🇵🇱 Poland
Rosół myśliwskiPolish game broth
'Hunter's' rosół: the clear Polish broth made from game (pheasant, partridge, venison or other game) with root vegetables, served with fine noodles.
Origin and history
Game has flavoured Polish broth since the baroque. Stanisław Czerniecki's Compendium Ferculorum (1682) built its rosół on beef, veal and wild birds such as partridges, hazel grouse and pigeons. Rosół myśliwski ('hunter's') is the name for the broth made wholly from game: pheasant, partridge or grouse, sometimes with a little venison, scented with juniper and wild mushrooms. Polish food writers single out pheasant broth as among the finest of all.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 3 h 15 min
- Hands-on
- 35 min
Ingredients
- 2 (about 2 kg in all)2 (about 4.4 lb in all) pheasants (bażanty), or 1 pheasant and 2 partridges or other game birds, cleaned, cut in pieces
- 300 g10 oz venison (sarnina or jelenina) on the bone: neck or shank, a small addition, for depth
- 3 l12 3/4 cups cold water
- 3 carrots, peeled
- 2 parsley roots (pietruszka) or small parsnips, peeled
- 150 g5 oz celeriac (celery root), peeled, in one piece
- 1 leek, white and pale green part, washed
- 1 onion, unpeeled, halved
- 10 g1/3 oz (3-4 pieces) dried wild mushrooms, ideally porcini (borowiki), rinsed
- 3 juniper berries (jałowiec), lightly crushed
- 5 allspice berries (ziele angielskie)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 2 cloves, optional
- 1 tbsp salt, adjust at the end
- 250 g9 oz thin egg noodles (makaron nitki)
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley, to serve
Method
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1. Rinse the birds and the venison under cold water and look the birds over for lead shot and feathers around any shot holes; remove them.
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2. Put the venison and the bird pieces in a large pot, add the cold water and bring slowly to the boil over medium heat.
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3. Skim off all the foam, then lower the heat until the surface barely trembles and simmer, partly covered, for 30 minutes.
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4. Lift out the pheasant breasts, which dry out with long cooking, and set them aside covered. Leave everything else in the pot.
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5. Add the carrots, parsley roots, celeriac, leek, dried mushrooms, juniper, allspice, bay leaves, peppercorns and cloves.
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6. Simmer at the barest bubble for 2 hours, without stirring and without letting it boil.
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7. Meanwhile, char the cut sides of the onion over a gas flame or in a dry heavy pan until blackened.
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8. For the last 30 minutes, add the charred onion and the salt, and return the pheasant breasts to warm through.
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9. Lift out the meat and vegetables. Strain the broth through a sieve lined with muslin or a clean cloth and taste it for salt.
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10. Cook the noodles separately in salted boiling water and drain them.
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11. Cut the pheasant breast into small pieces and the carrots into coins. Put noodles, a little pheasant and a few carrot slices in each bowl, ladle the hot broth over and sprinkle with parsley.
Notes
- How it differs from the parent rosół: the everyday rosół is a hen broth. Rosół myśliwski ('hunter's') is made from game, mainly wild birds, often with a little venison, and seasoned with juniper and wild mushrooms. It is darker and more aromatic, with a faint resinous note. The parent recipe on this site is the hen broth.
- Which game: pheasant is the usual base and the easiest to buy. Partridge, hazel grouse, black grouse or capercaillie were used by hunting households; a piece of roe deer or red deer on the bone deepens the flavour. Pork is avoided, as in every rosół.
- Game birds are lean. If you want a rounder broth, add a few chicken wings or a small piece of beef; the result is milder and less gamey.
- Farmed pheasant or guinea fowl (perliczka) can stand in for wild birds; the broth will be lighter and less gamey.
- Juniper is strong: two or three berries are enough. Some cooks leave it out and rely on allspice and bay.
- The rest of the meat makes a good fricassee (potrawka) or filling for pierogi.
- Make-ahead: the broth keeps 4 days in the fridge and freezes well. Keep the noodles separate.
- Other named forms on this site: rosół królewski (three meats) and rosół dworski z kapłona (capon).
Adapted from Piotr Bikont, "Skąpany w rosole" (Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna), Gotujmy.pl, "Rosół z bażanta", and Monika Słowikowska, "Rosół z bażanta" (Fajne Gotowanie).
At the festivals
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