Czech cuisine


Czech cuisine has both influenced and been influenced by the cuisines of surrounding countries and nations. Many of the cakes and pastries that are popular in Central Europe originated within the Czech lands. Contemporary Czech cuisine is more meat-based than in previous periods; the current abundance of farmable meat has enriched its presence in regional cuisine. Traditionally, meat has been reserved for once-weekly consumption, typically on weekends.
The body of Czech meals typically consists of two, or sometimes more, courses; the first course is traditionally soup, and the second course is the main dish. If a third course is eaten, which mainly happens at more festive occasions, it is usually a sweet dessert or compote. In Czech cuisine, thick soups and many kinds of sauces, both based on stewed or cooked vegetables and meats, often with cream, as well as baked meats with natural sauces, are popular dishes usually accompanied with beer, especially Pilsner, which Czechs consume the most in the world. Czech cuisine is also very strong in sweet main courses, a unique feature in European cuisines.

History

The 19th-century Czech language cookbook Pražská kuchařka by Karolína Vávrová shows influences of French cuisine in the order of multi-course meals common throughout the Habsburg monarchy, beginning with soup, followed by fish entrees, meat and sweets. Vávrová deviates from this standard order for the sweets of w:de:Mehlspeise type. These flour-based sweets, including baked puddings, strudels, doughnuts and souffles could be served either before or after the roast meats, but stewed fruits, creamy desserts, cakes, ice cream, and cookies were to always be served after the roast and for multiple dessert courses would follow this stated order.

Side dishes

Dumplings are one of the mainstays of Czech cuisine and are typically served with meals. They can be either wheat or potato-based and are sometimes made from a combination of wheat flour and dices made of stale bread or rolls. Puffed rice can be found in store-prepared mixtures. Smaller Czech dumplings are usually potato-based. When served as leftovers, sliced dumplings are sometimes pan-fried with eggs. Czech potato dumplings are often filled with smoked meat and served with spinach or sauerkraut. Fried onion and braised cabbage can be included as a side dish.
There are many other side dishes, including noodles and boiled rice. Potatoes are served boiled with salt, often with caraway seed and butter. Peeled and boiled potatoes are mixed into mashed potatoes. New potatoes are sometimes boiled in their skins, not peeled, from harvest time to new year. Because of the influence of foreign countries, potatoes are also fried, so French fries and croquettes are common in restaurants.
Buckwheat, pearl barley and millet grains are rarely served in restaurants. These are more commonly a home-cooked, healthier alternative. Pasta is common, either baked, boiled, cooked with other ingredients, or served as a salad. Pasta is available in different shapes and flavors. This is an influence of Italian and Asian cuisine. Rice and buckwheat noodles are not common but are becoming more popular. Gluten-free pasta is also available, made from corn flour, corn starch, or potatoes.

Breads and pastries

Bread is traditionally sourdough baked from rye and wheat, and is flavoured with salt, caraway seeds, onion, garlic, seeds, or pork crackling. It is eaten as an accompaniment to soups and dishes. It is also the material for Czech croutons and for topinkyslices of bread fried in a pan on both sides and rubbed with garlic. Rolls, buns, and braided buns are the most common forms of bread eaten for breakfast; these are often topped with poppy seeds and salt or other seeds. A bun or a roll baked from bread dough is called a dalamánek. A sweet roll or loupák is a crescent-shaped roll made from sweetened dough containing milk. It is smeared with egg and sprinkled with poppy seeds before baking, giving it a golden-brown colour

