Radio România Internațional

Tag: pork

  • Food from Buzau county

    Food from Buzau county

    The county of Buzau stands out thanks to a couple
    of staple dishes bearing the name of the county. Each of the products came to
    be known mainly due to the fairs held in this south-eastern region of Romania,
    a genuine trade hub, bordering, on three sides, the great Romanian historical
    principalities: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania.


    There are the Buzau pretzels, the
    small ones, with a diameter of 7 or 8 centimeters, sold on the string and hanging
    on the baker’s door. They are made with leavened dough and are traditionally
    baked in proving ovens. It appears the pretzels were first brought to Romania
    around 1800, by the Greek merchants who settled in Buzau. The pretzels usually
    went with the drinks that were ordered in pubs.


    Buzau is also famous for its
    sausages, for which they are two main sorts, the Buzau babic and the Plescoi
    sausages. Similar products based on minced meat have surely been prepared
    elsewhere around the country. However, the Plescoi sausages came to be known
    thanks to the fairs held in Buzau. The best-known such fair was the Midsummer
    fair held in June on the day the Dragaica was celebrated according to
    tradition. Early 19th century documents make mention of the prices
    for which the mutton pastrami and the sausages were sold, brought from the
    villages of Berca and Plescoi. Initially, the hatchet-chopped mutton was used
    to prepare the Plescoi sausages. The mutton was mixed with lamb suet and spiced
    with garlic, thyme and basil. The mix was then squeezed into thin sheep
    intestines. The sausages were then smoked.
    Later, a little bit of beef was added to the recipe.


    In late 18th century,
    Bulgarian and Serbian nationals took refuge in the region of Buzau, because of
    the Russian-Turkish war. With them, they brought a different recipe for the
    preparation of sausages. In the region of Buzau, the Serbs continued to do what
    they were best at and founded the so-called sarbarii, the Serbian vegetables
    gardens. The Serbs had a penchant for using red chili peppers as a spicer,
    which changed the preparation recipe for
    the Plescoi sausages. It seems that the Buzau babic or the Buzau Serbian babic
    appeared at that time. Mutton was no longer used for their preparation.
    Hatchet-chopped pork was used instead, in stark contrast with the Ottoman
    recipe, for which mutton was used.


    For the preparation of the babic,
    the recipe was quite similar to the preparation of mutton sausages. The pork,
    usually gammon, is minced with the hatchet. Then salt is added, while the meat
    is spiced with hot chili pepper or sweet paprika powder. The resulting mix is
    squeezed in larger intestines, and then the sausages are formed. The sausages
    are aired before they are smoked. In the end, the sausages are pressed into a
    flat shape and then they are hung to dry. The recipe was changed so that the
    drying process could become shorter, with beef also used for the mix. In the
    region of Buzau, a babic-based thick soup is prepared, with lots of vegetables
    and sausage slices, finely-cut.

  • Cabbage a la Huedin

    Cabbage a la Huedin

    Among other
    staple foods, the famous ‘sarmale’, which is stuffed cabbage rolls, a dish also
    claimed by other people in the Balkans and Central Europe, ranks first. Second comes the sauerkraut cooked in the
    so-called Cluj style, known across the country as ‘cabbage a la Cluj’. Nobody
    knows why it is called like that, but it is one of Transylvania’s tastiest
    dishes ever.






    The ingredients
    used for its stuffing are the same as the ingredients used for the cabbage
    rolls with meat-based stuffing. There are several versions of this dish across
    Romania, including in the south of the country. Another version of this dish is
    the Huedin style cabbage, traditionally cooked not far from the Cluj area,
    which is cabbage and smoked bacon. It is quicker to prepare as compared to the
    stuffed cabbage rolls, as in the former case you no longer need to swirl the
    cabbage leaves around the minced meat bits.






    For this recipe,
    you need a kilo, or a kilo and a half of cabbage. Remove the outer leaves, then
    wash the cabbage. Cut it in six or eight equal pieces. Take a bar of smoked
    bacon or ham, not more than half a kilogram of it, cut it into thin slices and
    then fry it in a frying pan, together with one or two finely-chopped onions,
    until the mix gets nice and brown.






    In the same pan,
    add two carrots, one parsley and another parsnip root. Make sure all vegetables
    are cut in finely-shaped rounds. Add a head of celeriac, cut in small cubes.
    Quench the mix with a bit of water, then bring it to a boil several times. Pour
    everything over the cabbage you had placed in the pot already. Season it with a
    little bit of ground black pepper and one clove. Allow to oven-bake for about
    45 minutes, at low-heat. Portion it and then pour a little bit of sour cream on
    top of it. Serve it hot, with polenta and hot pepper.



