About Milwaukee's paczki tradition

First things first: The correct pronunciation is poonch-ka, says Joe Parajecki, a chef at the Polish Center in Franklin.

And yes, they are similar to jelly-filled donuts, but they’re much richer. Ingredients like sugar, butter, eggs and yeast are put into the dough before giving them up for Lent.

Paczki is traditionally eaten on Fat Tuesday in Milwaukee, though in Poland, it’s actually celebrated on the Thursday before Lent.

“You can’t believe the lines in Poland to get paczki on Fat Thursday. People eat a dozen or more each,” Parajecki said.

Milwaukee is one of the “capital cities of Polish America,” according to Milwaukee historian John Gurda. Two decades after the city was founded, 30 families organized the first Polish Catholic congregation in urban America.

A traditional paczki is the size of a walnut and doesn’t look like a donut at all, Parajecki said. It’s sweet dough wrapped around a prune or filled with rose jam, which is “a very acquired taste. It’s like eating a jar of perfume.”

Prune and raspberry are the most common fillings in America, but there are newer flavors like Nutella and lemon. Parajecki is amazed by how many people who celebrate paczki, even those who aren’t Polish.

He doesn’t care about the paczki vs. donut discussion — more important is tying it to a memory, like sitting around grandma’s table.

“We’re not eating it to debate those things. We’re eating it to remember, we’re eating it to have a good time.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: About Milwaukee's paczki tradition