Czech cuisine has both influenced and been influenced by the cuisines of surrounding countries. Many of the fine cakes and pastries that are popular in Eastern Europe originated in the Czech lands.
Czech cuisine is marked by a strong emphasis on meat dishes. Pork is quite common, and beef and chicken are also popular. Goose, duck, rabbit and wild game are served. Fish is rare, with the occasional exception of fresh trout, and carp, which is served at Christmas.
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Side dishes
Knedlíky (boiled sliced dumplings) are one of the mainstays of Czech cuisine and are quite often served with meals. They can be wheat or potato based, and are sometimes made from a combination of wheat flour and stale bread or rolls. They are typically large and served cut into slices, in contrast with the smaller dumplings found in Austrian cuisine. Only potato-based dumplings are usually smaller.
Meat dishes
Roast pork with dumplings and cabbage (vepřová pečeně s knedlíky a se zelím, colloquially vepřo-knedlo-zelo) is considered the most popular Czech dish. There are two variants of preparing the cabbage, Bohemian and Moravian. Bohemians prefer the cabbage to be sour, so they prepare the dish from sauerkraut. In Moravia it is preferred sweeter and so is prepared from fresh cabbage, or by adding some sugar, if the fresh variety is not available. But these variants aren't strict, and either may be available in each region.
Marinated beef sirloin (svíčková na smetaně or simply svíčková). Roast beef, usually larded, with a thick sauce of carrot, parsley root, root celery, and cream. Often served with Knedlíky, a cream topping, a teaspoon of cranberry compote, and a slice of lemon.
Snacks
Since beer culture is a big part of Czech life, many popular Czech dishes and cheeses are usually eaten as pub fare.
Bramboráky (regionally called cmunda or vošouch in Pilsen and "strik" or "striky" in Czech Silesia) are fried pancakes made of rough-grated or fine-grated raw potatoes (brambory in Czech), flour, milk and sometimes sliced sausages (although this is not common, because bramboráky are usually intended to be a vegetarian meal) or sauerkraut. 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. There is a similar dish from the Slovakian-Ruthenian borderland called harula, which is prepared with less milk and fat, and an addition of an onion. Harula are baked on tin in an oven instead of frying.
Utopenci (literally "drowned men") are piquantly pickled bratwursts (Czech "špekáčky") in sweet-sour vinegar stock with black pepper, bayleaf, lots of raw onion and cayenne pepper.
Cheese
Smažený sýr (colloquially smažák) is maybe the less noble, but the most contemporary of Czech national dishes. A slice of cheese (usually Edam or Hermelín) about 1 cm thick (or whole Hermelín) is coated in bread-crumbs like Wiener schnitzel (which is very popular, also) and fried either on a pan or in deep fryer, and often topped with tartar sauce (tatarka or tatarská omáčka in Czech). The Czech version of tartar sauce has a thin consistency similar to mayonnaise.
Nakládaný hermelín is a soft cheese, similar to Camembert marinated with peppers, onion etc. in oil. Hermelin can also be deep fried as above.
Pivní sýr (beer cheese) is a soft cheese, usually mixed with raw onions and mustard, and spread on bread.
Olomoucké syrečky or "tvarůžky" is an aged cheese with a strong odour. It's made in Loštice, a small town in Moravia. The tradition of making this cheese dates back to the 15th century.[1] The company A.W. of Josef Wesselss started to produce it in 1876. Tvarůžky can be prepared in a number of ways—for example, you can fry it, marinate it, or add it to Bramboráky.
Sweets
Fruit dumplings (ovocné knedlíky) are mostly made using plums (švestkové knedlíky) or apricots (meruňkové knedlíky). Whole fruit (in some regions including the stones) are coated with potato or curd dough and boiled, then served with butter, sugar and sometimes milled poppyseed 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 yeast pastry consisting of fillings ranging from fruits to cheeses or poppyseed on doughnut.
Buchty yeast pastry similar to Koláče, the same filling is wrapped in piece of dough and baked.
Sweet dumplings with vanilla cream (Buchtičky se šodo) are traditional Czech dumplings served with vanilla cream. The recipe comes from Czech roots, however, the Czech bordering countries, mainly Slovakia, Poland and Hungary consider Buchtičky se šodo as food, which came from their country.
Vánočka is prepared for Christmas, along with many kinds of biscuits and sweets (vánoční cukroví). Vánočka is the same type of pastry as Jewish Challah.
With the exception of Koláče and vánoční cukroví, most sweets are consumed with coffee in the late afternoon, rather than immediately after a main meal. Koláče are commonly eaten at breakfast.
Beverages
Aside from Slivovitz, Czech beer and wine, Czechs also produce two uniquely Czech liquors, Fernet Stock and Becherovka. Kofola is a non-alcoholic Czech soft drink somewhat similar in look and taste to Coca-Cola but not as sweet. A mixed drink consisting of Becherovka and tonic water is called Beton (concrete in Czech). Another popular mixed drink is Fernet Stock mixed with tonic, called "Bavorák" (literally: the bavarian).
References
- ^ http://www.tvaruzky.cz/cz_historie_b.html History (Historie tvarůžků) at tvaruzky.cz the website of the A.W. company, the company producing the cheese.
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
- Examples of Czech Cooking - Czech specialties
- Description - Czech Traditional cuisine
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