  • Traditional fatback

    Traditional fatback

    Today we will be talking about a preparation that is fundamental to traditional culture in Romania, as well as the rest of the Balkans, fatback.



    In fact, that is an approximation of the term, since its preparation may be quite elaborate, and the better term is the Romanian one, ‘slanina, which is a term derived from the old Slavic word for salt. Most neighboring peoples use a similar term, since most of them speak Slavic languages. ‘Slanina generally indicates fatback with the rind on, and is most times salted and smoked, sometimes spiced and seasoned. It is the most common way of preserving pig fat from the back or belly.



    Its making is closely related to the entire range of winter traditions related to the slaughter of pigs in traditional households in villages. Each area has its own ways of preparing it, and the methods also vary in terms of how long it is expected to last. In some villages, it is kept buried in salt. In others, it is kept in a brine. One version of that is using a brine made by dissolving two tablespoons of salt per liter of water. After bringing the brine to a boil, crushed garlic is added, then peppercorns and black pepper powder, thyme, and bay leaves. The fatback is set into a barrel or a large pot, then covered in the cold brine, and left for about three weeks. Then it is sent to get smoked.



    In certain areas of Transylvania, people salt the fatback using brine in which sauerkraut was made, which has a distinctive flavor and salty tangy taste. They add peppercorns and bay leaves to the brine. They first boil the fatback until a fork can be pushed into it easily, then they press it. After draining it, it is covered in a garlic paste, then sprinkled with paprika, sometimes mixed with chili powder. It is then kept in a dry, cool place.



    Before refrigerators, people used a room, sometimes a dedicated one, for hanging out their preserved pork products. In Medieval Saxon villages in Transylvania, the fatback was kept in rooms set aside in defense towers. Almost every fortified church in Transylvania has a fatback tower, which is actually called just that. Every family had its own set of hooks for hanging out their fatback. You could only go in there on Sundays, because the temperature was kept low by blocks of ice covered in straw, brought in during the winter months.



    No matter how you prepare it, you can eat the fatback as is, sliced thin, alongside other entrees, preferably with red onion or cloves of raw garlic, as the people in villages traditionally do when they go work in the field. Also, smoked fatback is essential to many other dishes, because it is the main method of lending a smoky flavor to cooked dishes. One of them is the famous ‘sarmale, of which we speak often in this feature. In some areas of Romania, it is even used to give a smoky taste to meat and vegetable soups, usually thick concoctions eaten in the cold months of winter. One other popular preparation is the so-called ‘spiked roast pork. The hunk of meat is stuck with the tip of a knife, and in the cuts people put cloves of garlic and slices of smoked fatback, which gives it a unique flavor. In any case, there is nothing like the taste of smoked and salted fatback.



    Enjoy!

  • Traditional fatback

    Traditional fatback

    Today we will be talking about a preparation that is fundamental to traditional culture in Romania, as well as the rest of the Balkans, fatback.



    In fact, that is an approximation of the term, since its preparation may be quite elaborate, and the better term is the Romanian one, ‘slanina, which is a term derived from the old Slavic word for salt. Most neighboring peoples use a similar term, since most of them speak Slavic languages. ‘Slanina generally indicates fatback with the rind on, and is most times salted and smoked, sometimes spiced and seasoned. It is the most common way of preserving pig fat from the back or belly.



    Its making is closely related to the entire range of winter traditions related to the slaughter of pigs in traditional households in villages. Each area has its own ways of preparing it, and the methods also vary in terms of how long it is expected to last. In some villages, it is kept buried in salt. In others, it is kept in a brine. One version of that is using a brine made by dissolving two tablespoons of salt per liter of water. After bringing the brine to a boil, crushed garlic is added, then peppercorns and black pepper powder, thyme, and bay leaves. The fatback is set into a barrel or a large pot, then covered in the cold brine, and left for about three weeks. Then it is sent to get smoked.



    In certain areas of Transylvania, people salt the fatback using brine in which sauerkraut was made, which has a distinctive flavor and salty tangy taste. They add peppercorns and bay leaves to the brine. They first boil the fatback until a fork can be pushed into it easily, then they press it. After draining it, it is covered in a garlic paste, then sprinkled with paprika, sometimes mixed with chili powder. It is then kept in a dry, cool place.



