Kielbasa Easter Tradition?

18 years ago

I've been seeing news coverage this year about the large number of people selling and buying "traditional Easter kielbasa" and my local Shop Rite was also advertizing it. Kielbasa is a staple at my house, but I never knew it was an Easter tradition. For me and my family Easter Tradition is either Ham or Spring Lamb.... and easter eggs and chocolate bunnies!!

Can any one give me any info on the kielbasa tradition? Thanks!

When I lived in Detroit area I learned about pre-lenten paczki (pronounced punchki) YUMMY!!! but not about a kielbasa tradition. I assume it's Polish, but then I'd expect I'd have heard of it before. Is it specific to New England?

thanks!

Bizzo

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (13)

kathleen_li
18 years ago
Oh yes, very big here with Polish and Ukrainian Americans. My dh is of Ukrainian ancestry, and he insists on it...Babka, pierrogi..all part of the tradition.
maggie2094
18 years ago
We had it yesterday - Holy Saturday. My grandfather on my mother's side was Bohemian (Czech). We always had it Christmas Eve as well.

I enjoy learning about the different traditions. We usually have Ham today but DH wanted Leg of Lamb - so lamb it shall be!
Related Discussions
Happy Easter
Q
Comments (12)
Best wishes to all. I had my brother and his wife and three kids come in and help us eat the great big ham I had ordered. Our local butcher smokes them himself; last year I asked him for the biggest one he could give me and it was twelve pounds, no bone! This year's was a mere 8 pounds, but it still was a nice big hunk of meat. I made a sweet potato-carrot puree to go with it --- a recipe from my aunt that has creme fraiche and a lot of butter; it calls also for a little bit of sugar, and instead I used some good local maple syrup .... MMM it was good. Even the kids, suspicous of orange potatoes, loved it. Way to go, Shirley, making homemade dinner rolls! I copped out with Pillsbury crescent rolls, though it was nice that it meant my 11-year-old niece could prepare them; she it at a stage where she loves helping in the kitchen so it was fun to have her working with me. I steamed some sugar snap peas and made a nice green salad with feta chunks and a maple vinaigrette (bottled by some local boutique, a gift from a recent visitor). We washed it all down with local hard cider, which goes SO well with pork. For dessert, I got some local vanilla ice cream and made a dead-plain cheesecake (just the recipe on the Philly Light package); offered people a choice of either one with a choice of rasperry sauce (from berries I got at a U-pick in July and froze) or a homemade bittersweet chocolate sauce. The best combo was cheesecake with a bit of BOTH sauces. This was one of my more successful holiday menus, I have to say. The ham just needed to be heated through, no prep at all (unlike a turkey); the sweet-potato puree, dessert sauces, and the cheesecake I made last night, so all I had to do at the last minute was steam the peas and put the salad together and supervise my niece with the rolls. And we have enough ham left to feed an army. John, got any great ham burrito suggestions? Zabby
...See More
Strange cooking traditions - just for fun
Q
Comments (43)
The baked instead of mashed I could handle...I'd just mash them up and put butter on them right there. But no gravy?? Jeepers, what do they do with all their drippings and innards? Do they not like gravy or is it just that nobody knows how to make a good one? In my twenties, I dated a Japanese man for several years. In his family, you weren't to eat anything on New Years Day until you had Mochi soup. On the seventh day of the New Year, you were supposed to eat a special seven Spring vegetable rice soup for good luck. Because all the family would come for New Years Day, the Mother of the family combined these traditions, and would make the soup with seven vegetables and mochi instead of rice. It wasn't vegetable soup like we think of it, but a very light fish broth, with the seven vegetables and the Mochi. Now, if you've not had Mochi, an explanation is in order. Mochi is made by taking a sweetish glutinous rice and pounding it into a sticky paste in a stone mortar. Then it is formed into little round, slightly flattened cakes and dusted in rice flour to keep them from sticking to each other, to the package, to the plate to you...you get the picture. Anyway, these are dropped into the boiling soup, the Japanese version of dumplings, where they hold their shape until you try to fish them out with your chopsticks to eat them. At this point, they stretch, and stretch, and when you take a bite, you chew and chew. Believe it or not, I enjoyed those sticky, gooey, bland piles of rice goop. I liked them better toasted though. If you put them in the oven or over a fire, the outside would get crisp and toasted, and suddenly split open, and the gluey mass would ooze out. These were eaten as a snack with a mixture of soy sauce and sugar as a dipping sauce. Mochi can also be a sweet, in which case the glutinous rice is sweetened, and the little cakes stuffed with a sweetened red or white bean (whole or pureed) filling, and dusted or flavored with various things. These are not cooked, but eaten cool or at room temperature. It's something like eating a soft fondant wrapped around marzipan, if you can imagine that more easily.
...See More
Something different for Easter
Q
Comments (9)
It more screams Cinco De Mayo but I made a Taco Buffet for my family last year and they loved the break from traditional Easter fare. This year I am doing a Prime Rib with roasted brussel sprouts and baked potato bar. Again not traditional but after Christmas we are a tad hammed and turkey'd out and my family wont do lamb so that option is out from the start.
...See More
Easter traditions: besides food
Q
Comments (18)
Mother would make all of us new Easter outfits and spring coats. Daddy bought all his "girls" corsages (I'd forgotten about that until Glenda mentioned it). It was usually the time that, when we got old enough, we got our first high heels. Otherwise, it was new Mary Jane's. When we were young we'd have an Easter egg hunt outside. One year it rained so daddy hid the eggs in the house. This is not a good idea unless you plan to count the eggs befoe and after the hunt. A few days later something began to smell. A missing egg. We looked everywhere before we finally found it. I remember they used to sell large chocolate covered eggs--I think at the dime store and they would engrave children's names on them. They had different fillings and my favorite was fruit and nut. That would be in the center of our baskets rather than a chocolate rabbit. There were also candy eggs with a hard shell in pastel colors that had a sort of marshmallow-y center and jelly beans. I don't remember peeps but I probably traded mine for something else. Dinner was ham and fried chicken, scalloped potatoes, green beans, perfection salad and mother's home-made yeast rolls. I know there were other things I've long forgotten. Dessert was lamb cake. We had a two-piece mold that, when put together made a lamb kneeling down. I thought it was held together with toothpicks, but the more I think about it I think icing between the halves kept it together. After it was iced it was loaded with coconut and eyes were made from jelly beans and mouth from a strip cut off a licorice whip. Then more green-tinted coconut was sprinkled around the base for grass.
...See More
pixistix
18 years ago
My (Minnesota) slovenian grandmother always included polish sausage in their Easter menu, as well as something called zelodic, which has the same flavor but is stuffed into a larger round casing and sliced like ham . . . atop a slice of sweet walnut potica: heaven!
vacuumfreak
18 years ago
I had it 3 days ago, but didn't know it was Easter tradition. I have to be careful because I can't stop eating it!
User
18 years ago
It sure is a tradition here in Baltimore, with our large number of Eastern Europeans. The lines stretch around the block at the few sausage maker's stores left in town, especially Ostrowski's.

