Borscht and cabbage soup are two popular types of soup that have been known since the 16th century. The essential components of modern borscht are cabbage and beets. Cabbage soup is also cooked with sauerkraut, but not always. They can be sourced with sorrel and sour apples.
When asked about the difference between cabbage soup and borscht, most people answer that cabbage soup is light, and borscht is red and is prepared with beets. The process of preparing modern cabbage soup is not much different from borscht, since they are fried in vegetable oil, using tomatoes or tomato paste. Naturally, even without beets, such cabbage soup acquires a red hue. Many housewives do not really go into the intricacies of the recipe of these two soups, considering “red is borscht”. However, borscht takes its name from a plant that has been an obligatory component of this dish since ancient times - hogweed. Therefore, in order to find the true difference between cabbage soup and borscht, you need to delve into the history of their origin.
Borscht is a kind of soup based on … hogweed
According to experts, the information that the word "borsch" in ancient times was called beets is nothing more than a folk etymology. The history of the soup began with the fact that young greens of edible hogweed were put into it. This umbrella plant has more than 40 species, a significant part of which has a decorative purpose or is used as livestock feed. The food was mainly Siberian hogweed. Evidence that the plant itself was popularly called borscht dates back to the 16th century. In some regions it was called borzhovka, borzhavka go bursha. It should be noted that the cow parsnip did not give the soup a red hue.
The place where the hogweed soup was first prepared is not known for certain, but presumably this is the territory of Kievan Rus and the countries surrounding it. Today Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Romania can boast of their subtleties of borscht preparation. It must be said that it was only in the 18th century that borscht with beets began to be cooked, at the same time the number of components in this type of soup increased, which eventually completely supplanted hogweed, leaving only the name. As a rule, all the ingredients were placed in one pot: cabbage, beets, carrots, and later potatoes, were poured with water or diluted beet kvass and sent to the oven.
Rules for cooking real cabbage soup
Cabbage soup belongs to the traditional Russian dishes of the peoples of the Siberian region. The name itself is similar to the Old Russian "eat" - to eat. Cabbage soup and borscht appeared simultaneously (16th century), only in different regions of the country. Therefore, the cooking technology was practically no different, with the exception of the soup components themselves. Nothing was fried, all vegetables were put simultaneously in one pot, and later in a cast iron, and languished in the oven. Cabbage soup was also originally a stew of cabbage, sorrel, turnip, nettle and other edible greens. To make it more satisfying, flour talker was added there.
Both borscht and cabbage soup had a sour taste. If for the preparation of the first beet kvass was used, then in the second case the acid was obtained from sauerkraut, sorrel, broth from Antonov apples or with the help of salted mushrooms. Moreover, sauerkraut was often sent to cast iron along with part of the brine. Unlike borscht, in which cabbage is necessarily put (fresh or salted), cabbage soup can be without it.
The technology of cooking cabbage soup has changed little since then. Only over time, they began to use more spices and excluded flour dressing. Observing the old traditions, some housewives today do not fry vegetables, but prefer to simply boil all the ingredients. Both borscht and cabbage soup can be “rich” and “empty”. The first option involves fatty meat broth, the addition of beans and sour cream. The cabbage soup is sometimes whitened with sour cream mixed with cream.
