Slovak Grandmothers
The story of Slovak food would not be complete without mentioning the true artists of Slovak cooking, the Slovak grandmothers. Call them starká, babička or babka, these women can turn the simplest ingredients into the most amazing meals. In their hands, flour and water become melt-in-your mouth fluffy buchty, cuts of meat turn into juicy rezeň, and chicken becomes the most delicious chicken noodle soup you have ever tasted.
Both of my grandmothers are amazing cooks. However, it is my mom’s mom, Terka, who holds a special place in my heart when it comes to cooking. To me she embodies the true spirit of the traditional Slovak cuisine. She has lived most of her life in small villages, not only taking care of the house, but also growing her own vegetables and raising chickens, geese, pigs, rabbits, you name it. And also a dog and some 10 cats. She has never relied on any modern appliances. The only tools she uses in her cooking are her hands, few pots and the stove, which, currently is not even gas or electricity operated. It is a wood burning stove dating back to the 1800s. Yet, even without any marvels of modern technology, she is the most amazing cook I know.
My grandma Terka and her friend Paľo.
But I would like to hear your stories. Just about every Slovak and Slovak-American I know has some amazing memories of their relatives, those still living and also those who have passed on. Please use the comments below to share your stories. Not only will this help preserve these wonderful memories for future generations, I am also considering putting together a cookbook based on this website. I want the book to be more than just a collection of recipes. I want to use it to give the reader a feel for what Slovak cuisine means to us. I plan to use the excerpts (with your permission, of course) of these stories to do that.
Lubos:
I don’t know if you’ve saved any of my emails regarding my grandmothers and their extrordinary cooking. If not, I’ll see if I’ve saved any and send them to you again. Let me know.
Dick Uhrick
Dick, yeah I still have your original email asking about the recipes your grandma used to make. But maybe you could leave a paragraph or two here, describing in your own words your memories?
Hey! It’s interesting how each of our grandmother’s put their own spin on these familiar family recipes! I love looking in on the internet and finding new ones – but, mostly the old with a new twist. If interested, check out my websight! I’ve written the story of my Slovak grandparents in my book,
“Slovak American Touches” and published the recipes handed down from generation to generation. Sidonka Wadina and I then did another small “stocking stuffer” entitled “Slovak Recipes”. Her beautiful art work is shown on the cover as she bakes and decorates the traditional honey cakes or cookies. (We’ve heard them referred to as both.) Both books can be ordered through my website if anyone is interested. The book also includes a bit of history of the Slovak people and a lot of what is going on here in the USA with the Slovak Americans and also across the ocean.
I have dozens of cookbooks and some are Czech and Slovak. You can’t have too many, I always say!
Thanks for going through the work of putting yours on the internet! Really great!
Toni Brendel
Hi Charlotte. I would love to. What is the URL for your website?
You who had experience with your grandmother are indeed lucky. Unfortunately all my grannies died before I could appreciate them, on my mom’s side both parents were gone before I was even born, on my pop’s side, grandpa has died before I was born and grandma did when I was 13, not old enough to appreciate her cooking skills. Thus all I can talk about is my mom’s cooking.
It’s OK, I really appreciate reading the stories, I was born at the wrong time, WWII and my grandparents did not survived bad times after WWI and following depression.
Keep posting stories, I love to read them
Hola. Mi esposo era eslovaco. Gracias a él aprendí a apreciar su historia, su cultura y su comida. El me enseñó a preparar algunos platillos, y yo investigué por conducto de su familia, amistades o recetarios, la preparación de otros. El me decía que yo era la mejor cocinera del mundo, porque le preparaba sus comidas eslovacas favoritas. Por eso me encantó descubrir esta página, pues me gustaría preparar más platillos de este maravilloso país (aunque él ya no los podrá comer, ya que falleció en 2008). Muchas gracias!
Thank you very much for your comment – and thanks to Google Translate since I don’t know Spanish. Sorry to hear about your husband. Let me know if there is a particular dish you would like to see a recipe for.
Thank you very much for your kind words and your quick answer. I have printed many recipes of this page, but I would like to know about “pagaciky” (I’m not sure on the spelling); it’s a round snack made of a special paste with mak, cheese, cumin, etc. One more recipe I would like to know is “cebabcici”. By the way, if you want to know how to prepare slovak dishes in America (México is also in America), ask me! It’s not a joke, I had to suply some ingredients and use my imagination to satisfy my husband’s favorite dishes!
