Bigos

Inspired by the bout of winter weather and the recently bumped Podhalanka thread, I decided to give bigos another go. I've made this dish a couple times and it has always been somewhat of a freehanded affair. From my limited web research, the variations are all over the place with only a mix of meats (sausage, shoulder, hams, bacon, veal or game) and kraut/cabbage as the common denominators. I've seen madeira, red wine, white wine, beer, stock, etc for liquids, dried/fresh mushrooms, apples, prunes ... you get the idea.

Anyways, here's how I made it this go around but there is no canonical version, so I'd love to hear how LTHers put their own spin on bigos.

1/2 lb of pork shoulder, 1/2 of a gypsy ham, a leftover chunk of smoked rib belly, 1 alpine sausage, and some bacon.



1 lb of kraut, half a head of cabbage, 1 large onion, 1 ounce of dried porcini (soaked juices strained and reserved), mix of left over fresh mushrooms, pitted prunes, a couple apples, and a bouquet garni with allspice berries, caraway seeds, whole black peppercorns and bay leaves.



Not picture 1 cup dry red wine and a squeeze of tomato paste.

Coarsely chop bacon, brown, remove and reserve fat. I didn't bother draining any because I was going to cook a few more rounds of veg in the fat and figured I would need it all, which I did.

Coarsely chop mushrooms, brown, remove, and reserve. I like mine cut really thick and seared until they develop good color.

Add onions and cook until they just start to get color, add fresh cabbage, cook until soft, deglaze with red wine, and then add the remainder of the ingredients (minus the apples), diced meats, and water to barely cover. I let this simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes , added the pealed/cored/sliced apples and cooked for another 30 minutes.





Garnished with chives and served with rye bread, butter and mustard.



I have not used prunes or apples in the past but they worked really well, especially since I used a particularly smokey/salty combination of meats. This is a heavy dish and not the most photogenic but it was fantastic and a lot more nuanced than I had expected. One other note, I did not have to add any salt given the natural saltiness of the ingredients, so be careful, especially if using a salty stock or something.

AlekH wrote: I've made this dish a couple times and it has always been somewhat of a freehanded affair.

Then you've been doing it right. It's always been a clean-out-the-freezer type of dish with my parents. Everything from leftover frozen ham to hot dogs to pork shoulder, bacon, smoked pork ribs, to whatever meats are in the fridge would go into it. Your version looks great, if not a lot less cabbage/sauerkraut heavy than what I'm used to. There really isn't a wrong way to do this.

We love this dish in the winter. We've done it with both cabbage and kraut and prefer it with drained kraut for more sour punch. The recipe I've settled on, from some online source I'm sure, is:

1. Bag of kraut, drained, liquid reserved to add back in if not sour enough (we rarely add it back in)
2. 1 8 oz container sliced shrooms
3. 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
4. 1 onion diced
5. Meats
6. Bay leaf, salt, pepper

Then we just toss it all in a slow cooker and let it go for the day. Great meal to make the night before and let the flavors meld in the crockpot in the fridge and then just pop it in the cooker in the morning. We've also made it sans meat, which, whiled decidedly un-polish, is still pretty tasty. I also like it over brown rice which morphs it into a sort of deconstructed cabbage roll. Very fancy. Ha.

Beautiful stuff, Alex. It looks fantastic.

=R=