Slovak cuisine varies slightly from region to region across

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

. It was influenced by the traditional

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...

of its neighbours and it influenced them as well. The origins of traditional Slovak cuisine can be traced to times when the majority of the population lived self-sufficiently in villages, with very limited food imports and exports and with no modern means of

food preservation Food preservation includes processes that make food more resistant to microorganism growth and slow the oxidation of fats. This slows down the decomposition and rancidification process. Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit ...

processing Processing is a free graphical library and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching non-programmers the fundamentals of computer programming ...

. This gave rise to a cuisine heavily dependent on a number of staple foods that could stand the hot summers and cold winters. These included wheat, potatoes, milk and milk products, pork meat, sauerkraut and onion. To a lesser degree beef, poultry, lamb and goat, eggs, a few other local vegetables, fruit and wild mushrooms were traditionally eaten. All these were usually produced and processed by families themselves with some local trade at the country markets. Wheat was ground, and bread, dumplings and noodles were made from it. Potatoes were mostly boiled or processed into potato dough. Milk was processed into a wide range of products such as butter, cream, sour cream, buttermilk, and various types of cheese etc. Typical pork products include sausages, smoked bacon, and lard. Spices were not widely used, and animal fats and butter were used instead of cooking oils. Main beverages included fresh and sour milk, and beer. Contemporary Slovak cuisine is widely influenced by various world cuisines and uses many different ingredients, spices and industrially processed foods.

Slovak dishes

* ** : potato dumplings with

bryndza Bryndza (from Romanian ''brânză'' cheese) is a sheep milk cheese made across much of East-Central Europe, primarily in or around the Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania and southern Poland. Bryndza cheese is creamy white in a ...

, a sheep's-milk cheese ** * : (pancakes made of potato dough baked directly on the stove) * * : tagliatelle with

quark A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. All commonly ...

(farmer's cheese) and fried

bacon Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...

* : potato pancakes fried in oil, also called in the Horehronie, Pohronie, Kysuce regions or , in the Orava region * , also known as and * : a dish consisting of pork stew with sauerkraut and cream or sour cream, usually served with steamed dumplings () * : schnitzel, usually breaded * File:Bryndzové pirohy.JPG, (cheese-filled dumplings) File:Bravcove s milanskou.JPG, Pork with Milanese sauce and yeast dumplings File:VianocnaRyba.JPG, Wiener Schnitzel and potato salad File:RezenPrirodny.JPG, "Natural-style" (unbreaded) chicken schnitzel

Soups and sauces

* (soup made of beans, usually with pork meat and/or sausages) * (soup made of

sauerkraut Sauerkraut (; , "sour cabbage") is finely cut raw cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria. It has a long shelf life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid formed when the bacteria ...

), often also mushrooms, meat and sausage, and sometimes served in a bread bowl * (chicken soup with noodles) * (

based soup) * Tripe soup * , traditional goulash soup * , simple goulash soup made of different vegetables, potato and meat (usually

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

) cooked together for some hour * Venison goulash, traditionally from

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

, often served in a bread cup * Garlic soup

Meat

Pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved ...

and

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, qu ...

are the main meats consumed in Slovakia, with pork being the most popular by a substantial margin. Among poultry, chicken is most common, although duck, goose, and turkey are also well established. Game meats, especially boar, rabbit, and

venison Venison originally meant the meat of a game animal but now refers primarily to the meat of antlered ungulates such as elk or deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edibl ...

, are also widely available throughout the year. Lamb and goat are also available, but for the most part are not very popular. The consumption of horse meat is generally frowned upon. Grilled meat is not common in Slovakia. Instead, meat is either breaded and fried in oil ( schnitzel), or cooked and served in sauce. Hungarian influences in Slovak cuisine can be seen in popular stews and goulashes. However, these have been given Slovak touches. Chicken paprikash is typically served with halušky and Hungarian goulash (spicy beef stew) is served with slices of a large bread-like steamed dumpling. Local sausage types include , a

blood sausage A blood sausage is a sausage filled with blood that is cooked or dried and mixed with a filler until it is thick enough to solidify when cooled. Most commonly, the blood of pigs, sheep, lamb, cow, chicken, or goose is used. In Europe and the ...

, and (traditionally called ), a sausage with rice containing any and all parts of a butchered pig. File:Jaternice.jpg, File:Krvavnicka.jpg,

Traditional sweets and cookies

Usually baked at Christmas time, but also all year long, Slovak traditional sweets are usually home baked and harder to find in stores. * * (steamed dumplings with various fillings (jam, plum, curd, poppy) topped with poppy seeds, sugar, butter, sour cream, breadcrumbs or nuts, similar to Austrian Germknödel, and Chinese

Baozi Baozi (), Pao-tsih or bao, is a type of yeast-leavened filled bun in various Chinese cuisines. There are many variations in fillings (meat or vegetarian) and preparations, though the buns are most often steamed. They are a variation of '' m ...

buns) * (

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

meringue cookies with walnuts and creamy filling) * ( bread pudding) * (two layers of cookie-like round tarts "glued" with marmalade and poured with powdered sugar) * (rice pudding) * (sweet walnut roll) * (poppy seed roll) * (rolls of leavened dough filled with ground poppy seed or walnut, filling determines the shape) * (two layers of cookie-like round tarts filled with chocolate cream and half-dipped in dark chocolate) * (honey based cookies, similar to gingerbread) * (

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of ...

flavoured biscuits) * ("bear paws" - walnut/cocoa based cookies) * or , a traditional cake baked on a rotating spit over open fire

Main daily meal

Traditionally the main meal of the day is lunch, eaten around noon. However, changing work routine has altered this in the recent decades; today, many Slovaks have their main meal in the evening. Lunch in Slovakia usually consists of soup and a main course. It is customary in Slovakia to bring a bottle of wine or other alcohol as a gift if one is invited to visit someone's home.

Books on Slovak cuisine

* Ján Babilon: , 1870 * Vojtech Španko . Osveta, Martin, 1977, 4.vydanie 1982 * František Kotrba: , Dona, * Anna Demrovská: , Knižné centrum, 2007, * Ľudmila Dullová: , Ikar, 2007, * Jana Horecká: , 2007, * Daša Racková: , Ikar, 2007, * Zora Mintalová - Zubercová: , Vydavateľstvo Matice slovenskej, 2009, * Zora Mintalová - Zubercová: , Vydavateľstvo Matice slovenskej, 2010,

External links

Illustrated Slovak recipes
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