No. 49 — Little Russian Borscht

Make broth No. 1 with 2–3 Russian pounds of beef breast or meat from the thin or thick edge, preferably combined in equal parts with fresh pork. Instead of water use 15 glasses of strained beet kvass prepared as in No. 48, provided its acidity is pleasant; if very sour, dilute with boiled water before measuring fifteen glasses.

Bring the meat and kvass to the boil and skim. Add a bundle of the basic soup roots, a bunch of greens, six to eight leaves of young beet greens, the green shoots of one onion, two more onions, allspice and bay leaves. Cook and strain.

Meanwhile squeeze ½ Russian pound of sauerkraut, scald it with boiling water and squeeze again. Bake one Russian pound of red beetroot, peel and shred it. Deseed and slice two or three tomatoes, and cook ¼ glass of white beans separately in broth.

Ninety minutes before serving add ham, smoked bacon and cabbage to the strained stock and cook. Half an hour before serving add tomatoes, beans, several potatoes and ½ glass of flour mixed with ½ glass of cooled broth. Boil, add ½ glass of sour cream, return the portioned breast meat and optionally pieces of roast duck; adjust with more kvass and salt and boil.

In the soup tureen, if desired, add juice from grated red beetroot, raw or brought once to the boil—or even the grated raw beet itself—and fresh dill. Pour in the boiling borscht. Serve with cottage-cheese cheesecakes No. 358, meat buns No. 353, mushroom or beef buns Nos. 351–352, or buckwheat croutons.

To provide

Instead of flour, the author suggests a mixture of ½ spoonful finely chopped parsley, ½ spoonful celery, a piece of fresh pork fat half the size of a chicken egg, and ¼ glass of millet. Pound the ingredients together and use to enrich and thicken the borscht.