Hola. Parece que mi comunicación en español tuvo mejor respuesta que la que le escribí en inglés. Ya pasaron 4 días sin su respuesta. Saludos cordiales.
Hello. It seems that my abilities in Spanish had better response than I wrote in English. It’s been four days without response. Best Regards.
Está bien, hablamos cuando tenemos algo que decir, no siempre es una comunicación viva, cuando no tenemos nada que decir. Saludos cordiales y feliz de cocina
Okay, we talk when we have something to say, communication is not always a living, when we have nothing to say. Best wishes and happy cooking
Miro and Martha – please leave comments in English. This is an English (plus Slovak) language website. Although I don’t respond to all comments, I read them all. I have added the English translations from Google Translate to your posts.
I hear you, and I will
40 years after her passing I still tear up when I think of my Grandma, who forever imprinted me with the equation Good food = Great Love!
My grandma would cook for 8 children, 13 grandchildren, plus husbands and wives. I don’t know how she ever did it but every dinner and dessert was remarkable! Since she passed away two years ago I have been trying to learn what she had taught us through the years to preserve our culture and heritage but it is so hard and time consuming, I think I miss her cooking and respect it even more now. We live in PA but grew up with the Slovak heritage (Grandmas mother and father were from Slovakia and Grandpas father was also) and she was so proud to be Slovak she instilled it deeply within all of us. When I see the recipes on this page it makes me miss her even more because I would love to have shared them with her, but I know she is proud that I am carrying on the Slovak traditions that we grew up with.
Stephanie, that is such a remarkable story. Thank you for sharing. I think we are all very lucky to have experienced our Slovak grandmothers. You know, many Slovaks don’t even realize how much wonderful culture we share. It’s always great to hear of people like your grandma who despite living abroad, shared and passed on her heritage. I bet she would be really proud to see you following in her footsteps. Keep cooking and dobru chut!
Lubos:
Have been looking on your website and attempting to determine if your grandmother uses the “leavened” dough for making kolache? I was interested in the fact that she doesn’t use eggs and adds baking powder.
My husband and I just returned from a 6-week road trip traveling from West to East (Penna., VA, etc.) We returned by a different route to AZ. We stopped in West, TX to visit the Czech Village Bakery. This small town has a large proportion of its population who are of Czech origin. Technically, not Slovak, but I couldn’t resist the urge to visit the bakery and see what their offerings (particularly their kolache) would taste like. I was disappointed in what I found there and it sparked a search for an answer on a subject that I’ve been pondering since last Christmas when I baked a batch of kolache myself.
Specifically, my dough turned out more like “bread” dough than the soft sweet dough my grandmothers and mother used to produce. Therefore, I ask, do you feel that the use of cake yeast, the baking powder and the lack of eggs in your grandmother’s dough make a difference in the final product. My dough was not tough as she declares in the description of her dough prep on your website, but my result produced a bread-like final product. Needless to say, I was disappointed in my results and vowed to experiment with this another time.
Would you have any thoughts on this subject. Wish I could consult with your grandmother on this question. The Czech bakery in Texas was written up in an article in the now defunct “Gourmet” Magazine. The article was written by Jane and Michael Stern who wrote the “Roadfood” column. In my opinion, the bakery didn’t live up to the hype in the article, plus it sure didn’t jive with my culinary memories of baked goods the women in my family produced.
When you have an opportunity, maybe we can discuss this further. My email is listed herein, and the website is my husband’s who is talented photographer. He often publishes my photos on his site.
I could write a book about the women of my family who were fantastic cooks. They are all gone and I alone care about carrying on the “Slavic” traditions. Look forward to hearing from you, Lubos when you you have the opportunity. Blessings,
JoanB.
Here is my story about my grandmother.
