Czech cuisine
Czech cuisine (Czech: Česká kuchyně) has both influenced and been influenced by the cuisine of surrounding countries. Many of the cakes and pastries that are popular in Central Europe originated within Czech lands. Contemporary Czech cuisine is more meat based than in previous periods; the current abundance of farmable meat has enriched its presence in regional cuisine. Traditionally, meat had been reserved for once-weekly consumption, typically on the weekend. The body of Czech meals typically consists of two or more courses: the first course is traditionally soup, the second course is the main dish, and supplementary courses such as dessert or compote (kompot) may follow.
Side dishes
Dumplings (knedlíky) (steamed and sliced bread-like) are one of the mainstays of Czech cuisine and are typically served with meals. They can be either wheat or potato based, and are sometimes made from a combination of wheat flour and dices made of stale bread or rolls (puffed rice can be found in store-prepared mixtures). In contrast to Austrian cuisine, Czech dumplings are made into larger rolls and sliced into smaller servings prior to consumption. Smaller Czech dumplings are usually potato-based. When served as leftovers, sliced dumplings are sometimes pan-fried with eggs.
Czech potato dumplings are often filled with smoked meat and served with spinach or sour cabbage. Fried onion and braised cabbage can be included as a side dish.
There are many other side dishes including Noodles (nudle).
Rice (rýže), served simply boiled as side-dish or made as Risotto (rizoto), or sometimes as rice pudding (rýžový nákyp).
Potatoes (brambory) are easy and fast to grow in the Czech climate. They are served boiled with salt (often with caraway seed) and butter, pork fat or oil. Peeled and boiled potatoes are mixed into mashed potatoes (bramborová kaše). New potatoes are sometimes boiled in their skins, not peeled, from harvest time to new year. Due to the influence of foreign countries, potatoes are also fried, so French fries and croquettes are common in restaurants.
Buckwheat (pohanka), pearl barley (kroupy) and millet grains (jáhly) are not very often served in restaurants. These are more commonly a home-cooked, healthier alternative.
Pasta (těstoviny) is common, either baked, cooked with other ingredients or served as a salad. Pasta is available in different shapes and flavours. This is an influence of Italian and Asian cuisine. Rice and buckwheat noodles are not common but are becoming more popular. Gluten-free pasta is also available, made from corn flour/starch and/or potatoes/potato starch and rice flour.
Pastry
Bread (chléb or chleba) is traditionally sourdough baked from rye and wheat, flavoured with salt, caraway seed (kmin), onion, garlic, seeds, or pork crackling. It is eaten as an accompaniment to many soups and dishes. It is also the material for Czech croutons and for topinky which are slices of bread fried in a pan on both sides and rubbed with garlic.
Rolls (rohlík), buns (žemle), and braided buns (houska) are the most common forms of bread eaten for breakfast and they are often topped with poppy and salt or seeds. A bun or a roll baked from bread dough is called a dalamánek.
A loupák (sweet roll) is a crescent-shaped roll made from sweeter dough containing milk. It is smeared with egg and sprinkled with poppyseed before baking, giving it a golden-brown colour.
Soups
Soup (polévka, colloquially polívka) plays an important role in Czech cuisine.
Common soups you can find in Czech restaurants are beef, chicken or vegetable broth with noodles (optionally with liver or nutmeg dumplings)
garlic soup (česnečka) with croutons (optionally with minced sausage, raw egg, cheese) and
cabbage soup (zelňačka) Made from lacto-fermented cabbage sometimes with minced sausage. Kyselica is a Wallachian variety and contains sour cream, bacon, potatoes, eggs and sausage resulting in a very rich, filling meal.
Other soups, even more commonly cooked at home, are pea (hrachovka), bean (fazolová) or lentil soup (čočková polévka),
goulash soup (gulášovka),
dršťková, made from beef or pork tripe (dršťky), cut into small pieces and cooked as a soup with other ingredients; the meat can be substituted with oyster mushrooms,
potato soup (bramboračka), made of onion, vegetables (carrot, root parsley and celeriac with potatoes and spiced with caraway seed, garlic and marjoram,
fish soup (rybí polévka) (carp soup is traditional Christmas meal),
champignon or other mushroom soup (houbová polévka),
tomato soup (rajská polévka),
vegetable soup (zeleninová polévka),
onion soup (cibulačka),
bread soup (chlebová polévka),
kulajda - is a traditional South Bohemian soup containing water, cream, spices, mushrooms, egg, dill and potatoes. It is typical in its thickness, white color and characteristic taste. The main ingredient is mushrooms which gives it its scent.
