Christmas dishes

On Christmas Eve, 12 fasting dishes are served, symbolising 12 months or 12 apostles. Another commonly practised custom is to prepare an odd number of dishes. There could be five, seven, ten or even eleven of them. Legend has it that the more varied the food, the greater the prosperity that will befall the participants.

Historical accounts show that back in the day, particularly in the countryside, Christmas Eve dinner, was prepared only from the fruit of earth: agricultural produce and fruit of the forest, rivers, ponds and lakes. This way, peasants paid homage to Mother Earth. Meals consisting of fish, considered fasting by the Church, were initially eaten on the Christmas Eve mostly in fishing households and in manors and monasteries, mainly in places with own fish-breeding ponds, which were quite frequent in Poland. 

With time, carp has become the most important fish meal on Christmas Eve in Poland. On Christmas Eve, they are usually served fried with grated horseradish or in jelly accompanied with vegetables. Not many people remember that they also used to be served in a grey sauce, called the Polish sauce, cooked on the basis of fish blood and wine.

A native Polish breed, called the Zator carp, has particularly delicate meat. In 2011, the Polish Zator carp received the Protected Designation of Origin status registered by the European Commission. The fish is raised in the Małopolskie Voivodeship, more specifically in three neighbouring communes: Zator and Przeciszów in the Oświęcimski Poviat, and Spytkowice in the Wadowicki Poviat.

Apart from carp, the traditional Christmas Eve dinner in Poland has to include borscht  soup made of beetroot or mushrooms with ravioli-type dumplings with mushroom filling, pierogi with cabbage and mushrooms, as well as salads and fish, including herrings prepared in many different ways. Christmas desserts include poppy seed rolls, honey-cakes, shortcakes with almonds, nuts and raisins, as well as stewed apple, pear and plum compote. Kutia (wheat with poppy seeds and honey), in turn, is a relic of old rites in the honour of the deceased.