- Luke: This week on Wisconsin Foodie .

[polka music] - Jeff: National Bakery's been around since 1925.

It's one of the oldest still scratch bakeries in Wisconsin.

Paczki is, it's a Polish treat.

It's a rich dough, and we use butter dough on Paczki Day, which is a little bit chewier.

- Today is like a huge day, right?

- It's the only time of the year we make paczki.

- So when we're talking about Paczki Day, we're talking about doing this to 40,000, is that what?

- 46,000.

- 46,000.

- 45,000, 46,000.

- Two by two by two.

When I die, this is how I would like to be embalmed, glazed.

[mellow music] - Christoph: So pierogi is a dumpling.

It's a dough-based dumpling.

I grew up eating pierogis.

I grew up making pierogis with my mom.

So I thought that would be the best way to introduce my culture and heritage to this beautiful area.

And then they are really good with some caramelized onions and crumbled bacon.

- That bacon bite is legit.

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk with just a few simple ingredients: sun, soil, rain, and grass.

And grass, and grass.

- Yee-haw!

- Organic Valley Grassmilk.

Organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the largest local hunger relief organization in the state.

With your help, we ensure your neighbors in need don't have to worry where their next meal may come from.

Learn more at feedingamericawi.org.

- Additional support from the following underwriters.

Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] - Luke: We are collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[sizzling] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clinking] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie .

[polka music] - Jeff: National Bakery's been around since 1925.

It's one of the oldest still scratch bakeries in Wisconsin.

You know, we just keep rotating products and keep trying to do everything we can to make the place better and unique.

Well, I think on Paczki Day, each year it keeps getting bigger and bigger.

About 10 years ago, we decided to add the accordion players at all the stores, and that gave it a good touch.

We come up with different t-shirts every year with different sayings.

Paczki is, it's a Polish treat.

It's a rich dough, and we use butter dough on Paczki Day, which is a little bit chewier.

I think raspberry is most popular.

Raspberry glazed probably is our biggest seller.

We have raspberry sugar, and we have raspberry iced.

And then we have prune glazed and prune powdered sugar, and also raisin glazed, which are absolutely fantastic when they're warm right from the fryer.

Certain cities in the different Polish neighborhoods, they're also doing Paczki Day too, but I think we're a little bit different.

You know, we don't offer 10 different flavors of paczkis.

We keep it real simple with just our raspberry and our prune and also our raisin.

So you know, some places get lemon and custard and strawberry and different ones, and we like to stick to the old traditional kind here.

This one's a little bit more challenging 'cause usually it's basically out the door all day, but because of COVID originally, we just could limit the number of people coming in the store, we decided to do a drive-through for pre-orders.

So if you pre-ordered, you just swing around the side door, and we'll run it out to your car.

And we also added an express line for everything prepackaged.

So you get four different options, assortments, and also king cakes that you can just, we'll run them right to your car curbside.

You know, especially, we think with the weather being like it is today that more and more people will want to do the outside thing.

So it takes a little bit away inside, but we can also manage the crowds inside a little bit better too.

♪ Ring out a song of good cheer ♪ - Jeff: So our goal on Fat Tuesday and Paczki Day is always about 36,000 for the one day, and then we do about 8,000 the day before because a lot of people prefer to come the day before early so they don't wait in the lines.

And honestly, the bakers really, really work overnight, super hard, and they're frying about 14 straight hours where it's basically non-stop on the fryers.

And finally, we have to cap out.

We physically can't make any more.

- Man: Happy Paczki Day!

- Luke: Today, we're at the National Bakery on 16th and Euclid in Milwaukee.

We're here to uncover the story behind the Paczki, a traditional Polish donut.

I'm gonna go in the back and get my hands dirty with Gonzalo, and I'm going to learn more about this cultural icon.

[gentle music] Good morning.

- Gonzalo: Good morning.

- Hey, I'm so glad I found this place.

Today's like a huge day, right?

- Gonzalo: It's the only time of the year we make paczki.

- Luke: What's paczki?

- Gonzalo: It's a traditional, Polish traditional donut with the filling, and we have different toppings.

- What's the connection between Fat Tuesday and paczki?

- Back in the years, the people try and not to eat sweets during the Lent.

So that's why Tuesday, it's the day before the Ash Wednesday, and it's everybody try and eat as much as they can so they're not to eat the rest of the Lent you know, before the next 40 days.

This is why they call it Fat Tuesday.

- Luke: Sure.

- Gonzalo: Yeah.

- Luke: So you're trying to get all that hedonism in one last day.

- Gonzalo: Exactly.

Right, right.

- So talk to me about this dough.

- This is the paczki dough we call because it's butter, and we start with the dough.

A couple hours before, we mix the dough, let it rest, let it take on flavor, and ferment the own taste because it's not just the filling.

