Apparently, the original bigos was made with wild game. But over the centuries—the dish is said to be close to 700 years old—it has become a stew of many domestic meats. Smoked sausage, mostly kielbasa, is a given, as is either bacon or a smoked ham hock. Fresh sausages, pork shoulder, veal or beef are also used.
Bigos: A Stew With Many Variations
You should know that there is no one set way to make bigos. Every cook has her own secrets. So, far as I can tell, the only constants are: many different meats, cabbage, mushrooms and black pepper. There are two main branches to the dish, one using tomatoes and tomato paste, the other using prunes. I decided on prunes here.
Start With Good Kraut
A word on the sauerkraut. While you can make this dish with vinegared sauerkraut, you will need to rinse and wash it several times to remove most of the vinegary taste. You should spend some effort to find simple brined sauerkraut, which is kept refrigerated. Bubbies is an excellent brand. Use as many different kinds of mushrooms as you can, and definitely try to find dried porcini – most bigos recipes call for it. We used, dried wild mushrooms, fresh cremini mushrooms and a “chef’s sampler” pack of fresh mushrooms for this recipe. Grind or crush the juniper berries (if using) and black peppercorns roughly; you don’t want a powder. Cut the pork shoulder into large chunks, about 2 inches and set aside. Cut the sausages into similar-sized chunks and set aside. Drain the sauerkraut and set aside. Drain the mushrooms, straining the soaking liquid through a fine mesh sieve. Set the soaking liquid aside. Clean off any dirt from the soaked mushrooms and cut them into large pieces; leave small ones whole. If you are making the tomato-based version, add the tomato paste here. Once the pot is scraped and the cabbage and onions soft, remove from the pot and set aside with the pork shoulder. When the water is nearly all gone, add back the pork shoulder, the cabbage-and-onion mixture. Then, add the ham hock, kielbasa, optional Polish sausage, drained sauerkraut, caraway seeds, marjoram, ground peppercorns, and juniper (if using). You should not have enough liquid to submerge everything. That’s good: Bigos is a “dry” stew, and besides, the ingredients will give off more liquid as they cook. Bring everything to a simmer, cover the pot and cook gently for at least 2 hours. Bigos is better the longer it cooks, but you can eat it once the ham hock falls apart. Check at 2 hours, and then every 30 minutes after that. Bigos improves with age, too, which is why this recipe makes so much. Your leftovers will be even better the next day.
