Romanian recipes often involve traditional methods passed down through generations. Some key dishes include sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls), mamaliga (porridge made from yellow cornmeal), and various meat and cheese products made by hand on rural households without preservatives. Cozonac is a traditional sweet bread prepared especially for holidays, involving a process of kneading dough with butter and oil until airy, then braiding and baking the rolls. Other desserts incorporate local cheeses, eggs, fruits, and pancakes. Traditional Romanian cuisine emphasizes foods made in a natural way in the home.

1. ROMANIAN RECEIPES

2. Romania:
Families living in the rural areas prepare in
their own households local traditional food,
as their ancestors used to do. Some of them
are passing the knowledge to their young
ones.

3. Romanian Traditional Cuisine

5. Sarmale = Stuffed cabbage rolls
Ingredients- Ingrediente
• a large cabbage or 2 medium sized ones - o varza mare sau 2 verze de
marime mijlocie
• 750g minced pork meat – carne de porc tocata
• 1 slice of bread – 1 felie de paine
• 2 onions – 2 cepe
• 2 spoons of rice – 2 linguri de orez
• 1 pack of sauerkraut – zeama de varza
• 1 small cup of tomato sauce – suc de rosii
• salt and pepper – sare si piper

7. Divide up the cabbage leaves and then
steam them until they are tender. Saute
the small minced onion and when it
become transparent add the rice and
continue to fry everything for 1 or 2
minutes. Take the pan off the flame
cool it with 2 tablespoons of water. Mix
the meat with the rice and onions and a
slice of bread dipped in milk; season it
with salt and pepper and sprinkle with
parsley.

10. Place a small amount of the above mixture on every cabbage leaf, roll them
up and tuck in the edges. Put one layer of sauerkraut on the bottom of a pot
and over it a layer of cabbage rolls; continue to do so until you finish up the
ingredients.

12. Pour the tomato sauce over it and add some smoked bacon. Pour
about 2 cups of water in the pot and boil the cabbbage rolls with the
pot covered with a lid for at least one and a half hour.

14. “Mamaliga” = Porridge
made out of yellow maize flour
din malai de porum
Ingredients Ingrediente
Water -Apa
Maize Flour -Malai
Salt- Sare
Traditionally, mămăliga is cooked by boiling water, salt and cornmeal in a special-
shaped cast iron pot , called ceaun or tuci. When cooked peasant-style and used as a
bread substitute, mămăliga is supposed to be much thicker than the regular Italian
polenta to the point that it can be cut in slices, like bread. When cooked for other
purposes, mămăliga can be much softer, sometimes almost to the consistency of
porridge .

19. Mămăligă is often served with sour cream and cheese on the
side (mămăligă cu brânză şi smântână) or crushed in a bowl of
hot milk (mămăligă cu lapte).

20. The milk and meat products, are made in their own household, manually,
without any preservation or chemical additives. The ingredients come
from the animals that they raise.
Cheese in “skin”
Special prepared salted cheese that goes through several steps before the final form (maturation).
The cheese is kept in special recipient made of wood or in the skin coming from the stomach of
animals.

21. The producers are making manually the recipients in which the
cheese is kept and they sew the skin/wood, so the cheese is
complete kept out of air. The ones that are kept in wood
recipients, have a delicate scent of fir tree.

22. Meat products:
Caltabos: contains pork meat, livers and other
organs, with onion and condiments, wrapped in
natural membranes. Special food for Christmas
meals.
Toba: contains pork meat (around the neck area),
organs, rind (skin), condiments, wrapped in natural
membranes. Special food for Christmas meals.

23. Pecie - Smoke pork chops – the meat is exposed
to smoke from different wood tree for several
day. Must be kept in dry spaces.
Smoked Bacon- from the back of
the pig and its lateral parts

24. Fish soup with a lot of vegetable
made on open fire
Fried fish with vegetables

25. Filled pike with small fish and vegetables

26. Cozonac (Romanian pronunciation: [kozonak]) is a
traditional Romanian sweet bread. It is usually prepared for
Easter and mostly for every major holiday (Christmas,
Easter, New Year, Pentecost) in Romania.

27. ROMANIAN TRADITIONAL SWEET
BREAD - COZONAC
• Ingredients for 2 pieces
Before we start, all the ingredients
must have the same temperature and
all the windows must be close. The
room (kitchen) must be warm
because the cold air could damage the
dough.
Toate ingredientele trebuie sa aiba
aceeasi temperatura si ferestrele
trebuie sa fie inchise. Bucataria
trebuie sa fie calda.
• 1 kg flour (faina)
300 gr sugar(zahar)
200-250 gr butter+ oil(unt+ ulei)
5 yolks( galbenusuri)
2 eggs( oua)
1/2 teaspoon salt(lingurita de sare)
400-500 ml milk(lapte)
45 g fresh yeast(drojdie)
a little grated lemon peel –coaja de la
lamaie
50 gr raisins- stafide
vanilla- esenta de vanilie

28. Mix de rest of milk ( warm) with the rest of the sugar ( to disolve it).
Mix all de yolks (4 ) with the salt.

30. Take a larger bowl and place the flour, the
warm milk ( with sugar), the egg white, the
yolks (with salt) and dough starter (after it
rises). And knead, adding the melted butter
combined with oil, a little at a time, until the
dough starts to easily come off your palms .
Add butter and oil to the dough until air
bubbles can be seen in it. Add the raisins
( after we keep it in Rhum or in warm milk)
and knead again. Cover with a cloth. Leave in
a warm place to double in bulk.

32. If during kneading the dough seems too hard, you may add a
little milk. If, on the contrary, the dough seems too soft, you may
add a little flour.

33. Cover with a cloth. Leave in a warm
place to double in bulk.

35. When the dough has risen well, divide it in two parts. The first
part divide it again in two. Make the same with the second.
After that fold the two rolls together into a rope (braid the two
pieces together)

40. The baking pan ( it is similar with the plumcake baking pan ) should be
previously greased with butter or covered with the baking paper. Fill only 1/3
or 1/2 of the pan with dough.

42. Cover and leave in a warm spot until it almost fill the
whole pan.

44. When the sweet bread is ready, remove from the pan, place on
a towel, cover with a blanket and let it cool off slowly in a warm
place.

45. We can fill it with cacao, chocolate, walnuts, turkish delight, in
this case should be filled like a roll ( don‘t mix this into the
dough).

46. Other Traditional Desserts
•Pies with cheese and eggs. There
different sorts of sheep cheese used
for the pies (some of them are more
dietetic with less fat, and other with
a high concentration of fat.
Sometimes raisins or added in the
compositions.
•Donuts – made with yogurt and
yeast, sometimes with salted cheese
•Pancakes – filled with different
types of jam or with cheese and eggs
composition.

47. Thank you!