No, You Don’t Add an ‘s’ to Make Paczki Plural – the Grammar of Paczki
Paczki, the fried Polish donut treat served on Fat Tuesday are a pleasure to eat. But if you want to get your vernacular correct, here are the rules you need to know.
Paczki is plural, meaning two or more jelly filled donuts. So it is incorrect to say you've eaten a "dozen paczkis in the last week."
Surprisingly, here is the singular form of paczki: Paczek.
So it's one paczek and two or more paczki.
You know the pronunciation of paczki: poanch-key
How about paczek: Say poanch-eck
There are those who would argue it doesn't matter if you call them paczkis as long as you stuff those fatboys with plenty of filling.
Now here's another debate: To prune or not? Some would say that only a prune or plum filling is a true paczki. As one commenter on Facebook notes, "any without plum filling is pronounced 'Jelly or custard donut.'" Duly noted and shots fired.
Your paczki Polish lesson is courtesy of the Piast Institute in Hamtramck via their Facebook page.
Want to have a look at the Polish bakeries that make pazcki on the regular? The Cooking With Benoit YouTube channel hit the streets of the Detroit enclave of Hamtramck that really make the fried delights a staple of Fat Tuesday around the Great Lakes:
And if you're blown away by the paczek/paczki, consider another Polish staple, pierogi. If you somehow can limit yourself to only eating one, then you've enjoyed a pierog.
Fat Tuesday, is of course, not the only holiday we get a little gluttonous. Think of Halloween candy. Here's a ranking of all the candy you'd find as a Halloween treat or in a movie theater.