Eastern Europe & Caucasus

Machanka Recipe: Belarusian Pork and Sausage in Sour Cream Gravy

Name: Machanka Recipe: Belarusian Pork and Sausage in Sour Cream Gravy
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Belarusian
Ingredients: 400 g Pork spare ribs; 200 g (cut into 2 cm cubes) Pork shoulder; 200 g Sausage (coarse-ground); 2 (thinly sliced) Onions; 3 cloves (minced) Garlic; 200 ml Sour cream; 2 tbsp All-purpose flour; 300 ml Water or chicken broth; 2 Bay leaves; 1 tsp Salt; 1/2 tsp Black pepper; 3 Allspice (whole berries); 1 tbsp Butter; 600 g (a starchy variety) Potatoes; 1/2 (grated) Onion; 1 Egg; 2 tbsp All-purpose flour; 1/2 tsp Salt; 4 tbsp Neutral oil

A step-by-step recipe, with photos, for machanka (Мачанка), the traditional Belarusian dish of pork and sausage simmered in a sour cream gravy and eaten with chewy potato pancakes called draniki. A winter home dish rooted in the Slavic countryside, built on English-language sources.

Published: October 24, 2026Total: 1 hr 10 minLevel: Intermediate

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 6

Brown the pork (10 min)

10 min

Pork spare ribs being browned in a pot — Brown all sides of the spare ribs. The brown from the Maillard reaction gives the gravy deep richness

Pat the surface of the pork spare ribs and shoulder dry with paper towels and sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Melt the butter in a large pot (or Dutch oven) and brown all sides of the pork over high heat. Cutting the spare ribs apart one by one along the bones and cutting the shoulder into 3–4 cm cubes helps the meat cook evenly.

When browned, take it out for now. The browning from this "Maillard reaction" gives the gravy of machanka its deep flavor. Browning all sides properly without hurrying greatly affects the flavor of the finished dish.

STEP 22 / 6

Fry the sausage and onion (8 min)

8 min

Smoked sausage browned in a pot with onion being fried to a golden color beside it — After browning the sausage, fry the onion until golden. Dissolving the fond on the bottom of the pot is the key to flavor

In the pot the meat came out of, put the sausage cut diagonally 1 cm thick and brown both sides for 3 minutes. When browned, take it out and set it aside with the meat.

Add a little more butter to the same pot and fry the thinly sliced onion over medium heat for 5 minutes, until golden. Add the garlic and fry 1 minute until fragrant. Keep in mind that you are scraping up (deglazing) the browned bits (fond) left on the bottom of the pot with the moisture of the onion. This fond is the source of the depth of machanka's flavor.

STEP 33 / 6

Make the gravy (5 min)

5 min

Flour and water mixed in a pot to make the gravy — Sprinkle flour over the onion and add broth a little at a time to make the gravy. Whisk carefully to avoid lumps

Sprinkle 2 tbsp flour over the onion and fry for 1 minute, stirring well. When the floury smell is gone, add the water (or broth) a little at a time, whisking well so no lumps form.

Once it is all added, put in the bay leaves and allspice berries and heat over medium for 2–3 minutes until thickened. The base gravy is now done.

Guide to the thickness of the gravy

The ideal is a gravy where a line drawn with your finger on the back of a wooden spoon stays and does not close up. If it is too thin, the water that comes out of the meat will loosen it further and it won't have the body needed for "dipping." If it is too thick, it turns into a paste once the sour cream is added.

STEP 44 / 6

Return the meat and simmer with sour cream (30 min)

30 min

Sour cream added in the pot, with pork and sausage simmering in a cream-colored gravy — The moment the sour cream goes in. The white cream melts into the brown gravy and turns the characteristic cream color of machanka. Never boil

Return the browned pork and sausage to the gravy. Stir so the meat is covered in gravy, cover, and simmer on low heat for 25 minutes.

After 25 minutes, lift the lid, add 200 ml sour cream and stir well. Never boil it after adding the sour cream. Boiling makes the sour cream separate and the gravy gritty. Heat on low for 5 minutes, just until everything is warm, and it is done.

