When to add bay leaf to soup, broth, borscht

Choosing the right meat

To make a truly delicious, rich and delicious borscht, it is important to wisely choose the meat that is necessarily used in the cooking process. You can choose not only beef or pork, but also turkey, rabbit and even fish. But the classic recipe requires the use of a beef bone.

Additionally, many housewives often use brisket, which has not only a meat part, but also a fat part. You need to choose only high-quality and fresh meat, since the taste and consistency of the final dish depends on it.

Adding vegetables

Borscht should have a bright and rich red color. This can only be achieved through the use of high-quality beets. To prevent the color from becoming dull and unsaturated, you need to add a little lemon juice while sautéing this vegetable. It can be replaced with regular vinegar, but you should not overdo it with this ingredient.

By using lemon juice and vinegar, you can not only provide a rich color to the borscht, but also give it a piquant sourness. Additionally, beets need to be stewed not together with onions and carrots, but separately. Cabbage, which is the second significant ingredient, needs to be mashed with a fork or other cutlery, and only then placed in the pan. In this case, you get a rich and unusual taste.

Proper preparation of ingredients

To make a truly tasty and unique borscht, it is important to pay a lot of attention to the preparatory work:

• fresh and tasty ingredients are selected;
• meat must be thawed before cooking if it was purchased frozen;
• the correct pan for cooking is selected, and it is advisable to choose dishes equipped with thick walls and a two-layer bottom, since in this case the borscht will not boil over during the cooking process;
• In a properly selected pan, water heats up quickly and cools down for a long time.

If you do not approach the preparation process correctly, the broth may boil over, so it will be impossible to obtain a rich and unsurpassed taste and aroma.

Choosing the right recipe

Each housewife uses her own recipe when preparing borscht. But for beginners, it is advisable to use a traditional recipe, which produces a truly delicious dish. The following ingredients are used for this:

• beef on the bone;
• beets and carrots;
• White cabbage;
• potatoes and garlic;
• tomato paste;
• herbs and salt to taste.

Initially, you need to place the meat on the bones in a pan, which is filled with clean water, and you need to take about 2 liters of water. The meat should be cooked over medium heat, and any foam that appears should be constantly skimmed off. You need to cook the beef for about one hour. At this time, finely chop the remaining ingredients.

Carrots and onions are sauteed in a frying pan for several minutes, after which tomato paste is added. Chopped beets are sautéed separately.

As soon as the broth is ready, the meat is removed from it, after which cabbage and potatoes are added. Add the optimal amount of salt. Only after the potatoes become soft are previously prepared vegetables and meat added. At the end, bay leaf, garlic and herbs are used.

The prepared borscht is covered with a lid, and after 5 minutes it can be served.

How to cook

Step 1. Cook the broth

Take a 3 liter saucepan. Pour 1.5–2 liters of water into it, put. Place on medium heat. Keep an eye on the broth and skim off the foam before boiling.

The broth will be tastier if you use meat on the bone.

When it boils, cover the pan with a lid and simmer over low heat for an hour and a half.

Step 2. Frying

While the broth is cooking, fry the vegetables. Wash and peel the beets, carrots and onions. Grate the beets on a coarse grater, and grate the carrots on a medium grater. Cut the onion into cubes.

Pour sunflower oil into a frying pan and turn on medium heat. First fry the onions and carrots (5 minutes), then add.

Sprinkle the beets with citric acid or sprinkle with fresh lemon juice. Thanks to this, the borscht will be truly red.

Fry the vegetables for another 5 minutes. After this, add tomato paste, stir and leave on the gas for another 5-7 minutes.

Step 3. Assembling the borscht

When the broth is cooked, remove the meat from it. While the meat is cooling, add shredded cabbage to the broth. After 5-10 minutes, add the potatoes cut into strips.

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For now, separate the meat from the bone and cut into cubes. Return meat to soup.

Add salt to taste.

Add frying. Stir. Add bay leaf and finely chopped herbs. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for another 5-7 minutes.

The borscht is ready.

Other secrets

If you use the above tricks, you can get a really tasty and rich borscht with an unusual taste. But the following recommendations from experienced chefs are additionally taken into account:

• you can make vegetarian borscht, so no preparation of meat broth is required;
• beets can not only be stewed, but also boiled before being placed in a pan with broth, and it is advisable to salt the cooking water and also add a little citric acid to it;
• for borscht, white cabbage is used, which is cut into strips, but you can even use red or savoy cabbage;
• there are versions of the dish with cauliflower or Brussels sprouts, but the end result is borscht, which has a specific taste, so it will not be traditional;
• some people prefer to use sauerkraut, which is washed, chopped and stewed separately until soft, and only then added to the pan;
• if you need to reduce the calorie content of a dish, then carrots and onions are not sautéed before adding to the pan;
• you can use other vegetables, which include potatoes, tomatoes or sweet peppers, all of which are chopped into strips;
• Borscht is a filling first course, so it is served at lunch and is also complemented by a second course.