In the Polish tradition kielbasa symbolizes God's favor and generosity.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kielbasa at Easter
jcrowley99
18 years ago
My Dad's side of the family is Czech, and my husband's Mom's family is polish. Both families always have Polish sausage for Easter. With sauerkraut, dumplings, hard boiled eggs, and baked ham on my Dad's side and with pierogi and boiled eggs on his Mom's side. I have combined the two family's traditions which makes for quite a feast.

Joanne
triciae
18 years ago
My uncle was Slavic & so we always had kielbasa on the Eastern Orthodox Easter Sunday (April 27 this year). It was sorta fun as a kid...we had two Christmas & two Easter celebrations...one for Orthodox & one for Rome. Oddly, my German-Russian side of the family lived in Russia from 1767 to 1907 yet retained their Germananic customs that followed Rome. So, ham it was on Easter with Dad's side of the family.

/tricia
linda214
18 years ago
Kathleen:

They don't know how to do it right. You should have that on Saturday.
Easter we have Chicken Wedding soup, Ravioli's with Meat Balls and Sausage.

Ham with Sweet Potatoes .Roast Turkey, with stuffing, Gravy and Cranberry Sauce.
Plus all the Veggies.Then dessert, Cheesecake, Homemade bread,etc.
That's all,
Happy Easter, LOU
Bizzo
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks all for the info! Momj- it was that news broadcast DH was listening to (and I was not) that prompted him to ask me if I had ever heard of Easter Kielbasa...
ruthanna_gw
18 years ago
Not all families could afford a ham or lamb for Easter. Years ago, sausage was more reasonably priced than either of those.
lisacdm
18 years ago
I'm Ukrainian. The Saturday before Easter we would go to church and get our Easter basket blessed. Our families basket would contain the food for Easter, which includes, Keilbasa, ham, hard boiled eggs, butter, farmers cheese, horseradish and paska (an Easter bread) and Ukrainian Easter eggs (not edible). The basket is covered by an embroidered cloth and when the service starts the cloth is taken off and a candle is lit.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ukrainian Easter Basket
annie1992
18 years ago
Lisa, that's an interesting tradition and something I didn't know, thank you for the peek into your Easter Basket.

annie
cat_mom
18 years ago
Where are the butter lambs?

Kielbasa Easter Tradition?

Comments (13)

kathleen_li

maggie2094

Related Discussions

pixistix

vacuumfreak

User

jcrowley99

triciae

linda214

Bizzo
Original Author

ruthanna_gw

lisacdm

annie1992

cat_mom

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Kielbasa Easter Tradition?

Comments (13)

Related Discussions

BizzoOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Bizzo
Original Author