It's also the dough.

It make also unique.

- Yeah.

- And then we gonna to start and run all the way the process to, from the beginning through when we glaze and we also fill 'em.

Get 'em ready for the customers.

- Sweet.

- Okay.

- Well, walk me through the process.

Oh man, what's this thing?

- This we call the Koenig machine, which is the maker for donuts.

- Okay.

- Or rolls.

We gonna place this in the screen fryer.

We grab six pieces.

We try and use always the seam in the bottom.

- Yup.

So you hide the seam?

- Exactly.

And when you have someone taking the time to hide these seams and figure out the most attractive way to get these into the fryer and out, that's craftsmanship.

- If you don't do a good job, we're gonna fire you on Monday.

[Luke laughing] - How long have you been doing this?

- I've been baking for the last 25 years of my life, and I've been for seven years in National Bakery, which is awesome.

- Luke: Yeah.

- Gonzalo: It's great, just to come in and do everything by scratch, just be in a traditional bakery is one of the most great things in my life because I love to bake, and I love this way to bake.

Now, we're going to the next step will be the proof box.

Proof box is where the dough raise up, get the right size, get the volume.

They will be there for about between 30 and 45 minutes.

It all depends on the weather.

- Luke: Sure.

- Gonzalo: And then they go straight to the fryer.

- So that proof box acts like the magic touch for that yeast, right?

Like, its temperature, its humidity.

- Yes, and humidity.

- It allows it to bloom.

- Yes.

- Okay, cool.

We're gonna go from there, we pull it out, and then we go to the fryer.

- Correct.

So now we starting the showtime.

- This is showtime?

- This is showtime.

[Luke laughing] - I love it.

So all the rack, everything, with all the paczki on it, just slide it into the dough.

Oh my gosh.

That's so satisfying.

You just break 'em apart with the sticks gently.

- Gently, yes.

- This is all super hands-on.

When you're talking about doing like 40,000 of these things.

- Over than 40,000.

- This thing is constantly moving, right?

- Constantly.

One right behind the other screen.

Keep moving, moving, moving.

So each side, we fry the donut for about between 30 then 45 seconds.

- Okay.

- And this is the kind of color we're looking for.

- Oh man, look at that.

That's beautiful.

- You want to try it?

- Yeah, here!

- You're welcome.

- Let's try.

I'd only think I'd do one at a time 'cause I don't trust that double thing like you were doing.

That was magic.

- You'll get it.

- Yeah, let's see.

Ah, oh, it's hard.

- See, so now we use this wires, making sure it's done.

- Yup.

- And just gonna pull this out of here.

- That is awesome.

This is incredible because I'm going to tell you that probably 90% of the bakeries that you purchase your baked goods from don't do it this way.

This takes a craftsperson's touch.

This takes years of experience.

And Gonzalo here has been kind enough to open himself up and the National Bakery up for us to see how these paczkis come together.

So right now, we're gonna go into the glazer, correct?

- Gonzalo: Correct.

- Luke: Oh my gosh, yes.

- Gonzalo: You can try on the other half; it's yours.

- When I die, this is how I would like to be embalmed, glazed.

Oh man, I went real thick on that first part.

Here we go, I got it now.

Mm-hmm.

That's a lot of glaze.

- Gonzalo: Remember, that's all about sweets.

[both laughing] - Luke: That is satisfying.

- And the next step, we gonna place 'em in the pan.

- Okay.

- So we can push 'em over by it.

The last step will be the filling.

- How many times do you ever just take a bite of one right now to check it?

- No, not really because if I eat before the customers, I won't feel good myself.

- Luke: You won't feel good about yourself.

Oh, that's nice.

- Gonzalo: No.

[chuckles] - Luke: I have a sweet tooth; I can't help it.

Like, I would be in here nibbling on these things all day long.

- Gonzalo: So we're going to the last step, which will be filling, so.

- Luke: What is this thing?

- This is the raspberry.

- Okay, so this is raspberry.

- Raspberry.

So we are starting.

All we got to do is punch it and filling.

Then we have the filling over here.

- So when we're talking about Paczki Day, we're talking about doing this to 40,000.

Is that what?

- 46,000.

- 46,000.

- 45,000, 46,000.

- Two by two by two.

Oh my gosh.

That's 23,000 pickups and put downs.

- Correct.

- Can I try one?

- Of course.

- Okay.

- Can try the rest of them on you.

- Oh, I can try the rest of them all, thanks.

So it's just, you're like, boom.

- Yeah, there you go.

- Okay.

Oh man, look at that one.

- It's $3.

- That's $3?

[both laughing] How long until I can eat one of these things?

- Well, they're ready to eat, and it's gonna be even better because they just nice and warm.

- Luke: This looks like breakfast.

What are you gonna eat?

