Although aficionados have been enjoying them for years now, the Dill Pogácsa (pronounced “poh-gotcha”) at the Bakehouse seem to have become all the rage. The word seems to have hit the street: these butter-laden, sour-cream enriched, dill-scented Hungarian “biscuits” are really, almost ridiculously, good! While they’ve been little known here—outside of our Hungarian-American communities, which know them well—pogácsa are probably one of the most commonly served foods in Magyar culture. Mimi Sheraton lists them in her book, 1000 Foods to Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover’s Life! Thanks to the Bakehouse you can knock the list down to 999!
Pogácsa are basically perfect little bites of buttery Hungarian baked goodness. Made with sour cream, eggs, butter, and the layering of dough, pogácsa are light and tender. In the marvelous, deservedly award-winning cookbook, Zingerman’s Bakehouse, co-author and Bakehouse managing partner Amy Emberling explains, they’re “rich and delicious rolls made in Hungary…eaten at breakfast, for a snack, for appetizers, or to accompany dinner. If you want to make a true Hungarian meal, pogácsa are an essential component.”
Dill Pogácsa by Antonis Achilleos
How to Enjoy Pogácsa
The lovely green herbiness of the dill brightens up the buttery base of the pogácsa beautifully. You can do anything with pogácsa you would with biscuits. They’re great as they are! I also like to split them and toast them in a pan with a bit of butter (yes, they’re already buttery to begin with, but more butter is better!) until the cut surface turns a beautiful golden brown. You can serve them on the side with almost any meal, morning, noon, or night.
Use them to make pogácsa sandwiches—a little bacon or sliced ham would be great. I like them with bits of cured ham like Prosciutto di Parma or Speck—it takes about 20 seconds to put together and it’s a truly terrific culinary combination. They’re excellent as well to put a fried egg on, sprinkled with a pinch of hot Hungarian paprika. If you like, smash a just-cooked small potato onto one side of a split pogácsa—sprinkle it with salt, pepper, olive oil and a bit of Hungarian paprika and you’ll have a lovely hot potato and pogácsa sandwich. Pogácsa are particularly good with the Liptauer cheese at the Creamery. They’re also great with butter and anchovies or cream cheese and sardines. They’re also good with sweets! I’m really happy eating them with honey, or a combo of butter, honey and black pepper. Or try one spread with the Creamery’s great artisan cream cheese and honey.
Stop by the Bakeshop each Saturday and/or Sunday for the remainder of April and put a pogácsa in your pocket! If you’re thinking of serving them for a big gathering, I’d suggest ordering ahead so we can make sure to have enough ready for you! One guest bought four dozen of them the other day! I believe pogácsa have the potential to become, as they already are in Hungary, as popular as buttermilk biscuits that we make at the Roadhouse. Don’t dally—we’ll be making them just a few more weeks before they head off for their summer holiday!
In 1982, Ari Weinzweig, along with his partner Paul Saginaw, founded Zingerman’s Delicatessen with a $20,000 bank loan, a Russian History degree from the University of Michigan, 4 years of experience washing dishes, cooking and managing in restaurant kitchens and chutzpah from his hometown of Chicago. They opened the doors with 2 employees and a small selection of specialty foods and exceptional sandwiches.
Today, Zingerman’s Delicatessen is a nationally renowned food icon and the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has grown to 10 businesses with over 750 employees and over $55 million in annual revenue. Aside from the Delicatessen, these businesses include Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Coffee Company, Creamery, Roadhouse, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Candy Manufactory, Cornman Farms and a Korean restaurant that is scheduled to open in 2016. No two businesses in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses are alike but they all share the same Vision and Guiding Principles and deliver “The Zingerman’s Experience” with passion and commitment.
Besides being the Co-Founding Partner and being actively engaged in some aspect of the day-to-day operations and governance of nearly every business in the Zingerman’s Community, Ari Weinzweig is also a prolific writer. His most recent publications are the first 4 of his 6 book series Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading Series: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business (Part 1), Being a Better Leader (Part 2), Managing Ourselves (Part 3) and the newly-released Part 4, The Power of Beliefs in Business. Earlier books include the Zingerman’s Guides to Giving Great Service, Better Bacon, Good Eating, Good Olive Oil, Good Vinegar and Good Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Ari regularly travels across the country (and world) on behalf of ZingTrain, teaching organizations and businesses about Zingerman’s approach to business. He is a sought-after Keynote speaker, having delivered keynotes for Inc. 500, Microsoft Expo Spring Conference, Great Game of Business Gathering of Games, Positive Business Conference at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the American Cheese Society. Most recently, Ari and Paul Saginaw were invited to address an audience of 50,000 for the University of Michigan 2015 Spring Commencement.
One of Zingerman’s Guiding Principles is being an active part of the community and in 1988, Zingerman’s was instrumental in the founding of Food Gatherers, a food rescue program that delivers over 5 million pounds of food each year to the hungry residents of Washtenaw county. Every year Zingerman’s donates 10% of its previous years profits to local community organizations and non-profits. Ari has served on the board of The Ark, the longest continuously operating folk music venue in America.
Over the decades, the Zingerman’s founding partners have consistently been the recipients of public recognition from a variety of diverse organizations. In April 1995, Ari and Paul were awarded the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County’s first Humanitarian Award. In 2006, Ari was recognized as one of the “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” by the James Beard Foundation. In 2007, Ari and Paul were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appetit magazine for their work in the food industry. Ari was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Cheese Society in 2014. And Ari’s book, Building a Great Business was on Inc. magazine’s list of Best Books for Business Leaders.
Notwithstanding the awards, being engaged on a daily basis in the work of 10 businesses and 21 partners, writing books on business and in-depth articles on food for the Zingerman’s newsletter, Ari finds time to be a voracious reader. He acquires and reads more books than he can find room for. Ari might soon find himself the owner of the largest collection of Anarchist books in Ann Arbor outside the Labadie collection at the University of Michigan library!
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