Česká kuchyně · The Bohemian Table

Czech Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Step into the kitchens of Bohemia, where svíčková simmers under a blanket of root vegetables and cream, bramboráky crisp in good lard, and every loaf begins with real butter. Honest ingredients and deep flavor, the way the old country has always cooked.

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Máslo✶ Sádlo✶ Smetana
An elegantly plated Czech dish on a dark restaurant table
✶ Svíčková na smetaně
From the recipe collection
Máslo

Butter First

Bohemian cooking was built on butter from village dairies. Every sauce, dumpling, and braided loaf in this collection begins with it, never with a refined seed oil.

Sádlo

Honest Lard

Sádlo, the rendered lard of the Czech larder, fries a bramborák to a lacy bronze edge and carries the scent of marjoram the way no vegetable oil can.

Nikdy

Never Vegetable Oil

No seed oils, no shortcuts. Only the traditional fats that the hospody and home kitchens of Bohemia and Moravia have trusted for generations.

✶
From Our Kitchen

Czech Bohemian Recipes

Six beloved dishes from the tables of Bohemia and Moravia, each cooked with the honest fats that bring out the best in every ingredient.

Nedělní oběd Svíčková na smetaně, sliced beef draped in a velvety cream sauce

Svíčková na smetaně

Beef sirloin in root vegetable cream

3 hr 30 min·6 servings·Medium

The crown of the Czech Sunday lunch. Beef larded with smoked bacon, braised slowly over sweet root vegetables, and finished in a silken sauce of cream and butter.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg beef sirloin or eye of round, in one piece
  • 80 g smoked bacon, cut into thin strips for larding
  • 60 g butter, plus 2 tbsp lard for searing
  • 2 carrots, roughly chopped
  • 1 parsnip and a quarter of a celeriac, roughly chopped
  • 1 large onion, quartered
  • 2 bay leaves, 5 allspice berries, 8 black peppercorns
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 250 ml heavy cream
  • Salt, a pinch of sugar, and lemon to balance

Instructions

  1. Push the bacon strips through the beef with a larding needle or a thin knife, then season the meat all over with salt.
  2. Melt the lard in a heavy pot and sear the beef on all sides until deeply browned. Lift it out.
  3. Add the butter, root vegetables, and onion and cook 10 minutes until they take on color, then add the spices and vinegar.
  4. Return the beef, pour in water to come a third of the way up, cover, and braise gently for about 2 hours 30 minutes until tender.
  5. Lift out the meat, discard the bay leaves, and blend the vegetables with the braising juices until completely smooth.
  6. Stir in the cream, warm through without boiling, and season with salt, sugar, and a squeeze of lemon.
  7. Slice the beef across the grain and serve draped in sauce, with bread dumplings and a spoon of cranberries if you like.
Štědrý večer Kapr na černo, a fish fillet resting in a dark glossy sauce

Kapr na černo

Carp in dark root and lager sauce

1 hr 30 min·4 servings·Medium

An old Bohemian celebration dish. Carp poached gently in a glossy dark sauce of roots, dark lager, prunes, and walnuts, enriched at the end with cold butter.

Ingredients

  • 4 carp portions or another firm freshwater fish, about 700 g
  • 80 g butter, divided
  • 1 carrot, 1 parsnip, and a piece of celeriac, finely diced
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 330 ml dark Czech lager
  • 60 g dark gingerbread or rye bread crumbs
  • 8 prunes, sliced, and 2 tbsp raisins
  • 40 g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 2 bay leaves, 4 allspice berries, a strip of lemon peel
  • Salt and a spoon of honey to balance

Instructions

  1. Melt half the butter in a wide pot and cook the diced roots and onion until golden, about 10 minutes.
  2. Pour in the dark lager, add the spices, lemon peel, prunes, and raisins, and simmer 15 minutes.
  3. Stir in the gingerbread crumbs and let the sauce thicken to a glossy, deep brown.
  4. Season the fish with salt, slide it into the barely simmering sauce, and poach gently 10 to 12 minutes until it flakes.
  5. Lift the fish onto warm plates. Finish the sauce with the walnuts, honey, and the remaining cold butter.
  6. Taste, season once more, and spoon the dark sauce generously over the fish. Serve with bread dumplings.
U babičky Bramboráky, crisp golden potato pancakes stacked on a plate

Bramboráky

Potato pancakes fried in lard

40 min·4 servings·Easy

The smell of a Czech grandmother's kitchen. Grated potatoes seasoned boldly with garlic and marjoram, fried in hot sádlo until the edges turn to golden lace.

