Poland, day 5

September 9, 2013 • 3:13 am

I am typing this with one good hand as there is a cat draped over my other.  Excuse any typos!

Last night’s dinner was again Swedish, with the “peasant” dish potatis gratänt (potatoes au gratin with ham and other trimmings), salad, and pear nectar from local fruit to wash it down.

Dinner

Dessert was nöttoscä päron, or pears in compote with crumbles:

Pear compote

Gosia and her 2-year-old daughter Hania joined us for dessert:

Gosia and

After dinner, Andrzej exhibited his attempt at artificial selection for larger walnuts. Several years ago he found a giant walnut growing on one of his trees, and planted it in an attempt to get larger walnuts.  After seven years, that tree has finally borne nuts, and, sure enough, they’re all big.  If this happens next year, it would suggest that the selected nut was a “sport,” or mutant walnut that was genetically dominant for size. Here’s one from the selected tree (left) compared to a nut from its ancestral tree:

Nuts

After dinner there was a warming bonfire outside.  Emma the d*g joined us, but Hili the cat showed a fear of the fire, and climbed a tree instead.

Bonfire

Hili is an amazing climber, and within seconds was up in a plum tree, even trying to crawl out on the thinnest branches.  She had great trouble getting down, however, for she hasn’t learned that her claws are curved the wrong way.  Her predecessor, Pia the cat, did learn to back down the trees, allowing her purchase on the trunk.

Hili in tree

Hili spent a lot of time in the tree chewing on twigs, a behavior I wasn’t familiar with in cats.

Hili eats stick

A real chimney sweep came this morning! Here they still dress traditionally, in top hat and black clothing (they don’t, however, go into the chimney). A rope and brush were affixed to his back.

Chimney sweet

Homemade fruitcake for breakfast!

Fruitcake

A trip to the butcher’s yielded two types of sausage. These thin ones are called kabanos; a reader pointed out earlier that the casings are made from sheep intestines:

Thin sausages

This is a kielbasa swojska, which I suppose corresponds to a Linnaean binomial. These two encased meats will be part of today’s lunch:

Fat sausage

40 thoughts on “Poland, day 5”

  1. hmmmm Polish kielbasa — the national sausage of Cleveland

    Did the butcher have any kiska or did someone steal it?

    1. Kielbasa is the Polish word for sausage – of which there are hundreds of varieties. So Polish kielbasa does not make much sense. In the US, most of what is called Polish sausage is a greasy tube full of who knows what – unless you live near a Polish deli.

      1. My grandfather owned a Polish deli and made his own sausage. But sadly I’m still no wiser about the contents.

        1. Contents is basically meat with various herbs and spices (meat is mainly pork, than beef, wild boar, venison, veal, poultry and sometimes even horse meat – very good for “kabanosy).
          As in any other sausages in any other country, it varies according to type of meet, spices and production technics (the last makes for different textures).
          Polish sausages can be boiled, smoked, dried, steamed, and combination of that (smoked, than boiled, steamed than smoked, smoked than dried etc).

          In any Polish butcher shop (Polish as “in Poland”) you will find dozens of types of sausages, very different in taste, aroma, shape and texture. Some can be eaten as they are, some must be cooked, fried or grilled.

          “Polish sausage” has as much sens as “French cheese”. Really, there is much difference between Roquefort, Brie and Raclette.

  2. The super-size walnut is living proof of God’s existence. He has created a miracle for all His creation. (Creationist hat on today)!

  3. I have to comment upon Prof. Coyne’s eminently sensible decision to portray his visit to Poland by way of the dishes on the table. Such photos are strangely central to any culture, anywhere. But in fear of we being clubbed to death by delicious (kosher?) sausage, the good Prof. might just extend our delight with a close-up of his host’s bookshelf; by a street scene; by portraits of his host’s faces; by details of the kitchen and of food-preparation; and by photos of a nearby market-place. And, of course, photos of any audience to his talk(s). If there is time. Meanwhile, his bloggers are keeping the baby Jebus out of popular culture on his behalf, here in the thankfully sinful cities of The West.

    1. I have shown already several pictures of most hosts, but I don’t want to be so intrusive as to photograph their bookshelf, which is, as you might expect in a rationalist household, very similar to mine!

