Ukrainian Borscht: Traditional Recipe with Beef, Pork and Beets

Step-by-step recipe

1. Buy the meat. It's best to use different kinds of meat; the borscht will be richer. A little pork, ideally ribs. A little beef, also ribs if possible. In the villages, cooks add a small piece of old yellow salo. There's always an old parcel box of it in the pantry. And be sure to add a marrow bone for richness.
   
2. Use a 5-6 liter pot. Fill it with cold water, a little more than halfway, but no more than two-thirds.
3. Put the pot on the heat. Meanwhile, wash the meat. Cut it into fairly large pieces, 40-50 g each. Leave the bone whole. Separate the ribs one by one and chop them into pieces 5-6 cm long.
4. Put the meat into the water. Then bring it to a boil. Be sure to skim off the foam.
5. Drop in 2-3 bay leaves and the parsley and celery roots in whole pieces, whatever size you like. Season lightly with salt and pepper. You can add a spice blend for aroma, but not much. The borscht will be spicy and fragrant as it is.
6. Cook a strong meat broth, for at least an hour. The meat should become tender and come away from the bones. When the broth is ready, remove the parsley root and bay leaves and add the beans, soaked in water beforehand.
   
7. Wait for the water to come back to a boil, reduce the heat and cook for 20 minutes. The beans should still be slightly underdone.
8. Most recipes call for frying the vegetables before adding them to the broth. That's fine, but far from everyone does it. For example, in the region where my relatives lived, borscht was rarely made with fried vegetables. The exception is beets, if they aren't dark and deep red enough.
9. Add the carrot, onion and bell pepper, cut into pieces, to the broth. The size of the pieces is up to you.
   
10. Add the crushed garlic cloves and a finely chopped, seeded fresh chili, or a couple of pinches of dried chili flakes.
    
11. Cook for 15 minutes.
12. Peel the beets. Many cooks fry the beets in butter or salo. My grandmother did. But back then you didn't always get beets with real color; they were usually cross-pollinated and whitish as a result. Now beets are deep, dark purple, and you could dye wallpaper with them. How do you keep the borscht's color? For that signature red, I add the beets raw. And the color they give is something else!
    
13. You can grate the beets coarsely or cut them into matchsticks. Matchsticks look nicer. The beets are what give borscht its fiery color. Add the beets, stir well and admire the color!
    
14. Cook for another 10 minutes and then add the potatoes, cut into large cubes. You can also drop the potatoes in whole and mash them right in the pot.
    
15. When the potatoes are cooked, usually after 15 minutes or a bit longer, add the tomato paste. This is strictly to taste! For 6 liters I add 3 heaping tablespoons, then taste. It should give just a hint of tang.
    
16. Let the tomato paste boil for at least 5 minutes. It will give the borscht an extra lovely red tint.
17. Add thinly shredded white cabbage! How much? Enough that the soup isn't watery. Cabbage is irreplaceable here!
    
18. Many cooks add sauerkraut. Well, maybe. I don't.
19. I like the cabbage a little firm. I cook it for no more than 5 minutes.
    
20. Before serving, be sure to season with salt and pepper to taste. And add finely chopped parsley and dill.
    
21. Turn off the heat right away and let it stand. How long? Until the next morning. I'm not kidding! Borscht is tastiest the day after! And always with sour cream. Not the fattiest kind. Homemade or 10-15% is ideal.
    
22. From here on, it's like a fairy tale! A bowl of fiery red borscht! Sour cream!!! A halved onion! Garlic! Fresh bread, or, even better, pampushky garlic buns! Green onions and young garlic are the VIP guests.