon, walnut) – every Polish dish is practically covered in this cookbook.
“Treasured Polish recipes for Americans” is not just a collection of recipes. Instead, the book takes readers on a tour of Polish culinary traditions, customs, and dishes. It also covers cooking techniques and ingredients, enabling readers to improvise and master Polish-style dishes. This is a timeless cookbook both charming and satisfying.
Review 📖
This lovely Polish cookbook has been a favorite for three generations. For those that appreciate traditional and authentic Polish cooking, it preserves the unique qualities of Polish recipes while being very accessible to cooks who want to explore Eastern European food from Czech to Poland. The author talks about eating time in Poland. “In the cities, the average working hours are from seven in the morning to three-thirty in the afternoon. Breakfast is served at six-thirty; lunch at eleven o’clock; dinner at three-thirty or four o’clock in the afternoon, and supper at seven-thirty o’clock in the evening”. “The Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans” has more than 500 recipes to choose from: Appetizers, the old favorite Bigos (often translated into English as Hunter’s stew, a Polish dish of chopped meat of various kinds stewed with sauerkraut and shredded fresh cabbage), Soups (hot and cold), Dairy dishes, Desserts, Fish, Poultry and Game, Pickles, Sauces, Meat, and Vegetables – the list of dishes presented here is quite extensive.
About the Authors ✍️
Marie Sokolowski and Irene Jasinski are the authors of this cookbook which is dedicated to their American friends who, in the enjoyment of Polish food, encouraged them to publish the recipes and to the countless number of American cooks of Polish ancestry who remember Mother and Grandmother’s foods with nostalgia. An absolute must-have book.
3. Polish Sausages, Authentic Recipes, and Instructions
Why We Love It ❤️
So what is kielbasa? The word kielbasa is Polish for sausage. Wide varieties of kielbasa have flavoring ingredients like marjoram, garlic, and juniper. Kielbasa can be baked, grilled, boiled, and cooked in other ways, and there are so many different recipes to explore. Kielbasa is a Polish sausage and an integral part of Poland’s cuisine and culture. In Poland, it refers to all sausages. And by the way, each region in Poland has its signature sausage! They are made from veal, pork, beef, and chicken. It all boils down to one fact: sausage is a staple of Polish cuisine.
This book is perfect for anyone who intends to make Polish sausages or any kind of sausage. Even Polish butchers that make sausages all over the world make this book a point of reference. It is very scientific and appeals to the general public interested in sausage making or those in the “sausage trade.”
Review 📖
This is a professional cookbook that is quite technical. The introduction covers the following topics: why did the Polish government regulate sausages, why did we make better sausages before, the glory years of Polish sausages, and the history of sausages. Chapter One focuses on the importance of the Christmas and Easter holidays, the history of sausages (the Middle Ages), the glory years of Polish sausages, the European certificates of origin, and the mystery of Polish sausages. Chapter Two discusses meat selection, curing, methods, and the difference between American and European curing techniques from the USA to Malta.
Food safety is covered in Chapter Three, followed by Polish sausage classifications and, finally, authentic Polish sausage recipes. The book also has separate chapters on smoked emulsified sausages, fermented sausages, fresh sausages, liver sausages, and blood sausages. It also covers practical sausage-making and old sausage recipes. This book represents over 500 years of sausage making and most Polish sausage recipes. These are time-proven recipes compiled, checked, and enforced by the Polish Government Standards as applied to making meat products after World War II. The book contains carefully compiled government recipes used by Polish meat plants between 1950-1990. These recipes were written by the best professionals in the meat industry in the country.
About the Authors ✍️
“Polish sausages, Authentic recipes and Instructions” is a collaboration between three authors: Stanley Marianski, Adam Marianski, and Miroslaw Gebarowski. Stanley was born in Poland and left the country at the age of twenty to start the never-ending voyages that took him to Argentina, Chile, South Africa, and all of Europe before settling in 1979 in the USA. This lifestyle helped him master six languages and also learn a variety of methods of food preparation. His son Adam runs the highly popular website dedicated to smoking eats and making sausages.