Ingredients

  • 800 g starchy potatoes, peeled
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with salt
  • 2 tsp dried marjoram
  • 1 tsp caraway seeds, lightly crushed
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 tbsp plain flour
  • 2 tbsp whole milk, if needed
  • Salt and plenty of black pepper
  • 150 g sádlo (lard), for frying
  • Sauerkraut or a simple salad, to serve

Instructions

  1. Grate the potatoes finely into a bowl, then press out as much liquid as you can.
  2. Stir in the garlic paste, marjoram, caraway, eggs, and flour to make a thick batter, loosening with a splash of milk if it stands too stiff.
  3. Season boldly with salt and pepper. Marjoram and garlic should lead.
  4. Heat a generous layer of lard in a heavy skillet until a drop of batter sizzles at once.
  5. Ladle in thin rounds and fry 3 to 4 minutes per side until deep gold with crisp, lacy edges.
  6. Keep the finished pancakes warm in a low oven while you fry the rest, adding lard as needed.
  7. Serve hot from the pan, with sauerkraut alongside or simply on their own.
Hospoda Česnečka, golden garlic soup in a rustic bowl with croutons

Česnečka

Garlic soup with butter croutons

35 min·4 servings·Easy

The restorative soup of every Czech hospoda. A clear broth built on garlic softened in butter, with potatoes, marjoram, and rye croutons crisped in more butter.

Ingredients

  • 1 whole head of garlic, cloves peeled and sliced
  • 80 g butter, divided
  • 2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 1.2 litres beef or vegetable broth
  • 1 tsp dried marjoram
  • ½ tsp caraway seeds
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 3 thick slices of rye bread, cubed
  • 4 eggs, one per bowl (optional)
  • Chopped chives, to finish

Instructions

  1. Melt half the butter in a soup pot and cook the sliced garlic slowly until soft and fragrant, never browned.
  2. Add the potatoes, caraway, and broth and simmer 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
  3. Crush a few potato pieces against the side of the pot to give the soup a little body.
  4. Stir in the marjoram, rubbing it between your palms, and season with salt and pepper.
  5. Meanwhile fry the rye bread cubes in the remaining butter until crisp on all sides.
  6. If you like, crack an egg into each bowl and ladle the boiling soup over so it sets in soft ribbons.
  7. Top with the warm croutons and chives and serve at once.
Pekárna Houska, golden braided loaves resting on a bakery board

Houska

Braided butter bread

3 hr·2 loaves·Medium

The braided loaf of the Czech bakery. A soft dough enriched with butter, milk, and egg, plaited by hand and baked to a deep gold under a scatter of poppy seeds.

Ingredients

  • 500 g bread flour
  • 7 g instant yeast
  • 60 g sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 230 ml warm whole milk
  • 100 g soft butter, plus more for the bowl
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 50 g raisins, soaked in warm water (optional)
  • 1 whole egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk, for the glaze
  • Poppy seeds, for scattering

Instructions

  1. Whisk the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt, then add the warm milk, soft butter, and egg yolk and knead 10 minutes to a supple, silky dough.
  2. Work in the drained raisins if using, then cover and let the dough rise about 1 hour 30 minutes until doubled.
  3. Divide into 6 equal pieces and roll each into a long rope.
  4. Braid three ropes into each loaf, pinching the ends and tucking them under.
  5. Set the loaves on a lined tray, cover, and let them rise another 40 minutes until puffed.
  6. Brush with the egg glaze and scatter generously with poppy seeds.
  7. Bake at 180°C (355°F) for 25 to 30 minutes until deep golden and hollow sounding underneath. Cool before slicing.
Sladká tečka Švestkové knedlíky, plum dumplings dusted with sugar and drizzled with butter

Švestkové knedlíky

Plum dumplings with brown butter

1 hr 15 min·4 servings·Medium

Late summer on a plate. Whole plums wrapped in a tender potato dough, poached until they float, then showered with sweet tvaroh and a stream of browned butter.

Ingredients

  • 500 g starchy potatoes, boiled in their skins and cooled
  • 200 g plain flour, plus more for dusting
  • 40 g fine semolina
  • 1 egg
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 12 small ripe plums
  • 12 sugar cubes
  • 120 g butter
  • 150 g tvaroh or another fresh farmer's cheese, crumbled
  • Icing sugar and ground cinnamon, to serve

Instructions

  1. Peel the cooled potatoes and press them through a ricer onto a floured board.
  2. Work in the flour, semolina, egg, and salt quickly to make a soft, smooth dough. Do not overknead.
  3. Stone each plum and tuck a sugar cube inside where the stone was.
  4. Roll the dough into a thick log, cut into 12 pieces, flatten each, and wrap it snugly around a plum, sealing well.
  5. Slide the dumplings into a wide pot of gently simmering salted water and poach 8 to 10 minutes until they rise and roll over.
  6. Meanwhile let the butter foam in a small pan until it smells of hazelnuts.
  7. Lift the dumplings onto warm plates, scatter with tvaroh, dust with icing sugar and cinnamon, and pour over the brown butter.
A cook working at a warm stove in a busy home kitchen
Our Kitchen

The Kitchen Behind Leilox Kuchyně

Leilox Kuchyně is a small home kitchen devoted to the cooking of Bohemia and Moravia, a table where Sunday lunch stretches into the afternoon, soup opens every meal, and dumplings are treated with the seriousness they deserve. We write these recipes down the way they are still cooked in family kitchens and village hospody, patiently, precisely, and always with a generous hand on the butter.

Our only house rule is an old one: máslo from the dairy, sádlo rendered slowly the traditional way, smetana thick enough to hold a spoon, and nothing else. Vegetable oil never comes through our door, because it never sat on the tables we learned from.

Dobrou chuť, may it feed you well.