Super Bowl Sunday is a big deal in the U.S., and it got me thinking about food—one of my favorite subjects and something I can gravitate toward without much of a nudge.

We’ll load up tables with football staples such as nachos, wings, and chips and dip. If I were in Poland in the early 17th century, what might a similar celebratory feast include? I can tell you it wouldn’t include anything that was tomato-based. They didn’t have tomatoes. Nor would one find anything made from potatoes because—you guessed it—they didn’t have those either. What about a sweet treat like chocolate chip cookies? Nope. No chocolate. Or coffee to keep you awake in case the game got boring or you felt like nodding off after chowing down on all those carbs.

Now what you would have found that you still find today is beer, and plenty of it. If you prefer wine or vodka at your Super Bowl party, you’d share that in common with the Poles of four hundred years ago also. Cheese was a major part of their diet too, so there’s another similarity.

One important factor affecting the diet of 17th century Poles this time of year is Lent, but the timing is such that during Super Bowl Sunday, their meals wouldn’t have had any restrictions. Meat would definitely be on the table.

For giggles, I looked through my copy of Food and Drink in Medieval Poland: Rediscovering a Cuisine of the Past. Beer soup with cheese and eggs as a starter, anyone? Sounds kinda yummy to me. Or cheese dumplings. They were more of a side dish, but I do like the sound of them as an appetizer. Fish aspic, though? Not so much, although the use of lavender vinegar is intriguing.

Now for a main meal, how about chicken baked with prunes? Ingredients include juniper berries, bacon, and red Hungarian wine. Now I’m getting hungry. Or hashmeat in the Cypriot Style, which is described as being baked like a meatloaf or in patties. I’ll skip the tripe in sauerkraut, however. Also a hard pass on the stewed pig tails with buckwheat gruel.

I noticed as I leafed through my book that they used a lot of fruit in their recipes (apples, pears, raisins) and relied on a variety of spices besides salt and pepper, including cinnamon, ginger, anise, ground mustard, dill seed, and bay leaves. Sugar wasn’t as abundant as it is today and was therefore considered a splurge. Honey and fruit were used instead as sweeteners.

And speaking of sweets (dessert is my favorite course), the fast day pancakes, which are more like crepes, sound tasty. Court dish of baked fruit was exotic with its luxury ingredients of lemons, sugar, and almonds. The pears stewed with cucumbers and figs would be interesting to try, especially when slathered with lots of fresh cream … and more honey.

If you want to find out more about 17th century Polish fare, here are some resources:

Food and Drink in Medieval Poland can be found on Amazon. I had heard of beer cheese soup before, but not one that includes eggs! While this particular book doesn’t have a ton of recipes, it gives a lot of history behind them.

Another source is the granddaddy of all Polish cookbooks that was actually published in the late 17th century and is still available today. It’s one I’ve referred to quite a bit when writing my books. I was able to find enough of it online to round out my research. It’s called Compendium Ferculorum. Wikipedia gives a nice description of it. It’s currently unavailable on Amazon, but it looks like it’s available through the Polish Art Center—though the price is pretty rich.

Also, Sophie Hodorowicz Knab has a series of books that deal with Polish customs, where she talks about food quite a bit. She is also the author of The Polish Country Kitchen Cookbook which is a great source of Polish recipes, and she gives a lot of history behind them.