Żurek is prepared for Easter in Upper Silesia, Lesser Poland and Central Poland, while white borscht is served in Greater Poland, in the Lublin region and in part of Podlasie. We consider using these names interchangeably as a mistake, because these are two different dishes. We will notice the difference mainly in … sourdough. It is time to dispel all doubts about these Easter soups once and for all.
At first glance and white borscht look, especially if we use the same additives for them. I am talking about bread and sausage. These two soups are divided by sourdough. What differences do we notice?
Sour sourdough is made of sourdough from rye flour, and white borscht made of wheat. Therefore, they taste a bit different. This first soup is heavier, denser, more intense and more acidic, while the second has a mild, wheat, slightly sour taste.
We start preparing the sour soup by making sourdough from rye flour, garlic and boiled water. After a few days of fermentation, add it to the broth from smoked bones and vegetables. Season with spices, i.e. allspice and bay leaves. We serve it with sausage, bacon, egg and a slice of wholemeal bread.
We also start making white borscht from sourdough and cooking the decoction on beef with the bone. You can’t do without the addition of Italian, bay leaves, allspice, but also marjoram. Complete the whole with cream, horseradish, egg and white sausage.
To sum up, sour soup is more filling and characteristic. It is characterized by a deep, fermented taste and aroma. In turn, we consider white borscht as a gentle, creamy soup, delightful with its subtlety.
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Sourdough on sour soup is formed like the one for rye bread. So we need to pour half a liter of water into a clean jar and add five tablespoons of rye flour and six peeled cloves of garlic. We add spices – as mentioned – allspice and bay leaves.
Mix all ingredients together and cover the dish with gauze. Every day, we mix sourdough for a week, and in the last day we remove spices from it. Finally, pour it into bottles and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.
We make sourdough for white borscht like the one for sour soup, but we use wheat flourless garlic and spices and add marjoram (even one tablespoon). We also store it in the fridge for up to two weeks.
There is not much time for Easter, so if we do not manage to prepare sourdough yourself, specifically for this occasion, nothing is lost. We can easily buy ready sourdough for both soup in most grocery stores.
