Borscht

Eastern European sour soup Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Borsch (disambiguation).

BorschtA bowl of borscht garnished with sour cream and dillAlternative namesBorsch, borshch, borsht, bortschTypeSoupPlace of originUkraineCooking time 30 minutes to 3 hoursServing temperatureHot or coldMain ingredientsBeet sour or beetrootsIngredients generally usedTomatoes, vinegar, cabbage and/or potatoes, meat or saloVariationsClear red borscht, cold borscht, unsoured borschtSimilar dishesGreen borscht, white borscht as well as the ancient hogweed-made borscht  Media: Borscht Culture of Ukrainian borscht cookingUNESCO Intangible Cultural HeritageBorscht served in a ceramic bowl with bread and salt in a village in Poltava Oblast of UkraineCountryUkraineReference01852RegionEurope and North AmericaInscription historyInscription2022 (5th extraordinary session)ListNeed of Urgent Safeguarding Borscht (English: /ˈbɔːrʃt/ ⓘ) is a sour soup, made with meat stock, vegetables and seasonings, common in Eastern Europe, Central Europe and Northern Asia. In English, the word borscht, borrowed via Yiddish, is most often associated with the variant of the soup originating in Ukraine, made with red beetroots as one of the main ingredients, which give the dish its distinctive red color. The same name, however, is also used for a wide selection of sour-tasting soups without beetroots, such as sorrel-based green borscht, rye-based white borscht, and cabbage borscht. Borscht derives from an ancient soup originally cooked from pickled stems, leaves and umbels of common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium), an herbaceous plant growing in damp meadows, which lent the dish its Slavic name. With time, it evolved into a diverse array of tart soups, among which the Ukrainian beet-based red borscht has become the most popular. It is typically made by combining meat or bone stock with sautéed vegetables, which—as well as beetroots—usually include cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, and tomatoes. Depending on the recipe, borscht may include meat or fish, or be purely vegetarian; it may be served either hot or cold, and it may range from a hearty one-pot meal to a clear broth or a smooth drink. It is often served with smetana or sour cream, hard-boiled eggs or potatoes, but there exists an ample choice of more involved garnishes and side dishes, such as uszka or pampushky, that can be served with the soup. Its popularity has spread throughout Eastern Europe and—by way of migration away from the Russian Empire—to other continents. In North America, borscht is often linked with either Jews or Mennonites, the groups who first brought it there from Europe. Several ethnic groups claim borscht, in its various local implementations, as their own national dish consumed as part of ritual meals within Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, and Jewish religious traditions. In 2022, shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, UNESCO recognized the "Culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking" on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. UNESCO noted that several countries in the broader region have also practiced borscht cooking and their inscription does not imply exclusivity or ownership of the dish for any particular country.

[edit] The English name derives, through Yiddish, from Ukrainian and Russian бо́рщ (borshch, Ukrainian: [ˈbɔrʃt͡ʃ] ⓘ, Russian: [ˈborɕː] ⓘ). Together with cognates in other Slavic languages, such as Belarusian: бо́ршч (borshch), Polish: barszcz, and others, it comes from Proto-Slavic *bъ̃rščь, 'hogweed', and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥stis, 'point', 'stubble'. The English form borscht comes from Yiddish באָרשט (borsht), as the dish was first popularized in North America by Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe.

[edit] Borscht can include beef, pork, beets, other vegetables, herbs, and spices. The stock is typically made by boiling meat, bones, or both. Beef, pork or a combination of both are most commonly used, with brisket, ribs, shank and chuck considered to give the most flavorful results, especially if cooked on a high flame. Marrow bones are considered best for the bone stock. Meat stock is usually cooked for about two hours, whereas bone stock takes four to six hours to prepare. Meat and bones are usually removed afterwards and the meat is only added back into the soup about 10–15 minutes before the borscht is done. Some recipes call for smoked meats, resulting in a distinctively smoky borscht, while others use poultry or mutton stock. Fasting varieties are typically made with fish stock to avoid the use of meat, while purely vegetarian recipes often substitute forest mushroom broth for the stock.