That initial statement about grandmothers is absolutely correct! For about five or seven years (end of my high school years and beginning of college years) I used to sleep at my grandmother’s place almost every Saturday mostly to avoid my parent’s questions “where have you been all night?” or “What time did you come in the morning?” She happened to live in a center of a city of Trencin in Slovakia so anywhere I’ve been all night it was a shorter trip to bed to here place then my home. And she has been covering my night trips, unless she sometimes mentioned something unintentionally or undirectly to my parents. But the point is that for all those years my alarm clock was a wonderfull mix of smells of all the components of food she’s been cooking and baking for a Sunday lunch. Sunday lunch was allways a big thing. Traditionally the finest and largest lunch in a week. She used to keep traditions: fridays-no meat, Saturdays-some simple but substantial food such as Baked Potatoes with Sauerkraut (Pečené Zemiaky s Kyslou Kapustou) for example, Sunday-the best lunch in a week allways made of some kind of meat and some cake, Mondays, Tuesdays and sometimes Wednesdays leftovers from Sunday, Wednesdays, Thursdays whatever. So, on Sundays she used to wake up about 8AM and started preparing a lunch soon after. Sometime between 9:30AM and 10:30AM I started smelling an alarm clock from kitchen-the smell of food and also hearing the alarm clock from kitchen too which was a mass a live radio broadcast from a different churches in Slovakia. I woke up, had a breakfast already on a table, talked to my grandmama and listening following humorous radio programs, (one of them I listen to until today from podcasts here in the US is “Pálenica Borisa Filana”) while waiting for a lunch. I remember all four burners on her gas range and the oven working all at the same time, lot of dishes and food and ingrediences all around the kitchen counter. That smell comming out of a pots and oven was unforgetable. And no wonder why. She used to make everything from scratch, no frozen or canned food or semi-product unless absolutelly necessary, fresh-no “previously frozen” meat, fresh vegetables from our garden or from farmers market. If she used tomato it tasted like a tomato. If she used an egg it was a large brown egg with a dark orange thick yolk… Anyway, till these days I do not understand how she was able to handle making five, six or seven different kinds of food at the same time. And all within three hours. I remember when the bells of St. Martin’s cathedral in Bratislava started to clang in the radio she started putting plates on the table and pouring aperitif into a glass shots. It was either some better kind of Borovička (Juniper Brandy) such as Juniperus, or homemade moonshine – slivovica (Slivovitz, Plum distilate) or Hruškovica (pear distillate). Sometimes I could not even see it. You now why, too many of that kind of stuff a night before. In those situations I could not wait for a chicken soup. Actually not chicken but hen soup. And there IS a difference between chicken and a hen soup. So, Sundays lunch always consisted of a hen of beef soup with a homemade noodles. If beef soup then with a marrow bones if possible. I loved a hot marrow from a bones to put on a piece of bread salt it and eat it quickly before it cools. Regardless of what soup it was it smells great also because of all kinds of vegetables in it such as kholrabi (kaleráb), one whole unpealed onion, two or three garlics, celery root (celer), carrots, parsnips (petržlen), one leek (pór), savoy cabbage (kel), green parts of celery root in a bunch (she called it vecheť), parsley (petržlenová vňať), and not sure what else. I really liked all vegetables from soup but savoy cabbage was my most favorite. With little salt on it, I loved it. Her soups were always awesome. So, the first course was a soup with noodles, second the vegetables from a soup, third a meat of a soup if it was a beef or marrow, my dad liked hen’s neck. The main course usually was a breaded fried pork (vyprážaný bravčový rezeň or šňicľa) or fried veal steak (viedenský rezeň-Wiener Shnitzel) or fried breaded chicken with skin attached (kuraci rezeň). It came with cooked potato with butter and parsley flakes. Another days it could be whole baked chicken with stuffing in it and also separately baked in a piece of dish called “Srnčí chrbát” with a rice. Or it could be roast pork (bravčové pečené) with steamed dumplings (parená knedľa) and cabbage (dusená kapusta). Sometimes it was baked duck or goose, or Tenderloin on Cream (Sviečková na Smotane), and many other dishes. And allways some sort of fresh or canned salad(depending or time of a year), like cucumber salad (uharkový šalát) (hlávkový šalát, don’t know the english name), or tomato salad (rajčinový šalat) or canned salads made of cucumbers, culiflower, cabbage, grean beans, mushrooms, etc…(zavárané všeličo, uhorky, karfiol, čalamáda, huby, atď,) or canned fruits compot (Kompót). Obviously, it would be no Sunday without some kind of a sweat treat. I can not name all deserts, but among most known are Poppy Seed and Nut Roll (Makovník a Orechovník), apple roll (štrúdľa), (bábovka, mrezovnik), plum or cherry or apricot cakes (slivkový, čerešňový, višňový, marhuľový koláč, atď). After all that food feeling stuffed enough we (me, my grandmom, and often my parents) moved to a living room talking, watching a TV or falling asleep. After some time, she brought a bottle of beer for everyone, or took out a bottle of some kind of digestiv-cordial (Becherovka, Demenovka, Angelika liker, atd.). Well, I can say, Sunday lunches was always a ceremony, although mostly the same, I ‘ve been looking for it again and again and I so much miss it last seven years.
