There are many types of cabbage soup - rich and empty, green and fish, prefabricated and gray. Gray cabbage soup is made from the lower leaves of cabbage; it is considered a traditional dish of the Vologda region.
Shchi is a national dish of Russian cuisine. Initially, the word "cabbage soup" was pronounced as "shti" and meant a liquid soup made from sorrel, cabbage and other greens.
Shchi is a traditional Russian dish
For a very long time cabbage soup was practically the only hot dish in Russia. They were cooked in a cast iron or clay pot in a Russian oven. This method of cooking made it possible to withstand a mild temperature regime and cook a truly aromatic and tasty soup.
Over the hundreds of years of cabbage soup, only one change was made to their recipe. When Russian cuisine began to experience a strong influence from French chefs, the traditional flour dressing was excluded from the composition.
Variety of recipes
Depending on the variety of foods, cabbage soup could be empty or rich. They were even frozen and taken with them on the road in winter.
Now there are many recipes for this traditional Russian soup. Sauerkraut, potatoes, dry or fresh porcini mushrooms are placed in rich cabbage soup. In empty cabbage soup, the main component is nettle, sorrel and other greens. The combined cabbage soup is cooked in a broth of several types of meat. Fish cabbage soup is boiled from salted fish. Green cabbage soup - from sorrel. Daily cabbage soup is cooked from various products, then slowly cool down for several hours and stand in the cold for 24 hours.
Vologda gray cabbage soup
A special type of cabbage soup is the so-called "gray" cabbage soup. They are made from kroshev. Tiny - these are green cabbage leaves prepared in advance. Leaves for cooking gray cabbage soup are taken from the very bottom of the head of cabbage - they have a dark color and give the finished dish a characteristic color. Such leaves are called crumbly because they are cut in a special way - with a fine cut. Sometimes crumbs are made from the top cabbage leaves. Gray cabbage soup is considered a traditional dish of the Vologda cuisine.
Chopped cabbage leaves are fermented without adding carrots - with only one coarse salt. The juice that is released at the same time is slightly bitter - therefore it is recommended to rinse it crumbly in cold water after fermentation.
Then the cabbage is placed in a cast iron pot and a little water is added. As soon as the soup begins to boil, finely chopped onions and carrots are placed in it, the meat broth is added and boiled meat is added. In some recipes for Vologda cabbage soup, potatoes are also used. Sometimes in Vologda villages a piece of rye bread is put in gray cabbage soup or cabbage is sprinkled with rye flour.
After forty minutes spent in the oven, the cabbage soup comes to readiness - you can serve it to the table!