4. Fresh from Poland
Why We Love It ❤️
This beautifully illustrated cookbook is a one-of-a-kind vegetarian Polish cookbook with over 80 modern, comforting and creative recipes. The author celebrates recipes from his mother and grandmother, bringing the vegetables to us in all their glory. He talks about indulgent breakfasts of Apple fritters, brown butter scrambled eggs, and popular Blini with sour cream and pickled red onions.
This is a genuinely gorgeous cookbook full of recipes that will engage everyone, from beginning home cooks to experienced chefs. The author gives readers a beautiful and eye-opening introduction to the bounties of Polish vegetarian cuisine. Soulful and colorful food firmly rooted in tradition.
Review 📖
Let’s face it – Poles love their meat. However, Polish cooking is not only about meat. Despite its reputation as meat-heavy, traditional Polish cuisine is rich in vegetarian and vegan dishes. “Fresh from Poland, New Vegetarian Cooking from the Old Country” cookbook will leave us surprised by how many kinds of Polish vegetarian recipes are available throughout the country!
Hearty vegetarian mains include Potato fritters with rosemary and horseradish sauce, Barley risotto with asparagus, cider, and goat cheese, and stuffed tomatoes with millet, cinnamon, and almonds. Baked goods are breathtaking and feature a honey cake with prunes and sour cream, rye crumble with honey fruit, Sweet blueberry buns with streusel (crumb topping), and Sourdough rye bread. And, of course, those dainty pierogi of all sorts and kinds: savory ones filled with cheese and potatoes, lentils and tomatoes, buckwheat and mint, spinach with goat cheese and almonds, and sweet ones filled with blueberries and sour cream. We learn about Oscypek, smoked cheese made of salted sheep milk, Bryndza (creamy sheep milk cheese), and Twarog (also known as Polish-style Farmer’s Cheese, a key ingredient of many classic dishes). We also learn about various soulful soups like Ogorkowa (Polish Sour Pickle Soup) and Pomidorowa (Polish tomato soup, a lovely single-vegetable soup with a fantastic sweet and sour flavor).
About the Author ✍️
Michal Korkosz is the Author of “Fresh from Poland.” He won the 2017 Saveur Blog Award for best photography and is a food journalist and an avid food photographer born and raised in Poland.
5. Perfect Pierogi Recipes
Why We Love It ❤️
When it comes to fillings, you can opt for savory fillings such as Beef serrano pepper, Cheddar kielbasa, Chorizo chipotle, Potato cheese with mint, Potato, sauerkraut, and bacon, Spinach cheese, or try the sweet version, which uses blackberries, prunes, raspberries and strawberries as fillings.
Pierogi toppings include traditional buttered bread, caramelized onions, fried bacon, and sour cream. Contemporary toppings include yogurt, garlic, onion, and kielbasa, to name a few. Compound butter toppings have honey butter, horseradish butter, lemon butter, and even vanilla cinnamon butter.
This is a perfect book that will give you a head start on making perfect pierogi for your family and friends in your home. A pierogi Bible indeed!
Review 📖
Pierogi (plural of pierog) is one of the most prominent and recognizable Polish foods. These half-circular dumplings are usually made from unleavened dough and are stuffed with various tasty fillings. These fillings include cheese, cabbage, sauerkraut, mushrooms, spinach, ground beef, potatoes, legumes, and grains. The possibilities are endless when it comes to fillings – from sweet to spicy! Pierogi is Poland’s national dish and is enjoyed year-round by all ages. Pierogi have been made in Poland since the 13th of century.
Despite the numerous legends about the origins of pierogi, it is known that they were introduced in the United States at the onset of the Great Depression. Pierogi were originally a family food among immigrants and was served in ethnic restaurants. The first documented sale of pierogi was in May 1928. By the 1960s, pierogi had become a common supermarket item in many parts of the United States and Canada. But nothing beats traditional, homemade pierogi, of course.
The “Perfect Pierogi Recipes” cookbook is a fabulous find where readers learn about different varieties of this fluffy deliciousness.
