Slovak cuisine

[[Bryndzové halušky (potato dumplings with sheep's-milk cheese)|right|thumb]]

[[Cabbage soup|Kapustnica (soup made from sauerkraut and sausage)|right|thumb]]

Slovak cuisine varies slightly from region to region across Slovakia. It was influenced by the traditional cuisine of its neighbours and it influenced them as well. The origins of traditional Slovak cuisine can be traced to times when the majority of the population lived self-sufficiently in villages, with very limited food imports and exports and with no modern means of food preservation or processing.

This gave rise to a cuisine heavily dependent on a number of staple foods that could stand the hot summers and cold winters. These included wheat, potatoes, milk and milk products, pork, sauerkraut and onion. To a lesser degree beef, poultry, lamb and goat, eggs, a few other local vegetables, fruit and wild mushrooms were traditionally eaten.

All these were usually produced and processed by families themselves with some local trade at the country markets. Wheat was ground, and bread, dumplings and noodles were made from it. Potatoes were mostly boiled or processed into potato dough. Milk was processed into a wide range of products such as butter, cream, sour cream, buttermilk, and various types of cheese etc.

Typical pork products include sausages, smoked bacon, and lard. Spices were not widely used, and animal fats and butter were used instead of cooking oils. Main beverages included fresh and sour milk, and beer. Contemporary Slovak cuisine is widely influenced by various world cuisines and uses many different ingredients, spices and industrially processed foods.

Slovak dishes

: potato dumplings with bryndza (a sheep's milk cheese)
: potato dumplings with sauerkraut
Goose or duck feast ( or ): festive menu consisting of roasted goose ( or ) or duck meat (), goose liver (), greasy lokše, stewed red cabbage, and sour cherry and poppy seed strudel (), traditional food of Slovenský Grob.
: pancakes made of potato dough baked directly on the stove
: tagliatelle with quark (farmer's cheese) and fried bacon
: potato pancakes fried in oil, also called in the Horehronie, Pohronie, and Kysuce regions and or in the Orava region
, also known as and
: chicken breast slices with ham and peach baked with cheese on the top
: small balls made of mashed potatoes and flour, often served with bacon, typical Spiš dish
: pork stew with sauerkraut and cream or sour cream, usually served with steamed dumpling slices ()
: schnitzel, usually breaded
Christmas carp
Sekaná

File:Bryndzove pirohy.jpg| (bryndza-filled pierogi)

File:Kacica.JPG|Roasted duck leg with greasy lokše and stewed red cabbage

File:Bravcove s milanskou.JPG|Pork with Milanese sauce and yeast dumplings

File:VianocnaRyba.JPG|Wiener Schnitzel and potato salad

File:RezenPrirodny.JPG|"Natural-style" (unbreaded) chicken schnitzel

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Soups and sauces

(soup made of beans, usually with pork meat and/or sausages)
(soup made of sauerkraut), often also mushrooms, meat and sausage, and sometimes served in a bread bowl
(chicken soup with noodles)
(bryndza-based soup)
Tripe soup
, traditional goulash soup
, simple goulash soup made of different vegetables, potato and meat (usually beef) cooked together for hours
Venison goulash, traditionally from deer, often served in a bread cup
Garlic soup

Meat

Pork, beef and poultry are the main meats consumed in Slovakia, with pork being the most popular by a substantial margin. Among poultry, chicken is most common, although duck, goose, and turkey are also well established. Game meats, especially boar, rabbit, and venison, are also widely available throughout the year. Lamb and goat are also available, but for the most part are not very popular. The consumption of horse meat is generally frowned upon. One poultry dish, chicken breast steak with peach, originated in the 1990s and is the target of some ridicule.

Grilled meat is not common in Slovakia. Instead, meat is either breaded and fried in oil (schnitzel), or cooked and served in sauce. Hungarian influences in Slovak cuisine can be seen in popular stews and goulashes. However, these have been given Slovak touches. Chicken paprikash is typically served with halušky and Hungarian goulash (spicy beef stew) is served with slices of a large bread-like steamed dumpling.

Local sausage types include , a blood sausage, and (traditionally called ), a sausage with buckwheat containing any and all parts of a butchered pig.

File:Jaternice.jpg|

File:Krvavnicka.jpg|

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Traditional sweets and cookies

right|thumb|Slices of [[Trdelník|Skalický trdelník, a traditional cake and sweet pastry, from the Slovak town of Skalica, ready for serving: note the hollow interior created by baking on a cylindrical spit.]]

thumb|Traditional Slovak cookies

Usually baked at Christmas time, but also all year long, Slovak traditional sweets are usually home baked and harder to find in stores.

