Tlusty czwartek. (the fat Thursday)
Each year people in Poland celebrate a so-called “tlusty czwartek” – fat Thursday. The history of this day goes a few hundred years back to the pagans era (the era before Christianity came into central Europe).
In the Christian calendar, the “fat Thursday” is celebrated on the last Thursday before the big lent starts (the lent always starts 52 days before Easter). In Poland and a Christian part of Germany, people on this day are allowed to eat a lot of unhealthy food. 🙂
The history of faworki.
The two of the most popular dishes are doughnuts and faworki. Since I live in Poland I was always making and eating doughnuts (BtW, they are called paczki in Polish) but this year I have decided to make the faworki. And I have to say that this decision was a good one. 🙂
Although the name faworki is coming from a French word “faveur” which means a slim ribbon, they are actually coming from Lithuania and Germany (and also Poland 🙂 ). The dough is made from flour, egg yolks or whole eggs. Also, a bit of either pork fat or margarine and a small amount of alcohol is added to make the dough sucking up less fat from frying. (I have added vodka 🙂 ). The faworki should be crunchy, the dough should be thin and full of air bubbles. They should be sprinkled with powdered sugar on top and eaten immediately 🙂
Besides Poland, faworki are also eaten in Slovakia (fánky), Hungary (fánkok), Chroatia, Denmark, Sweden, Ukraine, Belarus or Romania.
interesting facts