How to cook savory borscht with vinegar

How to cook savory borscht with vinegar

Rich color, breathtaking smell and good taste with a slightly noticeable sourness - all this makes borscht one of the most popular and beloved soups in almost all countries.

Cookbooks give various methods. But to cook traditional borscht with that sourness, a recipe for making soup with vinegar and sugar will help.

In order for it to come out truly tasty and not lose its usefulness, the housewife needs to know how much vinegar, in what concentration and when to add it to the borscht.

Why is vinegar added?

Experienced cooks know the role that spice plays in the preparation of this first dish.

• Vinegar preserves borscht's rich reddish color.
  The betaine found in beets, which gives them a catchy and beautiful color, changes color when cooked.
  Therefore, when cooked, the soup becomes not reddish, but pale pink or completely orange, losing one of its “signature” properties. Beetroot juice is a natural indicator. In the acidic environment that vinegar creates, its color becomes most saturated and striking. Thanks to this chemical reaction, the color of the borscht remains constant during cooking.
• Acetic acid adds a special sourness to the taste. This is especially noticeable when borscht is cooked from the freshest cabbage.

Fundamentally! When using tomato paste in a recipe, the organic acids in it (malic, citric) retain the color of the borscht. To prevent the soup from becoming too sour, you can omit vinegar or reduce its amount.

From time to time, instead of the usual table variety, apple or wine vinegar is added to the borscht. Any of these spices will impart their own corresponding flavor to the dish. Which recipe to cook the soup with is chosen according to your preferences.

When and how much vinegar should you add?

Usually vinegar is added to borscht in the following ratio: 1/2 – 1 tbsp. spoon per 1 liter of broth. The spice is poured during the preparation of the beets. You can soften the sour taste by adding 1 teaspoon of sugar to each tablespoon of vinegar.

It is poured into a frying pan with beetroot dressing immediately after the acid. The ratio of these components can be changed depending on how sour the dish tastes.

Several methods for preparing beetroot dressing:

1. The beets are finely chopped or grated, add vinegar and a little broth and simmer over low heat for 10-15 minutes.
2. After adding vinegar, grated beets are stewed together with other vegetables - onions, carrots. At a certain step, the frying is added to the broth.

Additional information! If you have slightly overdone the sour seasoning, you can save the soup using several methods:

– add potatoes or carrots;

– dilute the broth with a small amount of boiled water;

– add a pinch of soda. A very large amount of it will give the soup a bitter taste.

Traditional recipe

The most common recipe for borscht made from fresh cabbage with vinegar and sugar:

• 500-600 g of beef on the bone is boiled in 3 liters of water for 1 - 1.5 hours. If you use boneless meat for cooking, the broth will not be as rich.
• One huge beet (250-300 g) is grated on a large grater (in this case it will give more juice) or cut into strips. Fry in vegetable oil, adding 2-3 tbsp. spoons of vinegar for 1-2 minutes. Add a little broth and sauté, stirring constantly, over low heat for another 10 minutes. If desired, you can add 2 teaspoons of sugar.
• Finely chop carrots (about 100 g) and 2 medium onions (carrots can be grated) and fry in vegetable oil over low heat until the onions are saturated with oil (until golden brown). You can add spices, tomato paste or a couple of crushed tomatoes to the vegetables.
• When the meat is ready, it is removed from the broth and cut into small pieces. Cabbage (approximately 300 g) is finely chopped and added to the bubbling broth along with the chopped meat.
• When the soup boils again, add 2-3 potatoes, cut into cubes. Cook for 15 minutes.
• Then add all the sauteed vegetables, salt, pepper (dark, aromatic), bay leaf and cook for another 10 - 15 minutes.
• Turning off the heat, add 2 crushed cloves of garlic to the borscht, cover with a lid, and let the borscht brew for at least half an hour.

Fundamentally! Vinegar is added to borscht in a concentration of 6–9%. If only vinegar essence (70%) is available, it must be diluted with water in a ratio of 1:20. For safety reasons and so as not to spoil the soup, it is not allowed to add undiluted concentrated acetic acid to it. Even in the smallest quantities!