Kyselo is a regional specialty soup made from rye sourdough, mushrooms, caraway and fried onion.
Meat dishes
Traditional Czech dishes are made from animals, birds or fish bred in the surrounding areas.
Pork is the most common meat, making up over half of all meat consumption.[1] Beef, calf and chicken are also popular. Pigs are often a source of meals in the countryside, since pork has a relatively short production time, compared to beef.
Jitrnice is meat and pork offal cut into tiny pieces, filled in casing and closed with sticks. Meat from neck, sides, insides (lungs, spleen, liver), white pastry, broth and spices: salt, black pepper, grounded all-spice, marjoram and ginger, garlic and sometimes onions. Klobása, known as Kielbasa in the United States, is a smoked meat sausage-like product from minced meat. It is spicy and durable. Jelito is pork meat sausage-like product containing pork blood and pearl barley barley or pastry pieces. Tlačenka is a meat product (it can be also chicken). It consists of little pieces of meat in jelly/aspic from connective tissue boiled to mush, served with onion, vinegar and bread. Ovar is a simple meal from rather fatty pork meat (head or knuckle). These pieces of lower quality meat are boiled in salted water. Škvarky (pork cracklings), and slanina (bacon) are also eaten.
In restaurants you can find:
Guláš is a stew usually made from beef, onions and spices, however it also can be made from pork and sometimes game, e.g. venison, boar. There are several vegetarian varieties with cabbage or potatoes. It is usually accompanied with knedle or sometimes bread. It is also traditionally served at home, as a pot of guláš will last for several days. It is well known that gulaš which is a few days old is better, as it has time to marinate and absorb all the flavours. Czech guláš is not to be confused with Hungarian "gulyás" which is a soup more similar to Czech gulášovka (a soup). Pörkölt is the Hungarian equivalent of Czech guláš.
Roast pork with dumplings and cabbage (pečené vepřové s knedlíky a se zelím, colloquially vepřo-knedlo-zelo) is often considered the most typical Czech dish.[2] Cabbage, either green or red, is either cooked or served pickled. There are different varieties, from sour to sweet.
Marinated sirloin (svíčková na smetaně or simply svíčková; svíčková is the name for both the sauce and the meat (pork side or beef side) used for this dish; na smetaně means in cream, and it means that the svíčková sauce is with cream). Braised beef, usually larded, with a svíčková sauce, a thick sauce of carrot, parsley root, celeriac, and sometimes with cream (it is traditionally without cream, as common people could not afford cream in the past). This dish is often served with knedlíky, chantilly cream - sweet whipped cream, a teaspoon of cranberry compote (kompot), and a slice of lemon.
Sekaná pečeně (baked mincemeat), later only sekaná (mincemeat) is a dish made from minced pork meat (also beef is possible). Šunka (ham) is made from pork or beef, braised, dried or smoked.
Řízek (plural řízky) is a typical Czech meat meal. The word means "sliced/cut (out) piece". These are 1x10x15cm slices of calf, pork or chicken meat covered with Czech traditional trojobal (Triplecoat), made from putting and pressing a bit pounded and sliced into smooth flour (on both sides), than taking with fork into whisked egg (and turned to cover from the other side) and then put into another bowl with breadcrumbs (grated from Czech rolls and braided buns), pressed, turned and pressed again. Then it is fried on both sides. (It can be frozen before or after frying, meat is not salted before triplecoat, as it tends to make it fall off.) Řízek is served with potato side-dishes mainly, dumplings are also possible. The Czech triplecoat is used at Christmas to cover carp meat pieces or trout decorated with lemon slices.
Karbanátek (plural karbanátky) - burger; in meat version, it is usually made from pork/beef but can be made from minced fish or other meat, often mixed with egg and it is more often crumbed with Czech triplecoat, a method of crumbing. It can be vegetable-based with pastry pieces or flour (it can be triplecoated) and in both versions fried on both sides or baked. When carp meat is used, it has to be ground twice in order to make sure that no bones remain.
Smoked meat (uzené means smoked) with potato dumplings, fried onion and cooked spinach.
Beef with tomato sauce is the meat with rajská omáčka (tomato sauce) or rajská for short, and dumplings. Dill sauce, shortly koprovka is often on menus too.
Rabbit (králík) is quite a common animal bred in the countryside and hare (zajíc) with wild game are also served. Mutton, lamb, kid, boar, horse or deer are not so common.
