Bigos
A plate of bigos
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| Type | Stew |
|---|---|
| Course | Hot starter or main dish |
| Place of origin | Poland |
| Associated national cuisine | Belarusian, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian |
| Serving temperature | Hot |
| Main ingredients | Various meats, sauerkraut, cabbage |
Bigos (Polish pronunciation: [ˈbʲiɡɔs]; Belarusian: бігас,bigas, or бігус,bigus), often translated into English as hunter's stew, is a Polish dish of finely chopped meat of various kinds stewed with sauerkraut and shredded fresh cabbage. The dish is also traditional for Belarusian, Ukrainian and Lithuanian cuisine.
The Polish word is probably of German origin, but its exact etymology is disputed. According to the Polish loanword dictionary edited by Elżbieta Sobol, it may derive from German begossen, meaning "doused" or "basted". Jerzy Bralczyk similarly derives the word from archaic German Beiguss, "sauce".Aleksander Brückner has proposed German Bleiguss, "piece of lead", as a possible source, referring to a tradition of divining from strangely shaped flakes of molten lead dropped into water. Maria Dembińska rejects this etymology as "doubtless erroneous", suggesting instead either archaic German becken, "to chop", or old German bîbôz (Beifuss in modern German), meaning "mugwort" (Artemisia vulgaris), a herb that was popular in medieval cuisine. Andrzej Bańkowski also points to Italian bigutta, or "pot for cooking soup", as a possible derivation via German.
The principal ingredients of bigos are assorted kinds of meat chopped into bite-sized chunks and a mixture of sauerkraut (pickled cabbage) and shredded fresh white cabbage. The meats may include pork (ham, shoulder, bacon, ribs, loin, etc.), beef and veal, poultry (chicken, duck, goose, turkey) and game, as well as charcuterie, especially various kinds of kiełbasa, or Polish smoked sausage. The variety of meats is considered essential for good bigos; its preparation may be a good occasion to clean out one's freezer and use up leftovers from other meat dishes. Some of the meats may be roasted before being diced together with other cuts of meat and braised in lard or vegetable oil.
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