A pączek is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened ball and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. Pączki are usually covered with powdered sugar, icing, glaze, or bits of dried orangezest. A small amount of grain alcohol (traditionally rectified spirit) is added to the dough before cooking; as it evaporates, it prevents the absorption of oil deep into the dough.[1]Pączki are commonly thought of as fluffy but somewhat collapsed, with a bright stripe around them; these features are seen as evidence that the dough was fried in fresh oil.[2][3]
Pączki have been known in Poland at least since the Middle Ages. Jędrzej Kitowicz wrote that during the reign of Augustus III, under the influence of French cooks who came to Poland, pączki dough was improved so that pączki became lighter, spongier, and more resilient.[citation needed]
Pączki displayed for sale
Traditional pączki serowe (curd-based pączki) or oponki
Home-made glazed pączki
American-made pączki
Etymology, spelling, and pronunciation
The Polish word pączek[ˈpɔ̃t͡ʂɛk] (plural: pączki[ˈpɔ̃t͡ʂkʲi]) is a diminutive of the Polish word pąk[ˈpɔŋk] "bud".[6] The latter derives from Proto-Slavic*pǫkъ, which may have referred to anything that is round, bulging and about to burst (compare Proto-Slavic *pǫknǫti "to swell, burst"), possibly of ultimately onomatopoeic origin.[7][8] From Polish the word has been borrowed into several other Slavic languages, where the respective loanwords (ponchik,[a]ponchyk[b] or ponichka[c]) refer to a similar ball-shaped pastry.[9][10][11]
English speakers typically use the plural form of the Polish word in both singular and plural. They pronounce it as /ˈpʊntʃki,ˈpʊnʃ-,ˈpʌntʃ-,ˈpɒntʃ-/[d] and often write it as "paczki", i.e., without the ogonek (hook-shaped diacritic).[12][13][14][15] This should not be confused with the unrelated Polish word paczki[ˈpat͡ʂkʲi], which is the plural form of paczka[ˈpat͡ʂka], meaning "package" or "parcel".[16]
In Poland, pączki are eaten especially on Fat Thursday (Tłusty Czwartek), the last Thursday prior to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.[17] The traditional reason for making pączki was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house, because their consumption was forbidden by Christian fasting practices during the season of Lent.[citation needed]
The Pączki Day celebrations in some areas are even larger than many celebrations for St. Patrick's Day.[citation needed] In Hamtramck, Michigan, an enclave of Detroit, there is an annual Pączki Day (Shrove Tuesday) Parade,[5] which has gained a devoted following. Throughout the Metro Detroit area, it is so widespread that many bakeries attract lines of customers for pączki on Pączki Day.[19] In suburban Cleveland, Eastern European bakery Rudy's Strudel hosts a large indoor and outdoor Paczki Day party in conjunction with neighboring record store, The Current Year. It is called "the Mardi Gras of the Midwest".[20]
In some areas, Pączki Day is celebrated with pączki-eating contests.[citation needed]
^Lukach, Adam (23 February 2017). "Paczki day specials from 33 Chicago restaurants and bakeries". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 26 February 2017. Whether you celebrate Paczki day on Fat Thursday or Fat Tuesday, or both, area bakeries are ready with thousands of the filled treats.
Doroszewski, Witold, ed. (1969). "Słownik Języka Polskiego" [Polish Dictionary] (in Polish). Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
Dumanowski, Jarosław; Jankowski, Rafał, eds. (2011). Moda bardzo dobra smażenia różnych konfektów [A Very Good Way of Frying Various Confections]. Monumenta Poloniae Culinaria (in Polish). Vol. 2. Warszawa: Muzeum Pałac w Wilanowie. ISBN978-83-60959-18-3.
Kitowicz, Jędrzej (1840). Opis obyczajów i zwyczajów za panowania Augusta III [Description of customs and habits under Augustus III] (in Polish). Poznań: Edward Raczyński.
Kuroń, Maciej (2004). Kuchnia polska: Kuchnia Rzeczypospolitej wielu narodów [Polish Cuisine: Cuisine of a Commonwealth of Many Nations] (in Polish). Czarna Owca. ISBN83-89763-25-7.
Lemnis, Maria; Vitry, Henryk (1979). W staropolskiej kuchni i przy polskim stole [Old Polish Traditions in the Kitchen and at the Table] (in Polish). Warszawa: Interpress.
"Lista produktów tradycyjnych" [List of traditional products] (in Polish). Ministerstwo Rolnictwa i Rozwoju Wsi. Archived from the original on 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2016-06-15.
Łozińska, Maja; Łoziński, Jan (2013). Historia polskiego smaku: kuchnia, stół, obyczaje [History of the Polish Taste: Kitchen, Table, Customs] (in Polish). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. ISBN978-83-7705-269-3.
Mish, Frederick C. (2004). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.).
Neilson, William Allan; Knott, Thomas A.; Carhart, Paul W. (1947) [1934]. Webster's New International Dictionary (2nd ed.).