Secrets of delicious borscht

Almost all housewives strive to cook borscht with vinegar even tastier, supplementing the recipe with their own creative ideas:

• Thinly sliced ​​pieces of lard are fried over low heat. When enough fat has been released, add onions and carrots. Vegetables are sautéed until golden brown. Borscht cooked with this dressing will be low-fat and fragrant.
• Another option to get a rich taste, avoiding excess fat: 3 garlic cloves are crushed in a blender with pieces of lard. The resulting paste is added to the soup a few minutes before removing the pan from the heat. Let the borscht brew for about 30 minutes.

• Salt is added at the very end of cooking, when the potatoes are almost ready. After 1-2 minutes, taste the soup and add salt if necessary.
• Spices (coriander, cumin, etc.) are ground in a mortar just before adding to the borscht, so that all their flavor is preserved.
• Along with black pepper (ground or peas), you can add 1-2 peas of fragrant aromatic pepper.
• Greens (parsley, dill) are added to the plate before serving.

There is no reliable information about the origin of borscht. Almost all Slavic countries consider it their state dish. It is brewed under various names in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland. Recipes may have some individuality, but vinegar can be added to borscht in any recipe. The main thing is not to “overdo it” with it!

This tasty first course is equally needed in restaurant and home menus. Topped with herbs and seasoned with sour cream, the rich “reddish soup” will delight the most discerning connoisseurs of taste!

Recipe for borscht with vinegar and sugar

The process of making and the secrets of an impeccable first dish are kept in almost all families as something treasured and difficult to access. Now we will tell you how to cook delicious borscht with vinegar and a traditional recipe for making borscht with a photo, with the addition of sugar and vinegar, will help us with this. This fascinating method will be a real godsend for anyone, because it contains all the suitable ingredients and the correct cooking time.

CONTENT:

Every day a person needs to eat - this is a well-known fact. Several centuries ago, people invented making hot dishes. Obviously, in ancient times, storing soups took enormous effort, because there were no refrigerators. Along with the rest of the supplies, the first dishes were sent to the cellars for safekeeping; as soon as the whole family gathered at home, the already prepared dinner was heated on the stoves.

At the moment, everything is even simpler; modern man has complete convenience and a lot of abilities, both in cooking and in preserving food. But, regardless of generational changes, in our country, borscht with vinegar is still considered an impeccable lunch dish.

Why and when to add vinegar to borscht when cooking?

So that the beets do not lose their color during the preparation of borscht and it comes out with a catchy, rich color, add vinegar. It is thanks to this ingredient that you can achieve the unique and beloved rich reddish color of borscht.

But is that really all, why do they add vinegar to borscht? No, if you cook soup with fresh cabbage, but still like slightly sour borscht, then you need vinegar or adding lemon.

When preparing sour borscht, vinegar is not added to the soup, but at the time of preparing the frying vegetables. This is precisely how the color of the beets is fixed, which will later receive borscht.

What to do if you overdo it with vinegar? How to remove acid from borscht

What can you create if you didn’t calculate and went too far with vinegar? To remove acid from borscht, add 1 teaspoon of baking soda to a pot of soup. This action should completely neutralize the consequences of incorrect use of vinegar and save your borscht.

How to cook reddish borscht with vinegar

Let's take a closer look at how to cook borscht with vinegar using our usual step-by-step recipe as an example.

Ingredients:

• Chicken meat - 400 gr.
• Cabbage - 400 gr.
• Potatoes - 4 pcs.
• Carrots - 2 pcs.
• Beets - 2 pcs.
• Drinking water - 3 l.
• Vinegar - 2 tbsp. l.
• Sugar - 1 tbsp. l.
• Salt
• Bay leaf
• Dill
• Butter - 30 gr.

Step 1.

First you need to take care of the meat; this product takes longer to cook than others, so it must be consumed immediately. Cut the chicken into small pieces and place them in the bubbling broth. It should take about 30 minutes to cook the meat.

Step 2.

Coarsely grate the peeled root vegetables: beets and carrots. Fry them in butter for 5 minutes, then add two tablespoons of vinegar, one spoon of sugar and mix the ingredients well in a frying pan, add a little broth. Cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.

Step 3.

Peel the potatoes in advance, cut the tubers into medium pieces, ideally into squares. Place the potato pieces into the pan after the meat is completely soft. The potatoes in the broth should boil for 5-7 minutes.

Step 4.

Cut the cabbage into small strips and place in a saucepan along with the overcooked ingredients in the pan. Mix everything well and cook for 10 minutes.

Step 5.

