Yet it is very distinctive and original. One of its central dishes is the famous bigos. The Polish recipe for this soup is quite complex and laborious, but the result is beyond praise. Moreover, the ingredients in it are quite affordable. If you are pressed for time, you can try to simplify the recipe or even make bigos in a slow cooker, but for the first acquaintance, you should still try. Try to follow all the rules of the classic recipe. So, we are preparing the classic bigos.

Polish Recipe: Necessary Preparations

Decades ago, every decent Polish housewife in her pantry always had an impressive tub or pot full of bigos. The longer it sits in the cool, the fuller its aroma will be. It was possible to treat an unexpected guest with such a dish, to feed a wandering traveler or hunter, and for festive table it's hard to think of something better. Bigos was also prepared for Christmas evening. The Polish recipe has hardly changed now. You will have to be patient - you need to cook it for three days. So, take three and fill them with half a glass of dry red wine, leave overnight. Handful dried mushrooms fill with water, leave for an hour.

Rinse and cook until tender, strain the broth. Melt two tablespoons of the melted pork fat, known as lard, in a deep skillet. Peel and finely chop two large onions and sauté in fat. Add to the bow various meat products, all of them should be about a kilogram. The main secret of success is variety. It is most delicious to use and boiled beef, and boiled pork, and fried pork, and a couple of pieces of duck or chicken, several different types of smoked sausages and sausages, as well as fatty ham. All this must be cut into small cubes before sending to the pan. Twenty minutes after the start of frying, everything must be transferred to a deep, half-filled pan with water, in which the bigos will be cooked. The Polish recipe advises to continue doing this: pour the lard left in the pan after frying tomato juice, boil and put chopped fresh white cabbage... Simmer for a quarter of an hour, covered with a lid, and then send to the prepared meat. Cut the presoaked ones into strips, and mix the wine with a tablespoon of plum jam. Add all of this to the soup. Finally, the last ingredient is an apple. Take two, preferably sweet and sour, peel and cut into slices in a saucepan. Add Bay leaf and send it to the fire.

Cook bigos

Cooking bigos should be very long, only then the products reveal all their tastes and aromas as harmoniously as possible. As soon as the dish begins to boil, add a little sugar, pepper and salt to it. Taste it - it should be very spicy. Simmer for sixty minutes under the lid, stirring occasionally thoroughly. If the bigos is left unattended, it will burn very quickly. If the liquid has boiled away too quickly, add a little water, but remember that the bigos should be thick enough. An hour later, the dish must be removed in the cold for a day. After a day, put it out again for about half an hour and remove it again. Finally, put out the last half hour. Only now can it be called ready. This long cooking really does provide an amazing taste, so you won't regret your efforts.

Bigus (bigos) - is a stewed fresh and sauerkraut with meat, which is characterized by a thick consistency, slightly sour taste and smoked notes. The dish is considered Polish, but apart from its native country it is popular in Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia. According to legend, the Bigus recipe was brought to Poland by King Vladislav Jagailo from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Usually bigus is served with fatty dishes, as its acidity promotes digestion. It is also an excellent appetizer for vodka and "male" liqueurs: pepper, horseradish, Borodino, etc.

There are several hundred recipes for making bigus, but from the usual stewed cabbage it is distinguished by a number of points:

• a mixture of fresh white cabbage and sauerkraut in approximately equal proportions, while sauerkraut adds a characteristic sourness, and fresh gives juiciness;
• the composition must necessarily contain boneless meat, ideally 2 types at once - regular and smoked. The choice of meat is wide: beef, pork, chicken (the worst option because of the low fat content) and even sausages eg sausages;
• classic bigusa is characterized by smoked notes, usually this is achieved due to the appropriate meat, but to enhance the effect, pitted prunes are also added.

Any available vegetables, such as onions or carrots, and mushrooms can be used as additional products.

Authors of some recipes call for separately frying meat and stewing cabbage, then combine and stew them together a little. However, this contradicts the very spirit of the dish - initially it was cooked by hunters in a cauldron on a fire, which excludes the preparation of the ingredients separately.