Adjust with salt and black pepper, and remove the bay leaves and allspice berries.

A trick to prevent the sour cream from separating

Before adding the sour cream, put 200 ml of it in a bowl and mix in 1 ladle of gravy from the pot (tempering). Bringing the temperatures closer in this way before returning it to the pot greatly lowers the risk of separation. The same technique is used when adding sour cream to Hungarian goulash.

STEP 55 / 6

Cook the draniki (potato pancakes) (15 min)

15 min

Draniki (potato pancakes) browning in a frying pan — Cooking the draniki. Spread the grated potato thin and cook both sides to a crisp golden brown. A staple of the Belarusian table

Peel the potatoes and grate them finely. As soon as they are grated, squeeze out the moisture thoroughly with paper towels or a cloth. Squeezing out the water is the most important point deciding how crisp the draniki will be.

To the squeezed potato add the grated onion, beaten egg, flour and salt and mix well. The batter should fall from a spoon in a mound, with no water pooling at the bottom of the bowl and the potato held together by the egg. Heat plenty of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Drop in the batter a ladleful at a time, flatten to about 8–10 cm across and 7 mm thick, and cook 3 minutes per side, until the edges are a deep golden and crisp and the center springs back lightly when pressed.

Let the cooked draniki drain lightly on paper towels. One batch makes about 8.

STEP 66 / 6

Plate (5 min)

5 min

Machanka and draniki served in a deep dish, with parsley scattered — The finished machanka. Pork and sausage sink in cream-colored gravy beside crisp draniki. The green of the parsley adds color

Ladle plenty of machanka stew into a deep earthenware dish and place 2–3 draniki beside it. It is ready to eat when the gravy is hot and the trace of a wooden spoon closes slowly.

Finish with chopped parsley (or chopped dill).

The authentic way to eat it is to tear a dranik and dip it in the machanka gravy. As the name suggests, "dipping" (machatsi) is the essence of this dish. The moment the crisp surface of the dranik soaks up the gravy and its chewy inside, the savor of the pork and the tang of the sour cream become one is the best part of machanka.

At a Belarusian table, dark rye bread and vodka (or samahon, homemade distilled spirit) are always served alongside. Pickles (pickled cucumbers) are a classic accompaniment too.

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Ingredients

1 / 2

Machanka (the stew)

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes & notes
Pork spare ribs	400 g	Bone-in is best. Pork belly also works
Pork shoulder	200 g (cut into 2 cm cubes)	Pork scraps can substitute
Sausage (coarse-ground)	200 g	Smoked sausage recommended. Polish kielbasa is the closest
Onions	2 (thinly sliced)	—
Garlic	3 cloves (minced)	—
Sour cream	200 ml	At least 20% fat
All-purpose flour	2 tbsp	To thicken the gravy
Water or chicken broth	300 ml	Broth gives more depth
Bay leaves	2	—
Salt	1 tsp	Adjust to taste
Black pepper	1/2 tsp	—
Allspice (whole berries)	3	An essential spice in Belarusian cooking
Butter	1 tbsp	For frying the onion

2 / 2

Draniki (potato pancakes, the side)

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes & notes
Potatoes	600 g (a starchy variety)	Choose a starchy, floury type
Onion	1/2 (grated)	—
Egg	1	Binder
All-purpose flour	2 tbsp	—
Salt	1/2 tsp	—
Neutral oil	4 tbsp	For frying

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A Dish for Dipping: Winter Wisdom From the Belarusian Countryside

Winters in the Belarusian countryside are long and hard. Temperatures fall below minus 20 degrees, and families gather around the stove in houses closed in by snow. In the kitchen, homemade sausage made in autumn and scraps of pork simmer slowly in a sour cream gravy, and potato pancakes are "dipped" into it as you eat. That is machanka (Мачанка / Machanka).

Machanka takes its name from the Belarusian verb "machatsi" (мачаць), meaning "to dip." Pork trimmings (spare ribs, belly, cheek and the like) and homemade sausage are simmered in a sour cream-based gravy, and chewy potato pancakes called draniki (драники) or blinchiki (thin crêpes) are dipped in it as you eat. It is a winter staple of Belarus.

