POLISH DOMESTIC LIFE
For the most part, in cities, only the most privileged can afford modern kitchen appliances. Country kitchens have changed little in hundreds of years: enamelware and cast-iron cooking pots, wooden implements for stirring and pounding, heavy rolling pins for doughy, mortar and pestle for crushing and blending, and sturdy, well-scrubbed wooden tables. All utensils and furnishings have been time-tested and in many cases used for many generations.
Food storage poses little problem for city dwellers: in good times and bad, preference is for foods freshly purchased. Age-old methods of food preservation prevail in rural areas: brining of vegetables, salting of fish, drying of wild mushrooms and garlic and large quantities of home-preserved fruits and jams all carefully stored in cellars or kitchen shelves are the pride of every peasant household. The tradition of a full pantry remains, and many Polish households take pride in this.