The one day a year when Chicago eats pączki by the boxful. Here is what it is, when it falls, and how to make sure you get yours.
In Poland the pączki day is Tłusty Czwartek, Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday. It exists for a practical reason: before the Lenten fast, households had to use up the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the pantry, and frying rich dough was the most enjoyable way to do it. Polish folk wisdom holds that anyone who skips a pączek that day earns an empty barn and a field eaten by mice.
When Polish families settled in Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo and Milwaukee, the pastry came with them but the calendar shifted. In the United States the celebration slid to Shrove Tuesday, the same Fat Tuesday the rest of the country already knew, and picked up an American name: Pączki Day.
Chicago, being Chicago, does not choose. Plenty of families here mark both, which is why our fryers run twice in the same week.
Mark the calendar now. Pre-orders open several weeks ahead and the popular fillings go first.
Tłusty Czwartek, the Polish pączki day. The quieter of the two, and the one our Polish regulars keep.
Fat Tuesday. The big one. Frying starts in the middle of the night and does not stop until the last tray is gone.
Lent begins. The fryers go quiet and the pączki go back to being an occasional treat.
In Poland the main pączki celebration is Tłusty Czwartek, Fat Thursday, six days before Ash Wednesday. The Tuesday that follows belongs to the last days of Carnival and has a name of its own, Śledzik, Herring Night.
In the United States the Polish tradition attached itself instead to Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday, the day immediately before Ash Wednesday. Polish immigrants arriving in American cities found Fat Tuesday celebrations already in place, and over time the two merged. In cities with large Polish populations, Chicago above all, what is Tłusty Czwartek in Poland has become largely one and the same with Fat Tuesday here.
The reason pączki suit the day so well is built into the recipe. Eggs, milk, butter, sugar, yeast, rich fillings and frying fat are exactly the ingredients a household had to use up before the Lenten fast, and a pączek was the most enjoyable way to do it.
Today many people who buy pączki on Fat Tuesday do not observe Lent at all. The day has grown into a broader celebration of Polish heritage, community and family, and in Chicago and Detroit the bakeries fry through the night to keep up with it.
Preparation starts about a month out: ordering fillings by the drum, scheduling extra hands, working out how many trays each location can hold. In the last week the bakery moves onto a night schedule.
On the day itself the first batch comes out of the oil while it is still dark, and the line is usually already forming. Trays are refilled continuously through the morning. By early afternoon the flavors start thinning out, and by closing time there is generally nothing left but powdered sugar on the floor.
Classic seedless raspberry jam, dusted with powdered sugar.
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Vanilla Bavarian creme, powdered sugar finish.
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Chocolate Bavarian creme under a chocolate finish.
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Sweetened cream cheese, lightly glazed.
See productBoxes, dozens and catering trays are handled on the Ideal Bakery shop. Reserve early and skip the line entirely.