Borscht is very mysterious and unusual dish, the methods of preparation of which are still controversial. In different Slavic countries, borscht is cooked in their own way - with sausages, smoked meats, fish, horseradish, zucchini, beans and even apples. Every family has its own secrets delicious borscht, which are passed on from generation to generation, but one thing remains unchanged - love for this amazingly tasty dish, which is impossible to resist. small children also love, so in cookbooks for newborns, there are tips and tricks for making this soup for babies. Now borscht has become almost an international dish, and if you want to please your family with borscht, choose any recipe - Ukrainian with donuts, Moldavian with chicken, Old Lithuanian with mushrooms and kohlrabi, Polish with bread kvass or Siberian with meatballs. Borscht has always been a symbol of home warmth and comfort, so it is important that it be tasty and aromatic.

Borscht starts with broth

Borscht is usually cooked on strong meat broth good beef, pork, or chicken, and if you choose to use beef, go for the brisket as it is softer and more juicy. Some housewives add lamb bones to the broth to make the soup more rich, others cook borscht with duck, goose and rabbit, others get by with minced meat and stew, and some manage to cook vegetarian option the present Ukrainian borscht... If you are making broth, cook it for as long as possible to make it richer. Bones are boiled for 5-6 hours, and meat - about 2.5 hours, just remember to skim off the foam. During the cooking process, you can add onions, carrots, celery and a bunch of greens to the meat to enrich the flavor of the broth. After the end of cooking, the vegetables are removed from the pan, the broth is filtered, the meat is separated from the bones, cut into pieces and added to the broth, sometimes with ham, sausages and homemade sausage.

How to make delicious red borscht

After the broth has been cooked, it's time to put beets in it - it is the presence of beets that distinguishes real borscht from other first courses. Exception - green borsch, which can be cooked with or without beets, with the addition of sorrel, spinach, nettle and wild garlic.

Raw finely chopped beets can be added to the broth long before the meat is cooked, or by boiling them in the peel and cutting into pieces, put them in the soup at any stage of cooking the borscht. You can put half a teaspoon of sugar in a saucepan with the beets for a pleasant sweetness. Boiled beets are also stewed with carrots, onions, tomatoes or tomato paste- it turns out a delicious dressing. You can use pickled or sauerkraut, beet brine or tops. Czech housewives let the beets ferment a little in warm water, and in the villages, beets are insisted on kvass. To enhance the red color, a little lemon juice or beet extract is added to the borscht, which is obtained after boiled or raw beets passed through a juicer. However, for this purpose, you can add to the soup and beet infusion. There is a rule - beet borscht you will not spoil!

Tricks with vegetables when cooking borsch

If the chopped onion is put into the broth immediately after the beets, by the end of cooking the borscht it will be so boiled that it will be invisible in the soup, but it will give it spicy taste and aroma. Carrots are introduced into the broth a little later, cut into strips, and then potatoes are sent to the pan - while it is better to put a couple of tubers in the soup whole. Carrots and onions are added to borscht either raw, or with preliminary stewing or frying, and whole boiled potatoes can be overheated or additionally added to liquid mashed potatoes to make the borscht thicker.

At the end of cooking, you can do cabbage by chopping it finely and adding it to the borscht, although some housewives introduce cabbage right after the beets. Additionally, you can add zucchini to borscht, fresh or canned beans, bell peppers, apples, pea pods, turnips and corn - the choice of product depends on the recipe and the taste of the eaters. Do not neglect spices, use dried dill, parsley, roots, garlic, black pepper, cilantro, marjoram and fresh ginger... AND finishing touches- tomato paste added directly to a saucepan with borscht or tomatoes chopped in a blender with previously peeled skin.

Secrets of cooking borscht with fried

Frying makes fragrant, rich, bright, since fried vegetables have more pleasant taste... Frying is simple - carrots and onions are fried until golden brown in lard or in oil, and then tomato paste or fresh tomatoes are added to the pan. You can first fry the onion with a little flour until it becomes creamy, and only then add the chopped carrots, bell peppers and boiled beets... In the process of frying vegetables, you can and should add water to Vegetable mix not burnt, at this stage many introduce vinegar into vegetables or lemon juice, for piquancy, you can add sugar and garlic.

Modern culinary traditions are aimed at making the cooking process as simple as possible, and many housewives are mastering recipes on how to cook borscht in a slow cooker in order to feed the family delicious food in record time. But sometimes you want to devote the whole day to cooking dinner and slowly cook broth, chop and fry vegetables, experiment with products, choose aromatic spices and let the borscht brew for half an hour, as it should be. Don't be surprised if the saucepan is empty by the end of the weekend, and don't spare the sour cream for the dressing. And this miracle can be served not only with donuts, but also with any delicious bread... In the old days, they knew that if there is borscht in the house, the household will not rest until it is eaten. As the people said, "where there is borscht, look for us there too."

