For its seat „BACÓWKA” has chosen the picturesque village of Rajbrot, located in Małopolska (Little Poland), in the Carpathian Plateau. The Plateau extends from Krakow to the Beskidy Mountains. Regardless of the close vicinity of the civilization, traditional folk rituals are still very strong here, including the ones associated with food preparation and common feasting. The old recipes originating from the “hut’s tradition” have survived and remained a part of the folk menu. In the homesteads of Rajbrot one can still find old kitchen equipment, and sometimes even the neatly written old recipes for homemade delicacies. The rich ceremoniality and attachment to the tradition has also continued to exist in the surrounding towns and villages. In the local museum, in the neighbouring village of Iwkowa, one can admire various preserved utensils for manufacturing cheese and meat, among others, scales, basins made of willow wood, device for pepper grinding, etc. Traces of our homeliness are also found in Lipnica Murowana – once an old royal town, and today a village famous for the tradition of making the tallest, sky reaching, Easter Palms, as well as for St. Leonard’s aspen wood church, dating back to the XVth century, which has a collection of extremely beautiful wall-paintings. The local guild – established by the decision of King Jan III Sobieski – cultivates the tradition of butcher’s and meat making craftsmanship till today.

OUR TRADITIONS:
In our Bacówka, we prepare traditional food – familiar delicacies, specially for you. In our work, we rely on old recipes, verified by our fore fathers, we profit from the rich history and traditions of the Plateau, we continuously extend our knowledge looking for old manuscripts and records. We take our knowledge concerning the food preparation, utilised herbs, the procedures of pickling and smoking meat from these books. The purifying power of water and fire is of extreme significance to us, as it was in the case of our ancestors. That is why we use natural mountain spring water for pickling, and we use the alder, beech and juniper fire and smoke for smoking, letting the smoke surround and wrap the meat in the traditional smokehouse. Every record concerning feasting and common, neighbourhood visits is of great worth and value to us. And you should know that people living in the Plateau visited each other very often and very eagerly, despite the distances between their houses. The feasted “generously and using loads of sauces”. Sausages with garlic and pepper, black pudding of potted head or giblets, pork ribs and smoked bacon, pepper pork fat, blood pudding, and venison – these are only some of our regional delicacies. Hosts used to share “krzept”, which means freshly prepared, warm meat, with their neighbours. The meat was usually boiled in chicken soup or was processed into ham and cold cuts. It was stored in big barrels filled with brine, from the neighbouring salt-works in Wieliczka or Bochnia, or it was dried by the fire. Sausages were smoked in the smoke from beech or alder wood with addition of juniper wood. After they have been smoked, the sausages were sun-dried, hence their specific, mature taste and aroma. Herbs, which could be found in the surrounding forests, were used for seasoning and in magic rituals. Special attention was paid to the culture of the harvest, using the natural harvest calendar; all the mysteries of gatherings were very well known. According to the traditional wisdom “all possible herbs evoke habits concerning physical matters”. Among folk herbs we can enumerate caraway seed, juniper – it brings back the appetite, aromatic coriander, charlock and dill, lovage – “to living of the skin”, marjoram and rosemary – “the one that develops”. Today we turn to these precious guidelines, we use the same herbs and seasoning, we return to the traditional way of meat smoking and drying. All this in order to give you what is best – healthy, fully natural, truly refined hams.