2 minutes before the end of cooking, add bay leaves and dill to the pan. Mix well.

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Reddish, traditional borscht with beets and vinegar on a strong pork broth

There are many types of making borscht, from young cabbage, from sauerkraut, with sausage and even beans, they are all fascinating and tasty in their own way. I would like to share a very common method of making borscht; at the same time, it will not lose its color and will have a Ukrainian note.

This recipe has several secrets or cooking principles that will provide you with a great, delicious lunch.

Borscht does not like haste; it is a Saturday dish, when everyone has slept well and you can slowly start cooking.

For production you will need:

• Pork on the bone -400 gr.
• Cabbage -0.5 kg.
• Potatoes -4 pcs.
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Carrots - 1 pc.
• Beetroot - 1 pc. big.
• Vinegar -1 teaspoon.
• Sugar - 1 tbsp.
• Tomato paste -1 tbsp.
• Salt, pepper and spices to taste.
• Garlic 2.3 cloves
• Small piece of salted lard.

First, you need to put the broth on the bones to cook, but do not forget that if we need a savory broth, then we need to pour cool water over the meat, but if we just need to boil savory meat, just pour hot water. As soon as the broth begins to boil and foam appears, the water must be drained, the meat washed under running water and put back to cook. Now the broth will be clear and very tasty. While the broth is cooking, we gradually begin preparing it.

We peel the root vegetables, three on a large grater. In a perfect version, it is better to cut the vegetables into cubes, it will look more attractive in the dish, but I find it easier to grate them.

Place the beets in a saucepan or frying pan and simmer separately. Add sugar, a little vinegar and tomato paste to it. This way we create an acidic environment and the beets will not lose color.

Fry carrots and onions in another frying pan until golden brown.

Finely chop the cabbage and add to the bubbling broth. We always put cabbage in the borscht first, only after that do the potatoes come in. An exception may be young cabbage; it boils quite quickly. I peeled the potatoes earlier and cut them into small cubes.

Once the potatoes are cooked, season the borscht with already prepared beets, carrots and onions. Salt and pepper to taste. In principle, the borscht is ready, but to make it super tasty you need to add two main ingredients: garlic and lard. To do this, use a blender to grind the lard and garlic. The result is such an appetizing, fragrant mass that you can literally spread it on bread and eat it like that. But we will add one tablespoon to the already prepared borscht and let it brew and absorb all the odors.

Reddish, traditional borscht with beets and vinegar in a strong pork broth is ready.

Traditional borscht

Borsch is one of the most recognizable and favorite soups in our country, which is equally loved by both adults and children. Even for foreigners, Russian cuisine is often associated with the word “borscht”. Would you wonder what’s so special about this soup? The usual set of cheap vegetables, plus beets, which not everyone loves. My daughter, for example, cannot stand beets and dishes with them, but for some reason she devolves borscht on both cheeks. Surely, the secret lies in some incomprehensible harmony of the combination of these vegetables, thanks to which this soup acquires its own unique amazing taste - slightly sweet, slightly spicy, very rich and so attractive.

I will give here a traditional recipe for borscht in beef broth with beets and fresh cabbage, which is prepared from the most common goods available to everyone. There are no particular difficulties in making delicious homemade borscht, but this process takes quite a lot of time and effort. You will have to clean, cut, grate countless ingredients, and also dirty a huge amount of dishes. But in the end you will get one of the best soups in the world with the usual, catchy and deepest taste, familiar from youth and beloved by everyone. I am sure that traditional borscht prepared according to this easy recipe will become a favorite first course in your family!

Necessary information

How to cook borscht with beets and fresh cabbage - a traditional recipe with step-by-step photos

INGREDIENTS:

• 500 g beef brisket on the bone
• 3 liters of water
• 1 large beet
• 1 large onion
• 1 large carrot
• 2 huge potatoes
• 200 g white cabbage
• 2 teeth garlic
• 1 tbsp. l. tomato paste
• 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp. l. vinegar
• 2 tsp. Sahara
• 1 tbsp. l. without a mountain of salt
• 5 – 6 dark peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves

COOKING METHOD:

1. Let's start cooking traditional borscht by making meat broth. To do this, wash the beef brisket with running water, put it in a deep saucepan, fill it to the top with cool water and put it on high heat.

