🍢 SNACK
Kepta Duona (Lithuanian Fried Garlic Rye Bread)
Fingers of dark rye bread fried in oil until crunchy, rubbed with raw garlic and salted, then drenched in a warm, garlicky cheese and mayonnaise sauce, the Lithuanian bar snack.
Lithuanian · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 15 min
~793 cal · 21g protein · 64g carbs · 50g fat · 4g fiber · 7g sugars · 15g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kepta duona, fried bread, is the snack that every Lithuanian bar serves with a cold beer or a glass of gira, the local kvass. It comes to the table as a heap of dark rye bread fingers, fried crisp, rubbed with raw garlic and salted, and it is listed on menus among the užkandžiai prie alaus, the snacks to go with beer.
It began as thrifty peasant food, a way to make the most of the dense, dark rye bread that has been Lithuania's daily bread for centuries. Today it is made at home for birthdays and summer gatherings as much as it is ordered in bars.
The favourite version is kepta duona su sūrio padažu, with cheese sauce: grated cheese stirred with mayonnaise and garlic, warmed until it melts and poured over the hot bread, or served beside it for dipping. Eat it straight away, while the bread is still crunchy.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 500 g dense dark rye bread, preferably a day old
- 200 ml sunflower oil, for frying
- 4 cloves garlic (for the bread), halved
- to taste salt
- 150 g semi-hard cheese ( Lithuanian cheese or young Gouda), finely grated
- 100 g mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp sour cream
- 1 clove garlic (for the sauce), crushed
Instructions
- 1Cut the bread into sticks about a finger thick, trimming off very hard crusts.
- 2Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat and fry the bread in batches for 1 to 2 minutes a side, until crisp and a shade darker. Drain on kitchen paper.✎ Chef’s noteDo not crowd the pan. Too many sticks at once cool the oil and the bread soaks it up instead of crisping.
- 3While the bread is still hot, rub each stick with the cut side of a garlic clove and sprinkle with salt.
- 4For the sauce, put the grated cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream and crushed garlic in a small saucepan and warm over low heat, stirring, until the cheese has melted into a smooth sauce. Loosen with a spoonful of hot water if it is too thick.
- 5Pile the bread on a board, pour some of the sauce over the top and serve the rest alongside for dipping. Eat at once, with a cold beer or gira.
Lithuanian bar and home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Vilnius. The cold soup is a summer institution and its parts are fixed: kefir, grated cooked beetroot, cucumber, spring onion and a great deal of dill, with a hard-boiled egg on top. The hot boiled potatoes come on a separate plate rather than in the bowl, and leaving them off is not really an option.
🗺️
Lithuania. The pink comes from beetroot but the body of the soup is kefir or buttermilk, with grated cucumber, spring onion and a great deal of dill stirred in cold. The one rule nobody breaks is the plate of hot boiled potatoes served on the side rather than in the bowl, so every spoonful is chilled and every bite of potato is not.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Lithuania
Šaltibarščiai (Cold Beet Soup)A shocking-pink chilled soup of beets, kefir, cucumber, and dill, Lithuania’s summer in a bowl, with hot potatoes on the side.
Kugelis (Baked Potato Pudding)A dense baked pudding of finely grated raw potato bound with egg, milk, onion and smoked bacon, browned on top and served with sour cream.
CepelinaiZeppelin-shaped potato dumplings stuffed with meat, served with bacon-onion sauce and sour cream.
Browse all Lithuania recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan, Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Lithuania meal
Krupnikas (Lithuanian Honey Spice Liqueur)Drink
TinginysDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Kepta Duona (Lithuanian Fried Garlic Rye Bread)?
Fingers of dark rye bread fried in oil until crunchy, rubbed with raw garlic and salted, then drenched in a warm, garlicky cheese and mayonnaise sauce, the Lithuanian bar snack.
Where does Kepta Duona (Lithuanian Fried Garlic Rye Bread) come from?
Kepta Duona (Lithuanian Fried Garlic Rye Bread) is a Lithuanian dish from Vilnius, Lithuania.
Can Kepta Duona (Lithuanian Fried Garlic Rye Bread) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kepta Duona (Lithuanian Fried Garlic Rye Bread) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Kepta Duona (Lithuanian Fried Garlic Rye Bread) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Kepta Duona (Lithuanian Fried Garlic Rye Bread) take to make?
About 25 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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