Chleb
According to Polish tradition, the term chleb (bread) is mainly reserved for bread containing some proportion of rye flour. Chleb zwykły (regular bread) is anywhere from a 30-70, 40-60 to 50-50 combination of rye (the first figure given) and wheat flour. Razowiec is a darker bread (sometimes erroneously referred to in the US as pumpernickel) made with whole-rye (also called dark-rye) flour. The best breads are baked using a sourdough starter (na zakwasie).
Chleb razowy
Traditional Polish loaves are round or oval. Some varieties of bread are sprinkled with poppyseeds, caraway or black cumin. Things such as Vienna or French bread are referred to as biała bułka (white loaf) or bułka paryska (Parisian loaf) and the thin French bread is called a bagietka (baguette). American-style white bread is known in Poland as pieczywo tostowe (toast loaf). Note: Bread is buttered when served together with cheese, cold cuts, eggs, cold fish, etc. It is unbuttered when served with soup, since the latter is believed to already contain enough fat.