2. Bring to a boil, skim off the foam and cook the broth over low heat at a low simmer for 2 hours.

3. Remove the meat from the broth and cut into small pieces.

4. Peel the beets and grate them on a large grater or cut them into narrow strips.

Sprinkle it with sugar and sprinkle with vinegar. This is done so that the beets do not lose their rich reddish color when cooked in borscht, and the soup ultimately looks especially beautiful and appetizing. 5. Place the beets in a frying pan, add a little water or broth and simmer over low heat for 30 - 40 minutes, adding water if necessary.

6. Peel the onions and finely chop them.

7. Peel the carrots and grate them on a large grater.

8. Fry the vegetables in vegetable oil over medium heat for 8 - 10 minutes, add tomato paste and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Instead of tomato paste, you can take 3 tbsp. l. ketchup or any tomato sauce with a neutral taste. Roasted vegetables for borscht are ready!

9. Chop the cabbage into narrow strips.

10. Peel the potatoes and cut into small slices.

11. Bring the meat broth to a boil and add potatoes to it.

12. Wait for it to boil again and add the shredded cabbage.

Cook at low simmer for 15 minutes. 13. Add roasted vegetables and stewed beets to the soup, cook for 7 - 8 minutes.

14. Add salt, peppercorns, bay leaf and crushed garlic, turn off the heat after a minute.

Cover the soup with a lid and let it brew for 15 minutes. Before serving, place pieces of boiled beef and fresh sour cream to taste on each plate.
You can offer the borscht with the freshest garlic buns or donuts. Savory, fragrant and rich traditional borscht is ready!

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Comments: (11)

1. Oleg April 29, 2020 at 03:21 pm

The best, detailed, good recipe. Only instead of vinegar is lemon better. Thank you.

1. Olga Post creator April 29, 2020 at 4:50 pm

Thank you for your nice words, Oleg! Lemons, of course, are always better than vinegar, but judging by the current prices for them, soon you will only have to dream about them))

1. SergeyMay 4, 2020 at 09:17 pm

I really like borscht, but I never dared to cook it myself.
After reading the recipe, I decided to try it anyway, and yesterday I fulfilled my decision. You see, in my life I have done many things that (I hope) I can safely be proud of.
But how I rejoiced yesterday! I notified all my relatives and friends, posted photos of my creation in chats, without hesitation bragging about how yummy I managed to make the first time! I was surprised at myself)))) By the way, after reading Oleg’s comment and Olga’s answer to it, I still replaced the vinegar with lemon juice.
And because I really respect the sourness in borscht, I doubled its content in the dish (2 tablespoons instead of 1). And the amount of meat for the broth turned out to be a little more. The piece was 625 grams, not 500. Well, don’t cut it up. And together with the garlic, I decided to chop a little dill and cilantro directly into the pan. I like the color of the smell of these herbs. Not rich, weak. But I think these are just small touches that do not change Olga’s recipe. Olga!
Thank you for spiritual things! You are such a great guy! You not only very clearly and carefully described the creation of borscht - exactly what it should be.
You gave me the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of my own successful experience. Now, on occasion, I can safely boast of my culinary knowledge in this area. Fat plus for your karma for such a generous gift!))) With all my heart I wish you all the best))

1. Olga Post creator May 4, 2020 at 10:58 pm

Sergey, thank you so much for your kind words! Reviews like yours motivate me to cook more and develop the website)) I am sure that your experience in cooking borscht will help other readers prepare an impeccable dish to their own taste.

1. Alexey May 21, 2020 at 10:44 am

Olga, why do you serve the meat separately from the borscht and not in the borscht?

This is so that later you can put it on plates to suit your taste - for ladies much less, for men and children more)) But this, of course, is not important, you can return it to the borscht and, when distributing it, blame it on fortune

I cooked borscht according to your recipe... just added about a kilogram of meat. It's done!. Everyone liked it.

1. Olga Post creator June 11, 2020 at 12:34 pm

Great! I’m very glad that you liked the recipe, Sergey)) Thank you for your feedback!

When stewing beets, add a couple of cloves, the taste will be most intense and it is best to cook in a metal bowl and before letting it brew, add a little grated lard with garlic.

1. Olga Post creator September 16, 2020 at 11:44 pm

Thanks for the worthwhile tips! I’ll definitely try to create it this way, I think it will have a purely positive effect on the taste of the borscht!