BORSCHT

'Borscht' is a vegetable soup from Eastern Europe, which is traditionally cooked including beet roots as a main ingredient^[1][2] which gives it a strong red color. However other, non-beet varieties exist, such as the tomato paste-based orange borscht and the sorrel-based green borscht, which probably are just called "borscht" due to the one dominating color.

Contents

Etymology

Hot and cold borscht

Polish variations

Other regional recipes

See also

References

Etymology

Widely believed to have emerged in Ukraine, the soup is part of the local culinary heritage of many Eastern and Central European nations. The Ukrainian name is 'borshch' (борщ, pronounced ). It is also a staple dish in Eastern European Jewish cuisine, and made its way into United States cuisine and English vernacular by way of Jewish immigrants with the spelling 'borsht', the Yiddish word for the soup, in hebrow is "בורשט". Another spelling is 'borsch'.^[3][4]
Other Central and Eastern European countries have related names for the soup.

★ Ukrainian: ''борщ''

★ German: ''borschtsch''

★ Lithuanian: ''barščiai''

★ Polish: ''barszcz''

★ Romanian: ''borş''

★ Russian: ''борщ''

Hot and cold borscht

There are two main variants of borscht, generically referred to as hot and cold. Both generally are based on beets, but are otherwise prepared and served differently.
Hot borscht, the kind most popular in the majority of cultures is a hearty soup with many common optional ingredients, depending on the cuisine, including various vegetables (beans, cabbage, carrots, cucumber, potatoes, onions, or tomatoes), mushrooms, and meats (chicken, pork, or beef). It is more akin to a stew than most soups, and may be eaten as a meal in itself, usually with thick dark bread.

Cold borscht exists in a number of cultures. It is the kind most commonly eaten by Ashkenazi Jews (European-heritage), and is the only kind readily available commercially in markets in the U.S. Cold borscht is most often a simple sweet soup, consisting of sliced or diced beets cooked in their broth, optionally with lemon juice, minced onion, and sugar to produce the desired sweetness. It is served as a thin chilled broth with the beet pieces, sometimes with a single boiled potato, and usually with sour cream, which creates a contrast to the soup's sweetness. The sour cream is not mixed into the soup, but placed by the diner in the middle of the soup, to be scooped into the spoon with the liquid and beets.
There are several other varieties of cold borscht. One is made with the mild Russian beer kvass. Another combines chilled milk or yoghurt with sliced tomatoes.
While the base for borscht is often meat stock, this version is only suitable for non-Lenten seasons among some Christian communities that observe Lent. A simpler vegan version made with vegetable stock is eaten during Lenten and fasting periods, which is called ''Fasting Borscht''.

Polish variations

The basic Polish Borscht recipe includes red beetroot, onions, garlic, and other vegetables such as carrots and celery or parsley roots. The ingredients are cooked for some time together to produce kind of clear broth (when strained) served as boullion in cups or in other ways. Some recipes include bacon as well, which gives the soup its distinctive, "smoky" taste.
Other versions are richer as they include meat and cut vegetables of various kinds where beetroots aren't the main one (though this soup isn't always called barszcz, but rather beetroot soup). This variation of barszcz isn't strained and vegetable contents are left in it. Such soup can make the main course of obiad (main meal eaten in the early afternoon).
Barszcz in its strictly vegetarian version is the first course during the Christmas Eve feast. It's served with ravioli-type dumplings called "uszka" (lit. "little ears") with mushroom filling (sauerkraut can be used as well, again depending on the family tradition). This version shouldn't typically have any meat ingredients, though it changes.
As other Christmas traditions, barszcz served at that time has its own symbolic meaning. Most of food served at that time isn't quite the food of the living ones, but of those that passed away. Dried fruit, mushrooms, hay - all symbolise death of the old year as opposed to birth of the new one a day later. Change of food on December 25 (Christmas) is a visible sign that old traditions are still preserved in those little, sometimes unclear ways.

Other regional recipes

There are local variations in the basic borscht recipe:

★ In Ukrainian and Belarusian the beets are standard, sometimes in addition to tomatoes. Potatoes and cabbage are both optional. It is usually served with smetana, and tradition requires it to be served with small hot breads topped with fresh chopped garlic - pampushki ''(pl., sing. - pampushka)''

★ In Polish cuisine, the beets are not standard. Besides the Ukrainian style beet soup Polish people enjoy a white Easter borscht. White borscht is made from a base of fermented rye flour usually added to a broth of boiled white fresh ''kielbasa'' (after the base is added, the soup mustn't be boiled). It is served hot with cubed rye bread and diced hard-boiled eggs added to the broth, often horseradish is added to taste.

★ In Russian cuisine, it usually includes beets, meat, and cabbage and optionally potatoes.

★ In East Prussia sour cream (Schmand) and beef was served with the ''Beetenbartsch'' (lit. ''beetroot-borscht'').

★ In Lithuanian cuisine, dried mushrooms are often added. There is also a cold borscht (''šaltibarčiai'') which has a very different taste and appearance.

★ In Romanian cuisine, it is the name for any sour soup, prepared usually with fermented wheat bran (which is also called ''borş''), which gives it a sour taste. In fact, the Romanian gastronomy uses with no discrimination the words ciorbă (Turkish), ''borş'' or, sometimes, ''zeamă/acritură'' (Romanian descriptives)

★ In Armenian cuisine, it is served warm with fresh sour cream.

★ In Doukhobor cuisine, the main ingredient is cabbage, and the soup also contains beets, potatoes, tomatoes and heavy cream along with dill and leeks. This style of borscht is orange in colour, and is always eaten hot.

★ In Hong Kong-style western cuisine, it includes tomatoes instead of beets, and also beef, cabbage, potatoes, bell peppers and carrots. Sometimes chili pepper is added.

★ In Mennonite cuisine, ''borscht'' is a generic term for soup.

★ In northern Chinese cuisine, particularly found in and around the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province, an area with a long history of trade with Eastern Russia, comes hong tang or simply red soup mainly made with red cabbage.

See also

★ Borscht Belt

References

1. Definition of Borscht by Vladimir Dal (in Russian)
2. William Pokhlyobkin about borscht (in Russian)
3. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', "borsch" entry
4. ''Merriam Webster's Unabridged Dictionary'', "borsch" entry