The word "shchi" (shti) comes from the Old Russian "eat". This was the name of any liquid nutritious meal. Cabbage stews began to be prepared in the 9th century, when this vegetable was brought to Russia and began to grow. The dish quickly won popular love.

The "noble spirit" was always in the house. Everyone could afford cabbage soup. They could be cooked at any time of the year: in the summer with fresh cabbage, and in the winter with sauerkraut. And they never got bored.

Did you know that in the 18th-19th centuries, cabbage soup was frozen in the form of large ice circles and taken with you on the road, and then chopped, warmed up and ate?

Cabbage soup was cooked in village huts, in noble estates, and in royal palaces. The wealthy strata of the population could afford the rich cabbage soup (with meat), while the simpler people prepared a mostly vegetarian version - empty cabbage soup. But no matter what the ingredients were, the cabbage soup was necessarily simmered in the Russian oven. So vegetables did not boil in boiling water, but gradually revealed their taste.

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Now you can afford at least gazpacho, even miso, even soup-puree. But cabbage soup is still the most favorite first course for many. Therefore, we will tell you how to cook excellent cabbage soup.

Rich cabbage soup from sauerkraut or fresh cabbage

This is a modern variation of rich cabbage soup - without porcini mushrooms and turnips (may Pokhlebkin forgive us). But even an inexperienced cook can handle the technology.

Ingredients on a three-liter saucepan:

  • 500 g of meat on the bone;
  • 300 g sauerkraut or fresh cabbage;
  • 3 small onions;
  • 2-3 potatoes;
  • 2 tomatoes;
  • 1 small carrot;
  • vegetable oil for frying;
  • bay leaf, salt, peppercorns, allspice and other spices - to taste;
  • dill, parsley, sour cream for serving.

Step 1. Cook the broth

Traditionally, meat cabbage soup is cooked in beef broth, choosing brisket, brisket and others with bone. But you can use pork and even chicken.

Pour the meat over with water and cook over medium heat. When it starts to boil, watch the foam. Otherwise, the broth will have to be filtered.

Step 2. Add cabbage

This is the main component of cabbage soup. The most commonly used sauerkraut. They even add her pickle to the soup. Thanks to sauerkraut, cabbage soup gets that sourness, for which many people love them so much.

Sour cabbage soup is not cabbage soup at all, but a kind of kvass. So in the old days they called the honey-malt drink, which was used to treat hangovers. Now many people mistakenly call sour cabbage soup with sauerkraut.

When the broth boils, add the cabbage to the saucepan. If you have it too much, then you need to rinse it first.

If you are cooking cabbage soup from fresh cabbage, do not forget that, unlike sauerkraut, it must be added at the end of cooking, before potatoes.

Reduce heat and taste the broth with salt. Usually, the salinity of the cabbage is quite enough, but if you wish, you can add a little salt. Cabbage with meat should be cooked for about an hour.

Step 3. Making frying

The cabbage soup is a filling soup, which means that you cannot do without frying. Fry finely chopped onions in vegetable oil, then add chopped carrots and chopped tomatoes to it, and at the very end, another tablespoon of tomato paste, so that the soup has a rich color.

Previously, onions were put in cabbage soup twice. The first time was a whole onion along with meat when cooking broth (then it was removed). There was even a proverb "Gol with goli, but there is an onion in cabbage soup." The second time, the onion was added finely chopped along with the cabbage.

Step 4. Collecting cabbage soup

After an hour and a half of cooking, fish it out of the broth, and when it cools a little, separate it from the bone and cut into small pieces. Then return it to the soup along with the fries and potatoes.

Initially, rye flour was added to the cabbage soup to thicken it. With the spread of potatoes, this vegetable took over the function of starching the broth.


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Step 5. Add spices

Add bay leaves, peppers, and other spices to taste about 10 minutes before cooking. Try the cabbage soup. If you feel undersalted, add salt.

