Home recipe kuchnia polska

Kapuśniak

Name: Kapuśniak
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 110 min
Total time: 130 min
Cuisine: kuchnia polska
Ingredients: 500 g pork ribs (smoked or 300 g raw and 200 g smoked); 1.8 l cold water; 1 pc carrot (about 120 g); 1 pc parsley (root) (about 80 g); 50 g celery (a piece); 1 pc onion (about 100 g); 1 pc bay leaf; 3 pcs allspice (berries); 400 g sauerkraut (taste before adding; rinse very sour or salty cabbage); 500 g potatoes (peeled, diced); 1 tsp caraway (whole seeds); 1 tbsp dried marjoram; salt (only at the end, to taste); black pepper (freshly ground); 100 g smoked bacon (diced); 1 pc onion (small, finely chopped, optional); 1 tbsp wheat flour (about 10 g; roux is optional); 1 tbsp lard, clarified butter or oil; parsley (chopped)

A thick soup made from sauerkraut, pork ribs, potatoes, smoked bacon, caraway seeds, and marjoram. Includes tips on when to rinse the cabbage, how to avoid oversalting the soup, and what sauerkraut to buy abroad.

Servings: 4 servings
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 50 min
Total time: 2 h 10 min
Difficulty: Easy

Domowy kapuśniak z ziemniakami, kiszoną kapustą i mięsem w głębokim talerzu z łyżką

The story behind the recipe

Zygmunt Gloger in his "Encyklopedja staropolska" (1900–1903) wrote that "among the most beloved Polish soups, alongside: borscht, barley soup, broth, duck blood soup, and pea soup, was kapuśniak." He also mentions an older name: kapustniak. Kapuśniak "had to be thick, i.e., with a large amount of cabbage, with pork, bacon, or sausage." It was usually eaten with peas, which were mixed into the soup, and from this Gloger derives the saying "like peas and cabbage."

Nineteenth-century cookbooks prepare kapuśniak with meat. Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa in "365 dinners for 5 zlotys" (1871 edition) wrote: "The tastiest kapuśniak is made with half beef and half pork." It can also be cooked with smoked meat, which "should be scalded and rinsed several times," and for fasting days, she provided a version with mushrooms. "Polish Cuisine" from 1912 adds beef, smoked meat, and sausage, while bacon with onion is invited with flour, "to make the soup thick." Elżbieta Kiewnarska in 1929 advised: "The longer kapuśniak cooks, the tastier it is. It is best made on the eve of the day it is to be served."

Each region has its version. In Podhale, they cook kwaśnica, in Pomerania, they have szarpak made from sauerkraut and parzybroda from fresh cabbage. The name parzybroda comes from the fact that "hot cabbage leaves stuck to the chin and burned it." Both Pomeranian kapuśniaks are on the List of Traditional Products of the Ministry of Agriculture (szarpak since 2011, parzybroda since 2014), and in 2025, kapuśniak with sugar beet and potatoes from Leonin was added. There is no general entry for "kapuśniak" on the list. Related soups are made in Slovakia (kapustnica) and Ukraine (kapusniak). It is a soup for everyday use, cooked without meat on fasting days.

Ingredients

Broth

500 g pork ribs (smoked or 300 g raw and 200 g smoked)
Abroad: Germany: Kasseler; USA and UK: smoked pork spare ribs or fresh pork spare ribs
1.8 l cold water
1 pc carrot (about 120 g)
1 pc parsley (root) (about 80 g)
Abroad: parsley root; Germany: Petersilienwurzel; substitute: parsnip
50 g celery (a piece)
Abroad: USA: celery root; UK: celeriac
1 pc onion (about 100 g)
1 pc bay leaf
3 pcs allspice (berries)

Soup

400 g sauerkraut (taste before adding; rinse very sour or salty cabbage)
Abroad: UK: Krakus Sauerkraut (Morrisons); USA: Silver Floss Barrel Cured Sauerkraut; ingredients: cabbage, water, salt, without vinegar
500 g potatoes (peeled, diced)
1 tsp (about 3 g) caraway (whole seeds)
Abroad: caraway seeds; Germany: Kümmel; not cumin
1 tbsp (15 ml) dried marjoram
Abroad: marjoram; Germany: Majoran
salt (only at the end, to taste)
black pepper (freshly ground)

