Draft:Slavic sour soups

Slavic sour soups are common in Polish, Romanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian and Moldovan cuisines, and examples are also found in other cuisines. They may be based on vegetables, grains, meats, fish, or dairy. Ukrainian beet-based borscht is an example.

Variants

Many soups in these culinary traditions are called borscht or similar-sounding names, but with sometimes wide variations in ingredients and preparation methods. The principal common trait among such soups is a tart flavor from sour-tasting ingredients. The sour flavor may come from fermentation or from sour or tart ingredients.

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, the tart taste comes from dairy products, such as whey or buttermilk.

Sour soups that contain animal (usually poultry) blood mixed with vinegar is dark brownish-gray in color and are termed "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 Luosong tang, or Chinese borscht, made from cabbage and tomatoes, as served in Hong Kong

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, or "Russian soup", 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.

See also

• List of sour soups

References

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