Żurek: hearty Polish sour rye soup with sausage, eggs, and marjoram for cold days

Tip: tap a step to mark it as done.

1. Mix the starter

   5 min

   Put the rye flour in a clean 1-liter jar, pour in the lukewarm boiled water, and stir until smooth. Add the peeled, halved garlic cloves, bay leaf, and allspice berries.

2. Let it ferment

   Cover the jar with cheesecloth or a kitchen towel and leave it at room temperature for 4–5 days to ferment. Stir once a day. The starter is ready when it smells pleasantly sour and clear liquid collects on the surface.

3. Make the broth

   30 min

   Pour 1.5 l water into a pot. Add the bacon in one piece, the finely diced carrot, parsley root, and celery root, the halved onion, bay leaves, and allspice berries. Cook for 20 minutes. Add the whole sausage and cook for another 10 minutes.

4. Add the potatoes

   15 min

   Remove the sausage, bacon, and onion. Peel the potatoes, cut them into 1.5 cm cubes, and add them to the broth. Cook for 12–15 minutes, until tender. Meanwhile, hard-boil the eggs for about 10 minutes.

5. Thicken with the starter

   10 min

   Stir the starter, then strain it into the soup, discarding the garlic and spices from the starter. Add the crushed garlic, marjoram, horseradish, and the sausage and bacon cut into pieces. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the soup thickens.

6. Season and serve

   5 min

   Mix the cream with a little hot soup, pour it into the pot, and simmer briefly. Season with salt and pepper and remove the bay leaves. Serve the żurek with halved hard-boiled eggs.

Tip: If you prefer not to make the starter, Polish grocery stores sell bottled zakwas, the fermented rye starter used for żurek. Discard any starter that smells foul rather than pleasantly sour or develops mold.

This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Kyslastý poľský žurek s klobásou a vajíčkom: hustá polievka na studené dni, vonia majoránom