Adzymka

What it is

Adzymka is a plain flatbread of the Lemkos, baked without leavening, making it quick to prepare. The dough is mixed with sour milk, an egg, salt, and baking soda, rolled into cakes about a centimeter thick, and baked on both sides in a cast-iron skillet or directly on the stove. The dough is made similarly to that for dumplings.

In the highest mountain villages of Lemkivshchyna, where wheat and rye grew poorly, adzymka was made with oat flour. In the valleys below, wheat or rye was used: according to the memories of Lemkos, adzymka can be made from any flour.

It is eaten warm or cold with butter, honey, or 'mastylom' — a thick sauce made from flour in boiling water and milk with an egg.

In some Lemko families, adzymka also referred to cakes made from grated potatoes, which were baked in a bread oven on cabbage leaves.

History and name

According to the memories of Lemkos collected by John Madzelan, adzymka was also called palanta, opavok, or pidpavok. The oat flatbread was the bread of the highest mountain villages, where other grains were hardly sown, and oats were often exchanged for rye and wheat at fairs. The origin of the name is not explained in the sources available to us.

Adzymka is included in the international Slow Food catalog 'Ark of Taste' as a Lemko dish that is at risk of extinction: it is no longer sold in stores and is rarely baked at home. Lemkivshchyna is now mostly in Poland; after the deportations of 1944–1947, Lemkos who remember it live in Ukraine and in the west and north of Poland.

Ingredients and allergens

Variant: oat, made with sour milk

Oat flakes or oat flour500 g oat flourThe base of Lemko kiselytsia; once whole grain oat flour was used.Contains allergens: gluten

Soured milk250–400 ml, as needed for the doughMilk that has soured naturally; in the mountains, it is consumed with potatoes and added to plain dough with soda.Contains allergens: milk

Eggs1 pc.Chicken eggs — for the dough of hombovtsi, palačint, pasky, and deruny.Contains allergens: eggs

Also: butter (to taste, to serve), honey (to taste, optional), baking soda (½–1 tsp.), salt (½ tsp.)

Contains allergens: gluten, milk, eggs
Diet: vegetarian

Variant: wheat

wheat flour, soured milk, eggs, baking soda, salt, butter

Contains allergens: gluten, milk, eggs
Diet: vegetarian

Variant: potato, on cabbage leaves

potato, eggs, salt, black pepper, white cabbage (fresh leaves)

Contains allergens: eggs
Diet: vegetarian · gluten-free

Ingredients of the traditional recipe; every cook and every place may do it differently — please ask when ordering. We cannot guarantee the absence of allergens or traces.

How it is traditionally made

Serves: 4–8 flatbreads

• Oat flakes or oat flour — 500 g oat flour
• Soured milk — 250–400 ml, as needed for the dough
• Eggs — 1 pc.
• Baking soda — ½–1 tsp.
• Salt — ½ tsp.
• Butter — to taste
• Honey — to taste

1. Mix the flour with salt and baking soda, and beat in the egg.
2. Gradually pour in the sour milk and knead a soft but not sticky dough — similar to that for dumplings.
3. Divide the dough into 4–8 parts and roll each into a cake about 1 cm thick.
4. Bake on a dry, preheated cast-iron skillet or on the stove on both sides until the adzymka is browned and cooked through.
5. For the potato variant, grate the potatoes, lightly squeeze them, add the egg, salt, and pepper, place the cakes on cabbage leaves, and bake in a hot oven until golden brown.

How it is served

Warm, with butter, honey, or mastyl; it pairs well with sour milk.

Variants

Oat adzymka was baked in high mountain villages, while wheat and rye versions were made in the valleys. Potato cakes on cabbage leaves are also called adzymka in some families.

The traditional method as described by our sources; every family does it its own way. We have not tested this recipe in a professional kitchen.

Where it is eaten

Historical Lemkivshchyna (now mostly in the Subcarpathian and Lesser Poland Voivodeships of Poland and Prešov Region in Slovakia) and places where Lemkos were resettled: Lviv Oblast, Ternopil Oblast, and in Poland — Warmia and Masuria. The area is approximate.

When it is eaten

Occasions: Everyday food

In tradition

Adzymka was a daily bread baked when there was no time to prepare leavened dough. Children eagerly awaited it hot, with butter, straight from the skillet.

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