Chleb Razowy

In selected Putka bakeries in Warsaw, the razowy sandwich is assembled at the counter to order: two slices of sunflower razowy, a spoonful of egg paste made from boiled free-range eggs, radish, mayonnaise and chives, and one crisp lettuce leaf laid against the bread. It is a heavy lunch, thick with dense bread and a full spoonful of paste. The first bite is cold and soft, then the radish snaps in small bright pieces, the chives add a green sharpness, and the sunflower seeds crack against the teeth inside a crumb that stays tight around the paste. The lettuce keeps the mayonnaise from reaching the crumb, and building the sandwich on site means it gets into your hand before that matters.

The bread does most of the work. Razowy comes from raz, "once": the grain passes through the mill a single time and the bran stays in the flour, so the loaf is dark, dense and faintly sour. In the classic Polish version that sourness comes from a rye starter, kept going between batches by holding back a piece of dough to seed the next. Against mayonnaise and egg yolk the sour crumb is welcome, a note that cuts the richness before it can pile up. A slice cut too thin tears under the paste, and one that has sat for hours goes soft at the middle, which is why a counter that assembles to order has the advantage over a case of pre-made sandwiches.

Eating one is an unhurried business. The paste is cool and creamy, and it warms quickly in a paper bag or a coat pocket, so the radish loses its snap soon after you leave the shop and the first half is the better half. The crumb is dense enough to hold its shape for a walk to the tram, and the sunflower seeds keep their crack to the last bite. Putka tags the sandwich as made with free-range hens and as a source of protein, which tells you the bakery pitches it as a filling lunch for people on a break, and the weight in the hand agrees.

Putka also lists a second razowy egg-paste sandwich that adds ogórek kiszony, a pickled cucumber, and the brine-sharp crunch suits the sour loaf better than lettuce does. Both versions sit within the everyday Polish habit of the kanapka, a slice of bread with something cool and savoury on it, eaten at breakfast and supper. Dark rye was the household loaf for most of Poland's history and white bread the occasional luxury, so filling razowy is the older instinct, and the egg-and-radish combination gives the sandwich a spring-garden flavour that fits a seeded, sour crumb.

Whole-grind flour is also the reason to read the loaf behind the counter. Many dark breads on sale are baked from sifted flour and coloured with caramel, while a genuine razowy carries the bran that gives it chew and a high fibre count. In a sandwich the difference shows in the crumb: a loaf with real bran holds a wet paste without collapsing and stays chewy to the edge of the crust, and the sunflower seeds add a second layer of crunch inside it. Eating the sandwich cold, with the loaf as the main flavour and the paste as its seasoning, is the quickest way to taste what razowy is.

The word before the filling

Razowy has a long life as an ordinary word. Mąka razowa is coarse flour ground once, and a loaf of it was the bread of the Polish table, sliced and spread at breakfast and supper. A filled slice of that loaf is the plain kanapka in its darkest form, which is how the Warsaw bakery counter treats it: the bread is the house staple and the paste is the day's filling.

The first person to put egg paste between razowy slices is unknown, and the practice seems to have grown out of the loaf sitting on every table. The documented product today is the razowy ze słonecznikiem sandwich with egg paste, sold in selected Putka company bakeries in Warsaw and prepared where it is sold, with the pickled-cucumber version listed beside it on the chain's product pages.

The Putka family dates its baking to 1918, when Władysław Putka is said to have started a bakery east of Warsaw (accounts name Okuniew and Rembertów), with the earliest decades uncertain even to the family. Jan and Janina Putka opened their own first bakery in 1983 on Tarnowiecka Street in Grochów, the shop the family presents as the start of its present line of Warsaw bakeries.