Slovak cuisine

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 meat, 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

Halušky
- Bryndzové halušky: potato dumplings with bryndza (a sheep's milk cheese)
- Strapačky: potato dumplings with sauerkraut
Goose or duck feast (husacie or kačacie hody): festive menu consisting of roasted goose (husacina or husacie mäso) or duck meat (kačacie mäso), goose liver (husacia pečienka), greasy lokše, stewed red cabbage, and sour cherry and poppy seed strudel (štrúdľa), traditional food of Slovenský Grob.
- Lokše: pancakes made of potato dough baked directly on the stove
Bryndzové pirohy
Široké rezance s tvarohom a slaninou: tagliatelle with quark (farmer's cheese) and fried bacon
Zemiakové placky: potato pancakes fried in oil, also called haruľa in the Horehronie, Pohronie, Kysuce regions or baba, babka in the Orava region
Granatiersky pochod or granadír, also known as granadírmarš and grenadírmarš
Kuracie prsia s broskyňou: chicken breast slices with ham and peach baked with cheese on the top
Džatky, small balls made of mashed potatoes and flour, often served with bacon, typical Spiš dish
Segedínsky guláš (Szeged goulash): a dish consisting of pork stew with sauerkraut and cream or sour cream, usually served with steamed dumpling slices (knedľa)
Rezeň: schnitzel, usually breaded
Vyprážaný syr
Držková polievka

Bryndzové pirohy (bryndza-filled pierogi)
Roasted duck leg with greasy lokše and stewed red cabbage
Pork with Milanese sauce and yeast dumplings
Wiener Schnitzel and potato salad
"Natural-style" (unbreaded) chicken schnitzel

Soups and sauces

Fazuľová polievka (soup made of beans, usually with pork meat and/or sausages)
Kapustnica (soup made of sauerkraut), often also mushrooms, meat and sausage, and sometimes served in a bread bowl
Rezancová polievka (chicken soup with noodles)
Demikát (bryndza-based soup)
Tripe soup
Gulášová polievka, traditional goulash soup
Kotlíkový guláš, 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.

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 krvavničky, a blood sausage, and jaternice (traditionally called hurky), a sausage with buckwheat containing any and all parts of a butchered pig.

Jaternice
Krvavnička

Traditional sweets and cookies

Slices of 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.

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.

Buchty (Buchteln)
Parené buchty (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)
Laskonky (coconut meringue cookies with walnuts and creamy filling)
Žemľovka (bread pudding)
Mačacie oči (two layers of cookie-like round tarts "glued" with marmalade and poured with powdered sugar)
Ryžový nákyp (rice pudding cake)
Orechovník (sweet walnut roll)
Makovník (poppy seed roll)
Bratislavské rožteky (rolls of leavened dough filled with ground poppy seed or walnut, filling determines the shape)
Trotle (two layers of cookie-like round tarts filled with chocolate cream and half-dipped in dark chocolate)
Perníky (colloquially medovníky; honey based cookies, similar to gingerbread)
Zázvorníky/ďumbierniky (ginger flavoured biscuits)
Medvedie labky ("bear paws" – walnut/cocoa based cookies)
Rezy (longer square (ie not round) form of cakes)
- Bratislavské rezy (sponge cake with steamed whipped custard, chocolate and sweet rum-flavored syrup)
- Domino rezy (festive cake with three preparation methods)
- Grilážky (wafers glued with "griláž" – burnt sugar with butter, nuts and condensed milk)
- Krémeš (cremeschnitte)
- Metrový koláč (meter cake)
- Novozámocké rezy (pineapple creme cake)
- Oblíž prst (American cremeschnitte)
- Pudingový koláč so smotanou (pudding cake with cream)
- Punčové rezy (sponge cake with jam layer and sugar icing with punch flavoring on top)
- Slovan rezy (cocoa sponge cake with pudding cream and caramel whipped cream)
- Šumienkový zákusok (effervescent powder dessert)
- Žiarske rezy (cocoa sponge cake with walnut filling)
- Žĺtkové rezy (walnut cake with egg yolk glaze)
Trdelník or Skalický trdelník, a traditional cake baked on a rotating spit over open fire
Šuhajdy (festive no-bake dessert, with chocolate on top and bottom and a middle layer of rum-flavored nuts)
Šúľance (rolled potato dumplings with sugar or poppy seeds)
Zlaté halušky ("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: Prvá kuchárska kniha, 1870
Vojtech Španko a kolektív: Slovenská kuchárka, vydavat. Osveta, Martin, 1977, 4.vydanie 1982
František Kotrba: Slovenská kuchařka, Dona, ISBN 80-7322-025-3
Anna Demrovská: Dobrá slovenská kuchyňa, Knižné centrum, 2007, ISBN 80-85684-59-4
Ľudmila Dullová: Veľká slovenská kuchárka, Ikar, 2007, ISBN 80-7118-783-6
Jana Horecká: Najlepšia slovenská kuchyňa, 2007, ISBN 80-8064-300-8
Daša Racková: Nová slovenská kuchárka, Ikar, 2007, ISBN 978-80-551-1563-4
Zora Mintalová - Zubercová: Všetko okolo stola I., Vydavateľstvo Matice slovenskej, 2009, ISBN 978-80-89208-94-4
Zora Mintalová - Zubercová: Všetko okolo stola II., Vydavateľstvo Matice slovenskej, 2010, ISBN 978-80-81150-13-5

External links

Illustrated Slovak recipes