Borscht with vinegar: 7 step-by-step recipes with photos and neutralization of vinegar

To ensure that the borscht always turns out rich, satisfying and tasty, use one old trick - add a little simple vinegar when cooking. It will help preserve the taste and give the dish a bright, appetizing color that will not fade even on the second and subsequent days of storage. How much vinegar should be added and when exactly will be recommended by experienced chefs.

What acetic acid to add to borscht

Any acid is added to the dish. Remember that fruit vinegars give borscht a specific aroma.

Type of vinegar	Peculiarities	What is it used for in borscht?	Price
Apple	Natural acetic acid. The product is obtained by fermenting apple juice.	Gives the dish a sour taste and a pleasant apple aroma.	From 50 to 200 rubles
Table vinegar 9 percent	Synthetic product. It is produced on the basis of artificially produced acetic acid.	Gives a sour taste to the finished dish.	From 20 to 50 rubles
Balsamic	Synthetic product. It is produced on the basis of artificially produced acetic acid.	Gives a sour taste to the finished dish.	From 20 to 50 rubles
Balsamic	It is made from unclarified freshly squeezed grape juice (the so-called must), obtained by pressing.	Gives the finished dish sourness and a pleasant aroma of grapes, softens the taste.	From 200 to 1000 rubles
Wine	It is made by oxidizing wine, that is, at the fermentation stage, air is introduced into the wine and as a result, after sixty days, wine vinegar is obtained.	Gives borscht a sour taste and a pleasant fruity aroma.	From 50 to 400 rubles
Grape	For production, grape cake is used, to which water and granulated sugar are added.	Gives the finished dish sourness and a pleasant aroma of grapes.	From 100 to 250 rubles

The preservative is added not only to borscht, but also to prepare many dishes and season snacks. Instant marinated mackerel with onions and vinegar is very popular among Russians.

Table vinegar is most often used for borscht

Adviсe

It is recommended to cook borscht in a large enamel pan with thick walls.
There are no exact proportions in preparing borscht. Each housewife chooses the ingredients and their quantity depending on the family’s taste preferences. After all, some people like thick and rich soup, while others like it more liquid and transparent.
It is better to place chopped greens immediately before serving, already on a plate. So it will be fragrant and will not wither.
The next day, the infused borscht will be even tastier. Don't forget to put the soup in the refrigerator after it has cooled completely.
When preparing borscht with vinegar, it is important to consider whether this ingredient is present in other ingredients, for example, in tomato paste. If you overdo it with acid, you can end up with a soup that is too sour and tasteless.

Try different options: with vinegar, with citric acid or juice, with tomato paste or without acid at all. Through experience, you will choose the most delicious option for you and your family. And also remember that acid must be added to the frying, but not to the broth itself.

Ingredients

Recipe for classic borscht with acetic acid

The classic borscht recipe is the most popular. A minimum of ingredients and 1 hour, and a delicious first course will appear on your table. Use 6 or 9 percent acid.

Ingredients:

meat - 400 g;
cabbage - 300 g;
potatoes - 3 pcs;
carrots - 2 pcs;
beets - 1-2 pcs;
water - 3 l;
vinegar - 2 tbsp;
butter - 30 g;
sugar - 1 tbsp;
salt, herbs - to taste.

Cooking instructions:

Cut the meat into small pieces.
Bring the water to a boil. Add chopped meat. Cook over medium heat.
Grate the carrots and beets on a coarse grater. Next, you need to fry the chopped vegetables in butter for 5 minutes.
Add vinegar and sugar to the beets and carrots. Mix the vegetables well and cover the pan with a lid. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.
Peel and finely chop the potatoes. Add to the pan once the meat is cooked.
Shred the cabbage. Add it to the broth along with the sautéed vegetables. Mix the ingredients well.
After 8-10 minutes, add 2-3 bay leaves, salt and herbs.

Calories:

100 g of dish contains 57.7 kcal.

Author's note

Agapov Vladislav

It is necessary to add vinegar when cooking beets, otherwise they will lose their rich color.