In the old days, kondums (ears with mushrooms and other fillings), baked goods or nannies were served with cabbage soup. Do you remember in Gogol's "Dead Souls": "... having sipped some cabbage soup and rolled off a huge piece of the nanny, a famous dish that is served with cabbage soup and consists of a mutton stomach stuffed with buckwheat porridge ..."?

The cabbage soup is ready! Sour cream and fresh herbs are usually used as a dressing.

Previously, a cast iron pot with cabbage soup could languish for hours until the stove cools down. The longer, the tastier. So a special type of cabbage soup appeared - daily allowance. In terms of composition, they are the same as ordinary meat ones, but they take much longer to cook.


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To turn ordinary cabbage soup into daily allowance, after cooking, pour them over and send them to the oven, preheated to 220 degrees. When the soup boils, reduce the temperature to 160 ° C and simmer for another two hours. After that, reduce the temperature by 10-15 degrees every hour until you reach 70-80 ° С. This imitates the temperature regime of a cooling Russian stove.

Another option: after cooking, wrap the saucepan with the cabbage soup in something warm and let it cool gradually (this will take 4-6 hours).

Alternatively, you can use the multicooker, experimenting with baking and stewing and keeping warm.

This is a variant of empty cabbage soup. It is perfect for those who do not eat meat or.

Ingredients for a 3-liter saucepan:

  • 350 g of chum salmon, cod or any other fish with a small amount of bones;
  • 400 g sauerkraut;
  • 150-200 g of fresh forest mushrooms;
  • 3 small onions;
  • 2-3 potatoes;
  • 2 tomatoes;
  • 1 small carrot;
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • butter and vegetable oil for frying;
  • bay leaf, salt, peppercorns, allspice and other spices to taste;
  • dill, parsley, sour cream for serving.

Preparation

Pour water into a saucepan and add sauerkraut. When it starts to boil, skim off the foam and reduce heat to low. The cabbage should be cooked for 40-60 minutes. Then add fresh, cut into large pieces to the broth. After 20 minutes, catch the fish, separate it from the bones and chop it. Return fish to broth.

Chop and boil mushrooms. It is better to use forestry: white, boletus, honey agarics. Then fry them in butter. Fry in a separate frying pan: fry the onions, carrots, tomatoes and tomato paste in vegetable oil.

Send the mushrooms and fry to the broth and cook for about 10 minutes more. Add all the spices. Don't forget to salt! After another 10-15 minutes, the fish-mushroom cabbage soup is ready. They can be served in the same way as rich cabbage soup, with herbs and sour cream.


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Bon Appetit!

Teach your wife to cook cabbage soup!

In modern cooking, there are several dozen varieties of cabbage soup. What kind of cabbage soup do you cook? Share your favorite recipe in the comments.

A traditional Russian table is unthinkable without cabbage soup and borscht. Despite the fact that borscht is typical mainly for Ukraine and the southern regions of Russia, and cabbage soup "gravitates" towards the central and northern Russian regions, both of these tasty and rich soups are loved everywhere in our country. These dishes have been known since ancient times. But which of them appeared earlier? It is difficult to answer this question with complete certainty, since not a single document contains the date of preparation of the first borscht and the first cabbage soup. However, it can be assumed that the cabbage soup is of a more solid age. What allows such a conclusion to be drawn?

Written sources

Cabbage soup was first mentioned in the "Tale of Bygone Years", a document of the 11th century. The word "borsch" is found for the first time in "Domostroy" - a written source of the 16th century. By itself, this does not mean, of course, about the age of this or that dish, because it is clear that borscht was cooked before the writing of "Domostroi", since the author so actively recommends this dish for cooking.

origin of name

The very origin of the word "cabbage soup" betrays its deep antiquity. Some experts believe that the name of this soup comes from the Old Russian word "sto" - food, sustenance, or "eat" - a liquid brew. The very sound of this old word is reminiscent of the modern "well-fed, satiated". It is clear that initially cabbage soup is food in general. Other historians derive the name "cabbage soup" from the Slavic word "shchavn" - sorrel, which suggests that such a brew was learned to cook even before cabbage appeared on the territory of Russia. As for the name "borscht", opinions differ here as well. Some believe that it comes from the hogweed plant, which in the old days was added to the dish. This old edible hogweed should not be confused with the modern, noxious burn-causing plant. Others believe that the word "borsch" has a two-part basis: "boron", which indicates the red color of the dish (beets are still called "beetroot" in the southern regions) and "u", which reminds of the good old cabbage soup. In the written documents of the Moscow tsar's court, "borscht shtti" are mentioned, which also gives us grounds to assume a derivative of borscht origin.

Time of appearance of vegetables

Everyone knows that cabbage is the base cabbage, and borscht is red beet. Both of these vegetables were brought to Russia at different times. Cabbage became widespread in our country in the 11th century; it was already consumed both fresh and sauerkraut at that time. The beets arrived later. We first met her in the 13th century. She came to us, apparently, from the Byzantine Empire. The Greeks loved beets, considering them a medicinal plant. Beets were planted everywhere in Russia much later, only in the 15th century. Apparently, then bright red soup appeared for the first time.

Features of the recipe

The recipe for cooking cabbage soup betrays its deep archaism. As you know, this soup is prepared in meat or vegetable broth, with the addition of mushrooms, and sometimes with fish. Vegetables are certainly added to the cabbage soup: cabbage, turnips, carrots, onions. Later, instead of turnips, they began to add potatoes. The historian of Russian cuisine Pokhlebkin notes a paradoxical thing: none of these ingredients are required. Meat may or may not be, mushrooms may or may not be added. Even cabbage, despite the fact that it is considered the basis of cabbage soup, is not necessarily present. Everyone knows green cabbage soup cooked with sorrel, nettle and other herbs. Obviously, cabbage soup has been cooked since ancient times according to the principle: put everything in the house in a pot. For this reason, there are so many varieties of cabbage soup: meat, rich, prefabricated, mushroom, lean, fish, green, etc. The hostess put everything that she was rich in in the pot, filled it with water and put it in the oven. This was probably the end of the technological subtleties of cooking cabbage soup. Do not forget about such an archaic feature of the cabbage soup recipe as adding flour talkers to the food to make the brew more satisfying. Flour was abandoned only in the 19th century, when French cuisine became fashionable.

As for borscht, here we will not find the patriarchal simplicity of a pot of cabbage soup. Classic borscht is cooked on beetroot kvass, certainly with the use of frying, which is typical for a kitchen that already knows what exquisite cooking is. Many borscht products must go through serious pre-processing. If the hostess dispenses with beet kvass, she must stew or bake the beets in order to achieve the desired red color and characteristic taste, onions and carrots are also pre-fried or stewed, tomatoes are chopped into a paste. And, of course, there is even no question of introducing flour mash, which will spoil the noble taste of the red soup. You can "whiten" borsch only with sour cream and nothing else.

On the same topic:

Ukrainian borscht and Russian cabbage soup: what appeared before What the Russians used to laugh at What used to be called Russia before the emergence of modern Russia

Cabbage soup

Cabbage soup has been the main liquid hot dish on the Russian table for over a millennium. It persisted steadily in different eras, although tastes changed, and never knew social barriers, it was used by all segments of the population. Of course, cabbage soup was not the same for everyone: some, more complete in composition, were called “rich”, others were said to be “empty”, since they were sometimes cooked from the same cabbage and onion. However, with all the numerous variations from "rich" to "empty" and with all regional (regional) varieties of cabbage soup, the traditional method of their preparation and the associated taste and aroma have always been preserved. Of great importance for creating a unique taste of cabbage soup was the fact that they were cooked and then languished (infused) in a Russian oven. The aroma of cabbage soup, which is not destroyed by anything - the "shchany spirit" - has always stood in the Russian hut. Russian sayings were associated with the meaning of cabbage soup in everyday life: "Cabbage soup is the head of everything", "Cabbage soup and porridge is our food", etc.
The amazing longevity of cabbage soup can be explained, perhaps, by their inappropriateness. Cabbage soup does not get bored with frequent use. They can be eaten almost every day at any time of the year.
Cabbage soup in their most complete version consists of six main components: cabbage (or the leading vegetable mass replacing it), meat (or, in very rare cases, fish, mushrooms - dried or salted), roots (carrots, parsley root), spicy dressing (onion, celery, garlic, dill, pepper, bay leaf) and sour dressing (sour cream, apples, cabbage brine). Of these six components, the first and last, i.e. the vegetable lead mass and the sour flavor, are absolutely essential. The simplest cabbage soup can only consist of them, continuing to remain cabbage soup.
As for the leading vegetable mass in cabbage, most often it is cabbage - fresh or sauerkraut. But this does not mean that cabbage soup is a soup with cabbage. A sign of cabbage is acid, most often created by sauerkraut brine (either in cabbage or in pure form) or, instead, sorrel (green cabbage soup), boiled green, wild or Antonov apples, salted mushrooms, and sour cream (in cabbage soup) from fresh cabbage). That is why cabbage can be replaced in cabbage soup with various green, sour or neutral masses (sorrel, dampness, nettles, hogweed - in the so-called green soup), as well as with a neutral vegetable mass that absorbs acid well (turnip or radish - in the so-called burdock cabbage soup) ).
The cooking technology for all types of cabbage soup is the same. First, meat or mushrooms are boiled separately with roots and onions. Then cabbage or cabbage substitutes and acid are added to the finished broth. If sauerkraut is used for cabbage soup, then it is cooked separately from the meat broth and combined with it after it is ready. In both cases, salt and spicy dressing are added only after boiling the vegetable mass to the required softness. Ready-made cabbage soup is seasoned with sour cream, most often during their serving.
Initially, flour dressing (together with cabbage) was also introduced into the cabbage soup to make the soup broth denser. This was usually the case in the western and southern regions of Russia. However, such a dressing impairs the taste of the cabbage soup, coarsens their aroma. Therefore, with the advent of potatoes, in order to starch the broth, one or two potatoes were added to the cabbage soup - as a whole, before laying the cabbage and the sour base. Moreover, often the potatoes are then removed from the cabbage soup, since it hardens from the acid. The addition of a small amount of cereals, usually buckwheat (1 tablespoon for the whole saucepan), which is completely boiled down, also contributes to the consolidation of the consistency of the broth in lean and green cabbage soup.
The simpler the vegetable composition, the leaner they are, the more skill is required to prepare them. Real cabbage soup is inconceivable without a spicy dressing, which plays a significant role in the creation of the "happy spirit". First of all, the introduction of onions into cabbage soup is of great importance. The best way is to double-lay it: the first time - a whole onion along with meat, roots and mushrooms (then this onion is removed) and the second time - finely chopped onions (chopped) along with cabbage. Onion, fried separately in oil, cannot be added to the cabbage soup - in this form, it is not characteristic of real cabbage soup.
In the same way, they add twice to the cabbage soup and another spicy seasoning - parsley and celery: the first time - with the root, which is then taken out with the onion, the second time - at the end of cooking, in the form of greens. The rest of the spices - bay leaf, black peppercorns (crushed), dill and garlic - are introduced as follows: the first two types - 15 minutes before cooking, the second two - together with parsley at the end of cooking. After that, the cabbage soup should be sure to stand under the lid, pomlet to infuse, for at least 10-15 minutes. It is at this time that cabbage soup "reaches its real taste": cabbage becomes soft, acidity and aroma of spices are transferred to vegetables. Therefore, before the cabbage soup was left to grind and languish after cooking in the light spirit of the Russian stove, where they did not cool down, or they put it on the edge of the stove, where the heat was retained, but the boiling stopped. Soup from sauerkraut especially need this. It is good to put them in a slightly heated oven for 10-15 minutes, or even more. Sometimes cabbage soup can last for several hours (from 12 to 24), which gives them a better and more peculiar taste. Such cabbage soup is called daily soup, they are prepared ahead of time, in a day.
Finally, it is necessary to pay attention to two more circumstances that affect the quality of cabbage soup - the choice of meat and whitening or whitening. For cabbage soup there is beef, mostly fat - brisket, thin and thick edge, rump. To create a special smell, you can add a small amount of ham to the beef: tenth to eighth (and even a third in the south of Russia) of the mass of beef. In this case, beef in cabbage soup is always boiled in a whole piece, and the ham is chopped. All meat components are subjected to grinding only in prefabricated cabbage soup. Pork cabbage soup, found mainly in the regions bordering with Ukraine, is not typical of Russian cuisine. The same can be said about cabbage soup found in certain regions of Russia with fish instead of meat. For such cabbage soup, a special selection of fish was certainly required (a combination of salted red - beluzhin and sturgeon with river - perches, crucian carp and tench) and their separate heat treatment. Cooking cabbage soup with other fish gives a less tasty dish, which is why it has not become widespread.
As for whitewash, good cabbage soup cannot do without it. The role of whitening and at the same time an acidifier is usually performed by sour cream. Sometimes sour cream is replaced with yogurt or just milk. In rich sauerkraut cabbage soup, a mixture of sour cream and cream in a 4: 1 ratio serves as whitening. This is a very tasty whitewash.
A few words about the consistency of cabbage soup. Cabbage soup of all types can be thick or liquid, depending on the ratio of water and the mass of the nested products. Once upon a time, thick cabbage soup was considered ideal, in which "a spoon is standing", or "cabbage soup with a slide," that is, when a piece of meat rises above the surface of the liquid and thick poured into the plate. Our recipes are designed for cabbage soup of more than medium thickness; this means that the amount of liquid per serving should not exceed 350 ml. Cold water should be poured no more than 2 liters for 4 servings, and preferably 1.5 liters, so that the finished broth is 1.25-1 liters (after boiling). It should be cooked for 2 hours. Spices are added to the cabbage soup for 5-10 minutes until cooked.
Cabbage soup is usually eaten with black rye bread.


... V.V. Pokhlebkin. 2005.

Russian cabbage soup (the old name for shti) is a hot first dish based on sauerkraut or fresh cabbage, which has been prepared since time immemorial in Russia and has a long history. Epochs, power, people and customs changed, one thing remained unchanged - hot, rich cabbage soup, sometimes poor or empty (lean based on mushrooms and vegetables), sometimes rich (meat or fish) on the table of almost every Russian. They were eaten by everyone, young and old: both tsars and peasants, a blessed spirit stood both in poor huts and in merchant mansions, the significance of this dish in the life of a Russian was enormous, hence a large number of sayings on this topic: “Cabbage soup and porridge - our food "," cabbage soup to everything "," where cabbage soup, there and look for Russians. "

History of Shchey in Russia

(S. Vinogradov "The Peasants")

They began to cook cabbage soup around the 11th century, when the Russian people got acquainted with cabbage imported from Ancient Rome, which was considered a delicacy there and a generally recognized remedy for the treatment and prevention of various diseases. The Russian people, with the help of natural ingenuity and observation, quickly saw through all the useful properties of an overseas vegetable, quickly found use for it, and began to use fresh and sauerkraut in various dishes, both everyday and festive.

The origin of the word "cabbage soup"

In the history of the origin of the word "Shchi" there are several versions, some believe that it comes from the Old Russian " eto"- food, food or" eat"- a liquid brew, hot stew, seasoned with cabbage, sorrel or other green vegetables, others prefer the version of the origin from the Slavic word" shchavn "- sorrel, there is even an assumption about the Danish roots of this word, the Danish word" sky"- broth, broth. The uniqueness of the word "Shchi" in pronunciation is a word of two Russian letters, and in order to pronounce in other languages ​​at least a few letters are required. Also, the difference in pronunciation and spelling options, such as in the unique Russian word form " Eat some chec".

How they cooked cabbage soup in Russia

(Kustodiev "Vegetable Merchant")

In each specific area, cabbage soup was cooked differently, adding their original ingredients, only the cooking method remained the same for everyone - cabbage soup must be prepared in a cast iron pot and a clay pot of a Russian oven, and not just boil, but languish and infuse for some time for that so that they acquire their rich and unique taste and aroma. The cabbage pot itself was a particularly revered household item, it was thoroughly washed and even talked about.

There are several main components in cabbage soup:

  1. Fresh or sauerkraut (or green mass replacing it - nettle, sorrel, turnip);
  2. Meat (in his absence, it was replaced by fish or mushrooms);
  3. Various roots (carrots, parsley rhizomes);
  4. Spicy dressing (onions, celery roots, garlic, dill, bay leaf, pepper);
  5. Sour dressing (cabbage or apple pickle, sour cream, sour milk or yogurt).

Previously, to give cabbage soup more density and density, flour dressing was added along with cabbage, which was abandoned in the 19th century under the influence of the fashion in French cuisine.

(Makovsky "Lunch")

Mandatory for any cabbage soup is green mass (cabbage, sorrel, etc.) and sour dressing, their main feature should be a piquant sourness, which is achieved by adding sauerkraut, brine from it, salted mushrooms, sour apples, sour cream or sour milk in fresh cabbage soup. One of the peculiarities of Russian cuisine is that all vegetables are placed in the cabbage soup raw, they do not need to be fried or sautéed.

First of all, meat (from beef), fish or mushroom broth is prepared with carrots and parsley root and onions, fresh or sauerkraut (which must be boiled separately and ready to add to the broth) or replacing it with green mass is put in it. When the vegetables are cooked and soft, add salt and spices.

What is cabbage soup served with and how is it eaten

(Boehm (Endaurova) Elizaveta Merkurievna - old postcard)

Cabbage soup, seasoned with sour cream or yogurt, was served, they were eaten along with rye or wheat bread "to an empty plate".

Cabbage soup has a large number of positive properties typical for all vegetable dishes. Cabbage, both sour and fresh, contains a large amount of fiber, minerals and vitamins. This dish has a beneficial effect on the work of our digestive system, it is easily digested without burdening the stomach, thanks to the presence of complex carbohydrates in its composition, it will satisfy your hunger for a long time and, of course, will introduce you to the history of the Russian people, its traditions and customs.

Cabbage soup- a national Russian dish. They are distinguished by the sour taste created by the sauerkraut commonly used in cabbage soup. But other plants, for example, sorrel, nettle, or neutral herbs, can also give acid, followed by dressing with cabbage or other brine. Vegetables are usually placed in the soup raw, without pre-frying. Meat, fish, mushroom broths, decoctions of vegetables or cereals can serve as a liquid base for cabbage soup. Completely vegetable cabbage soup is called "empty". Well-known "daily" cabbage soup, which acquire its taste only a day after cooking. Often the cabbage soup is "whitened" with sour cream, cream or milk.

  1. When cooking cabbage soup, put sauerkraut in cold broth (or water), and stewed cabbage in boiling one.
  2. Delicious cabbage soup can be made even from very sour cabbage. To do this, you need to replace part of the sauerkraut with fresh one. At the same time, only sauerkraut is stewed, and fresh cabbage is put in a boiling broth.
  3. Fresh cabbage soup without potatoes is recommended to be seasoned with fried flour.
  4. Cabbage soup itself has a delicate taste and delicate aroma, so you should not add tomato to them, it is advisable to also limit the amount of spices.
Prepare cabbage soup according to our recipe, take a photo of your cabbage soup and place it under the recipe - treat everyone with your cabbage soup. Let everyone learn to cook delicious cabbage soup!