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Sour Mushroom Soup Recipe Review, January 4, 2009
By shirley.hryckowian

"Good soup, but mine is better! More time consuming but definitely better, as in "5 Stars"! Slovakian Christmas Eve Mushroom Soup has always been one of my favorites for as long as I can remember. Christmas just would not be the same without it.! There are a number of differences in the way my Mother made it and in the way I continue to make it as compared to the recipe I found on About.com. First of all, we always simply called it "Mushroom Soup", although I always thought it would have been more aptly named "Saurkraut Soup". Mum always used "stump mushrooms" to make the traditional soup which her own mother had apparently used in Europe. She picked them in the spring and canned them for Christmas. She picked other kinds of mushrooms as well, but only used the stump mushrooms for the soup. I do not use stump mushrooms as I don't know how to tell a good mushroom from a bad one! I use either canned "Straw Mushrooms" which I buy in the Asian section of our local grocery store (these have both the color and texture of stump mushrooms) or fresh mushrooms such as locally PA grown whites, portabellas, oyster, porcini or others. I've never used dried mushrooms although I expect they would be very flavorful. I add a few additional steps when making my mushroom soup. First of all, I brown diced onions in butter & oil and add them to the soup. This adds wonderful flavor and color, as does the browned flour & butter roux that I add. The roux also thickens the soup nicely. I also add peeled and diced white potatoes. Finally, I also add my unforgettable homemade noodles shaped like tiny little square pillows. The word "machunka" must mean different things to different people. In our house, "machunka" was always a tomatoe gravy Mum would make, not a soup. We would have machunka on the days Mum baked bread so that we could dip the bread in the gravy and eat to our hearts content! Talk about a treat! The recipes of years gone by are few and far between these days. We need to keep our traditions alive for our children and our children's children. Thanks for helping to do just that "About.com"!!! Shirley in PA"

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