From slow-braised svickova to golden trdelnik fresh off the spit — discover the recipes, stories, and techniques behind Czech national cuisine.
Start with SvickovaThree pillars of Czech home cooking — each with its own history and regional character.
Tender beef sirloin slow-roasted with root vegetables, finished in a velvety cream sauce and served with fluffy bread dumplings. The undisputed queen of Czech cuisine.
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Rolled dough wrapped around a wooden spit, grilled over open coals and coated in cinnamon sugar. A beloved Prague street food with deep Central European roots.
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Rich, paprika-spiced beef stew slow-cooked until the meat falls apart. Served with bread dumplings that soak up every drop of the deep, smoky sauce.
See the recipeCzech cuisine is often overshadowed by its neighbors, but anyone who has sat down to a proper Sunday lunch in a Prague household knows better. The food here is honest, deeply seasonal, and built around technique passed down through generations.
Bohemian cooking relies on slow methods — long braises, careful reductions, hand-rolled dumplings. There are no shortcuts in a proper svickova. The sauce alone takes hours, and the result is something no restaurant can quite replicate at home.
This site is a personal record of recipes, regional variations, and the small details that make Czech cooking worth understanding properly.
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A few principles that make the difference between an average result and something genuinely good.
For svickova, always use beef sirloin or top round. Cheaper cuts won't develop the same texture after braising, no matter how long you cook them.
Traditional recipes call for marinating the meat in vegetables and vinegar for 24 to 48 hours. This step is not optional — it defines the flavor of the final sauce.
Good bread dumplings should be light and slightly springy, not dense. The key is not overworking the dough and steaming rather than boiling when possible.
For goulash, use sweet Hungarian paprika and add it off the heat to avoid bitterness. Fresh paprika makes a noticeable difference compared to old spice jars.