Among other meat dishes containing bird meat you can find:
- Goose (husa), duck (kachna), turkey (krůta) and hen (slepice) were often bred thus eaten.
- Pheasant (bažant), partridge (koroptev), guinea (perlička), pigeon (holub) or other birds are not that common.
Roasted duck (pečená kachna) with bread or potato dumplings and braised red cabbage.
Chicken in paprika sauce (kuře na paprice) is chicken stewed with onion, paprika and other ingredients. Cream is added to the sauce.
Roast turkey with bacon (krocan pečený na slanině) - Turkey larded with, or wrapped in bacon, roasted with bacon and butter.
Křupánky (crackers) is a now little-known countryside meal. It is pan-fried chicken or other skin. Served with bread and salad (often added at the end so that it gets warm and slightly glassy, yet stayed green). It was also called mišmaš, influenced by Bulgarian meal mish mash. Another version of mišmaš was fried jelito content with roll added while fried and again salad added on the end.
Fish were mostly from rivers or ponds like trout (pstruh) and carp (kapr), which is served a lot at Christmas. Otherwise many fish are imported, including sardines, fillet, salmon, tuna, and anchovy. Other types of fish are slowly becoming popular too.
Crayfish (rak) used to be very common in rivers but not any more. Nowadays they are protected. Prawn or lobsters are imported instead.
Other dishes
Mushrooms are often used in Czech cuisine as different types grow in the forests, and Czechs make an average of 20 visits to the forest annually, picking a total of up to 20,000 tonnes of mushrooms.[3] Bolete, parasol and other kinds of mushroom are often found. In the shops you can buy žampiony (common mushrooms), hlívy (oyster mushrooms), shiitake, Jew's ear and dried forest mushrooms.
Smaženice are shallow-fried mushrooms. Minced or diced onion is fried in oil or butter, chopped mushrooms are added, and flavoured with grounded caraway, salt and pepper. Houbový Kuba Mushroom Jacob is a meal prepared from cooked hulled grain (barley), than strained, mixed with cooked mushrooms, fried onion, ground garlic, fat and a bit of black pepper, and finally baked in the oven. It is served at Christmas.
Mushrooms are often triple-coated and fried. Cauliflower can be fried in the Czech triplecoat too. Onion rings are covered in batter and fried.
One of the traditional dishes, usually homemade, is noodles with ground poppy seeds called nudle s mákem, with powdered sugar and melted butter. Another similar dish is potato buns with poppy seeds (Bramborové šišky s mákem), called šišky (cones) as they resemble cones of a coniferous tree.
Omelettes (omeleta) are often served with peas.
Pancakes (palačinky) of plate size or palm size are common.
The most traditional vegetables are carrot, celery, parsley, turnip, cauliflower, salad, onion, leek, garlic, cabbage, kale and chives. In gardens, one can find also tomatoes, bell peppers, courgettes, pumpkins, melons, sunflowers, poppies, potatoes and beet.
Peas (hrách) and lentils (čočka) are for Czech people legumes (luštěniny) and together with bean pods are the most common. They can be found in the form of soup (often with croutons) or as cooked mash. They are served with pickled cucumber, and fried onion, occasionally with sausage or smoked meat.
Šoulet (shoulet) is a mix of boiled peas with barley, fat and other ingredients.
Žemlovka is a baked dish from layers of sliced rolls or buns called žemle and sliced apples. It can be made with milk or eggs. It is served with cinnamon and often with raisins.
Štrůdl or závin (strudel) can be sweet, with apples and raisins or walnuts or grated coconut, often with a cherry filling, or savoury, with cabbage, spinach or meat.
Semolina porridge (krupicová kaše) with sugar or honey, cinnamon or cocoa and slice of butter on the top is made for children. Optionally, sliced fruits like apples or appricots can be added as toppings. Sometimes healthier versions substitute semolina for oatmeal or rice.
Stuffed bell peppers (plněné papriky) are stuffed with meat or rice with vegetables.
Lečo is Lecsó, a stew made from peppers, onions, tomatoes and spices.
Špagety (spaghetti) coming in as Italian influence.
Eggs are often used in Czech cuisine as many families outside of cities were breeding hens. Míchaná vajíčka (scrambled eggs) are common. Fried eggs, known as volské oko (bulls eye), are often served with bread or potatoes and spinach. Soft-boiled eggs and hard-boiled eggs are also popular. Stuffed eggs are made from hard-boiled eggs, the shell is peeled, and the egg is cut in half. The yolk is carefully removed into a separate bowl, mixed with salt, mustard and spices and stuffed back. It can be decorated.
