Krupnioki Slaskie

Krupniok slaski is a blood sausage: pork offal and jowl, blood, and a large proportion of cooked buckwheat or barley groats, seasoned with pepper, marjoram and onion, packed into a casing and boiled. It is the groats that distinguish it - they make up a substantial part of the sausage, which is why it is soft and crumbly rather than dense, and it is fried in slices until the outside crisps. It received EU protected geographical indication in 2016. Krupnioki are part of the Silesian Sunday dinner, the fixed sequence of rolada, kluski slaskie and modra kapusta that families here still keep, and they appear at every Silesian food event. The sausage belongs to an industrial region where nothing from the pig was wasted, and the buckwheat stretched the meat. Butchers across Upper Silesia make their own versions and the differences between them are taken seriously.

What you actually see

• Groats in the sausage - buckwheat or barley making up a large part of it.
• Fried in slices - crisped on the outside, soft and crumbly within.
• A protected name - EU geographical indication for the Silesian version.
• Sunday dinner - part of the fixed Silesian sequence with rolada and kluski.

When to go

All year. An hour.

Honest expectations

It is blood sausage and tastes like it - not a gentle introduction. Versions vary widely between butchers. Sold cooked, and best fried rather than eaten cold.

Nearby

Katowice, Nikiszowiec and the Silesian market towns are where to buy it.