Polish Sour Rye Soup Starter {Zakwas na Żurek}

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Polish Sour Rye Soup Starter {Zakwas na Żurek}

If we want to be ready to cook żurek– sour rye soup this Easter, we better prep the starter now. Żurek is a flavorful, a bit sour soup cooked with smoked sausage and aromatic herbs, served with a hardboiled egg. Very popular amongst Poles but also a favorite to foreign pallets. This soup very soon became my husband’s favorite. 

Polish Sour Rye Soup Starter {Zakwas na Żurek}

The starter will keep in the fridge for several weeks. This takes about 15 minutes to make, and will be a base for our Easter soup. 

sour rye soup starter 

Polish Sour Rye Soup Starter {Zakwas na Żurek}

  • Yields: 4 cups / 1 liter
  • Prep Time: 10 min
  • Cook Time: Fermenting time: 5-7 days

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup / 60 g of rye four (+ 1/2 cup on day 3)
  • 2 cups / 500 ml of boiled and cooled water (+ 1 cup / 225 ml on day 3)
  • 5 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 6 allspice
  • 6 peppercorns
  • 1 tbs of dried marjoram
  • 1qt / 1 glass jar / container

Instructions

  1. Sanitize a glass container and cool enough to han-
    dle.

  2. Mix cool water with flour until combined.

  3. Place all ingredients in your container and stir. Cover with kitchen towel or cheesecloth and let rest for 3 days at room temperature (60–75°F / 16–25°C).

  4. On day 3 add remaining flour and water, stir well and let rest at room temperature for another 3-4 days.

  5. Stir daily. When done, cover and refrigerate until ready to make “żurek”.

Notes

Rye starter should be sour and fragrant. If you're not a huge fan of garlic, skip it. Add some to the soup instead.

Recipe for żurek:

Are you up for a challenge? It’s not so hard… be grave and Polish your Easter!! 🙂

 Smacznego!!

Anna

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13 Comments

  1. Hello Anna! Thank you so much for sharing all your Polish recipes. I love them all so far! I am trying your Polish Sour Rye Soup Starter for the first time. It is now the third day and I am not seeing bubbles. Also, the starter has separated and no longer mixed together. Is this normal? Should I wait longer for bubbles?
    Thank you!

    1. Can you smell it becoming sour? If so, keep „feeding” as scheduled. It’s OK if it separates after first day, bit after a few it should be more like a very loose dough. Keep going for the complete 7 days and see what happens. Let me know, please.

  2. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I tried making this 3 other times with other recipes and they all failed. With your recipe, and changing the flour brand – success!!!! Using in żurek today!

  3. Anna,

    I was on the second day of fermenting and it was going well. We had a blizzard hit here in Colorado yesterday and I had a difficult time keeping the jar in warm so I place a heat pad on low loosely around the jar to keep it warm. I woke up this morning to a nice garlic and Zakwas smell in the house but the jar got to 92 degrees F and there was 2 inches of foam on the top. There was no mold or anything but I am concerned this made the fermentation go too fast. How can you tell if this is bad? Maybe I made piwo instead.
    Tom

    1. It was progressing great, on day three and the foam disappeared and it now smells funky. I will have to start over again. I think it got too warm and fermented too quickly. It never had mold. How do you know when it is ready? If it stays fermenting past when it was ready will it develop a bad smell?

  4. Hello Anna,

    I used only rye flour, garlic, and water (I will add other ingredients when cooking the soup). After a few days there was a little bit of foam (maybe 2-3mm) which soon was gone on day 4/5 and the other ingredients had settled to the bottom. My kitchen is usually at 21 C temperature. I started the starter on Monday morning and it is now Saturday morning and I smell a very little sour/garlic smell. I think it will need perhaps another day or two before I can use it (or seal it). What do you think?

  5. I made my Zurek on the Sunday and it had only a faint hint of sourness. It was still delicious, but I miss that strong sour taste. How can I improve my starter?

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