The Polish Kitchen: Żurek (Sour Rye Soup)

Cathy2 wrote:HI,

Most Polish soups don't have the egg, meat and potatoes visible. They are often opaque pools with the ingredients found as you dig in with your spoon. Is this presentation for our benefit or typical for your family?

This is typical for our family, as we (and many Polish families I know) use rather shallow soup bowls. The sausage and potatoes would certainly be visible if you came over and had mom's zurek--actually even moreso than in the picture. Mom quartered her potatoes, while I cut them into cubes. We never used eggs in ours, but I like them, so I did arrange the eggs so their yolks would look a little sexier.

Do you also make Polish Pickle soup? I have a quart of pickle brine from pickles that I am keeping for this purpose. Do you have a favored method?

Absolutely. I love Polish pickle soup. Basically, I just take a light stock, vegetable or chicken (although a smoked meat stock will work, too), mix it with shredded pickles (naturally fermented pickles, not vinegar pickles), shredded carrots, cubed potatoes, pickle brine to taste. Cook for a little bit, thicken with sour cream beaten with flour, and that's about it. Salt, pepper, allspice, and bay leaf as seasonings. Oh, and you can start it by frying a small onion or leek in butter. I don't always use onion/leek in my pickle soup. Garnish with generous amounts of dill.

Your post is very inspiring. Thank you for taking your time to present this to us.

Glad you enjoyed it. I saw Gary's post from awhile back about zurek, with him initially thinking it was based on sauerkraut juice (which, actually, is not really far off. Same idea: natural fermentation that results in lactic acid), so I thought it was be interesting to share how this mysterious soup is made.