Zalewajka: sour rye soup with potatoes, bacon and sausage
A soup from central Poland, a humbler cousin of żurek: the same rye starter, but instead of white sausage there are potatoes cooked in the same pot and smoked meat fried at the start. The potatoes release their starch, so the soup is thick without a roux. It is made from whatever is in the house, which is why the Łódź region has cooked it for generations.
Your own work in that: 35 min.
- Smoked meat and onion 20 min
- Potatoes cooking 20 min
- Starter and seasoning 15 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneRender the bacon
Put the diced bacon into a cold pan or pot and fry over medium heat 7 minutes, until the fat has run and the pieces are crisp. A cold start lets the fat escape before the meat scorches; dropped into a hot pan it sticks at once and stays tough.
Ingredients: 150 g smoked bacon · 250 g smoked sausage · 2 pcs onions · 4 cloves garlic · 800 g potatoes · 1500 ml stock or water · 2 pcs bay leaves · 4 pcs allspice berries
Cold start, seven minutes, crisp bitsFry the sausage and onion
Cut the sausage into half-slices and fry in the rendered fat 4 minutes, until the edges brown. Add the diced onion and fry another 5 minutes, then the crushed garlic for a minute. Set aside half the crisp bacon and sausage for the top.
Sausage browned at the edges, then onionCook the potatoes in the pot
Cut the potatoes into 1.5 cm dice, add to the pot with the rest of the smoked meat, pour in the stock, add the bay leaves and allspice. Simmer 18–20 minutes, until tender. Floury potatoes release starch into the broth: that is what thickens zalewajka, which is why it needs neither roux nor flour.
TipDon't rinse the cut potatoes before they go into the soup — the starch on their surface is exactly what is wanted here.
1.5 cm dice, twenty minutesAdd the rye starter
Shake the jar hard (the sediment at the bottom is the sourest part) and pour the starter into the soup gradually, tasting after each cup. Bring to the boil and cook 5 minutes. The starter goes in at the end and is boiled only briefly: long boiling dulls the sourness and the fermented aroma.
Ingredients: 400 ml sour rye starter (żur) · 150 g sour cream, 18 % · 2 tbsp dried marjoram · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
TipHow much starter depends on its strength: 400 ml is the starting point. The soup should be clearly sour but not sting the tongue.
Jar shaken, poured in graduallyFinish with cream and marjoram
Temper the sour cream with a few spoons of hot soup, pour it in and heat through without letting it boil. Crush the marjoram between your palms over the pot, season with salt and pepper. Taste: zalewajka likes plenty of marjoram and plenty of pepper.
Cream tempered, marjoram from the palmsServe
Ladle into bowls, with the reserved bacon and sausage on top. A thick slice of rye bread alongside. The second day it is thicker and better; reheat without boiling so the cream doesn't split.
Crisp bits on top, bread beside
Before you start
With egg
Half a hard-boiled egg in each bowl, as in żurek. That turns zalewajka into a full dinner.
Meat-free
No bacon or sausage, on a dried-mushroom stock, with a spoon of butter and double the marjoram. The Friday version.
Homemade starter
4 spoons of wholemeal rye flour, 400 ml cooled boiled water, 2 garlic cloves and a crust of rye bread in a jar under muslin; 4–5 days somewhere warm, stirred once a day. Ready, it smells of sour bread, not of must. If mould appears on the surface, discard the lot and start again.