I came across Cap’n Ron’s lamb made of butter shavings the other day, and I find it really endearing. According to Wikipedia, it is a Polish Catholic tradition to make a lamb out of butter for Easter. Which got me curious about other interesting traditional Easter foods out there. Of course there are Easter eggs, but what else? I think the food people eat for rituals (and the story behind it) is often so fascinating.
16 thoughts on “Polish Butter Lamb”
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My family always has rice pie for Easter! I just moved away and it’s my first Easter away from my family so I am going to try my hand at making a rice pie myself :)
I don’t know if everyone has this worldwide but simnel cake is traditional in England. Thats a fruit cake with almond paste topping and 11 balls of almond paste, toasted on top. We also have hot cross buns.
A more modern easter food that the kids make in school is a nest made of broken up shredded wheat that has been coated in chocolate (or a mixture of golden syrup, sugar, butter and cocoa). This is left to cool then filled with the small sugar coated chocolate eggs. You can also use cornflakes for the nest and you can top it with a little fluffy chick.
I was surprised to learn, just the other day, that chicken traditionally begin laying at Easter, hence the egg connection.
We always have Paska, which is Hungarian Easter bread. It’s a marbled bread that tastes quite sweet, much like Challah. My grandmother’s whole family were Hungarian immigrants, and so we get this delicious tradition from her. I look forward to it every year.
Lamb cakes are another Polish Easter tradition. That is to say, cakes in the shape of a lamb, not a cake made of lamb meat (shudder). My partner is Polish (South side Chicago Polish) and his mom would always make the lamb cake for the family Easter gathering. We moved from Chicago to San Francisco and this past Easter, we joined friends from Chicago for the celebration. We planned to have lamb cake but it is no where to be found in SF. You practically trip over lamb cakes in Chicago, since the Polish population is so high but here, people think you are crazy when you ask for cake mold in the shape of a lamb. I even had one person think I was asking for a lampshade. Sigh. I did finally get a mold and we’re ready this year: http://www.flickr.com/photos/idolatrare/4403496386/
My partner is Polish (southside Chicago Polish, to be exact) and his mom always makes lamb cake for the family’s Easter celebration. That is to say, a cake in the shape of a lamb, not a cake made of lamb (shudder). We moved from Chicago to San Francisco a few years ago and joined some other Chicago ex-pats for Easter last year. All 4 of us searched the entire Bay Area for lamb cakes or lamb cake molds and nothin’ to be found. Of course, in Chicago, there is a huge Polish community so lamb cakes are a dime a dozen. Here, nothing. So, this year, I am prepared and have a mold to make it myself. Here’s a photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/idolatrare/4403496386/
My family always makes creamed eggs on toast for brunch on Easter morning – we use the hard-boiled Easter eggs, a little dried beef, and it’s so tasty and creamy on the crunchy toast!
Hmmm… rice pie sounded kind of strange, but then I looked it up and it looks pretty good! It seems to be an Italian or Swiss tradition.