2 min read
Priganice are small puffs of yeast dough, dropped by the spoonful into hot oil and eaten straight away with honey, cheese or jam. They turn up at breakfast, on the katuns, at village fairs and whenever a guest walks in. As one Belgrade broadcaster put it, what bread and salt are to other nations, priganice with honey are to Montenegro.
A welcome in fried dough
Every Balkan country fries dough, but in Montenegro priganice carry a particular meaning. They are what a household makes when guests arrive: a plate of hot, golden puffs with a jar of honey or a bowl of cheese beside it. Serbian public broadcaster RTS put it neatly: what bread and salt are to other nations, priganice with honey or sugar are to Montenegro.
They are everyday food too. The Žabljak tourist board describes them as small, airy doughnuts traditionally served with honey, and the national tourist board lists priganice with honey or cheese among the foods of the katuns, the summer pastures. On the farm stays of Njeguši they are part of breakfast, next to the cheese and ham.
How they're made
The dough is simple: flour, water, a little sugar and salt, and yeast. Montenegrin cooks add one more thing, a spoonful of rakija, so the priganice soak up less oil. The dough rests for about half an hour, is beaten until smooth and elastic, then dropped by the spoonful into deep, hot oil, where each spoonful puffs up into an irregular golden ball.
They are best eaten at once. Sweet, they come with honey, jam or granulated sugar; savoury, with cheese, sour cream, pršut, pickles or ajvar. Unlike uštipci, their close cousins, priganice are rolled in coarse sugar rather than icing sugar when served sweet.
Fairs and festivals
Priganice have their own days. Every October, Golubovci on the Zeta plain holds the Day of Zeta Cakes and Priganice, where women's associations compete with family recipes and hot priganice with honey and cheese are handed out free. In Virpazar, on Lake Skadar, Priganica Fest, subtitled 'sweeter with honey', has paired them with local honey and wine in July or August, organised by Montenegro's national parks with the Bar tourist board.
The honey that goes with them
Montenegro's honey routes run through Cetinje, Kolašin, Mojkovac, Bijelo Polje and the Skadar lake area. Cetinje's linden-and-honey fair, Miris lipe i meda, has been held on the Balšića pazar square for more than twenty years, most recently in July. In autumn, Nikšić's Honey Days and the Podgorica beekeeping fair are the places to buy a jar straight from the beekeeper, and unlike cheese and meat, a small amount of honey may travel home to the EU in your luggage.