    Before refrigerators, people used a room, sometimes a dedicated one, for hanging out their preserved pork products. In Medieval Saxon villages in Transylvania, the fatback was kept in rooms set aside in defense towers. Almost every fortified church in Transylvania has a fatback tower, which is actually called just that. Every family had its own set of hooks for hanging out their fatback. You could only go in there on Sundays, because the temperature was kept low by blocks of ice covered in straw, brought in during the winter months.



    No matter how you prepare it, you can eat the fatback as is, sliced thin, alongside other entrees, preferably with red onion or cloves of raw garlic, as the people in villages traditionally do when they go work in the field. Also, smoked fatback is essential to many other dishes, because it is the main method of lending a smoky flavor to cooked dishes. One of them is the famous ‘sarmale, of which we speak often in this feature. In some areas of Romania, it is even used to give a smoky taste to meat and vegetable soups, usually thick concoctions eaten in the cold months of winter. One other popular preparation is the so-called ‘spiked roast pork. The hunk of meat is stuck with the tip of a knife, and in the cuts people put cloves of garlic and slices of smoked fatback, which gives it a unique flavor. In any case, there is nothing like the taste of smoked and salted fatback.



    Enjoy!

  • Dishes from Maramures

    Dishes from Maramures

    Influenced by the Hungarian and Austrian cuisine, the historical region of Maramures boasts many delicious soups and sour soups, known as borsch, as well as many stews such as ragouts, paprikash, dishes of sheep cheese and plum dumplings. Plum dumplings is a dish commonly found in Hungary and Serbia and also in Transylvania. In Maramures, people use a lot of fatback or lard to cook, just like in Transylvania. Cheese and polenta are also frequently used in many dishes. The people of Maramures make stuffed cabbage rolls seasoned with sour cream, bulz – a dish consisting of cheese covered in polenta, and pancakes with sweet cheese and sour cream, which are cooked in the oven. Another dish specific to the region of Maramures is chicken stuffed with liver and vegetables, greased with lard and then cooked on a charcoal grill.



    An easy-to-make dish specific to Maramures, which is very tasty and quite filling, is polenta with cheese and pork scraps which is also known as layered polenta. Here is the recipe. Make regular polenta in a pot. Grease another pot with butter and place it over medium heat until the butter melts completely. Add a first layer of polenta, 2 centimeters thick, then add a layer of soft cheese and top with a thin layer of polenta. Continue to layer alternately polenta and various cheeses, like feta cheese, soft cottage cheese, which is similar to ricotta cheese, or sharp cheese and end with a layer of hard cheese mixed with sour cream. Cook the layered polenta in the oven over low heat. Serve with strong plum brandy distilled.



    In autumn, Baia Mare plays host to the Chestnut Festival, because the region is famous for the edible or sweet chestnuts grown there. Locals usually make chestnut puree served as a dessert, with whipped cream topping.



    To make this dessert you need one kilo of sweet chestnuts. Notch the chestnuts with a knife and boil them for half an hour, remove the husk and mash the remaining nuts. Add three tablespoons of sugar, a little butter and a few drops of rum flavor and mix into a puree. You can serve with whipped cream topping and grated chocolate. Enjoy!


    (Translated by A.M. Palcu)

  • Preserving pork

    Preserving pork

    Pork is a staple in Romanian traditional
    cuisine. So much so that slaughtering pigs is a tradition with a whole array of
    rituals attached to it, as you may know from countless other shows. Even though
    the weather in winter in Romania is quite cold, the large quantity of meat
    resulting has to be preserved by means other than cold. The most common
    methods, as in many other parts of the world, are salting, cooking or smoking,
    or a combination of those.




    One of the most common means of preserving
    various pork products was to put them in lard. Lard is traditionally obtained
    by melting small pieces of fatback in a large cast iron pot over an open fire.
    The resulting lard is placed in jars, and in that people preserve all manner of
    pork products, from simple cuts of meat to sausages. Sometimes raw sausages are
    fried in the lard they get preserved in.




    These customs are
    quite old, as old as the villages and cities they are kept. Many fortified
    cities in Transylvania, where pork is eaten more, had actual towers with a
    special room for preserving cuts of meat. In winter, men would cut blocks of
    ice and wrap them in straw to make cold storage. These towers were referred to
    as Fatback Towers. In order to prevent the ice melting, it was a general rule
    that people would only open the cold rooms once a week, Sunday after mass.




    Salted and smoked
    fatback is still a staple of winter meals, generally eaten with bread and red
    onion dipped in salt. Enjoy!