If the housewife is well versed in all the above tips and nuances, then she can prepare delicious, delicious and unique borscht at any time. At the same time, you can independently experiment with different ingredients, creating your own bright dish.

Who's first in line?

Borscht, like most other soups beloved by Russians, is a filling first course. It is in the West that they prefer pureed soups, but we should have a broth in which various tasty additives float. In order for these additives to be harmoniously combined with each other and to obtain the correct consistency (and not when one product is overcooked and the other crunches on the teeth), it is necessary to observe the correct seasoning of the soup.

The first thing to go into the pan is shredded cabbage; it takes longer to cook than others. Then - sweet peppers and potatoes. At the very end, you need to add sautéed onions, carrots and tomato paste into the borscht, and finally, ready-made sour beets. After this, cook the soup for no more than 5 minutes. If you cook borscht with sauerkraut, you should also add it at the end. If you add sour beets or cabbage first, and then potatoes, the latter will take a very long time to cook (the acid will interfere).

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How to improve the taste of borscht if it turns out sour

They say that our ancestors, many centuries ago, already prepared a delicious first course - borscht. Moreover, it is believed that the heroes owe their feats of arms, endurance and strength in battle to borscht and wholemeal bread. Each housewife learns to make borscht in her own way. You can cook it every day and add new ingredients or try recipes from many countries around the world.

Over the years, each housewife determines which ingredients in borscht she likes best, and what she doesn’t really like and is better off not adding. For example, some prepare the dish without beans, others add red bell peppers, champignons or other mushrooms, sprat in tomato and other unusual delights. Many nations greet guests with borscht. Imagine, you cooked, tried your best, but it came out too sour. Soon the guests are on the doorstep, but it seems that the first course is hopelessly spoiled... What if the borscht turned out sour?

Garlic dumplings

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour - 200 g
• Rye flour - 120 g
• Milk – 200 ml
• Eggs - 2 pcs.
• Yeast - 7 g
• Vegetable oil - 50 ml
• Sugar - 1 tsp.
• Flax seeds - 50 g
• Garlic - 4 cloves
• Salt - a pinch

How to cook:

1. Warm milk to room temperature. Add dry yeast, stir.
2. Add sugar, 1 egg, vegetable oil, a little sifted flour and flax seeds. Mix.
3. Add the remaining flour, knead the dough and leave it to rise for 1 hour.
4. Place on the table and let rise for another 1 hour, covering with a towel.
5. Make 7-8 round donuts, brush the tops of the buns with yolk and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C.
6. Grease the still hot pampushki with crushed garlic mixed with a small amount of vegetable oil, salt and water.

Properly cooked borscht can solve any problem, but stale borscht can cause a revolution.

On June 14, 1905, news spread aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin that borscht for sailors was made from rotten meat. Almost the entire team refused this soup. The sailors defiantly ate crackers, washing them down with water. A riot was brewing. The events that followed went down in Russian history as the first military mutiny during the 1905 revolution. What should the correct borscht be like? Pelageya Aleksandrova-Ignatieva, a contemporary of the revolutionary events and author of the famous cookbook, described this dish as follows: first of all, borscht “should be rich, fatty, and contain a good portion of soup meat”; in addition, according to her recommendation, “you need to saute the beets in breze or oil, and not boil them in water.”

The word “borscht,” according to Vasmer’s dictionary, comes from the word “hogweed”: “The meaning of “red beet soup” was a result of the transfer of the name of the stew, which was previously cooked from hogweed.” “Domostroy” in the 16th century mentions: “Before autumn, borscht (plant) is cut and dried, and it will always be useful both this year and in the future.” We are talking about hogweed, a plant from the Umbrella family. Russian researcher Grigory Nikolaevich Potanin, in the essay “Half a Year in Altai” in the December issue of the magazine “Russian Word” for 1859, described such an unusual borscht: “Rhubarb stems are steamed in the oven and eaten with honey, or used as a filling for pies, or boiled and given rhubarb borsch".

Beetroot borscht has long been prepared in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine - lands that were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until the end of the 18th century. He gave various recipes for borscht in his cookbook Compendium ferculorum

Stanislav Cherniecki, court cook of the Polish prince and Krakow voivode Alexander Lubomirski. At the end of the 18th century, Old Polish borscht with ears (dumplings with mushrooms) was served in Warsaw at the table of King Stanisław August at receptions where famous scientists and artists were invited.

