In the Kossak's house - as Magdalena Samozwaniec recalls - it was a house rich in culinary traditions, the Christmas Eve feast had to consist of at least ten courses. A gray carp with raisins was obligatory on the table, in sweet sauce, and for dessert, homemade andruts with cream and apple strudel, to which the cook had to drag puff pastry through the entire kitchen and hall, make it as thin as possible. This is how Melchior Wańkowicz recalls Christmas Eve in Szczenięcych years: “Christmas Eve consisted of eight or twelve dishes and, despite being solid and careful, overeating, so that there is room for everything, there was not enough space.
In the center of the table, a white tablecloth wavy, on bundles of hay (We foretold from its stalks, whose life is longer) there was a so-called "bail"” - a huge quadruple salad bowl, which housed the four essential dishes of Neris, four things prepared for tradition, no one has ever touched. I am convinced, that the bond was traced back to ancient pagan times. There was oat jelly, looking like a dirty sticker, distended grains of boiled wheat, peas and barley and poppy seed milk. Grandmother only, as housewife, she had to try each dish and watered it full” (honey with water), otherwise the coming year would not be enough. She grimaced, especially with jelly, but it's a must. And when it comes to the state, and the servants were full, the great glass doors of the enormous drawing-room were opened wide. Against the background of a huge hundred-year-old agave (which - just what was expected every year, that it will bloom once in a hundred years - with a shot like a cannon) there was an even bigger Christmas tree”.