Borscht cooked in a clay pot inside a Russian oven in the Poltava region in central Ukraine Girls grating beetroots to make borscht for a large group The vegetables most commonly added to borscht are beetroots, white cabbage, carrots, parsley root, potatoes, onions and tomatoes. Some recipes may also call for beans, tart apples, turnip, swede, celeriac, zucchini or bell peppers. Parsnip may be used as a substitute for parsley root, and tomato paste is often used as well as or instead of fresh tomatoes. Onions, carrots, parsley root, turnip and other root vegetables are sautéed (traditionally in animal fat, especially lard or butter) and then mixed with tomatoes or tomato paste. Dry beans are boiled separately. Potatoes and cabbage are boiled in the stock for about 15 minutes before the precooked vegetables are added. The traditional technique of preparing the soup is to precook the vegetables—by sautéing, braising, boiling or baking—separately from the meat and only then to combine them with the stock. This distinctive feature of borscht derives from the practice of slow cooking in the Russian oven (traditional masonry stove, used for both cooking and heating), wherein the differences in cooking times of individual ingredients had to be taken into account in order to ensure that all components reach doneness at the same time. The importance of this method is reflected in the Russian language, where a variant in which all vegetables are added raw directly into the stock is referred to by the diminutive form borshchok rather than borshch. The soup is typically flavored with a wide selection of herbs, spices and condiments. Salt, black pepper, garlic, bay leaves and dill are among the most commonly used. Other aromatics often added to borscht include allspice, celery stalks, parsley, marjoram, hot peppers, saffron, horseradish, ginger and prunes. Some recipes require flour or roux to further thicken the borscht. A common opinion is that a good borscht should be thick enough for a spoon to stand upright in it.

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A tureen of thick borscht

A bowl of borscht with beans and other vegetables

Borscht without meat

A clay bowl of borscht

Borscht with sour cream and dill

Served with sour cream and brown bread

Ukrainian[edit] Poltava borscht with halushky and noodles There are multiple examples of the soup in Ukrainian cuisine. Virtually every oblast has its own version. Differences between particular varieties may regard the type of stock used (meat, bone, or both), the type of meat (beef, pork, poultry, etc.), the choice of vegetables and the method of cutting and cooking them. For example, although the typical recipe calls for beef and pork, the Kyiv variant uses mutton or lamb as well as beef, while in the Poltava region, the stock for borscht is cooked on poultry meat, that is, chicken, duck or goose. The use of zucchini, beans and apples is characteristic of the Chernihiv borscht; in this variant, beetroots are sautéed in vegetable oil rather than lard, and the sour taste comes solely from tomatoes and tart apples. The Lviv borscht is based on bone stock and is served with chunks of Vienna sausages. In Southern Ukraine borshch typically includes legumes. Historically, borshch with meat was reserved as a holiday dish, meanwhile varieties consumed during lent would include fish, such as dried crucian carp. Borscht is symbolic of hospitality in Ukraine and is part of multiple traditional celebrations and rituals. In some parts of Ukraine, the third day of a wedding celebration is called do nevistky na borshch, which translates to "visit daughter-in-law to eat borscht". In 2022, UNESCO added "Culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking" to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, citing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Polish[edit] Polish clear Christmas Eve barszcz served over uszka, or ear-shaped mushroom-filled dumplings As well as the thick borschts described above, Polish cuisine offers a ruby-colored beetroot bouillon known as barszcz czysty czerwony, or clear red borscht. It is made by combining strained meat-and-vegetable stock with wild mushroom broth and beet sour. In some versions, smoked meat may be used for the stock and the tartness may be obtained or enhanced by adding lemon juice, dill pickle brine, or dry red wine. It may be served either in a soup bowl or—especially at dinner parties—as a hot beverage in a twin-handled cup, with a croquette or a filled pastry on the side. Unlike other types of borscht, it is not whitened with sour cream. Barszcz wigilijny, or Christmas Eve borscht, is a variant of the clear borscht that is traditionally served during the Polish Christmas Eve supper. In this version, meat stock is either omitted or replaced with fish broth, usually made by boiling the heads cut off from fish used in other Christmas Eve dishes. The mushrooms used for cooking the mushroom broth are reserved for uszka (small filled dumplings), which are then served with the borscht.

[edit] Although borscht is mostly used to describe a beet-based soup, there are soups in some culinary traditions with the same or similar names, but with sometimes wide variations in ingredients and preparation methods. In such soups, beetroots are not used or merely optional. The principal common trait among such borschts is a tart flavor from sour-tasting ingredients. According to A Gift to Young Housewives, a book from the 19th century, "borscht" may or may not include beets (depending from recipe to recipe in the book). In Polish cuisine, white borscht (barszcz biały, also known as żur or żurek, 'sour soup') is made from a fermented mixture of rye flour or oatmeal and water. It is typically flavored with garlic and marjoram, and served over eggs and boiled fresh sausage; the water in which the sausage was boiled is often used instead of meat stock.

