Cuisine: The Polish Palate
Course: Main Courses, Light Meals, Side Dishes, Appetizers
Diet: High-Protein, High-Carb, High-Satiety, Iron-Rich, Collagen-Rich
Occasion: Street Food, Comfort Food, Batch Cooking, Winter Warmer, Supper, Afternoon Snack, Culinary Heritage

Pasztecik Szczeciński (Szczecin Deep-Fried Meat Pasty)

A legendary Polish street food featuring a fluffy, deep-fried fresh yeast dough shell filled with rich, slow-braised and ground meat.
Prep time 30m
Cook time 2h 10m
Rest time 1h 30m
Total 4h 10m
Yield
10
Per serving:
439 kcal
39g Carbs
15g Protein
19g Fat
By Adam Dworak
Published: 11 September 2026

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Ingredients

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Kitchen Kit

  • Meat Grinder
  • Heavy-bottomed Pot
  • Slotted Spoon
  • Kitchen Thermometer
  • Rolling Pin
  • Small Pan
  • Large Mixing Bowl
  • Knife
  • Wire rack
  • Kitchen Paper

Method

  1. Chuck the pork shoulder, beef chuck, peeled carrots, halved onions, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and allspice berries into a heavy pot. Pour in the 500ml of water (it won't cover the meat entirely, we are braising).
  2. Add exactly 10g of the salt to the pot. Bring it up to a rolling boil—this will take around 15 minutes. Once bubbling, drop the heat to low, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and simmer gently for 1.5 hours until the meat yields completely to a fork.
  3. Fish the meat and vegetables out of the broth and set them aside to cool for at least 30 minutes. Strain and save the rich cooking liquid; you'll need it shortly.
  4. Pass the cooled meat, carrots, and onions through a meat grinder set to a medium or fine plate. Toss in the black pepper, dried marjoram, and a splash (about 50ml) of the reserved cooking broth. Mix it aggressively with your hands until it forms a cohesive, pâté-like paste. Taste it and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Set the filling aside.
  5. While the meat is cooking or cooling, get the dough going. Warm the milk gently in a pan so it's blood-temperature (tepid, not hot). Crumble the fresh yeast directly into the warm milk, then stir in the white sugar and 1 tablespoon of the wheat flour. Whisk well to dissolve the yeast and leave it for 10 to 15 minutes until a thick, active sponge develops on top.
  6. Tip the remaining wheat flour into a large mixing bowl. Crack in the whole egg, pour in the melted unsalted butter, the active yeast sponge, and the remaining 5g of salt.
  7. Bring it together into a shaggy dough, then turn it out and knead it for 8 to 10 minutes. It should feel smooth, bouncy, and slightly tacky. Form it into a ball, pop it back in the bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and leave it in a warm spot for 1 hour to double in size.
  8. Punch the air out of the proved dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll it out into a large rectangle, roughly 5mm thick.
  9. Spoon the meat mixture along the long edge of the dough, forming a thick, continuous sausage shape. Roll the dough over the meat just enough to fully enclose it, then slice the long tube away from the rest of the dough. Repeat until all dough and filling are used.
  10. Using the side of your hand or a dull knife, portion the long tubes into individual 10cm (4-inch) pasties. Pinch the open ends slightly if the meat looks like it wants to escape.
  11. Pour the vegetable oil into a deep, heavy-bottomed pot. Bring it up to exactly 170°C—this should take about 10 minutes over medium heat.
  12. Gently lower the pasties into the hot oil in batches of three or four. Fry them for 3 to 4 minutes per side. They will puff up dramatically and turn a deep, gorgeous golden brown.
  13. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and let them drain thoroughly on a wire rack lined with kitchen paper. Serve them piping hot.
Chef's Note & Storage
Fridge 3 days. To reheat, absolutely avoid the microwave. Chuck them in a 180°C oven or air fryer for 5-8 minutes to restore the crispy, fried exterior.
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The Taste of the Polish Coast

Down in Szczecin, they don’t bake their pastries—they plunge them straight into roaring hot oil. The Pasztecik Szczeciński is an absolute institution of a street food. Dating back to the 1960s, it was born out of post-war ingenuity, using surplus military deep-fat fryers to churn out these golden, fresh yeast-risen torpedoes. It's not a delicate Cornish pasty; it’s a brilliant, slightly chaotic hybrid of a doughnut and a meat pie. The fresh yeast dough is aerated and light, forming a crisp outer shell that gives way to a densely packed, aggressively seasoned meat filling. It’s the ultimate hand-held comfort food, traditionally washed down with a steaming mug of tart red borscht on a freezing winter afternoon.

CHEF'S SECRET: Don't skip the meat grinder. The filling for a proper pasztecik isn't made from loose mince. You need to slow-cook whole cuts of meat until they collapse, then grind them with the aromatics into a paste-like consistency. This binds the filling, stopping it from crumbling out of the hot pastry when you take a bite.

❖

Mastering the Fry

Working with deep-fried fresh yeast dough requires total respect for temperature control. If your oil drops below 170°C, the dough acts like a sponge, drinking up the fat and leaving you with a heavy, greasy mess. If it's too hot, the outside will burn bitter before the dough inside has a chance to steam and cook through. Heat your oil slowly, use a thermometer, and don't crowd the pot. Give these pastries the space to expand and puff up—they should smile back at you as they turn deep mahogany in the hot fat.

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The Cook & Keeper Pairing System

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Barszcz Czerwony (Traditional Polish Red Borscht)
Best Match

Barszcz Czerwony (Traditional Polish Red Borscht)

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