If you know a few secrets when making soups, you can significantly improve their taste.
An important step in the preparation of any soup is a properly cooked broth. If you do not pay due attention to this stage, then the dish will turn out to be unsaturated, insipid, as if something is missing. It is not enough just to put meat in a saucepan and cook until tender, the broth itself should be cooked as a separate dish. Then vegetables, cereals, spices and other ingredients are already filled into it.
The meat set for broth must necessarily include bones and periosteal pulp, it includes muscle, adipose and connective tissues. It is good to mix several types of meat in a set, for example, add chicken backs, wings, necks to the base of beef broth.
The meat and bone set must be thoroughly washed and allowed to drain off the water. To get a rich broth, it is better to dip the meat in cold water and cook it over high heat. After boiling, foam forms, but do not rush to remove it all. Foam is a protein that is released from meat, it nourishes and saturates the broth. It is recommended to remove dark foam, this is the blood released from the meat, which does not carry any benefit or harm, but can significantly spoil the color of the broth, it will become cloudy.
After removing the foam, add onions, carrots, black peppercorns, dill and parsley stalks to enhance the taste. Currently, fresh greens can be bought all year round, as well as prepared for the winter from summer by freezing them. You need to separate the branches of greenery from the stems, then tie them with a thread, so that later it will be easier to remove and throw into the pan. Salt should be added no later than 20 minutes before the end of cooking.
It is recommended to filter the prepared broth after removing bones, meat and vegetables from it. When cut, there may be small fragments in the meat bones, which during cooking may separate from the main bone, and in the bulk of the liquid they are simply difficult to notice.
Various soups are prepared on the basis of ready-made meat broth, adding potatoes, cabbage, noodles, cereals and other ingredients. It is recommended to put the bay leaf 5 minutes before the end of cooking, and after cooling down, remove it from the soup.
To improve the piquancy, you can add fresh garlic squeezed through a press to the cabbage soup and borscht, but only after the soup is removed from the heat. If you add finely chopped greens right away, it will add freshness and color to any dish.
Good to know when preparing first courses:
To increase the volume, you do not need to add cold water, boiling water is better.
To preserve the color, the freshly cooked borscht does not need to be covered with a lid, only after cooling it is closed and put into the refrigerator.
Mushroom soup is salted at the very end, and fish soup at the very beginning.
Dry rice wrapped in cheesecloth will save the dish from salting.
In soups that do not include potatoes according to the recipe, it is recommended to add browned flour to add thickness.
When serving in the first course, you can put sour cream or mayonnaise, as well as chopped greens and croutons. Offering mustard, horseradish, and other savory snacks to eaters will greatly improve the flavor of the soup, and it is possible that a supplement will be required.
