Fat Tuesday is Paczki Day in Michigan
A couple of years ago, comedian and commentator Mo Rocca traveled to Hamtramck for CBS Sunday Morning to get this report on Pazcki Day, but as we know, sugary treats never go out of style!
Hamtramck’s Paczcki Day page (now offline but available through archive.org) had all kinds of lore and legend on these traditional Polish doughnuts which are also known as Bismarcks or plain old jelly doughnuts:
Paczki is the plural form of the word paczek in Polish, but many English speakers use paczki as singular and paczkis as plural. A paczek is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened sphere and filled with Plums or other sweet filling…
Paczki have been known in Poland at least since the Middle Ages. Jadrzej Kitowicz has described that during the reign of the August III under influence of French cooks who came to Poland at that time, paczki dough baked in Poland has been improved, so that paczki became lighter, spongier, and more resilient Paczki Day Traditionally, the reason for making paczki has been to use up all the lard, sugar and fruit in the house, which are forbidden during Lent.
I guess that if you’re facing 40 days without sugar & fruit, a plateful of paczki makes a lot more sense. Dig in with the links below!
- If you need a sound track to get going, head over to paczkiday.com.
- The Hamtramck Review lets you know about Fat Tuesday activities in Paczki Ground Zero.
- The Freep sent reporter Zlati Meyer to the New Palace Bakery in Hamtramck to find out how metro-Detroiters approach this high-calorie holiday.
- The Lansing State Journal has a feature (w/ photos) on Paczki Day at the Quality Dairy Bakery which can turn out 5,000 of the filled Polish doughnuts per hour
- The photo to the right comes from Wikipedia’s Paczki entry.
- Forgot to buy your paczkis? Vina at recipezaar has an Authentic Polish Paczki recipe that she found handwritten in her Polish grandmother’s cookbook!
- The Paczki Headquarters at the Hamtramck Star is packed with paczki goodness including photos of paczki as big as your head!
- Your Diet Is About To Meet It’s Nemesis (or why it’s called Fat Tuesday in Detroit) by Detroit Derek on Michigan in Pictures got this big ball of dough rolling!
- You can get even more photos at Flickr Hive Mind: Paczki
- There’s a bunch more Pazcki Day info at Kitchen Chick including audio of the correct pronunciation of paczki and the story of THE FAMOUS PACZKI THAT SAVED EUROPE!
- ArborWiki has a Paczki entry that includes a list of the best bakeries in Hamtramck.
- Absolute Michigan has more Hamtramck links for you to snack on.
- What kid can resist Paczki Pals & Bobbleheads?