The cookbook has a comprehensive introduction that covers a brief history of pierogi, moving to a more technical part on how to cut, stuff, and seals them, which is an art in itself. There are several ways to make pierogi: boil, sauté and bake. There is a chapter on how to freeze pierogi, which is very convenient when trying to whip up a tasty dinner in minutes. There are different dough recipes for pierogi (butter, cream cheese, yeast, sour cream, egg-free, and wheat), each worth trying. The book’s last section is dedicated to sauces: basil cheese sauce, sour cream chive sauce, lemon sauce, strawberry sauce, and more.
About the Author ✍️
Rose Wysocki comes from a Polish background. Her family immigrated to Massachusetts in the early 1900s, and she grew up in a family of 6 children, all steeped in Polish traditions and raised on traditional Polish cooking. Her recipes are a collection of Polish traditions her mother and grandmother passed on. Apart from family heritage, she has also perfected her art of making pierogi combining traditional and contemporary ways of cooking. Rose has also published another title called “Perfect Polish Dessert Recipes.”
6. Polska: New Polish Cooking
Why We Love It ❤️
“Polska: New Polish Cooking” is a beautifully written book with hints of nostalgia and passion for Polish food. The author places Polish food within the context of the country’s geography and history and tracks how it has developed and adapted to Poland’s ever-changing economic and political situation. The author talks about the history of Poland, Medieval Poland, and Communist Poland. It is a combination of traditional peasant food and more sophisticated and contemporary dishes.
This cookbook is a breath of fresh air as it uncovers Poland food through heart-warming recipes with its inspirational photographs and revolutionary cooking style. The instructions are clear, even for beginners. “Polska: New Polish Cooking” is a culinary journey through Poland’s folkloric roots and national dishes while adding a designer twist to Polish dishes.
This wonderful cookbook is elegantly put together and comes with stunning and illustrative photographs of lovely Polish dishes. It is divided into Breakfast and bread, Soups, Meat, Fish, Vegetables, Beans, Kasza (groats), Dumplings, Party food (Zakaski), Cakes and desserts, and Cocktails. Food for all seasons is romantically described: Winter is the time for bigos (Hunter’s stew), Spring is for baking fluffy Baba cakes just in time for Easter, Autumn is for making foraged pickles, and Summer is for eating cold beetroot soup in the welcome shade of fruit trees.
Review 📖
Here are some of the recipes that sound tantalizing: Poached halibut in buttery dill sauce, Crispy duck with apple and walnut sauce, which can be served with beetroot puree, Mamas peas and carrot cubes with bechamel sauce, Green springtime pierogi with spinach kasza and cheese, Breaded turkey escalope with cucumber and dill salad, Young spring cabbage with dill and bacon. Crispy baked pierogi stuffed with pork and pine nuts, Caramelized onion scrambled eggs, Poppyseed and almond makowiec (poppy seed roll), Boozy chocolate and walnut torte, Whimsical fruity Kisiel (fruit jelly) with meringue clouds, Spiced chocolate martini. The author takes a new vibrant, and contemporary take on Polish cooking.
About the Author ✍️
Zak is a young writer who grew up in Poland and spent her childhood cooking traditional recipes with her mother in the kitchen and foraging for seasonal produce with her grandmother in the Polish countryside. Zuza calls herself a Storyteller Cook and aims to inspire the world to cook more food from Eastern Europe. In her books, she explores food as a cultural anthropologist in the context of society, culture, and identity. Zuza’s new cookbook tells the story of what Polish cooking is about. Zuza lives in London but spends much time in her homeland.
7. Polish Classic Recipes
Why We Love It ❤️
Polish dishes are often described as filling, heavy and hearty. But Polish cuisine is quite complex, with various influences going back to the Middle Ages. This resulted in layered depths of flavor.
This cookbook is designed for the modern kitchen, but at the same time, it retains traditional roots. The recipes are easy, and the results are delicious. In addition, the book contains notes on Polish history, customs, and menu pairing suggestions. This book will make your Polish dining experience truly memorable.