The classic bigus recipe

Ingredients:

• fresh white cabbage - 600 g;
• sauerkraut - 400 g;
• meat (pork) - 500 g;
• smoked ribs - 200 g (optional);
• pitted prunes - 70 g;
• animal fat (or vegetable oil) - for frying;
• dry wine(or water) - 150-200 ml;
• onion- 1 piece;
• carrots - 1 piece;
• tomato paste - 40 g (optional);
• bay leaf - 3 pieces;
• allspice - 3 peas;
• salt, black ground pepper- taste.

Ribs (only boneless pulp will be used) can be replaced with other similar smoked meats or added 20-30 g more prunes. Instead of fat, vegetable oil is also suitable for frying, but the taste will not be so rich. The composition of seasonings and spices can be changed at your discretion.

Natural dry wine enriches aroma and taste. Red varieties with minimal acidity are often used. White wines are too sour and can be paired with chicken meat, but before that, you should soak the sauerkraut in water to reduce the acidity. Wine is an optional ingredient in bigus and can be easily replaced with plain water.

Cooking technology

1. Cut the meat into 5-7 cm pieces, together with fat layers.

2. Heat fat or vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, saucepan, cauldron (preferred) or multicooker bowl. Fry the meat over medium heat until the liquid has completely evaporated and a light blush.

3. Cut the onion into quarters of rings, grate the carrots on a coarse grater, chop fresh cabbage in medium pieces, the main thing is not very small, otherwise the bigus will boil too much. Slightly mash the cabbage so that it starts up the juice.

4. Add onions and carrots to the meat, fry over medium heat until vegetables are tender.

5. Cut the ribs into strips, then cut the meat from the bones and divide it into pieces. If other smoked meats are used, prepare them in the same way. The meat must be boneless.

6. Add meat from smoked ribs and tomato paste, lightly salt, pour in wine or water (the liquid should be on the same level with the vegetables), mix. Simmer for 5 minutes with the lid open.

7. Add fresh and sauerkraut (pre-squeeze until dry). Stir, cover tightly, simmer over low heat for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Attention! If the sauerkraut is very sour or if the recipe uses dry white wine, you should first soak the cabbage in cold water 60-90 minutes, then squeeze out.

8. Pour prunes with bitter water, leave for 3-5 minutes, then remove and dry with paper towels. Add prunes to the bigus. Do not cut the dried fruit into pieces, otherwise the pulp will boil down and turn into porridge.

9. Add bay leaves, allspice and peppercorns, salt and pepper to taste. Mix.

10. Cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

11. Divide the finished bigus into portions and serve hot with fresh bread. It is believed that the dish fully reveals its taste only the next day, when it is infused under closed lid.

Bigus with pork

It is interesting that when heated, bigus minimally loses in taste and aroma, so it is prepared in large batches and frozen.

Whole poems were dedicated to this dish:
“... Yes, bigos is a delicacy, a special composition,
Where is the combination of all spices and seasonings.
Sauerkraut is crumbled there with love,
She herself fits into the mouth, as the saying goes.
Sweats, the cabbage is steamed on the fire,
Under it, the meat layer languishes in the depths.
But boiling juices fermented
And streams poured along the edge with steam,
The strongest aroma crept along the clearing ... ”(Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz).

Bigos is known to this day in Lithuania, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Germany, but only in Poland he became exactly national dish... I read many recipes for bigos, before I knew only one - with mushrooms. It is believed that Polish bigos is distinguished by the presence of sauerkraut and fresh cabbage in it at the same time; dressing with toasted flour and the addition of dry wine are required at the end.

There is an opinion that bigos is something of yesterday's, stale - this is because cabbage and everything that was in the house from the remains of meat, smoked meats, pickles was crumbled to prepare it. Also, bigos is something cut, chopped, and also food for hunters, as well as revelers and revelers (probably because of the pungent sweet and sour taste). I chose the Bigos recipe in Old Polish for cooking. This dish is a cross between the first and the second: if you want thicker - just take less broth, thinner - on the contrary. Cabbage should be 2/3 of the meat.

Bigus (bigos) is a Polish cuisine dish. In principle, this is a well-known hodgepodge, with the only difference that it must contain two types of cabbage: fresh white cabbage and sauerkraut. There are many varieties of Bigus. It is cooked with pork, sausages, mushrooms. I have a semi- smoked sausage... The dish is hearty, simple and tasty.

