Borsch”, “Borshch”, and “Borsht” redirect here. In North America, borscht is often linked with either Jews or Mennonites, the groups who borscht with bacon brought it there from Europe. East Slavic languages, such as Ukrainian.

North America by Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe. Depending on the recipe, some of these components may be omitted or substituted. The stock is typically made by boiling meat, bones, or both. The vegetables most commonly added to borscht are beetroots, white cabbage, carrots, parsley root, potatoes, onions and tomatoes. Potatoes and cabbage are boiled in the stock for about 15 minutes before the precooked vegetables are added. 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.

The dominant tastes in borscht are sweet and sour. This combination is traditionally obtained by adding beet sour. Apart from its employment in borscht, it may be also added to prepared horseradish or used as pot roast marinade. As the traditional method of making borscht with beet sour often requires planning at least several days ahead, many recipes for quicker borscht replace the beet sour with fresh beetroot juice, while the sour taste is imparted by other ingredients. Many regional recipes for borscht have also developed in Russian cuisine.

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. 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. Ashkenazi Jews living in Eastern Europe adopted beetroot borscht from their Slavic neighbors and adapted it to their taste and religious requirements. Lithuanian cold soup”, blended with sour cream or yogurt, and sprinkled with chives, as served in Poland. In the summertime, cold borscht is a popular alternative to the aforementioned variants, which are normally served hot.

It consists of beet sour or beet juice blended with sour cream, buttermilk, soured milk, kefir or yogurt. The mixture has a distinctive pink or magenta color. This soup was known in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which comprised the territories of modern-day Lithuania and Belarus, and it is still part of the culinary traditions of these and neighboring nations. In Lithuanian, it is known as Šaltibarščiai. Coated” dressed herring salad resembles Šaltibarščiai cold borsht as well, despite not being a soup. The similarity includes strong color from using beets, similar choice of vegetables, and the “decorative” addition of boiled eggs.