  • Traditional fatback

    Traditional fatback

    Today we will be talking about a preparation that is fundamental to traditional culture in Romania, as well as the rest of the Balkans, fatback. In fact, that is an approximation of the term, since its preparation may be quite elaborate, and the better term is the Romanian one, ‘slanina, which is a term derived from the old Slavic word for salt. In fact, most neighboring peoples use a similar term, since most of them speak Slavic languages.



    ‘Slanina generally indicates fatback with the rind on, and is most times salted and smoked, sometimes spiced and seasoned. It is the most common way of preserving pig fat from the back or belly. Its making is closely related to the entire range of winter traditions related to the slaughter of pigs in traditional households in villages. Each area has its own ways of preparing it, and the methods also vary in terms of how long it is expected to last. In some villages, it is kept buried in salt. In others, it is kept in a brine. One version of that is using brine made by dissolving two tablespoons of salt per liter of water. After bringing the brine to a boil, crushed garlic is added, then peppercorns and black pepper powder, thyme, and bay leaves. The fatback is set into a barrel or a large pot, then covered in the cold brine, and left for about three weeks. Then it is sent to get smoked.



    In certain areas of Transylvania, people salt the fatback using brine in which sauerkraut was made, which has a distinctive flavor and salty tangy taste. They add peppercorns and bay leaves to the brine. They first boil the fatback until a fork can be pushed into it easily, then they press it. After draining it, it is covered in a garlic paste, then sprinkled with paprika, sometimes mixed with chili powder. It is then kept in a dry, cool place.



    Before refrigerators, people used a room, sometimes a dedicated one, for hanging out their preserved pork products. In Medieval Saxon villages in Transylvania, the fatback was kept in rooms set aside in defense towers. Almost every fortified church in Transylvania has a fatback tower, which is actually called just that. Every family had its own set of hooks for hanging out their fatback. You could only go in there on Sundays, because the temperature was kept low by blocks of ice covered in straw, brought in during the winter months.



    No matter how you prepare it, you can eat the fatback as is, sliced thin, alongside other entrees, preferably with red onion or cloves of raw garlic, as the people in villages traditionally do when they go work in the field. Also, smoked fatback is essential to many other dishes, because it is the main method of lending a smoky flavor to cooked dishes. One of them is the famous ‘sarmale, of which we speak often in this feature. In some areas of Romania, it is even used to give a smoky taste to meat and vegetable soups, usually thick concoctions eaten in the cold months of winter. One other popular preparation is the so-called ‘spiked roast pork. The hunk of meat is stuck with the tip of a knife, and in the cuts people put cloves of garlic and slices of smoked fatback, which gives it a unique flavor. In any case, there is nothing like the taste of smoked and salted fatback.



    Enjoy!

  • Homemade sausages

    Homemade sausages

    Todays show continues our holiday series, bringing you traditional recipes left down from generation to generation in the countryside. Most of them involve pork, because pigs are the main source of animal protein in the peasant household in most of Romania. The defining pork product is sausage, which is on every table for the holidays. That is the reason for which so many Romanians make their own sausages at home, and this is one of the versions of sausage making used in homes all over the country.



    The typical Romanian sausage is made with one and a half kilo of fatty pork, two meters of natural pork casing, two heads of garlic, a couple of tablespoons of salt, black pepper to taste, a tablespoon of paprika, a cup of bone stock, and one tablespoon of thyme. The best meat is the fatty kind, such as belly, butt or neck. If you feel the mix is too lean, you can add some smoked fatback. First, clean the casings thoroughly, removing any extra fat with the back of a knife. Blow into the casing to make sure it is free of ruptures. Mince the meat, but make sure it is not too finely minced. Crush the garlic to a paste, and then mix with a bit less than half a cup of the stock and leave the mixture to rest for 10 minutes, then strain through a piece of cheesecloth.



    Mix the liquid with the meat and the spices. Knead well, adding gradually the liquid, until you have a soft mix. Place the special sausage fixture on your meat grinder, and roll the casing onto it. Put the meat mixture through the grinder, filling the casing gently. Once every half foot or so, twist the casing to separate individual sausages. After the entire casing is filled, cut any excess, then hang in a cellar or kitchen closet overnight to complete the process.



    If you want to have them throughout the rest of the year, the best option is to smoke them. The best thing about them is that you can cook them in a wide variety of ways, from frying in a pan to grilling them on an open range. They can be served with an equally varied choice of side dishes, from cabbage and beans to mashed potatoes.


    Enjoy!