Review 📖
“Polish Classic Recipes” is a concise cookbook that features dozens of old favorite Polish dishes highlighting preparation techniques, an abundance of flavors, and ingredient selections. Titles are given in Polish and English with colorful photographs of the finished dishes. The recipes in this Classic Recipe Series have been carefully selected to make Polish meals authentic and heart-warming. This charming cookbook is divided into the following sections:
Appetizers and Salads have recipes for Canapes, Yeast fingers, Crepes with sauerkraut and mushrooms, Red cabbage with apples, Cucumber salad, and Marinated beet salad. The soups and soup garnishes section has Classic beet soup, Mushroom pockets for barszcz, Polish sour soup, Christmas dried mushroom soup, Chilled fruit soup, Dill pickle soup, and Cool summer barszcz (beet soup which is perfect for hot scorching days). Entrees and side dishes feature Hunter’s stew, Cabbage rolls, Pork cutlets, Beets with horseradish, Flounder with asparagus, Beef rolls, and many more famous Polish dishes. Naturally, there is a separate section on pierogi, the famous dumpling that comforts Poland. Pierogi, a mainstay of the Polish diet since the 17th Century, remains both a nostalgic dish and a way for chefs to flex their creative muscles. However, this cookbook has the simplest types of pierogi, easy to prepare and unpretentious. The sweets and Pastries section covers favorite Polish desserts: Plum cake, Walnut torte, Poppyseed rolls, Chocolate mazurka, Baba with raisins, and other desserts.
About the Author ✍️
Laura and Peter Zeranski are a husband-and-wife team that has been cooking and eating classic Polish food together for almost forty years. They are also authors of the “Polish Classic Desserts” cookbook and reside in Alexandria, Virginia.
8. The Polish Country Kitchen Cookbook
Why We Love It ❤️
As we know, Polish food has admirers all over the world. Polish cuisine has evolved throughout the centuries and shares many influences from neighboring countries.
The recipes in this charming cookbook are beautifully presented in seasonal order – fall, winter, spring, and summer with detailed explanations about what each season meant to Polish household production and the celebration of different Polish festivals. Each recipe has a short note attached to it, a comment about how the author’s family created the recipe. A real treat of a book. The book includes:
More than 100 easy-to-follow recipes
New recipes for feast and festival fare
Introduction to the historical Polish country kitchen
A detailed bibliography and resource guide
Charming illustrations by Elliott Hutten
Review 📖
“The Polish Country Kitchen Cookbook” will take you on a tour of authentic Polish recipes, memories, customs, and traditions. It will give you an insight into the homes and kitchens of Polish people through the ages. There is a wealth of information about the kitchen, the pantry, and the equipment that would have been employed in storing, preserving, making, and serving food. There are many line drawings and black and white photographs illustrate the text very well. This book is perfect for home cooks, food history lovers, folks with Polish heritage, and just for the general public curious about the secrets of Polish cuisine. These delicious Polish recipes have also been adapted for the modern North American and North European kitchen, including Scandinavia, to make your ingredient shopping easier.
About the Author ✍️
Sophie Hodorowicz Knab is a noted lecturer, an engaging writer, and author whose books include “Polish Customs, Traditions and Folklore”; “Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine,” “Polish Wedding Customs and Traditions,” and other titles all published by Hippocrene Books. She is a contributor to the American Polish Journal and resides in Grand Canal, New York.
9. Polish Desserts!
Why We Love It ❤️
Who could resist Polish desserts? Who hasn’t heard of Makowiec (poppy seed roll), Paczki (a Polish doughnut covered with glaze, icing, or sugar), Blueberry Mazurek (a sweet flat cake filled with blueberries that just melt in your mouth), or Sernik (traditional Polish cheesecake)? Well, If you haven’t, this book is definitely for you!
Review 📖
In “Polish desserts! Polish Cookie, Pastry, and Cake Recipes”, the author provides detailed instructions on traditional Polish favorites such as Kolaczki, “Angel Wings” cookies, lemon cookies, honey Babka cake, Wedding cake, Polish nut tarts, Mazurek, Piernik (with its captivating scent of ginger) and other delectable dessert recipes.