Polish white borscht served over fresh sausage, bacon and eggs In the Carpathian Mountains of southern Poland, variants of borscht are also made in which the tart taste comes from dairy products, such as whey or buttermilk. Although the deep red color of beetroot borscht may remind those unfamiliar with Polish cuisine of blood, the type of borscht that does contain animal (usually poultry) blood mixed with vinegar is dark brownish-gray in color and aptly called "gray borscht" (barszcz szary), which is a regional name of the Polish blood soup better known as czernina.

Sorrel-based Ukrainian green borscht served with sour cream and a hard-boiled egg Green borscht (zeleny borshch), a light soup made from leaf vegetables, is an example common in Ukrainian and Russian cuisines. The naturally tart-tasting sorrel is most commonly used, but spinach, chard, nettle, garden orache and occasionally dandelion, goutweed or ramsons, may be added as well, especially after the spring season for sorrel has passed. Like beetroot borscht, it is based on meat or vegetable broth and is typically served with boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, sprinkled with dill. There is also a variety of Ukrainian green borscht which includes both sorrel and beetroots. In Romanian and Moldovan cuisines, a mixture of wheat bran or cornmeal with water that has been left to ferment, similar to, but less cloudy than that used in Polish white borscht, is called borș. It is used to impart a sour taste to a variety of tangy Romanian soups, known as either also borș or ciorbă. Variants include ciorbă de perișoare (with meatballs), ciorbă de burtă (with tripe), borș de pește (with fish) and borș de sfeclă roșie (with beetroots).

A bowl of Hong Kong style borscht, made from cabbage and tomatoes, as widely served in local cha chaan tengs The Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian version of borscht is a hot soup made with beef stock, green peppers and other vegetables, which may or may not include beetroots, and flavored with chopped red chili and fresh cilantro. In ethnic Mennonite cuisine, borscht refers to a whole range of seasonal vegetable soups based on beef or chicken stock—from spring borscht made with spinach, sorrel and chard to summer borscht with cabbage, tomatoes, maize and squash to fall and winter borscht with cabbage, beets and potatoes. In Chinese cuisine, a soup known as Luosong tang, a translation based on the term "Russian soup" from the Russian diaspora in China, is based on red cabbage and tomatoes, and lacks beetroots altogether; also known as "Chinese borscht", it originated in Harbin, close to the Russian border in northeast China, and has spread as far as Hong Kong. In Shanghai's Haipai cuisine, tomatoes are the main ingredient; beef and its broth, onions and cabbages are also added; while flour, rather than sour cream, is used for thickening.

[edit] Borscht sprinkled with parsley, served with sour cream and a slice of rye breadBorscht with a side of pampushky, pork cracklings and smetanaŠaltibarščiai served with a boiled potatoA bouillon cup of clear borscht, a type of borscht with a krokiet and a brine-pickled gherkin on the side The diversity of borscht styles is matched by the wide choice of garnishes and side dishes with which various types of borscht may be served. Most often, borscht is served with smetana, a soured dairy product similar to the French crème fraîche. The smetana may be served in a separate pitcher for the diners to add the desired amount themselves or the borscht may come already "whitened" with the smetana already added. The cream can also be thickened with flour before being added to the soup. Yogurt and a mixture of milk and yolks are possible substitutes. Chopped herbs are often sprinkled on the surface of the soup; dill is most common, but parsley, chives or scallion are often added as well. Individual helpings may be spiced up with minced hot peppers or garlic. Many types of borscht are served over halves or quarters of hard-boiled chicken or quail eggs. Navy beans, broad beans or string beans are also a common addition. Meat, removed from the stock on which the borscht was based, may be cut into smaller chunks and either added back into the soup or served on the side with horseradish or mustard. Bacon and sausages are also commonly used as borscht garnishes. Borscht based on bone stock may be served Old Polish-style, with marrow from the bones. Some types of soup, such as Poltava borscht, may be served with halushky, or thick noodles of wheat or buckwheat flour. Siberian borscht is eaten with boiled meatballs (frikadelki) of minced beef and onion. In Poland and parts of western Ukraine, borscht is typically ladled over uszka, or bite-sized ear-shaped dumplings made from pasta dough wrapped around mushroom, buckwheat or meat filling. Mushroom-filled uszka are particularly associated with Polish Christmas Eve borscht. Borscht, like any other soup in East Slavic cuisines, is seldom eaten by itself, but rather accompanied by a side dish. At a minimum, spoonfuls of borscht are alternated with bites of a slice of bread. Buckwheat groats or boiled potatoes, often topped with pork cracklings, are other simple possibilities, but a range of more involved sides exists as well.[citation needed] In Ukraine, borscht is often accompanied with pampushky, or savory, puffy yeast-raised rolls glazed with oil and crushed garlic. In Russian cuisine, borscht may be served with assorted side dishes based on tvorog, or the East European variant of farmer cheese, such as vatrushki, syrniki or krupeniki. Vatrushki are baked round cheese-filled tarts; syrniki are small pancakes wherein the cheese is mixed into the batter; and a krupenik is a casserole of buckwheat groats baked with cheese. Pirozhki, or baked dumplings with fillings as for uszka, are another common side for both thick and clear variants of borscht. Polish clear borscht may also be served with a croquette or paszteciki. A typical Polish croquette (krokiet) is made by wrapping a crêpe (thin pancake) around a filling and coating it in breadcrumbs before refrying; paszteciki (lit. 'little pâtés') are variously shaped filled hand-held pastries of yeast-raised or flaky dough. Another way to serve borscht is with a coulibiac, or a large loaf-shaped pie. Possible fillings for croquettes, paszteciki and coulibiacs include mushrooms, sauerkraut and minced meat.