Soups

Soup plays an important role in Czech cuisine. Soups commonly found in Czech restaurants are beef, chicken or vegetable broth with noodlesoptionally served with liver or nutmeg dumplings; garlic soup with croutonsoptionally served with minced sausage, raw egg, or cheese; and cabbage soup made from sauerkrautsometimes served with minced sausage. Kyselica is a Wallachian variety and contains sour cream, bacon, potatoes, eggs and sausage.
Pea, bean and lentil soups are commonly cooked at home. Goulash soup and dršťková are made from beef or pork tripe cut into small pieces and cooked with other ingredients; the meat can be substituted with oyster mushrooms. Potato soup is made from potato, onion, carrot, root parsley and celeriac, spiced with caraway seed, garlic and marjoram. Fish soup made with carp is a traditional Christmas dish.
Other common Czech soups are champignon or other mushroom soup, tomato soup, vegetable soup, onion soup and bread soup. Kulajda is a traditional South Bohemian soup containing water, cream, spices, mushrooms, egg, dill and potatoes. It is typical in its thickness, white colour and characteristic taste. The main ingredient is mushrooms, which gives it the dish's scent. Kyselo is a regional specialty soup made from rye sourdough, mushrooms, caraway and fried onion.

Meat dishes

Pork is the most common meat, making up over half of all meat consumption. Beef, veal and chicken are also popular. Pigs are often a source of meat in the countryside, since pork has a relatively short production time compared to beef.
Jitrnice is the meat and offal of pork cut into tiny pieces, filled in a casing and closed with sticks. Meat from the neck, sides, lungs, spleen, and liver are cooked with white pastry, broth, salt, spices, garlic and sometimes onions. Klobása, known as kielbasa in the United States, is a smoked sausage-like product made from minced meat. It is spicy and durable. Jelito is a pork sausage-like product containing pork blood and pearl barley or pastry pieces. Tlačenka is a meat or poultry product consisting of little pieces of meat in jelly/aspic from connective tissue boiled into mush, served with onion, vinegar and bread. Ovar is a simple dish made from rather fatty pork meat. These pieces of lower quality meat are boiled in salted water. Pork cracklings and bacon are also eaten. Another popular pig slaughter dish is pork blood soup.
In restaurants one can find:
  • Goulash is a stew usually made from beef, pork or game with onions and spices. It is usually accompanied with knedlík or sometimes bread. It is also traditionally served at home as a pot of guláš will last for several days. Czech guláš is not to be confused with Hungarian "gulyás", which is a soup more similar to Czech gulášovka. Pörkölt is the Hungarian equivalent of Czech guláš.
  • Roast pork with dumplings and cabbage is often considered the most typical Czech dish. It consists of cabbage and is either cooked or served pickled. There are different varieties, from sour to sweet.
  • Marinated tenderloin traditionally used for this dish, ; na smetaně means in cream, and it means that the svíčková sauce includes cream. Braised beef, usually larded, with a svíčková saucea thick sauce of carrot, parsley root, celeriac and sometimes cream. This dish is often served with knedlíky, Chantilly creamsweet, whipped creamcranberry compote and a slice of lemon.
  • Baked mincemeat later only mincemeat, is a dish made from minced pork meat.
  • Ham is made from pork or beef, braised, dried or smoked.
  • Schnitzel is a Czech meat dish. The word means "sliced/cut piece". These are usually small slices of veal, pork or chicken covered with Czech trojobal 'triplecoat', made from putting and pressing a piece pounded and sliced into smooth flour on both sides, then covered in whisked egg and breadcrumbs and fried on both sides. Řízek is served with potato side-dishes. The Czech triplecoat is used in some households at Christmas to cover carp or trout decorated with lemon slices.
  • Karbanátek is a burger usually made from pork, beef, minced fish or other meat. It is often mixed with egg and commonly crumbled with Czech triplecoat. It can be vegetable-based with pastry pieces or flour and in both versions fried on both sides or baked.
  • Smoked meat with potato dumplings, fried onion and cooked spinach.
  • Beef with tomato sauce is served with dumplings. Dill sauce is often on menus too.
  • Rabbit is commonly bred in the countryside. Hare with wild game is also served. Mutton, lamb, kid, boar, horse or deer are not as common.
Commonly-found poultry dishes are:
  • Goose, duck, turkey and chicken. Pheasant, partridge, guineafowl, pigeon and other game birds are not as common.
  • Roast duck is served with bread or potato dumplings and braised red cabbage.
  • Chicken in paprika sauce or hen in paprika sauce is chicken or hen stewed with onion, paprika and cream.
  • Roast turkey with bacon is turkey larded with, or wrapped in bacon, roasted with bacon and butter; it is not very common.
  • Fishmostly trout and carpis commonly eaten at Christmas. Otherwise many fish are imported, including sardines, fillet, salmon, tuna, and anchovy. Other types of fish are slowly becoming popular too. Crayfish used to be very common in rivers, but are nowadays rarer and are protected. Prawns or lobsters are imported instead.