And I must mention my another grandmother living in a village and her sometimes experimental cousine that’s just another big story. I’ve been especially looking for The village feast (hody) and the village she lives in has it twice a year. And for her baked dishes then she mekes in a wood burning stove that are much more delicious than the same thing baked in a gas burning oven that she has as well.
Big big thanks to all Slovak grandmamas because I am sure 99% Slovak grandmamas are like mine. They make their grandkinds happy even they do not need to. I am sure if they have a choice of playing slot machines in a casino or cooking for us, they would choose to make us happy.
Rado, thank you very much for your awesome comment. I forwarded it to the Slovak World yahoo group, I thought the folks there (mostly second generation Slovaks looking to find out more about their heritage) would enjoy it. Thank you again!
Lubos:
Hopefully you saw my limited reply re. Slovak grandmas. I could overwhelm Rado’s post re this subject, but chose instead to questions you regarding the kolache question I mentioned above. Any thoughts? I haven’t seen any replies re. the dough question.
Regards,
jb
Hi Joan, yup I have seen your question. Sorry for not answering yet; I have been thinking (and still am) about how to answer it. My grandma’s buchty are somewhat bread like, although they are much softer than your typical bread. I myself have not yet been able to replicate the taste. Your question got me thinking though that I ought to perform an experiment on the effect of different types of flour and yeast on dough – I guess it’s the scientist in me. But it will be few weeks before I get to it. This past month was awful with deadlines for projects. I spent the whole weekend trying to get results for a conference paper that is due on Monday but got nothing. This is bit of a tangent, but I guess that’s why I like cooking. It always results in some tangible end, as opposed to my actual work where I can spend weeks on some task and get nothing in the end…
Lubos:
Thanks for getting back to me. I had a feeling I might have “tasked” you with a challenging problem, a culinary puzzle, if you will. I think that your idea of experimenting with different flours and yeasts may yield an answer, and I planned to do just that. Last holiday’s kolache batch got me thinking about experimenting with this question.
I realize you are a busy guy, so take all the time you need to get back to me. I won’t be experimenting myself until we move closer into the cooler fall weather. I’m not exactly of a mind to heat up the oven in my kitchen in triple digit weather. Some day I hope to compile and publish a warm weather cookbook; want to work on it with me? Just kidding, I know you have a great deal on your plate now. Still, I wish I could ask you grandmother about her thoughts. I wish I could go back into my grandmother’s kitchen. When are you back in Slovakia again?
Again thanks for the reply, I’ll look forward to hearing from you later.
Best,
jb
Hi Joan
Could you let us know what was in the dough recipe you used? If I could compare it, maybe I could offer a suggestion, too. I have several kolače dough recipes…moms, aunts, grandmas…maybe we can figure out the problem!
Luboš, I love your website! Hope to get on it more frequently when my time frees up a bit1
I do have a quick pagač recipe (that Martha was asking about)for those of us who just do not have time to go from scratch….if you like I can post it…I just printed it in the latest issue of the Slovak American newsletter that I edit.
Loretta:
King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour is my go-to flour for most things. Unfortunately, most stores where I live do not carry cake yeast (which is what my mom used). The cake yeast has a short shelf life and so they don’t stock it regularly. I had to use dried Fleischman’s yeast, the kind you bloom in liquid in lieu of the cake yeast. I can find cake yeast (if I’m lucky) in some stores around the holidays. Unfortunately, the store I went to was sold out of cake yeast that Christmas season. Based on that fact, I blame the dried yeast for the high rise product I produced, not the denser product I remember mom producing. I’ve considered that I should reduce the amount of dried yeast?
I too have quite a few dough recipes for kolače, nut roll, etc.; more recipes than anyone needs. Some come from several Slovak cookbooks I have, others from my family, (grandmothers, aunts, my mom). I’ll need to refer to my notes in a recipe database I use to see which recipe I took issue with. Mind you, the end product was not inedible, no one complained about it except me. Maybe I have “suppressed taste recollection,” I just felt this result wasn’t like my mom’s product. When she got bored, she monkeyed around (I know she liked to experiment) with all sorts of recipes, even one that used ice cream in the dough, which I still have. I do remember her saying that the ice cream version made the dough very difficult to handle.
I appreciate your input on this. This sort of detective work is fun. As I said I’ll check my database and notes and give you the full recipe later. AND, if you get the OK from Luboš, please post the quick pagač recipe. More later!