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A native of Tula, the chef of the Shinok restaurant, talks about the correct taste of borscht.

What kind of borscht did your family cook?

Zaporozhye. Mom was taught how to make it by friends from Zaporozhye, who often visited us. There are no beans in this borscht. And the potatoes are boiled whole in the soup, then taken out and mashed coarsely.

What is the difference between Russian and Ukrainian borscht?

First of all, in fat content. In Russia they cook borscht from beef, it turns out to be leaner, but Ukrainians prefer to use pork ribs for the broth, cook al dente vegetables and always add lard with garlic.

Discover your secret of proper borscht.

Saute the vegetables thoroughly: it is necessary to remove excess moisture from them. This is especially important for beets - they should almost gel. I also recommend sautéing tomato paste. It is worth using two types of pasta: sour and sweet. One third sour and two thirds sweet. Then the borscht will have a winey, sweet and sour taste and a rich color. And you don't need to add vinegar.

Of course, over the centuries the recipe for borscht has changed quite a lot. Until the end of the 19th century, there were no tomatoes or potatoes in its composition. Instead of American root vegetables, millet was added for satiety. The beets were first fermented, and for acidity, beet kvass was added to the soup, as in Russian cabbage soup. In noble houses, lemon or wine vinegar was used instead. In the “Description of the Kharkov Governorship,” first published at the end of the 18th century, the following recipe for borscht is given: “The most common food they (the residents) eat is borscht, which is cooked from beets and cabbage with various other herbal seasonings and with millet grains not in water, but in severe, that is, very sour kvass, which you can’t even drink if it’s so acidic; always made with pork or ham lard.” Lard was used because many people couldn’t afford to cook meat borscht often, and dressing with fresh or salted lard added flavor. It was only important to choose the right moment to add it - at the end of cooking, so that the soup does not develop a typical greasy aftertaste.

The USA also has its own “borscht belt”. This is the name of the resorts in the Appalachians on the Catskill mountain range, where New York Ashkenazi Jews, immigrants from Eastern Europe, loved to vacation from 1920 to 1970. They brought a recipe for beef borscht to the New World.

Nowadays, there are many varieties of this dish. It is prepared with duck, pork ribs, beef or mushroom broth. Some borscht are simmered in the oven for a long time; they turn out rather pink in color, as the vegetables lose their color during the cooking process. For others, long sauteing is important, which, on the contrary, gives the soup a rich color and aroma. In summer, cold borscht is cooked in a broth made from dried fruits. Vegetables are not fried for it, and garlic is not added to the soup. You can puree this borscht in a blender like a smoothie and serve with ice and cold sour cream.

Everyone chooses their own borscht recipe. The main thing is not to overdo it: eat a plate or two of borscht and stop.

CARROT

This vegetable is sweet and will help you correct the unpleasant taste of sour borscht. You need to grate the carrots on a coarse or medium grater. Heat up the frying pan. Add water there. You can add a little sunflower, corn or olive oil, and simmer the carrots over low heat, stirring, until fully cooked. Add aromatic sweet carrots to boiling borscht and stir thoroughly. Cover the brew with a lid. 5 minutes will pass and you can turn it off. The taste of borscht will improve significantly. The guests will be pleased.

With or without broth?

For vegetarian borscht, meat broth is not needed. But, if you are a fan of classic soup, then you need to prepare a rich broth. For it, you can take beef brisket, chicken or pork and beef in a 1:1 ratio. It is better to pre-fry the pieces of meat for flavor. Or immediately put the meat on the bones in cold water and put it on fire. As soon as it boils, remove the foam, add salt, bay leaf, a few peas of black and allspice and cook for 2-3 hours until the meat is completely cooked. Then you need to strain the broth, remove the meat from the bones, chop it and return it back to the pan.

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SUGAR

The easiest way, which many people know about, is to add a few pieces or 2 tsp to the borscht. Sahara. If you like sweets, you can use more, for example, 2 tablespoons per 5-6 liter pan. The main thing is not to pour too much. If you tried the broth after boiling the cabbage and it is very sour, and the rest of the vegetables have not yet been sautéed in a frying pan, then sprinkle sugar on top of the beets, carrots, and onions right while stewing. It will be even tastier. Thanks to sugar, the beets will not lose their beautiful cherry hue. The borscht will be tasty and beautiful. Every housewife's dream!