[edit] Precursors[edit] Common hogweed, originally the principal ingredient of borscht Borscht derives from a soup originally made by the Slavs from common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium, also known as cow parsnip), which gave the dish its Slavic name. Growing commonly in damp meadows throughout the north temperate zone, hogweed was used not only as fodder (as its English names suggest), but also for human consumption—from Eastern Europe to Siberia, to northwestern North America. The Slavs collected hogweed in May and used its roots for stewing with meat. As for the stems, leaves, and umbels; these would be chopped, covered with water and left in a warm place to ferment. After a few days, lactic and alcoholic fermentation produced a mixture described as "something between beer and sauerkraut". The said soup—with aforementioned fermented hogweed concoction used—was characterized by a mouth-puckering amount of sourness in its taste, while its smell was described as pungent As the Polish ethnographer Łukasz Gołębiowski wrote in 1830, "Poles have been always partial to tart dishes, which are somewhat peculiar to their homeland and vital to their health." Simon Syrenius (Szymon Syreński), a 17th century Polish botanist, described "our Polish hogweed" as a vegetable that was well known throughout Poland, Ruthenia, Lithuania and Samogitia (that is, most of the northern part of Eastern Europe), typically used for cooking a "tasty and graceful soup" with capon stock, eggs, sour cream and millet. More interested in the plant's medicinal properties than its culinary use, he also recommended pickled hogweed juice as a cure for fever or hangover. One of the earliest possible mentions of borscht as a soup is found in the diary of German merchant Martin Gruneweg, who visited Kyiv in 1584. After Gruneweg reached river Borshchahivka in Kyiv's vicinity on 17 October 1584, he wrote down a local legend saying that the river was so named because there was a borscht market. However, he doubted the story noting that "Ruthenians buy borscht rarely or never, because everyone cooks their own at home as it's their staple food and drink". Another early written reference to the Slavic hogweed soup can be found in Domostroy (Domestic Order), a 16th century Russian compendium of moral rules and homemaking advice. It recommends growing the plant "by the fence, around the whole garden, where the nettle grows", to cook a soup of it in springtime and reminds the reader to, "for the Lord's sake, share it with those in need". Hogweed borscht was mostly a poor man's food. The soup's humble beginnings are still reflected in Polish fixed expressions, where "cheap like borscht" is the equivalent of "dirt cheap" (also attested as a calque in Yiddish and Canadian English), whereas adding "two mushrooms into borscht" is synonymous with excess. For the professors of the University of Kraków, who led a monastic way of life in the 17th century, hogweed borscht was a fasting dish which they ate regularly from Lent till Rogation days. It was uncommon on the royal table, although according to the 16th century Polish botanist Marcin of Urzędów—citing Giovanni Manardo, a court physician to the Jagiellonian kings of Hungary—the Polish-born King Vladislaus II used to have a Polish hogweed-based dish prepared for him at his court in Buda.

[edit] As a ritual dish[edit] Borscht is often associated with its role in religious traditions of various denominations (Eastern Orthodox, Greek and Roman Catholic, and Jewish) that are common in Eastern Europe. In East Slavic countries, "memorial borscht" is served as the first course at a post-funeral wake. According to a traditional belief, the soul of the departed either feeds on or is carried up to heaven by puffs of steam rising from bowls of borscht and other hot dishes, such as blini, porridge, boiled potatoes or freshly baked bread. In the region of Polesye, straddling the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, the same steaming-hot dishes, including borscht, are given as an offering to the souls of deceased ancestors during the annual semi-pagan remembrance ceremony known as Dzyady or Forefathers' Night.