Dairy products (mléčné výrobky) have their place in Czech cuisine too as cattle was often bred in barns.
Eidam (Edam, Edammer) - is a Dutch-based type of cheese.
Sour Cream - very often used as part of various cream-based sauces.
Snacks
Beer is a part of life for many Czech people, so several popular Czech dishes and cheeses are eaten as pub fare.
Bramboráky (regionally called cmunda or vošouch in Pilsen and "strik" or "striky" in Czech Silesia) are fried pancakes (very similar to rösti) made of rough-grated or fine-grated raw potatoes (brambory in Czech), flour and rarely with sliced sausages (although this is not common, because bramboráky are usually intended to be a traditional meal, where meat was not eaten daily), carrot or sour cabbage. They are spiced with marjoram, salt, pepper, and garlic, and usually sized to fit the cooking dish. Smaller variants are often eaten as a side dish.
Utopenci (literally "drowned men", singular: utopenec) are piquantly pickled bratwursts (Czech "špekáčky") in sweet-sour vinegar marinade with black pepper, bayleaf, lots of raw onion and chilli peppers. They are one of dishes available in Czech pubs (preparation is fast). They are not common in better restaurants.
Dried apple chips (Křížaly) and imported dried banana chips.
The Czech Republic has many companies making potato chips. One of them, the Bohemia Chips company was started in 1982 and makes 450 000 packs of potato chips daily with many flavours. The company Chips Praha makes beet and celery chips sold as Tretter's chips.
Roasted peanuts are common.
Open sandwiches known as obložené chlebíčky (garnished breads), frequently known as simply chlebíčky, are not made from normal Czech "bread" but from roll-like, bigger pastry called veka, sliced and garnished.[4] They can have mayonnaise, ham, egg, fish, salads (like potato salad) or spreads on the top.[4] They are usually decorated with fresh sliced or pickled cucumber, tomato, red or yellow bell pepper, sliced radish, or parsley. Jednohubky - are similar to obložené chlebíčky, but smaller and in many varieties. All are served in a small amount - one mouthful, impaled on a stick.[4]
Smažený sýr (colloquially smažák, fried cheese in Czech triplecoat) is one of Czech dishes. A slice of cheese (usually Edam or Hermelín) about 1 cm thick (or, a whole serving of Hermelín) is coated in layer of flour, layer of egg and layer of bread-crumbs like Wiener schnitzel and fried and served. It can be served with tartar sauce (tatarská omáčka in Czech) or ketchup and potatoes.
Nakládaný hermelín is a soft cheese, from the same family as brie and camembert, marinated with peppers and onions in oil. It is a pub-food.
Pivní sýr (beer cheese) is a soft cheese, usually mixed with raw onions and mustard, and spread on toasted bread. It is also a pub-food.
Olomoucké syrečky or "tvarůžky" is an aged cheese with a strong odour. It is made in and sold from Loštice, a small town in Moravia. The tradition of making this cheese dates back to the 15th century.[5] The company A.W. of Josef Wesselss started to produce it in 1876. Tvarůžky can be prepared in a number of ways—for example, it be can fried, marinated, or added to Bramboráky. However, not many people can stand its odor.
Czech hot dog (párek v rohlíku) is found on the streets. It is served with a boiled or steamed sausage dipped in mustard or ketchup and inside and put into a roll with a hole made inside, not in a sliced bun like the common hot dog. It is influenced by German cuisine.
Langoše are influenced by Hungarian cuisine. They are usually served with garlic, Edam cheese and ketchup or some combination of the three.
Sweets
Fruit dumplings (ovocné knedlíky) are mostly made using plums (švestkové knedlíky) or apricots (meruňkové knedlíky) or strawberries (jahodové knedlíky). Whole or pieces of fruit, in some regions rarely including the stones, are coated with potato or curd dough and steamed, then served with butter, sugar and sometimes milled poppy seed or tvaroh (rarely also with cream instead of melted butter). Different varieties of fruit dumplings include strawberry, cherry, apricot, bilberry, or peach. They are usually eaten as a main dish.