This is a slender book with well-chosen and tested recipes. Some of them have been handed down through the generations, a wonderful celebration of sweets and treats!
About the Author ✍️
Kathy Gary is the best-selling Author of several cookbooks: “Passionate about Pierogies,” “Brunching on Bialys, Blini and Blintzes,” “Going Donuts for Paczki,” “Easy and Delicious Fudge” and “Kathy Gary’s Polish Recipes.” She has been cooking since she was a child; her grandmother was her first cooking instructor. She enjoys creating ethnic dishes and sharing her expertise with those curious and enthusiastic about exploring Polish cuisine.
10. Rose Petal Jam
Why We Love It ❤️
This is not just a cookbook. It is a memoir, a travelogue, a story of the author’s childhood in rural Poland with stories from her youth and her grandmother’s recipes with stunning photographs of Poland in summer. Over 60 traditional, family Polish recipes are spread across 320 quality thick matt pages. Hundreds of pictures are included, from childhood and family memories to gorgeous scenery and buildings. The names of the dishes are provided in English and Polish. Most of the recipes have a headnote with a description of the dish and some background.
This is a must-have book for those who sincerely appreciate beautiful books, and not only from an aesthetic point of view. This book is rich with gastronomic and photographic content, which is professionally and thoughtfully compiled and delivered with finesse.
Review 📖
“Rose Petal Jam: Recipes and Stories from a Summer in Poland” title just calls for a famous poem by Rumi about the beauty of roses: “Touch your cheek to the cheek of sugar. Get the taste of it. Give perfume to it. Once you become the conserve of roses, You are food for the Soul, Light for the eyes…”. Even the colorful cover of this unique cookbook makes one think of fragrant and pink old-fashioned double roses to make the tastiest rose petal jam. The pleasure of picking roses in the late morning, after the dew has dried, and before the sun has reached its height. The recipe for Petal Jam is included in the book and recommended as a filling for Paczki – Polish Doughnuts.
Chapters are divided based on the author’s time in Poland: Rose Petal Jam (A Polish Childhood), Return of the Stork (Prussian Palaces and the Karkonocze Mountains), and Summer in Poland (Wroclaw, Poznan, Wielkopolska, Baltic Sea, Gdansk, Torun, Warszawa, The Heart of Poland, Zamosc, Castles on the Border, Tatra Mountains, Krakow, A New Polis Home), all accompanied by superb photography.
Those that already love Polish cooking will enjoy variations of pierogi and other favorites such as Golabki (Cabbage Rolls), Gulasz Wolowy (Polish Beef Goulash), which pairs perfectly well with Kluski slaskie (Silesian Dumplings), Surowka z Marchewki z Rodzynkami (Carrot and Sultana Salad) and Kisiel (Strawberry Fruit Pudding). There is a wonderful assortment of soups, salads, vegetables, meats, beverages, vegetables, side dishes, and desserts. Most of the ingredients are available to the average cook.
About the Authors ✍️
“Rose Petal Jam: Recipes and Stories from a Summer in Poland” is an excellent project by talented wife and husband authors Beata Zatorska and Simon Target. Beata learned to cook from her grandmother, a professional chef. Simon is a photographer and filmmaker with several award-winning television documentaries and cooking shows. He accompanied Zatorska and photographed the book’s scenery, dishes, and produce. The book is the winner of the Best in the World Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2012 and has also released a second cookbook: “Sugared Orange: Recipes and Stories from a Winter in Poland.”
Final Thoughts
The Roman Catholic rituals of feasting and fasting were introduced to Poland around A.D.900, strongly influencing Polish food traditions. No meat is eaten during the fasts, so many meatless and fish dishes have become a part of Polish cooking.
Poland is in central Europe and has several neighbors: Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Germany. Poland is the ninth largest country in all of Europe. Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to become very eclectic due to Poland’s history, and it shares many similarities with other regional cuisines.