You only need a few chicken eggs. Add them carefully to boiling water and hard-boil them in a separate small saucepan. Cool under running cold water. The shell will come off easily. It needs to be peeled and finely chopped. In 5 min. Before the end of cooking, add the eggs to the borscht. The broth will become less sour. Proven option. If you remember, green sour borscht is served with eggs. Cooks have known this secret for a long time.

BEET

Thanks to beets, this dish has a wonderful rich cherry color. In addition, the vegetable gives an original, recognizable taste. A dish without beets is not the same at all, and hardly anyone cooks borscht like that. You can cook medium or large (if you have a 5-6-liter container) beets in a separate saucepan. If you are in a hurry (waiting for guests for an hour), cut it into large cubes. Then, when it is cooked (at least 30 minutes after boiling), grate it on a coarse grater or finely chop it and add it to the sour borscht mixture. Let the broth simmer for 2-3 minutes and turn off. The taste will become much richer and the color will be brighter.

This is the easiest way. Many, even without our advice, will guess to do this in order to improve their taste. Just boil cold water. If you add 0.5 liters, then remove an equal amount from the pan. You can take either liquid or thick. Of course, it’s a pity to throw away something delicious; an enterprising housewife will have a second pot of aromatic borscht. Add the desired vegetables, meat, mushrooms, beans and other ingredients and cook for the family for 3 days. In addition, you can add sugar and use other tips to ensure that the dish becomes normal.

Borsch with prunes and mushrooms

Ingredients:

• Prunes – 200 g
• Dried porcini mushrooms – 20 g
• Potatoes - 4 pcs.
• Fresh cabbage - 300 g
• Beets - 3 pcs.
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Carrots - 1 pc.
• Tomato paste - 2 tbsp. l.
• Sugar - 1 tbsp. l.
• Parsley root - 1 pc.
• Flour - 0.5 tbsp. l.
• Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp. l.

How to cook:

1. Soak the mushrooms for 2 hours. Then cook for 1 hour. Remove the mushrooms, chop, and save the broth.
2. Rinse the prunes, add 2 cups of water, add sugar and cook until soft for 10 minutes.
3. Cut the beets into strips. Heat half the oil in a frying pan, add beets, 1 tbsp. l. tomato paste and mushroom broth, simmer, stirring, over low heat for 15 minutes.
4. Cut the onion, carrots and parsley root into strips and sauté with butter, tomato and flour for 5 minutes.
5. Place the cabbage in the boiling mushroom broth, after boiling, add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Place stewed beets and sautéed vegetables in a saucepan. Add mushrooms, cooked prunes along with the broth. Add salt and pepper and cook for another 10 minutes.

BOUILLON

You may have put too much water in the pan when cooking the meat and then had to pour it out to get the vegetables in. Use this liquid to correct the taste. Bring to a boil and add to the brew. A simple and tasty way.

A certain amount of rice absorbs excess acid well. Rinse it under cold running water. Tie carefully in gauze or a wide bandage. Place this bag in a saucepan and let it cook for at least 20 minutes. until ready. Then take it out and use it as you wish. Thanks to this culinary trick, the borscht became much tastier.

This method is known to many. You can add ¼ or 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda to boiling borscht. Mix everything well and you can serve.

SOUR CREAM

Each housewife serves sour cream with a certain fat content for her first meal. For example, you try to eat less fat and buy only 15%. Change your rules, take 20%. The dairy product quickly neutralizes excess acid. That’s why sour cream is added to borscht; this is especially important for those suffering from gastritis, not to mention those with ulcers. 20% cream successfully replaces sour cream. As you can see, there are many recommendations to correct the situation. And don’t despair if the borscht turns out sour. We looked at many simple and affordable ways to fix too sour borscht. You can use one or several methods at once. Your first dish will definitely be praised and asked to share your cooking secrets.

if the borscht turned out sweet

You can add fresh tomato.

Add tomato paste (in your case)... it will add both sourness and spice.

this means beets were born sweet) I don’t add vinegar to borscht, because it’s barbaric, but you can add tomatoes to it

You can add tomato paste or sauerkraut (simmer in a frying pan and add to borscht).

Did you add sugar?