To prepare bigus, you will need the following products: fresh and sauerkraut, carrots, onions, tomato paste, smoked or semi-smoked sausage, sunflower oil, salt, ground pepper and bay leaf.

Pour sunflower oil into the pan and add sauerkraut. We simmer it for 15-20 minutes.

Peel and wash carrots and onions. Three carrots on a grater, and finely chop the onion. Thinly chop the white cabbage. Add these vegetables to the pan, pour 80 ml of water and simmer under the lid for 15 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Then add tomato paste and chopped sausage. Salt and pepper to taste, add bay leaves. We mix. Cover with a lid again and simmer until cooked for another 10 minutes.

After a total of 40-45 minutes of braising, the dish will be ready.

Finely chop the greens and add to the bigus.

Simple, tasty and very hearty dish ready. Serve as an appetizer, as a main course for lunch or as a main course for dinner.

Bon Appetit!

5-7 servings

80-90 minutes

215-256 kcal

5 /5 (1 )

Bigus (also often called bigos) is a famous dish consisting of finely chopped white cabbage stewed with various types of meat. It has long been believed that classic recipe Bigusa with fresh cabbage was developed in Poland, but in our time, researchers are divided: some of the historians believe that the product was originally invented in Lithuania, and got to Poland some time later.

Be that as it may, this dish amazes the imagination of those who like to eat hearty and tasty food, since the bigus fully meets these criteria. Today I will submit to your judgment the best Russian and Polish traditional recipes with a photo of bigus (bigos) from fresh and sauerkraut with pork and beef.

Bigus recipe with fresh cabbage meat

Kitchen tools: a spacious saucepan with a volume of 4 liters or more, several cutlery (knives, forks, spoons), three or four bowls of different capacities, a frying pan with a non-stick coating, kitchen towels, potholders, a spatula, a cutting board, kitchen scales.

Ingredients

Fresh white cabbage	750-800 g
Sauerkraut	100-150 g
Onion	1 PC.
Champignon	10-12 pcs.
Pork (neck)	450-500 g
Tomato paste	25-30 ml
Celery	1 stem
Black peppercorns	8-10 pcs.
Hunting sausages	5-6 pcs.
Prunes	11-12 pcs.
Sunflower oil	25-35 ml
Madeira	200 ml
Laurel leaf	1 PC.
Table salt	taste
Purified water	50-80 ml

How to choose the right ingredients

• To make the bigus great, it is desirable include both fresh and sauerkraut in the ingredients... If you do not have the opportunity to purchase the latter, choose sugar-free tomato paste for the recipe, as acidic as possible.
• It is believed that real bigus won't work without wine... As a last resort, Madeira can be replaced with sherry, however, if you are determined to get acquainted with classic taste of this dish, such changes in the recipe are highly undesirable.
• Instead of champignons, you can choose oyster mushrooms, a hunting sausages it is allowed to replace with smoked sausage in the amount of 150-180 grams.

1. Finely chop 100-150 g sauerkraut, this must be done to make the Bigus easier to eat.
   
2. Pour 50-80 ml of purified water into a saucepan and put prepared sauerkraut there.
   
3. Cover the dishes with a lid and put them on medium heat.
   
4. We chop fresh cabbage in the amount of 750-800 g with a knife or using special cutting devices.
   
5. As soon as the mass in the pan has warmed up well, put the fresh cabbage in it on top of the sauerkraut and in no case stir.
   
6. Cook the contents of the pan for about ten minutes, then add 25-30 ml tomato paste and stir the mass.
   
7. Cover the container with a lid again and reduce the heat to minimum. We simmer the mass for about ten minutes.
   
8. Peel the onion and cut it into strips.
   
9. We wash 10-12 pcs. champignons and divide each into cubes.
   
10. Pour 25-35 ml into the pan sunflower oil and warm it up.
    
11. Put the prepared onion in a frying pan, fry it for about three minutes.
    


12. We send the prepared meat to the onion, mix and simmer the mass for another five minutes. Do not forget to stir the mass with a spatula from time to time
    
13. We shift the meat and onions into a saucepan with cabbage.
    
14. I don't wash the pan, but pour the prepared mushrooms into it. Fry them for about three minutes over high heat, then add 1 celery stalk, cut into small pieces.
    
