Wodzionka is a Polish soup made from stale bread, commonly served in the fall and winter. It originated in Upper Silesia and is also known as brotzupa. It can be flavored with bay leaves, garlic, salt, and pepper, and can be made more elaborate with add-ons like fried bacon or hash browns. It is included in the “traditional products list” of the Polish Department of Agriculture.
Wodzionka is a soup originally from the central European country of Poland made from stale bread. The name of the dish means water soup. Wodzionka is also known as brotzupa, which is formed from brot, the German word for bread, and zupa, the Polish word for soup. Wodzionka is commonly served during the fall and winter seasons and is particularly favored due to its simple preparation and light content.
Stale bread which is the main ingredient in wodzionka should be left to become dry and leathery for a period of up to three days. Then water is poured into a saucepan and put on high heat. When the water boils, the bread, cut into pieces, is thrown into the pot with the lard and mixed.
Ingredients such as bay leaves, garlic, salt and pepper are added to flavor the dish. Fried bacon, hash browns or other kinds of add-ons can also be thrown in to make the wodzionka more elaborate. Some people prefer to replace the butter with lard when cooking soup.
This bread-based soup originated in historic Upper Silesia. In general, Silesia also covers Germany and the Czech Republic, but about 90 percent of this historic central European region is in Poland. Silesia is known to be home to a diverse range of ethnic groups which is why wodzionka is also known as brotzupa. Despite the presence of Poles, Germans and Czechs in the area, Silesians, who are the largest minority group in Poland, are the most commonly identified group of people in this region.
Wodzionka is included in the “traditional products list” of the Polish Department of Agriculture. It is one of the 25 Silesian soups on the list. Another soup, parzybroda, was included in 2007 and originated in the southern Polish city of Czestochowa. The name means “chin burn”, because people find it so delicious that they start eating it when it’s still very hot, burning their chin. A third soup included in the list is zurek, which is traditionally served as a Christmas Eve meal and consists of hard-boiled eggs, potatoes, and sausages.
Also, wodzionka is one of the recipes, numbering around 100, that exist in Upper Silesia. A popular one is krupniok, which is a variant of a traditional Polish blood sausage called kaszanka or kiszka. Other Upper Silesian dishes include zur, a soup created with potatoes and fermented barley; and zymloki, which are sandwiches containing pig’s blood.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
