The recipe for classic borscht: family secrets. Lenten soup with beans

The recipe for classic borsch has recently undergone a number of changes. So in our time, few people imagine this delicious first dish without potatoes. But quite often it is cooked without adding beets. But the recipe for classic borscht denotes as the main ingredients of beets, cabbage and meat broth. Cabbage can be replaced with beetroot, leaves of rhubarb, spinach, borshevik and sorrel. Also allows to use mushrooms, prunes and even dried fruits.

You can prepare classic red borscht in two ways. They differ in cutting and heat treatment of beets. This main component can be cut into strips or slices and stewed in butter or broth, then add together with the chopped onions and carrots into a saucepan where cabbage is cooked. Or, the beetroot, along with the carrots, is rubbed on a fine grater and boiled in broth, where cabbage, tomato puree or fresh tomatoes, spices and herbs are added later. The second way of preparing borsch is suitable for people who are not allowed to eat dishes cooked by roasting.

Secrets of how tasty to cook borsch are usually passed from generation to generation, from mother to daughter and from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law. It is known that the best cooks are men, that is why in some families such secrets pass from grandfather to grandson. For example, a recipe for classic borscht, does not describe the form of cutting potatoes, although it allows its use. And this is a very important moment for getting a delicious first dish, cooked in modern traditions. Potatoes should be cut in small slices, using large pieces of potatoes gives a rough taste to the ready-made dish. Correctly do this as follows: first the peeled root crop is cut with longitudinal plates, then cut across, so that the width of the plate becomes the length of the slice. One root is cooked to the full preparedness in the same broth as a whole, and at the very end it is poured into a puree state and added to the sauce.

The basis for the first dish can be both meat and vegetable broth. To obtain meat broth in different national traditions, use bones, giblets or pieces of meat. To obtain a transparent broth, take fresh pork, beef, chicken whole or stomach. In Ukraine, the recipe for classic borsch means the obligatory use of lard with garlic. Also classical traditions allow in cooking borscht to use ham, smoked bacon, fat, and even sausages. Borsch in Moscow is prepared on broth obtained when boiling ham or smoked pork brisket. The basis of borscht in the Navy is concentrated double cook, obtained when bacon is cooked in meat broth.

Preparation of lean borsch differs from how to cook borsch with meat. For this purpose, pre-cooked beans or prunes in a mushroom cook are cooked until half cooked. Then add the sliced potatoes. When it boils, remove the foam and pour the finely chopped cabbage. At the same time, they prepare the sauce. For this purpose, preferably crushed beet, onions and carrots, preferably tomato juice, tomato puree or fresh tomatoes, are preferably creamy oil. When cabbage becomes transparent, pour in gravy. Add the spices: bay leaves, salt, pepper, sugar to sharpen the taste, garlic, dill, parsley, green onions. Close the lid, bring it back to the boil and turn off the fire. Give the borscht to brew for half an hour. Before serving, it is possible to sprinkle with chopped greens. You can eat lean borsch in a hot and cold form, with the addition of sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard, horseradish, garlic.