Kolache (koláče) is a type of mainly round yeast pastry consisting of fillings ranging from fruits to curd or poppy seed on doughnut. It can be small, middle or pancake sized (mostly in Moravia). Fillings can be seen and are mainly fruit or seed based or nutty. Buchty is a yeast pastry similar to koláče, the same filling is wrapped in piece of dough and baked, not being visible in the final product. Sweet dumplings with custard sauce (buchtičky se šodo) are traditional Czech little buchty without filling. The recipe comes from Czech roots, however, the bordering countries, mainly Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary consider buchtičky se šodo as food that came from their country.
Puding is a custard of different flavours, including vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, banana, almonds, pineapple, cocoa, raspberry and others. These are also combined in layers. Puding is served in a glass topped with fruit or out of an upside-down mould onto a plate. For this purpose the mould has to be washed with cold water and not dried right before pouring puding from the cooking pot. It was in the mould only to cool down and thus to get its shape.
Vánočka (braided bread) and mazanec (bun) are prepared for Christmas, along with many kinds of biscuits and Christmas sweets (vánoční cukroví). Vánočka and mazanec are the same type of pastry as Jewish Challah.
Easter Lamb (Velikonoční beránek) is prepared for Easter. The dough is from eggs, sugar and flour. Lemons can be added. It is baked in a mould, which shapes it into a resting lamb. It can be decorated. Bábovka is from similar dough to the Easter Lamb, often with cocoa dough in the middle. It is round, 10–15 cm high, made in a mould and often served with coffee.[6]
Palačinky (pancakes) are rolled with marmalade or jam and served often with ice cream.
Vdolky and koblihy - see List of doughnut varieties.
Perník is made in two ways:
- like gingerbread - even though it is without ginger, it has a big tradition. It is decorated and takes many different forms. There are many popular themes like heart shapes and 3D cottages and even whole beautifully decorated villages are made, especially in the Pardubice Region, where the tradition was established in the 16th century.[7]
- like a cake with cinnamon and honey.
Roláda - sponge cake roulade filled with jam.
Bublanina - a sponge cake made in baking sheet with fruit (2–3 cm) tall. Litá (poured) bublanina - pancake-like batter (a bit more flour) is poured onto baking sheet. Pieces of fruit measuring 1x2 cm are spread on it and it is then sprinkled with sugar. Apple, pear or cherries are used.
Makovec is sponge cake with ground poppy. Mrkvanec is sponge cake with grated carrot.
With the exception of koláče, vánoční cukroví and velikonoční beránek, sweets are consumed with tea or coffee in the late afternoon break, rather than immediately after a main meal. Koláče are commonly, but not always, eaten at breakfast.
A treat popular with children is the Míša, which has been produced since 1961 and is made out of frozen curd.
Beverages
Aside from famous Czech beers, Czechs also produce wine and two uniquely Czech liquors, Fernet Stock and Becherovka. Czech Slivovitz and other Palenka (fruit brandies) are also popular. Tuzemak, traditionally marketed as Czech rum, is made from potatoes or sugar beets. Slovak Borovička is also common. A mixed drink consisting of Becherovka and tonic water is known under the portmanteau of Beton (concrete in English). Another popular mixed drink is Fernet Stock mixed with tonic, called "Bavorák" or "Bavorské pivo" (literally: Bavarian beer).
Kofola is a non-alcoholic Czech soft drink somewhat similar in look and taste to Coca-Cola but not as sweet.
See also
References
- ↑ "ČSÚ: Czechs eat less meat, drink more alcohol". Czech News Agency. The Prague Post. 5 December 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
- ↑ Vokurková, Iva (15 March 2009). "Czech eating habits take a turn for the better". Radio Prague. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
- ↑ Velinger, Jan (24 July 2009). "Czechs pick billions worth of forest mushrooms, berries annually". Radio Prague. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Horáková, Pavla (10 September 2005). "Snacks and party food". Radio Prague. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- ↑ http://www.tvaruzky.cz/cz_historie_b.html History (Historie tvarůžků) at tvaruzky.cz, the website of the A.W. company, the company producing Olomoucké syrečky.
- ↑ Horálková, Elena (27 July 2005). ""Bábovka" - un dulce con larga tradición". Radio Prague (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 January 2014.
- ↑ O'Connor, Coilin (12 December 2007). "Pardubice – the “best place to live in the Czech Republic”". Radio Prague. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cuisine of the Czech Republic. |
- Cooking Czech - Czech Recipes for North American Kitchens http://www.rampouch.com/cookingczech.html
- Czech cuisine, Typical Czech specialties
- Emperor's Crumbs - Central European food and recipe blog.
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