See how to quickly cook borscht:

Some nuances

So, we know when to add vinegar to borscht, how much of it is needed and what this ingredient is needed for. Sometimes questions arise: “If there is no vinegar in the kitchen, there is no time to run to the store. What to do?" Chefs say that vinegar essence can be replaced with regular lemon juice. Again, add a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice per liter of water to the dish.

If you are in doubt whether to add vinegar to borscht, you can use citric acid. It will also retain color and add sourness to the dish. It must be added, as they say, “at the tip of the knife.” It is much more concentrated than lemon juice, so tablespoons have no use here. Sprinkle half a teaspoon into a large saucepan, add a teaspoon of sugar, and you've got a vinegar substitute.

Remember, when you add vinegar to borscht, be sure to consider: whether you use tomato paste with vinegar, or whether you add canned tomatoes with acid to the soup. Read the ingredients of the products. If they already contain vinegar, then try to reduce the amount of the ingredient in the pan with beets.

And one last thing. Whether other housewives add vinegar to borscht, and whether you will do it, practice will show. But remember, it is added to the roasted beets, and not to the pan itself!

In Ukraine, the main and most delicious first course is considered to be borscht, which has long gone beyond the borders of this country and simply captivated us with its delicious taste and aroma. But not only in Ukraine and Russia people love first courses with beets as the main ingredient; Poland and Lithuania, Romania and many other countries are not far behind. What is it about borscht that captivates even the most fastidious gourmets? This includes excellent satiety, a bright red color, and, of course, the taste of the dish.

However, many young housewives, when they first try to cook this seemingly simple dish, are faced with many questions. After all, there is a need to observe the correct placement of vegetables and the preparation of delicious broth. Problems also arise with questions about the fact that beets often lose their rich color, when and how much vinegar and sugar, tomato paste should be added to borscht, and why this should be done in general. How to deal with all this and avoid mistakes? This is exactly what our article will discuss.

Recipe for cold borscht with acetic acid

Cold borscht is a vegetable dish that does not contain meat. Add sausage if desired. Cucumbers and eggs are considered mandatory ingredients for cold soup.

Do you always cook borscht with meat broth?

Not really

Ingredients:

beets - 3 pcs;
eggs - 3 pcs;
cucumbers - 3 pcs;
sour cream - 150 ml;
acetic acid - 1 tbsp;
mustard - 2 tsp;
sugar - 1 tbsp;
water - 2 l;
salt, herbs - to taste.

Cooking instructions:

Boil the beets and cool. Chop the vegetable using a knife or grater.
Boil water, add salt, sugar and acetic acid. After boiling, add beets.
After 20 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and wait until the broth has cooled.
Cut cucumbers and greens. Add the crushed ingredients to the cooled beet broth. Place the mixture in the refrigerator to cool for 1 hour.
During this time, boil the eggs, cool them, and then chop them.
Mix sour cream with mustard.
Remove the borscht from the refrigerator and pour it into bowls. Add eggs and season the dish with sour cream and mustard sauce.

Calories:

100 g of dish contains 45.7 kcal.

Cold borscht is stored in jars in a cool place and used as a dish in winter. It can be an excellent alternative to pickled cucumbers with vinegar.

The shelf life of borscht in a jar is 1 year.

Garlic dumplings

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 200 g
Rye flour - 120 g
Milk – 200 ml
Eggs - 2 pcs.
Yeast - 7 g
Vegetable oil - 50 ml
Sugar - 1 tsp.
Flax seeds - 50 g
Garlic - 4 cloves
Salt - a pinch

How to cook:

Warm milk to room temperature. Add dry yeast, stir.
Add sugar, 1 egg, vegetable oil, a little sifted flour and flax seeds. Mix.
Add the remaining flour, knead the dough and leave it to rise for 1 hour.
Place on the table and let rise for another 1 hour, covering with a towel.
Make 7-8 round donuts, brush the tops of the buns with yolk and bake for 20 minutes at 180°C.
Grease the still hot pampushki with crushed garlic mixed with a small amount of vegetable oil, salt and water.

