The kinds of food that “bring luck” on New Year’s Eve do not differ much from region to region in Bulgaria. Tradition dictates that on this night there have to be cold cuts, pork and poultry meat in every home.

Pigs are regarded as a symbol of wealth and progress, and roast chicken, which is often part of the festive dinner, is connected with wishes for a better and more successful year, a year free of problems or difficulties. On 1 January Bulgarians bake banitsa with fortune slips and every family member takes a piece to find out what lies in store for them during the coming year. The food put on the table on New Year’s Eve is more than a feast, it follows old-time traditions to create a sense of home and warmth. On this night even expats follow the tradition in food. The idea is to have a little of everything – meat, milk, bread, vegetables, cold cuts – all of it made following old-time tradition.

“More and more customers are drawn to pure food, without preservatives or flavour enhancers, cooked using the traditional Bulgarian technology. It is not a low-cost mass product but it is healthier and tastier, that is why sells out so quickly, especially with holidays coming,” says Magdalena Donkova from a company producing vegetable products applying traditional technologies.

“Everything we produce is based on peppers, and the most important thing here is that the only ingredients are vegetables and spices. Our basic product is lyutenitsa (a kind of chuntey) as gourmet food made of the products Bulgarians love best. It contains no starch or preservatives, something that is typical of other such products on the market here.  We also have ajvar with cow’s milk cheese, Macedonian lyutenitsa and all kinds of chili peppers. As a matter of fact there is no difference between Bulgarian and Macedonian lyutenitsa. In different parts of Bulgaria lyutenitsa is made differently, it is the same with Macedonian lyutenitsa. In ours there is tomato paste, peppers, parsley and garlic. To attain the high quality of our lyutenitsa we did extensive research, tried out different kinds of chutney. All vegetables we use we buy from neigubouring North Macedonia. The price is higher, but so is the quality.”

A firm from Montana also combines traditional Bulgarian products with novel kinds of charcuterie from the world market, with the idea of improving the flavour and the quality of its products.

“We make wild game lyukanka flat sausage, wild game pastrami, and we buy the meat from hunting farms in Montana,” says Petko Vurbanov, co-founder of the company.

“We have a plant in Montana, but wild game charcuterie is not selling well on the Bulgarian market as yet. These are new products and we are hoping they will become established on the market. We have also started manufacturing something no one else makes in Bulgaria – meat crisps. Some of the machines for their manufacture we had to construct ourselves. The crisps are made of very finely sliced chicken tenderloin. We then put them in the oven to dry out, but, in practice, they are pure meat. Because it takes more time and effort to make, chicken crisps are a bit more expensive although we are doing everything we can to bring down the price. Our products contain healthy proteins and fats and even bodybuilders opt for our meat crisps. That is how we are getting ready for the New Year holidays, by offering all kinds of tasty and healthy food for every Bulgarian family.”

Photos: BNR-archive and facebook.com