Add a little citric acid.

you need to add vinegar (the amount depends on what kind of pan) I usually add 2 tablespoons or to make it healthier you can add lemon.

sour borscht is slop.. it should be sweetish.. lemons, vinegar and so on are stupid.. Russians still don’t know how to cook borscht

Classic borscht

Ingredients:

• Beef brisket – 500 g
• Pork – 500 g
• Carrots - 1 pc.
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Beets - 2 pcs.
• Cabbage - 300 g
• Sweet pepper - 1 pc.
• Potatoes - 200 g
• Tomato paste - 1 tbsp. l.
• Bay leaf, pepper, salt - to taste

How to cook:

1. Place the meat in a saucepan, add 3 liters of cold water, bring to a boil, cook for 2 hours.
2. Cut the carrots into strips, the onion into half rings, fry until golden brown. Place in a saucepan along with the chopped peppers.
3. After ten minutes, add cabbage, then potatoes.
4. Cut the beets into thin strips, simmer for 10 minutes, then add tomato paste, cover and cook for another 20 minutes.
5. Place in borscht 10 minutes after potatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes.
6. Add bay leaf, salt and pepper. Remove from heat and let steep for 20 minutes.

Answers:

I don't add vinegar, lemon juice, or citric acid. I adhere to 5 rules for preparing delicious borscht (these are my rules, I don’t impose them on anyone - I’m just sharing):

— When the meat is cooked, add a little finely chopped onion - the broth will be more aromatic and the meat will taste better. - Be sure to add salt to the tomato juice or diluted tomato paste - the borscht will be a little sour. — After dill is added to the dish, do not boil for more than 30 seconds, otherwise the aroma will disappear. — Never add cold water to ready or almost ready borscht. If you see that you could add some water, add salted boiling water. - The most important! After the borscht is removed from the heat, do not add ANYTHING else to it!

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Secrets of making delicious borscht

Borscht is a famous dish of Ukrainian national cuisine, which almost all Slavs love to pamper themselves, their family and friends. But does every housewife (owner) get borscht exactly the way they would like? Naturally, each cook has his own borscht recipe, which he adheres to. But in order to improve it and add a “zest” to this dish, we will tell you the secrets of preparing delicious borscht.

Secret No. 1.

A tasty broth is the key to delicious borscht. Choose the meat that you like (meat on the bone is perfect) and don’t be lazy to spend 1.5 hours of your time preparing a rich broth.

Secret No. 2.

Try replacing vinegar with freshly squeezed lemon juice. This will not only add a piquant taste to your borscht, but also make it healthier. By the way, borscht with vinegar is not recommended for children, but by replacing it with lemon juice, you can safely treat all members of your family.

Secret No. 3.

If you have delicious fresh tomatoes at your disposal, especially homemade ones, do not be lazy and add them to the dressing, about 4-5 pieces. Your dish will thus acquire a rich color and smell that cannot be achieved by adding regular tomato paste.

Secret No. 4.

Before serving the borscht, be sure to let it brew. A couple of hours will be enough for this. If you want to compare the effect, try serving freshly prepared borscht one time, and the next time – a slightly steeped one. Believe me, you will feel the difference.

Secret No. 5.

Dumplings rubbed with garlic are a mandatory attribute of the table with which borscht was served.

Secret No. 6.

Do not adhere to the concept of “classic borscht”. Secrets of making delicious borscht

imply constant experimentation. Add to it what you and your loved ones would like. For example, you can put meat or chicken, stewed meat, mushrooms, minced meat, bouillon cubes, etc. Additives such as green and grain beans, canned and fresh peppers, parsley, dill, celery, hot peppers are also perfect for preparing delicious borscht. Here, as they say, the main thing is not to overdo it.

Secret No. 7.

Since beets are a mandatory ingredient in borscht, be sure to pay attention to them. You can prepare it in several ways:

• Boil in the skin, then grate or cut into pieces and add to the borscht being prepared at any time.
• Stew with onions, tomato paste, tomatoes or carrots, thus preparing a delicious dressing.
• Marinate beets with lemon juice or vinegar. Subsequently, pickled beets will become an excellent base for your borscht.

Secret No. 8.

If it happens that the borscht has lost its rich color or is not spicy enough in taste, try adding an infusion of fresh beets to it. Just grate the beets, pour in hot broth, add just a little three percent vinegar and bring the whole thing to a boil.

Secret No. 9.

All ingredients can only be placed in boiling water! Cold water contains enzymes that cause the oxidation of the vitamin. With and other useful things, so pouring cold water over vegetables is a grave mistake! The same is true in cases where the water boils away a lot when cooking the broth. Of course, you can add it, but only boiling water, otherwise you will spoil both the aroma and taste.

Secret No. 10.

Remember! Your borscht will taste great and look great only if all its components are fully cooked, while retaining their nutritional and vitamin content. This can be achieved by carefully studying the order of sequential operations of adding ingredients, boiling, etc.

With that, the secrets of making delicious borscht

are ending. We hope these tips will help you discover something new and useful in preparing this dish, beloved by many peoples. Well, if you know any other secrets, please share with all participants in the comments.