Recipe for borscht with chicken and vinegar

Chicken broth cooks faster. This is the main advantage of the chicken borscht recipe.

Ingredients:

chicken meat - 400 g;
beets - 2 pcs;
carrots - 1 piece;
onion - 1 piece;
cabbage - 200 g;
garlic - 2 cloves;
potatoes - 2 pcs;
salt, pepper, herbs - to taste;
tomato paste - 1 tbsp;
sugar - 1 tsp;
acetic acid 9% - 1 tbsp;
vegetable oil - 2 tbsp.

Cooking instructions:

Rinse the chicken thoroughly. Cut into small pieces.
Pour water into the pan, add the meat and place the dish on the fire.
Wait for the broth to boil. At this time, chop the cabbage and grate the carrots.
Chop the onion.
Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes.
After cutting off a layer of peel, grate the raw beets on a coarse grater.
When the broth boils, add potatoes to it.
Place the frying pan on gas. Once it is hot, add vegetable oil.
Place the carrots and onions in the pan and mix thoroughly.
After boiling the broth with potatoes, add some of the grated beets and cabbage.
Add the second part to the pan, mix thoroughly again.
Add vinegar and sugar to sautéed vegetables. Mix the vegetables and spices thoroughly.
After the broth boils again, add the sautéed vegetables. Salt the dish to your taste.

Calories:

100 g of the finished dish contains 45.7 kcal.

Do you add garlic to borscht?

Not really

Borscht with vinegar and sugar not only has sourness, but also a pleasant sweetish taste.

Borscht with chicken takes no more than an hour to prepare

Don't forget the cabbage

Many people call borscht beetroot soup. In fact, these are different soups. Borscht has cabbage, but beetroot soup does not. Most often, fresh white cabbage shredded into strips is used for borscht. But there may be variations on the theme. For example, you can put red cabbage or savoy cabbage in a pan - it looks similar to white cabbage, but has a bright green color and corrugated, bubbly leaves. There are even versions of borscht with cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, but with them you still get a soup that is far from the classic one. Some people like to add sauerkraut instead of fresh cabbage. It must be washed, chopped, simmered separately until soft and only then added to the borscht.

Recipe for borscht with pork meat and acetic acid

Ingredients:

pork - 300-400 g;
cabbage - 0.5 heads;
potatoes - 3-4 pcs;
beets - 1 piece;
onion - 1 piece;
carrots - 1 piece;
vegetable oil - 2 tbsp;
water - 3 l;
salt, pepper, herbs - to taste.

Cooking instructions:

Rinse the meat thoroughly, dry and cut into small pieces.
Pour water into the pan, add the meat product and turn on the gas.
Cook the broth over medium heat for 1 hour 20 minutes. Watch for foam that appears during cooking. Remove it as it forms.
While the broth is preparing, peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes.
When the broth boils, add potatoes to it.
Shred the cabbage. Peel the onions and chop them.
Wash the carrots thoroughly under running water and chop them using a grater or knife.
As soon as the broth boils again, add cabbage to it.
Place the frying pan on gas. Let it warm up.
Pour oil into a bowl, add chopped carrots and onions.
Peel the beets and grate them on a coarse grater.
Place the sautéed vegetables in a separate bowl.
Place the beets in the pan and add the acid. You need to sauté the vegetable until it becomes softer.
Add beets to the boiling broth. After a few minutes, add the sautéed vegetables into the soup. Add salt and spices to taste.
Finely chop the greens and add them to the borscht 2 minutes before the end of cooking.

Calories:

100 g of the finished product contains 45.7 kcal.

Marinated fish in vinegar is no less tasty. During cooking, you don’t have to worry about overdoing it with preservatives.

