Machanka

Medium·35 min active + 55 min resting

Belarus's iconic pork-and-mushroom stew — pork ribs, pork sausage, smoked bacon, dried mushrooms, and onion slow-simmered in a flour-thickened sour-cream broth. Served with thin bliny pancakes for sopping up the rich sauce.

Machanka (from the Belarusian word for 'dipping') is the iconic Belarusian dish where multiple pork products combine with mushrooms in a rich sour-cream sauce.

Tear a piece of bliny pancake; dip into machanka — the cream-pork-mushroom sauce coats the pancake, the meat falling-apart tender, mushroom umami throughout. Bite: smoked-bacon-and-pork richness, mushroom forest depth, sour cream binding everything into silky comfort. The bliny absorbs the sauce. With a glass of horilka (Belarusian vodka), this is the dipping ritual that gives the dish its name.

Multiple pork cuts layer flavors. Flour roux thickens the sauce. Sour cream added at end prevents curdling.

Variations

With added kvass for tang. With more mushrooms. Vegetarian version. With added dill. With cracklings on top. With horseradish.

On the Palate

Where Machanka sits in the Belarusian flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 4

400 g ribs + sausagePork

200 g porkSausage

30 g dried porciniMushroom

How it's made

10 steps · 35 min active + 55 min waiting

1
32 min
Soak 30 g dried porcini mushrooms in 250 ml hot water 30 min; reserve liquid.
2
10 min
Dice 400 g pork ribs (cut between bones), 200 g pork sausage, 150 g smoked bacon.
3
14 min
In a heavy pot, brown bacon 5 min. Add ribs and sausage; brown 8 min.
Watch out
Render the bacon until the fat runs clear and the edges crisp — that fat is what browns the ribs.
4
6 min
Add 2 chopped onions + 3 minced garlic; cook 5 min.
5
1 min
Add 2 tbsp flour; stir 1 min.
Watch out
Cook the flour a full minute until it smells nutty — raw flour leaves the sauce pasty.
6
4 min
Add chopped mushrooms with strained soaking liquid + 500 ml water + 1 bay leaf + 1 tsp salt + 1 tsp pepper.
7
52 min
Bring to a simmer; cover; cook 50 min until pork is tender.
8
6 min
Stir in 250 ml sour cream; simmer 5 more min.
Watch out
Stir the sour cream in off a hard boil — if it's ripping hot it'll split into grainy curds.
9
1 min
Stir in 2 tbsp chopped dill.
10
2 min
Serve hot in a deep dish; place a stack of bliny pancakes alongside for sopping.