- No, I'm already ate a couple ones.

- You already ate a couple today?

- Yes.

- Good for you.

- Yes.

Why don't you try one of our traditional ones, which is the prune?

- Okay.

You can feel it.

It's a little bouncy, squishy.

I can't wait.

That prune is not too sweet.

That's something that I really, really like about it.

So many sweets, it's just over the top, right?

- Gonzalo: Yes.

- Luke: It makes your whole brain light up with all that sugar.

- Gonzalo: Right.

- Luke: This has more of a natural flavor to it.

It's milder, but that glaze, that dough, it's so soft and springy.

This thing's perfect.

I can understand why you're popping out 46,000 of these things during Fat Tuesday.

This is worth checking out any time of the year, but specifically, if you're here on Fat Tuesday, come on down and stand in line.

Experience the entire neighborhood, the entire city of Milwaukee showing up for this guy's magic because I promise you, in the back, it is nothing short of that.

This is like the Willy Wonka of donuts in Milwaukee, all right.

- Thank you.

- Of course, man.

- Like that one.

- You've never been called that before?

- No.

[both laughing] - Luke: Thanks, man.

- Gonzalo: Thank you.

[groovy music] - And then bacon.

Get the caramelized onions.

- Six of the slow roasted pork.

Would you like bacon or onion or sour cream?

Sounds good.

Your food will be up in about six minutes.

So pierogi is a dumpling.

It's a dough-based dumpling that is filled with a variety of fillings.

Most traditional fillings common in Poland are cheese and potato.

They're called the Russian pierogi.

Then the meat pierogis, sauerkraut mushroom, and blueberry for dessert, I would say is the top one.

So today we have to make some dessert pierogi and also some cabbage rolls.

We have to make some banana Nutella and some wild blueberry pierogi.

And later on, we're going to move on to cabbage rolls.

I grew up eating pierogis.

I grew up making pierogis with my mom.

So I thought that would be the best way to introduce my culture and heritage to this beautiful area.

I started this business at 29, and now I'm 30, but I've been working with Polish ladies in the kitchen since age of six.

So I've been around this sort of food since young age.

My grandma, back in the day, could make about 400 pierogis in a day.

As a restaurant, we can make about 2,000 in a day if everyone shows up and we work hard.

We offer a standard menu that features the most traditional flavors you can find in Poland like cheese and potato, slow roasted pork, and sauerkraut mushroom.

Our standard dessert flavor is Door County cherry and cream cheese, banana Nutella, wild blueberry, and pumpkin spice in the fall.

We also make a lot of different specials and some of them are contemporary and non-standard, like bacon mac and cheese is made especially for the Wisconsin clientele.

We also make sauerkraut mushroom and kielbasa pierogi, potato cheddar jalapeño, spinach feta.

Pierogis, they're very special to my heart just because it reminds me of the bonding time in the kitchen with my mom and my sister and then hanging out as a whole family at the dinner table and just telling each other about our day.

- So I actually, today, have the honor of standing next to royalty, pierogi royalty.

This is the Prince of Pierogi.

And thank you so much, Chris, for having us in.

What are we gonna do today?

- Today, we're going to make some homemade cabbage rolls all from scratch.

- So what's our first step with the cabbage rolls?

- Our first step is cutting out the core out of a cabbage head.

- Luke: Okay.

- Christoph: So the way we make cabbage rolls is we cut the core out, so when we place them in the boiling water core down, the water is gonna get absorbed by all cabbage leaves that it will be easy to peel, nice and soft later on.

- Luke: Okay, keeping consistent with our training here.

Oh man, look at that.

- Do you get this medieval feeling of operating a sword?

- Yow!

I do.

[both laughing] All right, so I've got my X made there.

I'm gonna come around now.

Let that knife do the work.

What do cabbage rolls mean for you, having grown up in Poland?

- Oh, it's one of my favorite comfort foods my mother would make when I was growing up as a child.

So cabbage rolls mean a lot.

They bring a lot of great memories, not just for myself, but also for our guests that frequent our pierogi shop.

We have two burners over here.

One of them is ready and has some boiling water.

- Okay.

- Your job is going to be to place it core down in the boiling water, and then we're gonna cover it up and leave it for about 20 minutes.

- Okay.

Okay, so this is the steamed head... - Yep, yep.

- ...of cabbage.

So this has been in hot water for 20 minutes.

You've shocked it.

It's cool now.

- Yeah.

And your job is going to be gently strip the leaves, making sure that you only pick up one at the time because they rip easily.

- Okay.

- Like you can see the beginning is pretty hard because those are the most sensitive leaves out there, but then once you're past that, they're just gonna peel like a banana.

- When you think about growing up in Poland, what's one of your first food memories?

- Pierogi.

- Pierogi, okay.

