Kishke, also called kishka or stuffed derma, is a Jewish preparation traditionally cooked with the intestine of beef (the use of which has been banned in US since 1958) with a stuffing made of matzo meal or flour, spices and schmaltz. In the modern kishke recipe, the beef intestine or gut is often replaced with synthetic edible casings. Kishke, which is more commonly eaten as a standalone food, may sometimes also be used as an ingredient in Ashkenazi-style cholent.
There are several traditional variations in the kishke recipe. Kishke can be made by stuffing the intestines with a mixture of flour, paprika, salt, oil and ground celery, onions, carrot, which are then baked. In other cases, the stuffing can be made with chicken fat or suet, onions, garlic, celery, carrot, matzo meal, salt, black pepper and hot paprika.
The baked kishkes are generally sliced and served as side dish with roasted chicken or pot roast dishes. Kishke in Eastern Europe is served for breakfast. In the Polish cuisine, kishke can be eaten grilled, cold or fried and when served hot, it is generally accompanied by sauerkraut, onions and potato.
Kishkais popular all over Eastern Europe and in regions with immigrant communities from this part of Europe, and is also popular amongst the Ashkenazi Jews who cooked Kishke according to the Kashrut dietary rules. The traditional Eastern European kishka is made from pig’s blood and barley or buckwheat while the casing is made of pig intestine. Kishke can also be made from other organ meat like liver and different grain stuffing while the cooked versions can range differ in color from grey white to brown-orange based on the ingredients and the amount of paprika used.
There are non-traditional versions of kishke, which contain stuffings of chicken liver dices or rice or ground gizzards. Vegetarian versions of the kishke recipe are also gaining in popularity in the modern times. In the Ashkenazi-style cholent recipe, where kishke is used as an ingredient, the stuffed sausage is cooked overnight with the cholent or in salted water or baked and is either served over the assembled cholent or in a separately made thick gravy made of flour. The German Grützwurst, also called Kaszanka or kiszka is yet another version of kishke, which is a blood sausage with stuffing made of pig offal, kasza made of buckwheat, barley or rice, black pepper, marjoram, onion, popular in Polish cuisine, and also eaten as krupńok in Silesia.