Sour cereal soup

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Sour cereal soup is a Slavic traditional soup made with various types of cereals such as rye, wheat and oats, which are fermented to create a sourdough-like soup base and stirred into a pot of stock which may or may not contain meat such as boiled sausage and bacon, along with other ingredients such as hard-boiled eggs, potatoes and dried mushrooms.

The most notable, żur (also called żurek, zalewajka, keselica or barszcz biały^[1]), is considered a part of the national cuisine of Poland.^[2] Made with soured rye flour (sourdough starter), sometimes also with soured oatmeal, bread or wheat, it has a characteristic slightly sour, thick and tangy taste, and is served hot.

Sour cereal soup can be also found in Lithuanian, Ukrainian or Belarusian cuisine (as žur, kisjalica or kiselycia), a reminiscence of all these countries current territory being once in Commonwealth of Two Nations.^[3] Though it is also prepared in the mountainous regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic, where it is known as kyselo.