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Professional chefs carefully keep their secrets and share them only with their students. However, some of their secret knowledge still manages to find out.

site has collected for you the secrets of chefs from around the world to help you learn how to cook like Gordon Ramsay. Or better. And at the very end, perhaps the most unusual awaits you. culinary advice that you have ever heard.

1. Perfect steak

Never fry meat that has just been removed from the refrigerator. Leave it at room temperature for an hour or two - it will "warm up" and during cooking it will be fried evenly, thanks to which you will cook perfect steak no matter what kind of roast you prefer. And to get beautiful crust, be sure to blot the meat before frying with a paper towel.

2. The most juicy meat

Chicken or lean pork takes a long time to grill, and it is very easy to dry them out. To avoid this, European chefs resort to a clever trick - soaking in brine. It is very simple to make a brine: in 1 liter of water you need to add 1/4 cup of salt and, if desired, 1/2 cup of sugar, then pour the meat over it so that the piece is completely immersed in it, and send it to the refrigerator.

Salting time depends on the weight of the product - 1 hour per 1 kg of weight, but not more than 8 hours and not less than half an hour. Also, when it comes to small pieces like chicken thighs, then the time is calculated based on the average weight of one piece. Remember to remove any salt residues from the meat before cooking.

3. Fragrant spices

In order for a spice, such as black pepper or cumin, to fully give its taste to the dish, it must be warmed up in a dry frying pan and then crushed. It is best to do this in a stone mortar - this way you will not lose a single drop of its wonderful aroma. Try replacing ground black pepper with peas - crush it, add it to the dish, and you will notice how many shades will add to the usual taste.

4. Airy baked goods

To prepare the perfect butter dough, follow just one simple rule: leave the butter and eggs at room temperature overnight.

5. Fish with a crispy crust

To obtain appetizing crust on the piece of white fish that you are going to grill, lightly brush the fillet with mayonnaise. To do this, take a cooking brush, dip the tip in the sauce and apply it to the fish in a few quick strokes. After that, salt the fish and boldly put it on the grill - a magnificent crispy thin crust is guaranteed to you.

And further. Fry fish with a minimum of spices, or better, use only salt and sprinkle it with a little lemon juice at the very end.

6. Steak without butter

One of the most famous chefs in the world Alain Ducasse revealed his secret of cooking delicious steak... When frying, he first of all puts the piece in the pan with the side where the layer of fat passes. This will not only make the meat tastier, but it will also save you the hassle of using any other cooking oil.

7. Delicate mashed potatoes

Before turning boiled potatoes in mashed potatoes, it must be thoroughly dried. To do this, throw it dry. hot skillet and hold there until the remaining water evaporates - the main thing is that the tubers do not begin to fry. And only then start making mashed potatoes - this way you will get a very delicate and delicious dish.

Little secret: to prevent hot milk from sprinkling directly on you when mashed, crush the potatoes a little and only then add the liquid.

8. Gourmet puree soup

Before you start cooking vegetable puree soup, separately fry all vegetables in a pan with vegetable oil and only then add water or broth. This caramelizes the sugar in the vegetables, reveals their taste and makes the dish rich and aromatic. The same goes for vegetable stews, by the way.

9. The most delicious pancakes

Regardless of the recipe, always add a couple tablespoons of good sour cream to the pancake batter. This technique works in all cases, without exception, whether you cook sweet pancakes or savory ones - they turn out to be much softer and tastier, and when wrapped, the fillings do not break.

10. Sugar is not for sweetness

Sugar can be the same seasoning as salt. Be sure to add a pinch of sugar to any dish that contains fresh, canned tomatoes or tomato paste - this will remove their natural acid a little and allow you to truly reveal the taste of the dish.

11. The most difficult dish is flawless fried eggs.

The three main ingredients for a perfect fried egg are thick-walled pan, butter and minimum temperature. Preheat the skillet slightly and add about 0.5 tsp. butter- it should melt slowly, without hissing. Then break an egg into a skillet and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Salt and you can start your meal.

12. Clear broth

Transparent chicken broth is the basis for huge amount soups, sauces and other dishes. To make the broth "glassy", you need to use soup chicken and cook over very low heat without a lid for at least 3 hours, in no case allowing it to boil and removing the slightest foam in time. After an hour and a half of cooking, you can put parsley or celery root, carrots and onions in the broth.