- Yeah, just one word, the staple food of Poland, the most common comfort food that kids would beg their moms and grandmas to make them just because it takes quite a bit of time to make them.

It's time-consuming, but very rewarding.

- Luke: Sure.

- Christoph: Yeah.

Cabbage rolls, definitely number two.

- Luke: Okay.

- Now all we have to do is pull out the filling that we previously mixed.

- Okay.

- It's really simple.

It's sauteed onions, mushrooms, ground beef, rice, salt, pepper, and parsley with some tomato sauce.

- So when I first smell this, you do get like that huge umami blast, right?

And that's one of the reasons I think that cabbage rolls are so comforting.

There is so much going on there, but it's all really, really earthy.

I can definitely smell... [inhales] You know, I get that really rich, meat, mushroom, unctuous, like mixture of food that you know is gonna go in here, and then we're gonna steam it up and make it delicious, and then put that red sauce on top just like all of the delicious cabbage rolls you've ever had.

- Christoph: So this is our cabbage leaf that's already peeled.

We're gonna grab one scoop of our filling.

We like to go generous as far as everything we do.

People appreciate that.

And then it's basically like wrapping any other wrap, which is to make sure that the sides are good and then flip it over, and there it is.

- Luke: Nice.

- Next one's for you.

- Okay.

I'm gonna take a nice generous scoop here.

- Christoph: Nice.

- Because generous with everything we do here.

Okay, so I'm going to fold over and just like every burrito I've ever rolled, I end up with this, is that okay?

- Beautiful, beautiful.

- Yeah?

- That's amazing.

- Look at that!

- Looks great.

- Boom.

I gotta say, like, being in here, and all the smells and sights, and your storytelling actually, it's made me really excited to taste some of this food.

Is that okay too?

- Absolutely.

I could make some cheese potato pierogis for you, maybe a cabbage roll.

- Luke: Sounds great.

- Christoph: And cabbage rolls are actually located in our roaster, which is right here.

[quirky music] That makes a meal.

- Luke: This does make a meal.

Look at this thing.

That tomato, you get a little bit of that richness.

Again, you get that richness of the cabbage and the beef and the mushrooms, of rice, all those things.

Oh, I get to use the sharp knife, too?

- Uh-huh, this is called the company fork.

Whenever we make a shift meal, we have a running joke that we use a company fork so we don't waste a kit of plastic silverware, which costs us about 12 cents.

- Yeah, look at that.

That's small business entrepreneurial skill right there.

12 cents.

All right, so we're gonna cut into this thing.

It holds its shape so well.

It's like nature's best wrapper.

- Christoph: Exactly.

- Oh my gosh, it's so rich.

I gotta say, like, for me, any time I have a cabbage roll, and this one is exceptional, I might add.

- Thank you.

- I'm always taken to that place where you eat that really, really rich Italian like pasta or ragu, something that's cooked a long time slowly so those flavors all kind of diffuse together and make this delicious symphony for your mouth.

- Christoph: So pierogis are traditionally served with butter, so we're going to put some on the bottom.

It also prevents the pierogis from sticking to the paper.

- Luke: Sure.

- And then they are really good with some caramelized onions and crumbled bacon.

- Luke: Oh, yeah.

Bring that beautiful bacon.

You can see the cheese here.

You can see the potato filling, the butter, that little bit of onion flavor with the bacon.

And to think, Christoph and his crew are here.

They're putting together pieces of his childhood identity, his homeland.

For this to be in your backyard in the state of Wisconsin, you gotta be, well, a little out of it to not come and explore some of this because of this is amazing.

It tastes like a memory.

That bacon bite is legit.

This is so great.

I am over the moon, thrilled to be here to hear your story, to see your culinary interpretation of the food you ate growing up, and quite frankly, to celebrate the fact that you are here with your Polish identity, sharing that love and beauty with the rest of the people that come through Door County.

Thanks a lot.

I appreciate you.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- Luke: Oh man, this is so good.

[serene music] [Luke laughing] I'm surprised this isn't the state donut of Wisconsin, seeing as how there's butter in there, got that glaze.

Like, anything with butter, usually like, that's our jam.

No pun intended.

Do you get what I did there?

You see that, the jam?

That sucks, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

[all laughing] No, this is great.

I love it.

I want them all.

Come on down to National Bakery and fight me for these paczkis.

[laughing] Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[crowd cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- At Organic Valley, our cows make milk with just a few simple ingredients: sun, soil, rain, and grass.

And grass, and grass.

- Yee-haw!

- Organic Valley Grassmilk, organic milk from 100% grass-fed cows.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin is the largest local hunger relief organization in the state.

With your help, we ensure your neighbors in need don't have to worry where their next meal may come from.

Learn more at feedingamericawi.org.

- Additional support from the following underwriters.

Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

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♪ Zing boom tararrel ♪