See how to properly cook a dish with acid:

Lush, rosy donuts

We say “borscht”, and the word “pampushka” comes to mind! Pampushka is a round bun made from yeast dough. It is better to start cooking it immediately after you set the broth to cook, because the yeast dough must rise properly and have time to bake. Water, egg, salt, sugar, vegetable oil, yeast, flour - the ingredients for buns are simple. When the dough has risen, roll into balls and place them on a baking sheet, but remember that the donuts will rise during baking. If you want perfectly rounded buns, place them at a decent distance from each other. However, even if they stick together, they can be separated while hot and poured with garlic dressing. For dressing, take vegetable oil, crushed garlic, chopped dill with parsley and a little water. Mix everything and pour onto freshly baked plump donuts.

Recipe for borscht with beef and acetic acid

Beef broth takes longer to cook. It will take at least 2.5 hours for the meat to become soft and the broth rich.

Ingredients:

beef - 300 g;
cabbage - 200 g;
beets - 1 piece;
tomato - 1 piece;
onion - 1 piece;
potatoes - 2-3 pcs;
garlic - 1 clove;
vegetable oil - 1 tbsp;
water - 2 l;
sour cream - 100 g.

Cooking instructions:

Rinse the meat thoroughly and cut it.
Pour water into a saucepan and place it on the fire. After boiling, add meat to it.
Peel the beets and grate them on a coarse grater. Add it to the boiling broth.
Finely chop the peeled onion. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater or chop them with a knife.
Pour vegetable oil into a heated frying pan and add vegetables.
Wash the tomato, cut into small pieces and add to the sautéed vegetables. Simmer for 5-7 minutes.
Peel the garlic and chop it. Add to sautéed vegetables.
Cut the pre-peeled potatoes into cubes and place in boiling broth.
Shred the cabbage and add to the soup.
After 10 minutes, add the sautéed vegetables. Salt the dish to taste.
2-3 minutes before the end of cooking, sprinkle the borscht with chopped herbs.
Pour the dish into bowls and add sour cream. Bon appetit!

As an additional dish to your dinner, use mushrooms with vinegar and garlic.

Beef borscht takes at least 3 hours to cook

Savory couple: onion and carrot

Nutritionists are against all sorts of sautés that add calories to the dish. But if we speak from the point of view of taste and gastronomic rules, then borscht without sautéing is not borscht. First, fry the onion into strips in vegetable oil, then add the carrots cut into strips. When the vegetables acquire a golden hue, add tomato paste and simmer everything together for a few more minutes. Some housewives believe that it is better to use tomatoes instead of pasta - fresh or in their own juice. Nevertheless, many professional chefs insist: only paste has the concentrated taste that is so necessary for the soup, which will give the borscht a beautiful color and pleasant sourness.

Recipe for borscht with vinegar without cabbage

Cabbage is one of the main ingredients of borscht. But without this vegetable you can prepare an equally tasty first course.

Do you cook borscht without cabbage?

Not really

Ingredients:

meat - 400 g;
water - 3 l.;
potatoes - 3-4 pcs.;
carrots - 1 pc.;
beets - 1 pc.;
onion - 1 pc.;
tomato - 1 pc.;
garlic - 2 cloves;
apple cider vinegar - 1 tbsp;
vegetable oil - 2 tbsp;
salt, pepper, herbs - to taste.

Cooking instructions:

Rinse the meat thoroughly under running water. Cut it into small pieces.
Pour water into the pan and put it on gas. Once boiling, add the meat.
While the broth is cooking, peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes.
Add it to boiling water.
Peel the onion and chop finely. Wash the carrots and grate them on a coarse grater.
Pour vegetable oil into a heated frying pan and add chopped vegetables to sauté.
Peel the beets and grate them. If desired, cut it into strips.
Add the sautéed vegetables to the boiling broth.
Place the chopped beets into the pan. Wash the tomato and cut it into pieces. Place in the pan with the beets.
Add vinegar to sautéed vegetables and mix thoroughly.
Place the beets and tomatoes into the boiling broth. Salt the dish to taste.

Calories:

100 g of the finished dish contains 50 kcal.

See how to cook borscht without cabbage:

With or without broth?