What is machanka?

Machanka (Machanka / Мачанка) is a traditional winter stew of Belarus. The name comes from "to dip" (мачаць) and refers to dipping pancakes or crêpes into the stew. It came out of countryside wisdom of using up every scrap left after a pig is slaughtered: trimmings, meat on the bone, offal and sausage. It is eaten across Belarus, but the thickness of the gravy, the cuts of meat and the accompaniments differ by region. The usual accompaniments are draniki (potato pancakes) or blinchiki (thin crêpes), depending on the region and household. Similar dishes exist in western Ukraine and eastern Poland.

It sits among the home dishes of the Slavic world, alongside Ukraine's borscht (in Japanese) and Moldova's mamaliga (in Japanese). If you have leftover potatoes and sour cream, the Eastern European Jewish knish (in Japanese) is another dish easy to make from the same shopping. This is a complete guide based on English-language and Belarusian-language sources.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Allergens

This dish contains wheat (the gravy thickener and the draniki binder), dairy (sour cream and butter) and egg (the draniki binder). Some sausages may contain meats other than pork or spices. If you have an allergy, always check the ingredient labels.

Choosing the sausage

Authentic Belarusian machanka uses "damashnyaya kaubasa" (домашняя каўбаса / homemade sausage). The closest widely available choice is Polish kielbasa. If you can't find kielbasa, substitute coarse-ground German-style smoked sausage (thick and coarse, not a thin snappy-skinned type). Thin breakfast sausages are too slender and mild in flavor for machanka.

Cooking Tips

Trimmings are the authentic cuts of pork

In the Belarusian countryside, machanka was born as a dish that uses up the scraps left after slaughtering a pig. Spare ribs, cheek (jowl), neck, the ends of the belly, ear cartilage: putting in whatever there is is the spirit of machanka. The combination of pork spare ribs (the bones release gelatin that gives the gravy body) and a block of pork belly (the sweetness of the fat suits the sour cream) is the most suitable of the cuts easily available at the shop.

Pay attention to the fat in the sour cream

The flavor of the gravy depends greatly on the fat content of the sour cream. Choose a full-fat sour cream of 20% or more; a low-fat sour cream (10% or less) separates easily and lacks richness, so avoid it.

Squeezing the water out of the draniki is everything

The biggest reason draniki come out soggy is moisture left in the grated potato. After grating, don't skip wrapping it in a cloth or cheesecloth and squeezing with all your strength. The starch that settles at the bottom of the squeezed-out liquid, put back into the batter after pouring off the clear liquid on top, acts as a binder and makes them even crisper. This is Slavic wisdom also used in making the dough for Polish pierogi (in Japanese).

Close-up of machanka, with pork spare ribs half sunk in cream-colored gravy — Close-up of the gravy. The smooth white of the sour cream against the brown of the pork. A little butter fat glints on the surface

Variations

Blinchiki version (Polesie-style)

In the Polesie region of southern Belarus, buckwheat blinchiki (thin crêpes) are dipped in machanka in place of draniki. A batter of 100 g buckwheat flour and 50 g all-purpose flour mixed with 200 ml milk and 1 egg is cooked thin in a frying pan, and the machanka is wrapped in it. The toasty flavor of buckwheat goes superbly with the sour cream gravy.

Machanka with mushrooms (autumn forest version)

For an autumn forest machanka, soak 30 g dried porcini in water for 30 minutes and add them to the stew. The savor of the mushrooms joins the pork gravy and gives a deep earthy flavor.

Chicken version (a lighter machanka)

A light variation uses 400 g bone-in chicken thighs in place of the pork. Reduce the sour cream to 150 ml and shorten the simmering time to 20 minutes.

Beer-braised version

A variation in which half of the water or broth in the gravy is replaced with dark Belarusian beer (or a dark lager). The faint bitterness of the beer and the sweetness of the malt make an unexpected harmony with the sour cream. Just as Belgian carbonnade braises beef in beer, this is a modern arrangement.

