Sausage and Sauerkraut Soup

When Melissa Long moved from Cincinnati to Las Vegas in the early 2000s, she worked in a casino and became friends with a woman named Tatiana, who was from Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia). Occasionally, Tatiana prepared a rustic, comforting soup that included pork ribs, smoked Polish sausage, sauerkraut, rehydrated porcini mushrooms and cubed potatoes, and that was lightly thickened with a roux of butter and flour. “She never used a recipe,” Melissa recalled. “It was from her memories growing up on her parents’ farm outside of Prague. It’s probably been 10 years since I’ve had this soup and I still dream of it. The flavors hit every taste bud.” The broth, she said, was light and umami-rich from the mushrooms (but wasn’t flavored with onions because Tatiana disliked them); the pork was fall-off-the-bone tender and the sausage brought tasty fat and smokiness. These kinds of simple, hearty foods were familiar to Melissa from her childhood. Her mother, who was born in Korea, was adopted by a Cincinnati couple of German and Irish ancestry; Melissa also was raised by her grandparents, who cooked frugal, German-style dishes like sausages and sauerkraut. Melissa searched the Internet for a soup similar to Tatiana’s but had no luck, so she turned to Milk Street. Her description seemed to match a classic Czech soup called zelňačka, which means “cabbage.” Our research revealed that just about every Eastern European country has a version of sauerkraut soup made with pork and potatoes. To capture the flavors of Tatiana’s soup, we adhered to the original ingredients, though we did include a chopped onion. We highly recommend seeking out good-quality kielbasa from a meat market or butcher, as the sausage’s seasoning and smokiness has a big impact on the flavor of the dish. Also, be sure to use fresh, refrigerated sauerkraut, not canned or jarred, which can be mushy.