For vegetarian borscht, meat broth is not needed. But, if you are a fan of classic soup, then you need to prepare a rich broth. For it, you can take beef brisket, chicken or pork and beef in a 1:1 ratio. It is better to pre-fry the pieces of meat for flavor. Or immediately put the meat on the bones in cold water and put it on fire. As soon as it boils, remove the foam, add salt, bay leaf, a few peas of black and allspice and cook for 2-3 hours until the meat is completely cooked. Then you need to strain the broth, remove the meat from the bones, chop it and return it back to the pan.

Recipe for borscht with vinegar and tomato paste

Tomato paste will replace tomatoes. At the same time, the taste of classic dishes will remain unchanged.

Ingredients:

meat - 300-400 g;
cabbage - 500 g;
potatoes - 3-4 pcs.;
white onion - 1 pc.;
tomato paste - 3 tbsp;
beets - 1 pc.;
balsamic vinegar - 1 tbsp;
vegetable oil - 2 tbsp;
garlic - 1 clove;
salt, pepper, herbs - to taste.

Cooking instructions:

Rinse the meat under running water, dry and cut into small pieces.
Pour water into the pan and put it on the fire. After boiling, add meat.
Peel the potatoes and chop them. Place it in boiling broth.
Shred the cabbage and add it to the pan.
Wash the carrots and grate them on a coarse grater. Chop the peeled onion.
Pour vegetable oil into a heated frying pan. Place the vegetables and saute them for 5-7 minutes.
Peel the beets and grate them on a coarse grater.
Add the sautéed vegetables to the boiling broth.
Place the grated beets in the pan. Continue simmering for 5 minutes.
After the specified time, add tomato paste, garlic and acid, mix thoroughly.
Place the sautéed beets into the broth.
2-3 minutes before the end of cooking, add chopped herbs, pepper and salt to taste to the borscht.

Calairity:

100 g of the finished dish contains 45 kcal.

Tomato paste will not change the taste of borscht

Who's first in line?

Borscht, like most other soups beloved by Russians, is a filling first course. It is in the West that they prefer pureed soups, but we should have a broth in which various tasty additives float. In order for these additives to be harmoniously combined with each other and to obtain the correct consistency (and not when one product is overcooked and the other crunches on the teeth), it is necessary to observe the correct seasoning of the soup.

The first thing to go into the pan is shredded cabbage; it takes longer to cook than others. Then - sweet peppers and potatoes. At the very end, you need to add sautéed onions, carrots and tomato paste into the borscht, and finally, ready-made sour beets. After this, cook the soup for no more than 5 minutes. If you cook borscht with sauerkraut, you should also add it at the end. If you add sour beets or cabbage first, and then potatoes, the latter will take a very long time to cook (the acid will interfere).

How to remove acid

Use carrots if you have not added this vegetable yet or if the quantity in the borscht is not large. It has a sweet taste, so it can partially neutralize the acid in a dish.

Wash the carrots and grate them on a coarse grater. Heat a frying pan, pour 1 tbsp. vegetable oil and add chopped vegetables. Add a small amount of water. Saute the carrots until they are soft, 6-8 minutes. Place the vegetable in the borscht along with the liquid formed during stewing. The taste of the dish will noticeably improve.

Do you add stewed carrots to borscht?

Not really

Boiled eggs will also help break up the acid. To do this, boil them and peel them. Cut them into small cubes or into quarters, then add them to the soup shortly before the end of cooking. The number of eggs needed depends on the volume of the pan. For 3 liters of water you will need 3 eggs.

Most often, sugar is used to get rid of acid. 1-2 tbsp is enough to neutralize the vinegar and make the taste of the dish brighter and richer.

If the previous methods did not help, use boiled water. Pour the dish into a larger saucepan and add liquid until the acid is completely neutralized.

Salt will help extinguish excessive acidity. 2 tbsp. The substances must be diluted in a glass of boiled water. The resulting mixture must be added to the broth.

Soda will help correct the taste of borscht. However, be careful if you decide to add it to a dish. ⅓ tsp is enough to knock down the acid. If you add more, the taste of the soup will be hopelessly spoiled.

See how to remove excess acid: