Cuisine of Eastern Ukraine: the immortal history of Ukrainian borscht

Eastern Ukrainian borscht is prepared with pickled beetroot and served with black bread and salted fat with a cut (a layer of meat). And you can also prepare borscht Chernihiv and Lviv, Volyn and Poltava, Kiev and borscht with galushki. In the culinary traditions of Ukraine – more than 50 types of borscht, and this variety reflects the entire history of the country, with its long-term stay under the rule of foreign newcomers-then some, then others.

But, in reality, borsch-a dish that is considered purely Ukrainian-has deeper roots. Its birthplace is Rome, although the recipe for the dish there came from Greece.

The ancient Roman borscht owes its popularity to one of its components – cabbage. After all, the Romans considered this vegetable the best way to maintain health and prolong life. Odes were dedicated to cabbage, and the best minds of our time – Pliny and Horace – mentioned it in their works. The idea of pre-heat treatment of beetroot before adding it to borscht belongs to the Romans. Roman soldiers, while in the Crimea, brought to the Peninsula many varieties of cabbage, beets and other vegetable crops. From here, from the southern tip of the future Russian Empire, the borscht recipe penetrated to the continent and received its highest development and creative culinary embodiment in the cuisine of Ukraine.

Ukrainian borsch - on a pork bone, with pampushki, poured with garlic seasoning, fragrant, fiery, rich, flavored with sour cream and herbs-spread from Kiev to the territory of Ancient Russia along with Christianity.

On the territory of Eastern Ukraine, borscht is usually prepared in pork broth from fresh vegetables-cabbage , carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and beets - pickled or fresh. Borscht is filled with fat rubbed with dill and parsley, and the fat is chosen slightly yellowed, lying down, having a peculiar smell and taste.

Poltava borscht is cooked in chicken broth and served with dumplings, and in Lviv it is added to finely chopped sausages. Ukrainian cuisine has borscht with duck and goose, beans and peas, fried carp and porcini mushrooms, prunes and smoked bacon. Sometimes for borscht prepare grout from buckwheat or wheat flour, add ready-made buckwheat or millet porridge, for sharpness flavored with whey or buttermilk (buttermilk).

In Podillya, kvass from rye bran is prepared as a dressing for borsch, and in the Eastern regions of Ukraine, Apple or cherry juice and red capsicum are added for sharpness.

Borscht on water, dried and dried fish or mushroom broth is prepared during fasts, and on fast days do not skimp on fat and rich broth of pork ribs. Summer cold borscht is not only a means of quenching hunger, but also a real way to escape from the sweltering heat. And fragrant, bursting with heat, fire borscht in the winter cold - this is something incredible! And how many types of green borscht - from nettle and sorrel - can be prepared according to old recipes!

Bright color-ruby or green, - generously poured with sour cream, decorated with fresh aromatic herbs, with garlic pampushki, with heat-in winter or chilled-in summer, borsch can claim the most important place in the Ukrainian menu. The variety of its types allows us to declare it as a universally loved dish and national treasure throughout the territory of Ukraine.