15. Cook the mass for another five minutes, then remove it from the stove and let it cool slightly.
    
16. Let's go back to the bigus being prepared: mix it well, add 11-12 prunes and a mixture of mushrooms with celery, and also lightly salt. Then we cover the pan with a lid, we continue to simmer the mass over low heat. If necessary, you can pour some more water into the bigus.
    
17. Sausages in the amount of 5-6 pieces are coarsely chopped and sent to the freed pan, it is advisable not to add sunflower oil anymore.
    
18. Fry the sausages for about three minutes on all sides and also send them to the pot with the bigus being prepared.
    
19. Add pepper and table salt, as well as about 100 ml of Madeira and bay leaves. Simmer for about an hour, then pour in the remaining 100 ml of wine.
    
20. Stir the bigus and cook it under a closed lid for another ten minutes.
    

Bigus recipe video with fresh cabbage meat

On the proposed video, you can consider in detail step by step process cooking delicious bigus.

The classic recipe for bigus (bigos) in Polish

Cooking time: from 60 to 75 minutes.
Servings: 6-7.
Calorie content per 100 grams: 225-280 kcal.
Kitchen tools: a spacious pan with a volume of 4 liters or more, a smaller pan with a volume of 2 liters or more, several cutlery (knives, forks, spoons), three or four bowls of different capacities, a frying pan with a non-stick coating, kitchen towels, oven mitts, a slotted spoon, a cutting board, kitchen scales.

Ingredients

Sauerkraut	1.5KG
Red wine	150-170 ml
Onion	2 pcs.
Sunflower oil	25-30 ml
Laurel leaf	3 pcs.
Caraway	25 g
Marjoram	7 g
Allspice	5 pieces.
Prunes	40 g
Dried mushrooms	30 g
Black pepper	taste
Table salt	taste
Beef (pulp)	250 g
Semi-smoked sausage	250 g
Bacon	150 g
Pork (shoulder)	200 g
Hot water	2 l

Step by step cooking process

1. Put sauerkraut in the amount of 1.5 kg on a cutting board and chop finely with a knife. You can also use a food processor with special attachments.
   
2. We shift the prepared cabbage into a saucepan, fill it with 900 ml of hot water.
   
3. Add 3 bay leaves, 5 allspice peas and 40 g of prunes.
   
4. Stir the mixture slightly, cover the pan with a lid and put it on moderate heat.
   
5. Simmer the bigus for about 40 minutes, remembering to stir from time to time.
   
6. Pour 30 g of dried mushrooms with 100 ml of hot water, mix, let it brew. After that, chop the mushrooms with a knife, save the mushroom broth, we still need it.
   
7. Coarsely chop 2 onions and 250 g of sausage.
   
8. Cut into small cubes 150 g of bacon, 250 g of beef and 200 g of pork.
   
9. Heat 25-30 ml of sunflower oil in a frying pan and fry the onion and sausage in it.
   
10. Pour 1 liter of hot water into the second pan and boil the prepared pork with beef in it. The process will take approximately twenty minutes.
    
11. Put the finished meat, chopped mushrooms and fried onions with sausage into a saucepan with stewed cabbage, mix.
    
12. Simmer the mass for about twenty minutes, then pour in 150-170 ml of wine, add pepper, salt, 25 g of caraway seeds and 7 g of marjoram.
    
13. Mix again and cook the bigus for another ten minutes. If you think there is too little liquid in the pot, add the mushroom broth to it.
    

Bigos recipe video in Polish

From this video you can learn more about all the intricacies of making Polish Bigus.

We coat the multicooker bowl with 25-30 ml of sunflower oil and put all the prepared ingredients in it.

Pour in salt and pepper, add 300 ml of purified water.

We set the "Extinguishing" mode for about twenty minutes. After the specified time, open the lid and taste meat and cabbage for salt.

At the end of the program, let the mass brew for ten minutes under a closed lid.

Video of a traditional recipe for bigos in a slow cooker

In the video presented to your attention, all the details of the preparation of a delicious bigos are presented.

Useful information

• Also try to cook, very simple and quick meal, famous for its unusually appetizing view.
• Also pay attention to great option, which has an amazingly memorable taste and wonderful aroma.