JB
Lubos:
I’m using a Mac with Safari to access this site. Is there any way I can change that ugly avatar that comes up when I post a message? I’d like to use my own photo, or avatar. I would also like to use something other than my full name on messages. How may I accomplish these things?
I would also like to contact Charlotte A.”Toni” Brendel, if she sees this would she be kind enough to contact me?
Best,
JB
Hi Joan, it’s quite easy to have your photo appear instead of these “monsters”, but you first need to create an account on wordpress.com. You will be able to upload a photo on the user profile page. Then, that photo will be used on all blogs that use WordPress as the engine to power them, such as this one. (more info at http://en.support.wordpress.com/user-profile/ )
I also forwarded your comment to Toni Brendel.
Lubos:
Thanks for the info. I need to think about all that info out there, but thanks for the instructions.
JB
Toni:
That’s what I wanted, your email and…your website address. I was in a crashing hurry and didn’t want to search for your location, so I enlisted Lubos and the Slovak website. Thanks for responding. Let you know how the website exploration goes. Sounds like you’ve posted some stuff I’d enjoy.
Later,
JB
I’m so happy I found this site. It takes me back to when my Nena would tie a aprin around me twice and teach me how to cook.
I miss her so much but we had our cooking!
I’m looking for the recipe of the garlic/hamburger “Schneetzla” does anyone have it??? Thank You
Kathy, you may be looking for fasirka, http://www.slovakcooking.com/2010/recipes/fried-hamburger-fasirka/
I know this is a grandmother sight..however my dad did a lot of the cooking when I was growing up…one dish in particular he made was what he called veal and machunka….that’s how he pronounced it anyway…it was chopped up pieces of veal in an orange sauce…if somebody could help with this recipe i would be forever grateful, as i never watched him make it … thanks in advance dave
Hi,
I just discovered your website today looking for some recipes on rozky and other delicious stuff. Will definitely try your kapustnica, I love sour cabbage and have plenty of dried wild mushroom from my mum.
My husband is German, I’m from Slovakia /mixed Slovak, Polish and Hungarian origin, like many Slovaks/ and our daughter is growing up in all those traditions but our food is mostly influenced by what my mum and Grandmas taught me. My mum’s mum is a Hungarian and she is a fantastic cook, cooking all famous Hungarian dishes, with plenty of meat and cream. She used to breed chicken, rabbits, ducks, geese and pigs when we were smaller and I still remember having the best roast duck /with pieces of skin fried and the fat and the chunks mixed with roughly mashed potatoes/ and served with her pickled gherkins with the most delicious dill and garlic. And my Grandda’s pancake cake /layers of pancakes and chocolate made from cocoa powder, butter and cinnamon/. She and through her my mum taught me to enjoy our food and value our traditions. My Grandma on my Dad’s side also taught me few cooking tricks, like adding celery leaves to chicken soup to get even better taste. My husband loves our classical thick lentil soup with sausage and gulas. My next big project is huspenina /pork aspic/ and I’m currently looking for a good butcher to supply me with hocks. My Grandma cooked the best huspenina ever, you didn’t even need vinegar to enjoy the great taste.
Thick potato soup with the above mentioned fasirka, yum yum. And white pumpkin soup with sour cream and tons of dill and a fried egg.
When my Grandma prepared her sweet stewed dumplings, she’s fry them on one side in pork fat and covered the frying pan to create steam. She then poured browned butter over the dumplings and covered them with milled poppy seeds and sugar. I just had my lunch /gulash with my own bread/ but I’m getting hungry just writing this.
I learned adding celery leaves to the chicken soup from my Grandma too. If I get lucky and find celery root with nice fresh leaves I cut the stems with leaves and make a bunch or two from them and hold them together with a sewing yarn. I do the same thing with italian parsley.
When we had a home fed goose or duck sometimes in the past I loved fat, roasted skin, liver and fried blood! My grandma fried the liver and usually chopped it to smaller pieces an mixed with fat and when it cooled she spread it on a slice of bread. Recently, I found duck fat in International Market in Las Vegas. Made by fabriquedelices.com
Hi,
I have been looking for a sausage recipe my grandmother used to make and I can only find it in one store locally.
Not sure of the spelling, but here it goes: Eternichki (park sausage, with spices and barley).
Instead of casings, it can also be baked in a pan if you choose.
Has anyone heard of it before or have a recipe?
Thanks
Ernie, you have a recipe right here on this site:
http://www.slovakcooking.com/2010/recipes/rice-sausage-jaternica/