(steamed dumplings with various fillings (jam, plum, curd, poppy) topped with poppy seeds, sugar, butter, sour cream, breadcrumbs or nuts, similar to Austrian Germknödel, and Chinese Baozi buns)
(a sweet dish consisting of mini-Buchteln covered in warm vanilla custard)
(traditional and shortcrust pastry cake filled with grated apples, cinnamon and sugar)
(sweet yeast dough with cabbage-caramel filling)
or Šarlota (dome-shaped cake made of roll cake and cream, inspired by the Soviet cherepakha cake and popular in the 1980s)
(semolina pudding topped with butter, cocoa and cinnamon powder)
(coconut meringue cookies with walnuts and creamy filling)
(bread pudding)
(two layers of cookie-like round tarts "glued" with marmalade and poured with powdered sugar)
(rice pudding cake)
(sweet walnut roll)
(poppy seed roll)
(rolls of leavened dough filled with ground poppy seed or walnut, filling determines the shape)
(two layers of cookie-like round tarts filled with chocolate cream and half-dipped in dark chocolate)
(small leavened buns baked in a baking tray so that they are gently pressed against each other)
(colloquially medovníky; honey based cookies, similar to gingerbread)
(ginger flavoured biscuits)
("bear paws" – walnut/cocoa based cookies)
(longer square (ie not round) form of cakes)
("Bratislava cuts" – sponge cake with steamed whipped custard, chocolate and sweet rum-flavored syrup)
("domino cuts" – festive cake with three preparation methods)
(wafers glued with "griláž" – burnt sugar with butter, nuts and condensed milk)
(cremeschnitte)
(meter cake)
(Nové Zámky cuts – pineapple creme cake)
("lick the finger" – American cremeschnitte)
, ("drunken Izidor" – walnut and rum cake)
("pudding cake with cream")
("punch cuts" – sponge cake with jam layer and sugar icing with punch flavoring on top)
("Transylvanian cuts" – Easter cake made from flour, margarine, powdered sugar, egg yolks, and a pinch of salt, which is filled with a filling of eggs, powdered sugar, chopped walnuts, breadcrumbs, and fruit jam)
("Slovan cuts" – cocoa sponge cake with pudding cream and caramel whipped cream)
(effervescent powder dessert)
("Stollwerck cuts")
(sponge cake with cocoa and vanilla flavor filled with jam and walnuts, often baked during Easter)
("jerboa cuts" – walnut, jam and chocolate cake)
("Žiar (nad Hronom) cuts" – cocoa sponge cake with walnut filling)
(walnut cake with egg yolk glaze)
(szaloncukor)
("Sandokan's eyes" – unbaked Slovak festive dessert consisting of brown (margarine, cocoa powder, BB puding, powdered sugar) and white (margarine, coconut, powdered milk, powdered sugar) layer, filled with a mixture of chopped nuts, sugar, fat and rum and decorated with lentils. It is encased in a plastic egg carton.)
("plum balls" – potato dumplings filled with plums, typical especially in Myjava)
(puff pastry tube filled with meringue or whipped cream and sprinkled with powdered sugar)
(jam doughnut)
(festive Christmas cake made from layers of sweet yeast dough alternately covered with walnuts, poppy seeds, jam, and tvaroh)
(festive no-bake dessert, with chocolate on top and bottom and a middle layer of rum-flavored nuts)
(rolled potato dumplings with sugar or poppy seeds)
or (traditional cake baked on a rotating spit over open fire)
(vanilla rolls)
(choux pastry)
("bird milk" – soft meringue dumplings blanched briefly in boiling water and then placed "floating" on a base of vanilla custard)
("golden halušky" – tvaroh-semolina dumplings topped with sweet breadcrumbs)

Main daily meal

Traditionally the main meal of the day is lunch, eaten around noon. However, changing work routine has altered this in the recent decades; today, many Slovaks have their main meal in the evening. Lunch in Slovakia usually consists of soup and a main course. It is customary in Slovakia to bring a bottle of wine or other alcohol as a gift if one is invited to visit someone's home.

Books on Slovak cuisine

Ján Babilon: , 1870
Vojtech Španko . Osveta, Martin, 1977, 4.vydanie 1982
František Kotrba: , Dona,
Anna Demrovská: , Knižné centrum, 2007,
Ľudmila Dullová: , Ikar, 2007,
Jana Horecká: , 2007,
Daša Racková: , Ikar, 2007,
Zora Mintalová - Zubercová: , Vydavateľstvo Matice slovenskej, 2009,
Zora Mintalová - Zubercová: , Vydavateľstvo Matice slovenskej, 2010,

References

External links

Illustrated Slovak recipes