Polesie-style machanka wrapped in buckwheat blinchiki — Polesie style. Machanka wrapped in buckwheat blinchiki (thin crêpes). The toasty buckwheat goes with the gravy

Background of the Dish

Using Every Scrap: The Wisdom of the Countryside

Machanka is not a dish of poverty but a dish of not wasting anything. The countryside ethic of eating a pig down to the last piece lies at the root of this dish. This use of trimmings is a food culture seen across Eastern Europe.

Sour Cream: The Common Foundation of Slavic Cooking

Sour cream (smetana / сметана) is a dairy product that forms the foundation of cooking in the Slavic countries. It appears not only in machanka gravy, but throughout Slavic cooking: as the topping of Ukrainian borscht (in Japanese), a sauce for pelmeni and an accompaniment to Moldovan mamaliga (in Japanese). In the Belarusian countryside, the original form was to use cream that had soured naturally from milk left standing ("kislae malako" / кіслае малако) in machanka.

Draniki: The Companion of Machanka

Draniki (драники), the partner of machanka, are Belarus's unofficial national dish. Potatoes occupy the center of Belarusian food culture, and the pairing of machanka and draniki is the standard of the "Belarusian winter table."

The food identity of Belarus

Belarus has historically been under the influence of Poland, Lithuania and Russia, and food culture has played an important role in establishing its own cultural identity. Dishes such as machanka, draniki, salo (lard), mushroom soup and kholodnik (cold beet soup) have come to symbolize Belarusian food traditions. Machanka is often recognized as a set with draniki, and this pairing is loved as the standard of the "Belarusian winter table."

An image of a winter scene in the Belarusian countryside and a traditional kitchen — The Belarusian countryside. Inside a snow-covered wooden house, the aroma of machanka rises from a big pot on the stove. A winter food scene handed down through generations

Also Worth Reading

Machanka is an entrance to Slavic countryside cooking. Do try the traditional dishes of neighboring countries.

Borscht (Ukraine) (in Japanese): a crimson beet soup
Mamaliga (Moldova) (in Japanese): a cornmeal porridge of Slavic cooking
Pierogi (Poland) (in Japanese): Poland's chewy dumplings
Goulash (Hungary): the signature paprika stew of Eastern Europe

For Caucasus dishes from a similar fermented-dairy culture, take a look at these too.

Satsivi (Georgia) (in Japanese): cold chicken in walnut sauce
Piti (Azerbaijan): a mutton and chickpea clay-pot soup

Also Worth Making

Introduction to Georgian cuisine (in Japanese): the ingredients and aromas of the same region can be reused.
How to make fergese (in Japanese): the ingredients and aromas of the same region can be reused.
How to make piti: the ingredients and aromas of the same region can be reused.
How to make chanakhi: the ingredients and aromas of the same region can be reused.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there anything I can use instead of sour cream?

Crème fraîche is the closest substitute. It has a high fat content and does not separate easily when heated, so it can even be easier to use than sour cream. Plain unsweetened yogurt also works, but because of its lower fat it separates easily and the sourness is somewhat stronger. If you use yogurt, always temper it (as described above) and never boil it. Homemade sour cream, made by adding lemon juice to heavy cream and letting it ferment overnight, also gives a good result.

Can I eat machanka without the draniki?

A Belarusian would tell you "that's only half of machanka," but dark rye bread, boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes also make it delicious. Since the name machanka comes from "to dip," you need something to dip.

Does it taste better after resting overnight?

Yes. Like Greek fasolada, machanka is a dish that is best the next day. The sour cream gravy soaks into the meat and the spice flavors blend and mellow. When reheating, warm slowly over low heat and don't let it boil, so the sour cream does not separate. Draniki turn soggy when reheated, so it is best to cook them fresh just before eating.

Nutrition (per serving, of 4)

Machanka is a winter dish high in protein and fat. It has functioned as a source of calories for keeping warm in the Belarusian cold. Together with Ukrainian borscht (in Japanese), it completes a Slavic winter table.

Nutrient	Amount
Energy	620 kcal
Protein	38 g
Fat	42 g
Carbohydrate	22 g
Fiber	2 g
Sodium	780 mg
Vitamin B1	0.8 mg
Zinc	4.5 mg