      There is a market here Tuesday and I hope to go, but I am isolated in the country until Thursday, when I talk. As always, I pledge, like Maru, to “do my best” with photographs.

  5. The chimney sweep reminds me of Hegel’s comment when he was employed by the university in Nuremberg to write a logic text book and also to teach theology.

    He said it was like being employed as a chimney sweep and a white-washer at the same time!

    (Reference here on page 14.)

  6. This is a kielbasa swojska, which I suppose corresponds to a Linnaean binomial.

    Great. Now all we need is the phylogeny of sausages.

    [Who will be the culinary equivalents of Linnaeus and Darwin of the worlds dishes? With the web we may need one…]

    But mostly it reminds me of this: “[Everything has an end] and the sausage has two”.

    Language correction:
    The spelling has been adapted to “potatis gratäng” which gives a pronunciation still reminiscent of “gratin”.

    Well, as they say, “potatis, potäter”. =D

    1. Oops. A correction to the correction:

      It wasn’t anything too wrong with using “gratänt”, merely a much less familiar (older? mistaken?) version. 45 google hits vs 780 000.

      Google is your friend!

      1. Heard on the radio this morning that Glaswegians are starting to talk with cockney accents apparently therough watching the soap ‘East Enders’.

  9. A wonderful depiction of your travels, as usual Prof. Coyne.

    I think I’ve put on weight just eating everything in the photos with my eyes!

    Vaal

  11. Hili spent a lot of time in the tree chewing on twigs, a behavior I wasn’t familiar with in cats.

    One of my cats does the same thing, so probably this behaviour is not unusual in cats.

    1. Both of my cats do that thing. It’s a kind of teeth brushing I think, because they do it usually after eating raw meat (but not after cat food).
      One of them uses also any string he can find and once even a thin copper wire, that he stole.
      Cats can floss!

  12. I wonder if rhe walnut is tetraploid. That would be the first explaination to cross my mind.

    1. Yes, I wondered that too. The native U.S. walnuts and hickories show very little variation in the size of the nuts (within a single species) and I’ve never seen a double-sized nut. I haven’t seen the cultivated European species.

      The giant walnut is very interesting and I hope the tree grown from it continues to thrive! I also wonder what the nut looks like inside (a giant version of the ordinary kernel, or multiple kernels, or…)

      Thanks for posting the photo!

      1. Good point about the size of the kernel. Near where I live there is a tree which produces nuts of the size shown, but the kernel is about normal size.

  13. The Polish word for chimney sweep is kominiarz. There is a short video (in Polish) about one:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_pDEBcKNr4

    Rubbing a button on the kominiarz’s is supposed to bring good luck or happiness or something positive.

    The Polish word for campfire is ognisko. I assume there was singing. Reminds me of my days in harcerstwo – Polish scouts. No separate organizations for boys and girls. Point one of the scout law was “Scout serves God and Poland and conscientiously fulfills his responsibilities.” So technically no atheists. Nothing was ever said about gays.

    Polish scouts had a more militaristic tone than American scouts. We had scout leaders who fought in the Polish Resistance (Armia Krajowa) as members of the Szare Szeregi – as young as 13 or 14. Here is an updated version of the song that opened the ognisko – which includes lyrics like defending our Polish borders –
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57BnGM88MO0
    Traditional version –

  15. Jerry,

    Tell us something about the prices of common items that can be purchased in the village, like a loaf of bread, sausages, gasoline, etc.

  16. I am typing this with one good hand as there is a cat draped over my other. Excuse any typos!

    Now you know what I put up with!

    …though, to be fair, right now Baihu’s sitting in the doorway…the main doors front and back are open (but, of course, with the screen / security doors closed) because we’ve been having a slow steady rain here all morning. Not that the temperature’s made it much (if any) below 80, naturally, and it’s powerfully humid…but, still…the first real chance to open up….

    Cheers,

    b&

    1. Dictionary definition:

      sport, noun

      3. Biology an animal or plant showing abnormal or striking variation from the parent type, especially in form or color, as a result of spontaneous mutation.

        1. Not sure. Do know I’ve heard it all my life, though. Enjoy your etymological endeavors. 🙂

          –Dian[b]e[/b]

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