A tureen of clear borscht among other dishes on a Polish Christmas Eve table In Poland and Ukraine, borscht is usually one of the dishes served at a Christmas Eve dinner. Celebrated after the first star has appeared in the sky on December 24 (Roman Catholic) or January 6 (Greek Catholic), it is a meal which is at the same time festive and fasting, a multicourse affair (traditionally, with twelve distinct dishes) that excludes ingredients of land-animal origin. Christmas Eve borscht is, therefore, either vegetarian or based on fish stock and is not typically mixed with sour cream. In Ukraine, the soup contains vegetables that are sautéed in vegetable oil rather than lard, as well as beans and mushrooms. It may also be thickened with wheat flour dry-roasted in a pan instead of the usual roux. The Polish version of Christmas Eve borscht is a clear ruby-red broth. Both Ukrainian and Polish variants are often served with uszka. While Christmas in Poland is traditionally linked to red borscht, Lent—the fasting period that leads up to Easter—is associated with a meatless version of white borscht, or żur. Youths used to celebrate Holy Saturday, the last day of the fast, with a mock "funeral" of the white borscht, in which a pot of the soup was either buried in the ground or broken, sometimes—to the crowd's amusement—while being carried by an unsuspecting boy on his head. On the next day, the white borscht would reappear on the Easter table, but this time, in its more coveted, meat-based guise with sausage, bacon and eggs. In Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish tradition, vegetarian borscht served with sour cream and boiled potatoes on the side, known as peysakhdiker borsht, is considered an essential dish during the Passover period. As the holiday is observed in spring (March or April), the preparation of Passover borscht used to provide an opportunity to use up the beet sour left over from pickled beetroots that had been consumed during winter, remaining potatoes that had been stored throughout the winter and sour cream that was readily available in the new calving season. Cold borscht blended with sour cream is also popular on Shavuot (Feast of Weeks), a holiday customarily associated with dairy foods, observed in late May or early June. Seudah Shlishit, or the third meal of the Shabbat, often includes borscht as well. In 2022, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced that it had placed "Culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking" on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. UNESCO noted that Borscht cooking was "also practised in communities in the broader region", and its designation "does not imply exclusivity, nor ownership, of the heritage concerned". Instead it recognized the significant cultural importance of Borscht to Ukrainians and the need to safeguard this culture, particularly in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to the festival blog of the Smithsonian Institution, "The designation by the international cultural authority was widely seen as a landmark decision in the ongoing cultural dispute between the two countries on borshch’s true country of origin."

While turkey and mince pies dominate the British tables, borscht has quietly earned a place on festive spreads, especially among families with Eastern European roots. The soup’s bright ruby hue adds colour to the winter buffet, and its balance of sweet beetroot and tangy vinegar cuts through richer fare. Serving it hot alongside roasted vegetables offers a palate‑cleansing interlude, while a chilled version can double as a starter on a frosty December afternoon. Because borscht is built on a meat stock base, it can be prepared ahead of time, allowing flavours to deepen – a practical perk when the kitchen is buzzing with Christmas cooking.

For an authentic holiday borscht, start with fresh, firm beetroot – the deeper the colour, the richer the flavour. Look for beet varieties with a high sugar content, such as ‘Detroit Dark Red’, which yield a natural sweetness without extra sugar. When selecting stock, a home‑made beef or pork broth gives the most depth; however, a high‑quality ready‑made stock works in a pinch provided it’s low in sodium. Fresh dill and a dollop of full‑fat sour cream are essential toppings – choose a dill with bright green leaves and a sour cream that is at least 30% fat for that luxurious mouthfeel. Lastly, keep a bottle of good cider vinegar on hand; a splash just before serving brightens the soup without overwhelming the beet’s earthiness.

Present borscht in wide, shallow bowls to showcase its vivid colour. Warm the bowls in the oven for a minute or two so the soup stays piping hot longer. Offer a small ramekin of sour cream and a separate bowl of chopped fresh dill, letting guests add their own garnish – it turns a simple serving into a personalised touch. Pair the soup with crusty rye or pumpernickel bread, buttered lightly and sprinkled with sea salt; the earthy bread complements the beets beautifully. For a festive twist, drizzle a thin line of honey‑infused mustard on the plate’s rim – the sweet‑sharp contrast echoes the traditional Christmas flavour palette.