But when preparing broth from beef or lamb, the root vegetables can be "charred": cut them in half and put on a dry hot frying pan until a black crust forms, and then send them into the broth - this will add to the dish rich taste and color.

13. Crunchy crust

When baking homemade bread most often difficulties arise with the crust: it remains too pale, then it literally turns into stone. The solution to the problem is very simple: put a container with a small amount of water in the oven. The steam will do its job - the crust will be nice, crispy and not hard.

14. Fry onions properly

Place the pan on medium fire, warm it up, add creamy and vegetable oil and put the chopped onion along with the salt. Salt will perform several tasks at once: it will get rid of bad smell, will help the onion cook faster and caramelize it, giving it a little sweetish aroma... You can fry onions and only in butter, and so that it does not darken during heating, use ghee.

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Sometimes you cook according to the same recipe as the cook from the restaurant, but for some reason he makes a steak, and I have a sole. So you have to constantly learn to finally become perfect in the kitchen.

site reveals several secrets of chefs about how to cook deliciously, quickly and conveniently.

1. Do not flip the meat too often - this will lose the crispness and dry meat as all the juice will drain into the pan. How do you know when it's time to turn a cutlet or chop? Chatting the pan, if the meat "rides" on it, then it's time.
2. Fry food on olive oil cold pressed big mistake: on high temperature it starts to "burn", making the dish less useful and tasty.

1. Spoiled eggs float in the water, there are absolutely no such things. Fresh egg keeps at the bottom of the container. If the egg is in the middle, it means that it is about two to three weeks old, but it is suitable for food.
2. It is wrong to eat freshly cooked meat - everyone meat dish it is necessary to "walk" a few minutes after cooking.

1. It is convenient and tasty to get fish cooked on the grill on slices of lemon - nothing gets inside, and the dish is saturated with the aroma of citrus.
2. To prevent the greens from sticking to the knife, you need to sprinkle a little salt on it.

1. If you urgently need soft butter (for sandwiches), and you just took it out of the freezer, there is next recipe: put a glass of water in the microwave, warm it up. Pour off the water, cover with a warm glass, and after a couple of minutes it will become soft.
2. Opened wine can actually last a couple of days with the cap closed and upright, but not longer.

1. A common mistake is to put too much in one pan. If you want juicy meat instead of dry meat, try leaving some space between the pieces.
2. When baking something in the oven, sprinkle with grated cheese 5 minutes before cooking, otherwise it will burn and instead of a stretching topping, a crust may turn out that cannot be chewed.

1. To cutting board does not slip - place a tea towel under it.
2. Only use in mashed potatoes warm milk... From cold it becomes a terrible gray.

1. If you need a large number of hard-boiled eggs (for several salads, for example) - cooking them in the oven will be faster and more convenient than in a saucepan.
2. If you run out of mayonnaise, and it is urgently needed, you can simply beat 1 egg and 150 ml of olive oil in a blender.

Red borscht - traditional Ukrainian dish... All housewives prepare it according to their own recipe, proven over the years. That is why the most various options cooking borscht. With or without meat, with chopped or grated vegetables, with tomato paste or with fresh tomatoes... Regardless of how you prepare this dish, find out the secrets of making delicious borscht that you may not have known about. They will help make the borscht rich and tasty.

1. Red beans... If you haven't added this leguminous plant to red borscht yet, start doing it. Beans don't just saturate the dish more bright taste, but also has a number of undeniable advantages. It contains many vitamins and minerals, it strengthens the immune system and has a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular and nervous system... Moreover, it is often used as dietary product, thanks to the leanness and long-term saturation. You can use both canned beans and regular beans, pre-soaked in water. will become not only tasty, but also more satisfying and healthy.

2.Abundance of spices... Many people think that spices are superfluous in borscht, but this is not the case. It is the spices that add a special piquancy to this dish. Depending on the season, you can use fresh or dried spices. V summer season add fresh dill, parsley, finely chopped young garlic and any fresh herbs according to your taste. Moreover, this must be done at the very end of cooking - about 5 minutes before removing the pan from the heat. In winter, you can use chopped and dried herbs, mixtures ground peppers, and even bouillon cube, which will add a special piquancy to the dish.

3.Mandatory details... No matter how tasty your borscht turns out, do not steal yourself and do not limit yourself to just a piece of bread in a bite. Everyone has long known products, without which borscht is not so tasty. These are donuts with garlic and sour cream. If you don't have time to bake donuts at home, you can buy them at any bakery. Garlic on donuts is in harmony with the ingredients of borscht, and they merge into one a complete dish... It is better to add homemade sour cream, medium fat. Then you will feel the taste of childhood - granny's village borscht. But if this is not possible, an ordinary one bought in a store will do. Sour cream with its creamy texture softens the spicy borscht, and it becomes especially tender and tasty.