    Other dishes

  • Mushrooms are often used in Czech cuisine as different types grow in the forests. Czechs make an average of 20 visits to the forest annually, picking up to 20,000 tonnes of mushrooms. Bolete, parasol and other kinds of mushroom are often found. Shops sell common mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, shiitake, wood ear and dried forest mushrooms. smaženice are shallow-fried mushrooms with onion and spices. Mushroom Jacob is a dish prepared from cooked hulled grain, then strained, mixed with cooked mushrooms, fried onion, garlic, fat and black pepper, and baked in the oven. It is served at Christmas. Mushrooms are often triple-coated and fried. Cauliflower can be fried in the Czech triplecoat.
  • Smažený sýr is a fried cheese battered in Czech triplecoat usually Edam, about 1 cm thick coated in flour, egg and bread crumbs like Wiener schnitzel, fried and served with tartar sauce and potatoes or French fries.
  • Homemade noodles with ground poppy seeds are called nudle s mákem; these are served with powdered sugar and melted butter. A similar dish is potato buns with poppy seeds, and are called cones, because they resemble the cones of coniferous trees.
  • Omelette is often served with peas.
  • Pancakes of plate size or palm size are common.
  • The most traditional vegetables are carrots, celery, parsley, turnip, cauliflower, lettuce, onion, leek, garlic, cabbage, kale and chives. In gardens, one can also find tomatoes, bell peppers, courgettes, pumpkins, melons, sunflowers, poppies, potatoes and beet.
  • Peas and lentils are, together with bean pods, the most common. They are served as soup or as cooked mash with pickled cucumber and fried onion, occasionally with sausage or smoked meat. Šoulet is a mix of boiled peas with barley, fat and other ingredients.
  • Žemlovka is a baked dish made with layers of sliced rolls or buns called žemle, sliced apples and milk or eggs. It is served with cinnamon and raisins.
  • Štrúdl or závin can be sweet with apples, raisins, walnuts, grated coconut or cherryor savoury with cabbage, spinach, cheese or meat.
  • Semolina porridge is served with sugar, honey, cinnamon or cocoa with butter on the top. Optionally, sliced apples or apricots are added as toppings. Healthier versions substitute semolina with oatmeal or rice.
  • Stuffed bell peppers are stuffed with meat or rice with vegetables.
  • Lečo or lecsó is a stew made from peppers, onions, tomatoes and spices.
  • Spaghetti is coming in as an Italian influence.
  • Eggs are often used in Czech cuisine because many families outside of cities breed hens. Scrambled eggs are common. Fried eggs are often served with bread or potatoes and spinach. Boiled eggs are also popular. Stuffed eggs are made from halved, shelled, hard-boiled eggs. The yolk is carefully removed into a separate bowl, mixed with salt, mustard and spices and stuffed back. It can be decorated.
  • Dairy products have their place in Czech cuisine too. Edam is a Dutch-based type of cheese and Niva is a Czech blue cheese. A common pub food, nakládaný hermelín, or pickled cheese, is a cheese similar to Camembert that is aged in olive oil and spices. Typically served with bread and an assortment of fresh vegetables. Sour cream is commonly used as part of various cream-based sauces.
  • Christmas carp is a fish dish traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve throughout Central Europe.