The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know. We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know fun food facts we will look at Paczki.

The Facts: A paczek is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened sphere and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. They are usually covered with powdered sugar, icing or bits of dried orange zest. A small amount of grain alcohol (traditionally, Spiritus) is added to the dough before cooking; as it evaporates, it prevents the absorption of oil deep into the dough.

• Paczki (punch-key) is the plural form of Paczek (pohn-check).
• Powidla(stewed plum jam) and wild rose hipjam are the traditional fillings, but many others are used as well, including strawberry, Bavarian cream, blueberry, custard, raspberry and apple.
• In Poland, paczki are eaten especially on Fat Thursday (the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday). Many Polish Americans celebrate Paczki Day on Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday).
• Traditionally, the reason for making paczki was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house, because they were forbidden to be consumed due to Catholic fasting practices during Lent.

Related posts:

1. DKY: Pastry
2. DYK: Bagels
3. DYK: White Chocolate
4. DYK: Pierogi