Bacon and Roux

100 g smoked bacon (diced)
Abroad: USA: slab bacon; UK: smoked streaky bacon; Germany: Bauchspeck geräuchert
1 pc onion (small, finely chopped, optional)
1 tbsp wheat flour (about 10 g; roux is optional)
Abroad: USA and Canada: all-purpose flour; UK: plain flour
1 tbsp (15 ml) lard, clarified butter or oil

To Serve

parsley (chopped)

Method, step by step

Cut the ribs into 2–3 pieces. Rinse the smoked meat and scald it with boiling water, as old cookbooks advised. Pour 1.8 liters of cold water over the ribs, bring to a boil, skim off the foam, cover, and simmer on low heat for 40 minutes. The broth should only gently bubble.
Add the peeled carrot, parsley, celery, and onion whole, along with the bay leaf and allspice. Cook for another 30 minutes, until the meat is tender and starts to pull away from the bone.
Remove the ribs, take the meat off the bones, and cut it into cubes. Set it aside; it will return to the soup at the end.
Add the diced potatoes to the broth and cook for 10 minutes.
Taste the cabbage. If it is very sour or salty, rinse it, then squeeze and chop it. Add it to the pot along with the caraway and marjoram and cook for about 20 minutes. Remove the whole vegetables from the soup, grate the carrot, and put it back in.
Place the bacon in a cold pan and render it on medium heat for about 10 minutes, until it browns. If adding onion, toss it in with the bacon at the end and sauté until translucent in the rendered fat.
Roux (optional): to the fat in the pan, add the flour, a spoonful of lard or oil, and stir until the flour lightly browns. Gradually mix it with a ladle of hot broth, whisking until smooth. Transfer the entire contents of the pan to the pot and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the diced meat to the soup, season with pepper, mix, and taste. Only now add salt, as the smoked meat, bacon, and cabbage have already contributed a lot of salt.
Serve hot, sprinkled with parsley. If you have time, cook the kapuśniak the day before and just reheat it; it tastes best that way.

Tips

Rinse or not. First, taste the cabbage. Kwestia Smaku always rinses it, while Ania Gotuje does not rinse it at all and only advises rinsing very sour or salty cabbage lightly. Unrinsed cabbage, with juice, gives a distinctly sour soup.

Too sour. Next time rinse the cabbage before adding. You can add some broth or water to the finished soup.

Not sour enough. Add unrinsed cabbage, along with the juice. In the past, the basis of kapuśniak was cabbage brine.

Too salty. Smoked meat, bacon, and sauerkraut are salty on their own, so salt is only added at the end, after tasting.

What cabbage. Kiewnarska wanted "good fermented cabbage (not over-fermented)." The taste of the soup depends on the broth and the cabbage, so buy it where you know it is good.

Lumps in the roux. Gradually mix the roux with hot broth, spoon by spoon, while constantly whisking, and only pour the smooth mixture into the pot. The roux is optional: without it, the soup will be thinner, and you can also thicken it with a spoon of flour mixed in cold water.

Potatoes. In this recipe, they are cooked in the soup before adding the cabbage. You can also cook them separately in a small amount of salted water and add them at the end along with that water.

Proportions. This is a home version for 4 servings, about 2 liters of soup. Recipes vary in the amount of cabbage and potatoes, so adjust them to your cabbage and how thick you like your soup.

What to serve with. Hot, sprinkled with parsley, with crispy bacon on top. In the past, meat was diced directly into the bowl, and peas were served separately or mixed with the soup.

Storage. Kapuśniak is best the next day, as Kiewnarska advised. According to the American USDA, cooked soup can be kept in the fridge for 3–4 days, and in the freezer, it retains the best quality for about 2–6 months. Reheat the soup to a boil.

Abroad. In the UK, Morrisons has Polish cabbage Krakus Sauerkraut. In the USA, the blog Polish Your Kitchen recommends Silver Floss Barrel Cured Sauerkraut. Look for cabbage that contains only cabbage, water, and salt (cabbage, water, salt), without vinegar: cabbage in vinegar is not fermented, and if you have no other, rinse it well. Raw cabbage from the fridge (raw, unpasteurized) is more sour and crunchy than canned. In Germany, look for smoked ribs as Kasseler. In the USA and the UK, you can use smoked pork spare ribs or fresh pork spare ribs and more smoked bacon. Parsley root is parsley root (Hamburg parsley), in Germany Petersilienwurzel, and as a substitute, you can use parsnip. Caraway is caraway seeds, in Germany Kümmel: do not confuse it with cumin.

Photos

Kapuśniak z ziemniakami w talerzu, widok z góry

Soups Polish cuisine Substitutes abroad

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