Central Europe - Great Resources for Slovak Cuisine & Culture

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Great Resources for Slovak Cuisine & Culture

Printed From: Foods of the World Forum
Category: Europe
Forum Name: Central Europe
Forum Discription: Poland, The Czech Republic and Slovakia
URL: http://foodsoftheworld.ActiveBoards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=2756
Printed Date: 29 January 2023 at 20:55

Topic: Great Resources for Slovak Cuisine & Culture

Posted By: TasunkaWitko
Subject: Great Resources for Slovak Cuisine & Culture
Date Posted: 26 October 2012 at 09:52

If anyone wants to learn about Slovak cuisine and cooking, here are a couple of great links:

This first one is simply outstanding:

http://www.slovakcooking.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.slovakcooking.com/

The gentleman who runs the site, Lubos, was born and raised in Slovakia, and thanks to his interest in Slovak cuisine, he has posted a treasure of information, including recipes from his travels there and - even better - from his grandmother. Lubos provides great detail, along with step-by-step pictures and some videos, that will help you learn more about the one of the world's greatest "undiscovered" cuisines. He also has a section on the Slovak language and vocabulary, which is extremely helpful and adds to the experience.

The thing I like best about this site is its dedication to carrying on the "grandmother traditions." His entire site is a celebration of the cooking that he learned from his grandmothers, and this touches pretty close to my own experience as my wife has been re-learning the dishes that her own Slovak grandmother used to make. It's wonderful to see how the traditions, recipes and family ties are being preserved here, and I know that this will be a favourite resource for anyone who has any onterest in Slovak cuisine.

Another great source is here:

http://www.iarelative.com/recipe/index.html" rel="nofollow - http://www.iarelative.com/recipe/index.html

This was one of the first resources I used when I was trying to learn more about Slovak cuisine after my wife's grandmother passed away, and it was extremely helpful. Some of the articles, stories and recipes there are truly "straight from the Old Country" and told from the viewpoints of immigrants or the children/grandchilred on immigrants. You can get a real sense of the pride and passion that these folks have in their heritage. There are a lot of links there, leading to other pages within the main site that will teach you a lot about customs, traditions and other aspects of Slovak culture.

Enjoy!

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Replies:

Posted By: Margi Cintrano
Date Posted: 26 October 2012 at 10:10

Tas,

Thanks for posting such valuable information.

I absolutely love the Christmas Cookies on http://www.slovakcooking.com" rel="nofollow - www.slovakcooking.com

Kindest.

Margi.

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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.

Posted By: Hoser
Date Posted: 03 November 2012 at 04:14

I will be making that recipe for kolbasa udene this week Ron....stand by for the outcome.

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Go ahead...play with your food!

Posted By: TasunkaWitko
Date Posted: 29 November 2017 at 10:25

A while ago, Tomáš (Furtwangler) shared some insights with me on the attempt to revive Slovakia's "traditional" foodways after so many years of enforced conformity. I found these concepts to be interesting, and many of those ideas also carry over when attempting to learn or re-create foods from any region:

Tomáš wrote:

In Slovakia, there are two big challenges when rediscovering our own cuisine. Most obviously, we had 40 years of communism, during which time the cooking had deteriorated drastically. But beyond that, there is also a problem with Slovak cookbooks.

Firstly, we don't have great food writers like Elizabeth David, Curnonsky, Patience Grey or Diane Kochilas. We have, I think, lost the connection with good peasant cuisine or good classic bourgeois cooking and we're only rediscovering it now.

What this means is that when I see a recipe in a contemporary cookbook listing cooking oil among ingredients, I use lard instead. Or when I see vinegar, I know they mean that distilled white vinegar, which to my mind doesn't have many good culinary uses. So I tend to use wine vinegar or cider vinegar or something like that. Something that simply makes sense in the terroir. For example, if the recipe comes from the vicinity of, say, Trnava, which is a wine-growing region, wine vinegar or verjuice is a safe bet.

So, in many respects, I am trying to rediscover the cuisine. I am lucky in that I can still buy the traditional specialties such as plum jam, top-quality raw honey, raw cow's milk to make fresh tvaroh, unpasteurized 100%-sheep's milk bryndza in season, uncultured žinčica, good Slovak smoked bacon, and - if I am lucky - homemade jaternice or krvavničky from someone. But as far as recipes and general food culture go, it is quite a challenge and a learning experience. For instance, while zabíjačky still take place in the countryside, with all of the related culinary festivities, I live in a city and there is not a single restaurant cooking good traditional food.

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