When to Put Potatoes in Borscht and How to Make Borscht Rich Red

With mayonnaise or sour cream, with garlic or sausage, under a white soft loaf or a slab of black bread – every eater has his own preferences, how and with what to eat borscht. This dish is a matter of pride for every housewife.

Each family has its own recipe for borsch with its secrets and subtleties, which for the whole life of the family remains the most: delicious, homemade, and familiar. But there are also culinary tricks on how to cook beet borsch without losing color, and if you know in what order to put the vegetables in borsch you do not have to worry about the taste and final appearance of the dish.

What to put first in the borsch – cabbage or potatoes?

A classic recipe of borsch assumes that the cabbage goes to the pot first because it boils for the longest time. Next comes potatoes and sweet bell pepper. The final gastronomic touch is carrots and onions after the tomato paste and sour beets. That’s what it says in most cookbooks.

But there are nuances. If the potatoes are old, and the cabbage on the contrary young, it is better to change the sequence (early cabbage cooks just a couple of minutes). Otherwise, the cabbage will crunch in your teeth, and the potatoes will be boiled.

In addition, some housewives prefer to cook borscht with sauerkraut (sour) cabbage. And the acid slows down the boiling of potatoes. So while the potatoes are boiling, the cabbage will be overcooked. In this case, you should put potatoes first.

Whether you need potatoes in borsch, in general, is a matter of taste: there are gourmands, that do not add this ingredient to borsch at all.

Why borsch loses color

It’s all in the beets. Overcooked beets – that’s the main reason why the borsch turns orange, not red.

How to get a rich color in borscht

There are several ways to make borscht rich red:

• the right choice of beets: use exclusively dark burgundy varieties of the vegetable when cooking borscht;
• temperature shock: cook the beets for about twenty to twenty minutes – then transfer them to a container with ice water, so they will reach readiness and at the same time will not lose their natural pigmentation;
• individual approach: boil the beets, broth and all other ingredients separately. A similar method is to fry the beets and carrots separately so that the colors do not mix;
• preserve the color of the borscht with vinegar or lemon juice: they are sprinkled on the beets during the passivation, and to equalize the taste – it is worth adding a spoonful of sugar to the borscht.