Bigos recipe

A Polish hunter stew built on sauerkraut cut with fresh cabbage, several meats and dried forest mushrooms, and judged only after it has been reheated for days.

2 days and 5 hourshard12 ingredients

Ingredients

• 1000 g sauerkraut
• 500 g white cabbage
• 600 g pork shoulder
• 300 g smoked sausage
• 150 g bacon
• 30 g dried forest mushrooms
• 100 g prunes
• 2 onions
• 10 juniper berries
• 6 allspice
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tsp salt

How to make Bigos

1. Soak 30 g dried forest mushrooms in 300 ml hot water for 30 minutes, then chop them and keep the soaking liquid.
2. Rinse 1 kg sauerkraut lightly, drain and chop it, then shred 500 g fresh white cabbage; the mix of soured and fresh cabbage is what makes bigos rather than a cabbage stew.
3. Render 150 g diced bacon, brown 600 g diced pork shoulder and 300 g sliced smoked sausage in that fat, then add 2 chopped onions and cook until golden.
4. Put both cabbages into the pot with the mushrooms and their liquid, 10 juniper berries, 6 allspice berries and 3 bay leaves.
5. Simmer covered on the lowest heat for 3 hours, stirring now and then and adding a splash of water only if it catches.
6. Add 100 g pitted prunes and cook uncovered 1 hour more so the liquid evaporates and the stew thickens by itself rather than with flour.
7. Salt to taste, cool completely, then reheat the next day and again the day after; bigos is judged on the third day and it really does need those reheatings.
8. Serve very hot with rye bread or boiled potatoes.

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