Old World craft links Dorchester to past
Browse the supermarket meat section looking for kielbasa, and they pretty much all seem the same. At a trio of Polish groceries near Andrew Square in Dorchester, it's a different story. You can become overwhelmed by the variety of links -- smoked, fresh, long, short, wide, skinny, hot, mild, or sharp with garlic. Making kielbasa is an Old World craft.
Located in a decades-old Polish neighborhood that includes the Polish American Citizens Club and Our Lady of Czestochowa Church (the only church in Boston where mass is held in Polish), Euromart and the Baltic European Deli on Dorchester Avenue, and the D&J Market on nearby Boston Street, offer 10 to 15 different kinds of kielbasa on any given week.
Except for their own homemade versions, most of the kielbasa comes from Chicago and New York, the link capitals of the United States. Varieties include "country style" double-smoked double-garlic kielbasa; ham kielbasa; mysliwska kielbasa, with a drier, heavier smoke; and kabanosy, which are skinny, long and spicy.
Each market's homemade varieties are based on passed-down recipes. At Euromart, for example, owner Edward Radko makes white kielbasa from a family recipe his grandmother gave his sister, who lives in Poland. At the Baltic, owners Joanna Barcikowski and her husband, Tadeusz, sell a mild kielbasa made by a family friend in Worcester. On nearby Boston Street, Les Jurczuk makes a fresh, or uncooked kielbasa, using a recipe he learned from his father, Eugene or "Geno," who ran D&J for 28 years. Jurczuk's older sister Alina bought D&J Market from their father three years ago.
"The person who makes [the kielbasa] is very important," says Radko, a native of Olsztyn in northeastern Poland, who came here in 1986. "It's like when your mom makes a cake, then someone else makes a cake, and it's two different tastes. The secret is experience -- and the spices."
A national staple in Poland, but also common in Ukraine, Lithuania, Slovakia, and other eastern Europe countries, kielbasa is typically made from lean pork, usually shoulder or loin, sometimes with a small amount of beef, lamb, or veal added to improve taste and texture. The meat is ground fine, chunky, or in between, depending on the kielbasa maker, and most commonly seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, and marjoram, which thrives in the cooler climates of northern Europe. Red pepper and mustard seed are among a few of the other ingredients that might be used.
Then the meat goes into hog casings, at which point it's smoked, usually for three or four hours, boiled, or left fresh. In Poland, one of the common ways to serve dried, shelf-stable kielbasa is dabbed with horseradish and tucked into a roll. Kielbasa is also popular baked with sauerkraut, another Eastern European staple, as well as in white borscht and other hearty soups. For grilling, all three shop owners recommend kielbasa with the highest fat content, to keep the meat moist.
There are other groceries besides kielbasa at the Polish shops. Each carries a wide variety of hams and other cold cuts, horseradish, farmers' cheese, pirogis, and foods imported from Poland, including chocolate, beer and liquor, magazines, and Pope John Paul II bobble-head dolls.
D&J Market, which opened more than 70 years ago and is the oldest of the markets, also offers its own homemade rolls and babkas, and pastries with cheese, cherry, prune, and other fillings. The Barcikowskis have another attraction. You can buy fresh borscht and other soups prepared at Cafe Polonia, the restaurant that they own across the street from their shop, which, in contrast to the groceries, attracts more non-Poles than locals from the neighborhood.
While Polish is still the dominant language heard in the aisles, market owners say that the neighborhood isn't as Polish as it used to be. Many families have moved to the suburbs. But between the neighborhood business and shoppers who drive in for Sunday mass, there are enough customers to keep all the markets going strong. Indeed, each grocer moves hundreds of pounds of kielbasa -- and that doesn't include the other fare -- weekly.
"The competition is good for the neighborhood," Radko says.
Baltic European Deli, 632 Dorchester Ave., South Boston, 617-268-2435; D&J Market, 120 Boston St., Dorchester. 617-436-9766; Euromart, 808 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester. 617-825-1969 