Uszka
uszkasay OOSH-kah
Little ears floating in ruby borscht.
- Region
- Poland and the Baltics
- First record
- 1871 · Empires & migration
- Fold
- Ring
- Cooked
- Boiled, in soup
- Wrapper
- Wheat doughTiny ear-shaped
- Filling
- Mushroom
- Cooked
- Boiled, in soup
- Size
- About 2 cm across
Tastes of
- wild mushroom
- onion
- beet broth
Texture
- delicate
Field notes
Story
Tiny ear-shaped dumplings served in clear red beet soup on Christmas Eve, filled with dried mushrooms. The earliest printed recipe (1871) fills them with meat, keeping mushrooms for fast days.
- How to eat it
- Several to a bowl of clear barszcz.
- When
- Wigilia (Christmas Eve).
Did you know The name means "little ears", the same idea as pelmeni ("ear bread").
Where
From Poland.
- OriginPoland · Poles
Evidence
Fairly sure. A dated text records it by 1871.
We list 4 sources: 3 dated texts, 1 secondary. How grading works.
First record Ćwierczakiewiczowa, 365 obiadów za 5 złotych (8th ed., Warsaw 1871), recipe 'Uszka do barszczu' (D); 1st ed. 1860 likely has it but was not opened
Sources
- D
365 obiadów za 5 złotych (wyd. 8, Warszawa 1871), rozdz. II 'Uszka do barszczu', s. 40
Recipe '10. Uszka do barszczu': square of egg-and-water dough folded into a 'chusteczka' and its two corners joined into an ear (uszko), filled with chopped beef/roast, boiled and served in barszcz; 'w post' (fasting…
Recipe '10. Uszka do barszczu': square of egg-and-water dough folded into a 'chusteczka' and its two corners joined into an ear (uszko), filled with chopped beef/roast, boiled and served in barszcz; 'w post' (fasting days) the filling is dried mushrooms. Wikisource transcribes the 8th edition (Warsaw, 1871); the book first appeared in 1860. - D
365 obiadów za 5 złotych, 'Barszcz czysty'
Same book, 'Barszcz czysty': clear barszcz 'zwyczajnie ... podaje się z uszkami z mięsa wołowego'.
- D
109 potraw (Rosół grzybowy z uszkami; Barszcz z uszkami z kaszy)
Christmas Eve 'czysty rosół grzybowy z uszkami' and 'barszcz czysty z uszkami z kaszy' explicitly labelled 'Potrawa wigilijna' (interwar cookbook); confirms the Wigilia association, which the 1871 recipe does not state.
- S
Encyklopedia staropolska ilustrowana, t. I, hasło 'Barszcz'
Old-Polish encyclopedia: in Polish houses red barszcz was served 'z „uszkami i rurą”' (with uszka and marrow bone); describes custom, no date for uszka.
Found by research and reviewed, October 2026.
The tagline and story are editorial; facts trace to the atlas research.
Family C
