Silesia, Poland

Poland

Silesia is the industrial heartland of southern Poland, centred on Katowice. Coal mining shaped the region for two centuries, and the food that came out of it — dense, offal-rich, sustaining — reflects that history. Krupniok, the Silesian blood sausage, holds EU PGI status since 2016. The miners' quarters of Nikiszowiec in Katowice, built between 1908 and 1928, are now a UNESCO-listed district and the site of the annual Święto Krupnioka festival. Traditional Silesian cooking runs on three staples: rolada śląska (beef roulade), kluski śląskie (potato dumplings with an indent), and modra kapusta (braised red cabbage). The groats and offal traditions of krupniok are inseparable from the working-class communities that made them.

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Sausages from Silesia, Poland

Kaszanka

Kaszanka

Silesia, Poland

Kaszanka is Poland's blood sausage, made from pork offal — head meat, jowls, snouts, and liver — combined with pork blood and cooked groats. Buckwheat is the traditional grain in central and eastern Poland; barley is more common in the west and in Silesia. The groats cook in meat stock and are mixed with the blood, which binds and colours the filling. Stuffed into pork middles, the sausage is poached until firm, then sold ready to eat. The Silesian version, called Krupniok, holds EU PGI status since 2016 and differs meaningfully: it uses lungs and cracklings alongside the standard cuts, requires 85 percent animal-origin content, and is tied into shorter, firmer links. A rice-based version exists in eastern Poland, producing a paler, milder sausage. Kaszanka is pre-cooked when sold — it needs only reheating and browning.

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