Victor Lytvinenko

Friday, January 05, 2007

Real Borscht

If you want to set off an Eastern European/Russian person, bring up Borscht. The problem is that the word is so vague and simply references the soup eaten in that area of the world which contains beets, potatoes, tomatoes, and usually cabbage. Other than these basic four ingredients the process and final product varies tremendously form country to country, and also from village to village.

My Grandfather is an amazing, detail oriented cook, and takes immense pride in his recipe. He has strong feelings about every aspect of his process and is quick to point out flaws in other common styles of Borscht.

We went to the farmers market yesterday and bought what we could there, then to Harris Teeter for a few other ingredients, then to the Grand Asia Market for soup bones, which are not sold in this day-in-age at the average grocery store... I think because no one cooks anymore. But my Grandpa gets worked up about it so much that he stutters a bit when talking about

"Those damn bouillon cubes that they make in factories. Fresh ingredients taste better...Fresh stock is different"

In all, we cooked for 6 hours and now have about 4 gallons of some of the best soup
I have ever eaten.











2 Comments:

Blogger Ray Black III said...

Oh, the beautiful irony of a pro-old-school-cooking post that involves sweat on the brow, butted right up against the McDonald's cup.

"We must do it correctly! None of that bullshit factory food! It'll take all day to do it right, but that's how it has to be done! ... in the meantime, let's grab a Big Mac."

11:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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7:26 AM  

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