Slavonian cuisine & Croatian bacon bread cake

Croatian cuisine differs in every region of the country. Cuisine of Slavonia is the specific one. Characteristics of this East part of the country are flat fertile soil, vast fields and forests. In the past it was known as the Pannonian Sea because of the fields of rye and wheat. Almost every household had a pig farm where they were making cured meat, delicatessen like sausages, Kulen sausages, ham, bacon and lard. Logically, pork was the most represented meat in this cuisine. Fish meals were rarely on the menu and that were river fish like carp, catfish, pikeperch and pike.

The main characteristic of this cuisine are strong chili spices like Spanish pepper and hot chili pepper. The cow farming was represented as well, so people produced homemade cheese and sour cream. Vegetable soups were constituent part of the menu. Due to the Turkish domination in the history, some Turkish meals, like cabbage rolls or sarma, remained in a diet till present. Every household had a small furnace outside their homes in which they baked bread. Main alcoholic drink still today is šljivovica, a brandy made from plums and lozovača, a brandy made from vine.

Bacon bread cake is Croatian autochthonous meal. In spite of the fertile soil and varied food, people were very poor back then and there was no abundance, they had to carefully share every meal. They worked hard in the fields, growing crops and taking care of animals which they pastured every day. In the time without machines, people worked only worked with their hands so they needed something cheap, but effective to hold them strong and fed the entire day. Bacon bread cake was the ideal food; simple, but fat enriched . Only few ingredients are needed to make it and the process is very simple and easy.