Breakfast

Breakfast in Serbia is an early but hearty meal, rich in calories and carbohydrates, meant to provide one with an abundance of energy to start the day. Bread is frequently served with butter, jam, yogurt, sour cream, or cheese, accompanied by bacon, sausage, salami, eggs, or kajmak. Serbians often stop by a bakery in the morning for fresh pastries such as pogačice, paštete, kifle (which in Serbian usage may or may not be crescent-shaped, and may be sweet, but may also be sprinkled with salt crystals), kiflice, perece, buhtle, pletenice, štapići, zemičke, djevreci, mekike, and uštipci. Other common breakfast dishes include burek, kačamak, and cicvara (types of polenta) and popara, proja (cornbread), and čalabrca. Before breakfast most people usually have a cup of kafa, or espresso, and with the breakfast itself either tea, milk, milk coffee, or chocolate milk is served.

• Proja
• Burek
• Kiflice
• Kačamak
• Popara
• Kajgana

Appetizers

Meza is an assortment of small dishes and appetizers, though, unlike the Middle Eastern meze, it does not usually include cooked dishes, and is therefore more similar to Italian antipasto. A Serbian meza typically includes slices of cured meats and sausages, cheeses, olives, fresh vegetables, and zimnica. Meza is served either to accompany alcoholic drinks or as a starter before a soup on bigger meals.

• Meze
• Zimnica
• Meze
• Zimnica
• Meze

Soups

Soups are eaten as an entrée at almost every lunch. They are considered to be very important for good health. There are two types of soups in Serbian cuisine: thin soups called supa, and thicker soups with roux or eggs called čorba. The most common ones are simple pottages made of beef, offal or poultry with added noodles. Lamb, veal, and fish soups are considered delicacies.

Main course

The main course is most commonly a meat dish. Besides roštilj (barbecue) which is very popular, braising, stewing, and roasting in an oven are the most common cooking methods.

Bread

Bread is a staple of Serbian meals, and it is often treated almost ritually. A traditional Serbian welcoming is to offer the guest with bread and salt; bread also plays an important role in religious rituals. Many Serbs believe that it is sinful to throw away bread regardless of how old it is. Although pasta, rice, potato, and similar side dishes did enter the everyday cuisine over time, many Serbs still eat bread with meals.

In most bakeries and shops, white wheat bread loaves (typically 0.5 kg) are sold. In modern times, black bread and various graham bread variations have regained popularity. In many rural households bread is still baked in cast iron ovens, usually in bigger loaves.

• Đevrek
• Soda bread
• Bread
• Pogača

Salads

In Serbia, salads are eaten as a side dish with the main course. The simplest of salads consist of sliced lettuce, cabbage, tomato, cucumber or carrot, olives with oil, vinegar, salt, and spices.

Relishes

Dairy

Dairy products are an important part of the Serbian diet. Fermented products such as sour milk, kajmak, yogurt and pavlaka are common breakfast foods, consumed daily. White cheeses, called sir are much more common in Serbia than yellow cheeses. There are numerous varieties, some of which have been awarded for their quality, such as the white cheese with walnuts from Babine, which won the 2012 "best autochtonic cheese" award.^[12] Serbian Pule cheese, made from donkey milk, is the most expensive cheese in the world.^[13] Although less common, several yellow cheese are locally produced.

Meat products

Traditional Serbian meat products are simple ham, bacon, dry ribs, and a kind of pork rinds called čvarci.^[5] They are usually produced every autumn or in early winter, during an event called svinjokolj, where pigs are slaughtered and meat is preserved for the winter. Cured meats, bacon, salo, čvarci, sausages such as krvavica, and kulen are produced. Offal and cheaper cuts of meat are utilized as well, and made into processed products such as švargla.

Serbian meat products—especially those which attained protected designation of origin^[14] status—include:

• Smoked ham (šunka)^[5]
  • Beef or pork (užička pršuta), from Užice^[14]
  • Pastrma
  • Zlatibor prosciutto (zlatiborska pršuta), from Zlatibor
  • Pečenica
• Salo^[5]
  • Užice bacon (užička slanina), from Užice^[14]
• Dry ribs^[5]
• Čvarci, pork rinds^[5]
  • Duvan čvarci
    • Valjevo duvan čvarci (valjevski duvan čvarci), from Valjevo^[14]

Various kinds of sausages and similar more complex meat products were created under Austrian influence in Vojvodina.^[5] They include:

• Sausage (kobasica)^[5]
  • Srem sausage (sremska domaća kobasica), from Srem^[14]
  • Srem salami (sremska salama), from Srem^[14]
  • Požarevac sausage (požarevačka kobasica), from Požarevac^[14]
  • Petrovac sausage (petrovačka kobasica), from Petrovac^[14]
  • Srpska kobasica (Serbian sausage)
  • Njeguški pršut
  • Srem kulen, from Srem^[14]
• Blood sausage (krvavice)^[5]
• Head cheese (švargla)^[5]

• Smoked meat
• Srem kulen
• Cured meat
• Feta
• Šar cheese

Pies

Pies are very popular in Serbia. They are eaten either for breakfast, dinner, or as a snack. They are most commonly made with thin layers of phyllo dough. There are several methods of preparation and numerous types of fillings, both sweet and savory. Serbian pies are usually named after either the preparation method or the filling.

One variety of pie that is not made with phyllo is the štrudla, which, in turn, is not similar to strudel, but rather to a nut roll.

↓ Filling	Form →	Ruffled phyllo	Rolled phyllo	Layered phyllo	Rolled dough
	↓ Serbian name →	Бурек	Савијача		Штрудла
white cheese	Пита са сиром/Сирница	Y	Y
white cheese and eggs	Гибаница		Y	Gibanica	Y
meat	Пита с месом	Y	Y
potatoes	Пита с кромпиром/Кромпируша	Y	Y
spinach, greens	Пита са зељем/Зељаница	Y	Y
mushrooms	Пита с печуркама	Y		Y
sour cherries	Пита са вишњама	Y	Y		Y
apples	Пита с јабукама	Y	Y		Y
pumpkin	Пита с бундевом/Бундевара		Y		Y
poppy seeds	Штрудла с маком/Маковњача				Y
walnuts	Штрудла са орасима/Орасница		Y	Česnica (in Vojvodina)	Y
no filling		Y

• Gibanica
• Meat pie
• Mushroom pie
• Pumpkin pie
• Cherry pie
• Vanilla filling pie
• Egg pie (jaruša)

Sweets and desserts

Sweets are served at the end of meals. Sweets and desserts enjoyed in Serbia typically include both Middle Eastern and European ones, as well as some authentically Serbian ones. Besides the ones mentioned here, pies with sweet fruit fillings are also common.

Ritual food

Non-alcoholic

Domestic coffee (or Serbian coffee) is the most commonly consumed non-alcoholic beverage in Serbia. It is mostly prepared at home, rather than bought in coffee shops, and preferably consumed in the company of friends or family. Slatko, ratluk, and raki may be served alongside coffee. The majority of the Serbian population starts a day with a cup of coffee in the morning. Herbal teas are consumed as a medication, rather than a beverage. Yogurt and kefir are commonly consumed dairy beverages. They frequently accompany savory pastries. A beverage made from maize, called boza or kvas, was once popular, but today is rarely consumed.

A number of fruit juice and mineral water brands are produced locally. The Knjaz Milos mineral water is considered a national brand.

Alcoholic