Soup is one of the main first courses, with which lunch is sure to start. Soups are not only delicious but also extremely healthy. It is not for nothing that doctors recommend to sick and weakened people chicken broth and light chicken soups. And hot homemade noodles acts as an antipyretic agent. All soups are good, and to make them successful, let's try to reveal the secrets of their preparation.

Secrets delicious soup

… Food should only be placed in boiling water. Cold water contains enzymes that cause the oxidation of vitamin C and other substances.

… Do not put all the food in the pot at once. Otherwise, some of them will have time to be digested, while others will remain raw. The sequence of laying is as follows: first, put fresh cabbage, cook for 5-10 minutes, then potatoes, browned vegetables - at the very end of cooking. After laying each product, the soup should boil.

… All vegetables for the first courses should be cut only with a sharpened knife. The use of blunt knives leads to a large loss of juice, which changes taste qualities and nutritional value products.

… The vegetables for the soup are cut according to the size and shape of the rest of the food.

For soups with noodles - straws, with pasta - sticks, with curly pasta - stars and circles, with legumes - cubes, with cereals - small crumbs... During boiling, vegetables retain their shape better, and the soup turns out to be beautiful.

… Always salt the soup at the end of cooking, if you salt the soup while the food is still hard, there is a chance to oversalt it.

… The soup should be cooked, avoiding boiling, over low heat. After bringing the soup to readiness, you need to let it stand for about 10 minutes. This will greatly improve its taste.

... Do not add to chicken soup celery, onion, Bay leaf and other spices, as they will only drown out the aroma of the broth.

…To vegetable broth turned out transparent, put the onion head in it immediately, and after 30 minutes remove it. Gather parsley, celery, dill in a bunch, put in soup for 10-15 minutes. The broth will be fragrant.

… Pea soup is especially tasty when cooked with smoked meats. It is best to cook the broth with smoked pork ribs... Or you can 10 minutes before the end of cooking pea soup put into it smoked sausage cut into cubes.

…To mushroom soup did not spoil quickly, you can add 1-2 slices of lemon or ¼ teaspoons to it citric acid.

Because pasta poorly boiled in milk, it is better to first boil them in water until half cooked, and then boil them in milk.

... When cooking sorrel soup or green cabbage soup, many add whipped a raw egg but not everyone likes it.
It will turn out very tasty and beautiful if the eggs are boiled separately, and then cut into cubes. Everyone can add as many eggs to their plate as they like.

... Try 20 minutes before the end of cooking cabbage soup to add a couple of peeled from seeds bell peppers completely, and then, turning off the stove, remove them. Pepper will add cabbage soup special taste.

If the cabbage soup is sauerkraut, then you need to salt them after the cabbage is cooked. Otherwise, the cabbage soup can be oversalted.

... When cooking pickle, do not spare onions and carrots. Saute these vegetables a lot, but do not overdo it so that the broth does not turn out to be thick. It is better not to cut cucumbers into cubes, but to grate them. Potatoes must be added to the pickle before pickles, otherwise they will remain tough.

... If you are cooking vegetable broth, then do not rush to lay all the products at once. Part of the potatoes, carrots, beets, celery can be lightly fried in vegetable oil, then they will not boil.

... If the soup is cooked in meat broth, we take into account some of the nuances:

You need to lay meat in cold water.

During cooking, you need to periodically remove the fat and foam.

At the end of cooking, the broth must be filtered.

Soup dressing secrets

Some housewives prefer to season soups with flour, believing that such a soup is much more aromatic than usual. Well that's true if done right.

... For dressing, use fried (with or without fat) flour. In this case, it loses its characteristic damp smell and taste and gains pleasant aroma.

… If the flour is fried with fat, then it must be cooled, mixed with a small amount of cold broth and added to the soup 10-15 minutes before the end of cooking.

... If the flour is fried without fat, then you need to add a little broth to the pan, bring to a boil with continuous stirring, and then combine with the soup.

... For seasoning soups, you can use eggs or egg yolks mixed with sour cream or milk. After adding the eggs, do not boil the soup, otherwise the eggs will curl.

... You can fill soup, cabbage soup or borscht with potatoes boiled in the broth whole, and then mashed.

…Delicious dressing- sautéed vegetables. It is better to sauté vegetables and tomatoes in a bowl with a thick bottom, stirring with a wooden spatula and not letting them brown.

Secrets delicious omelet

Rules for making omelets

2-3 eggs require 10 g of butter.
Eggs are broken into a bowl, lightly salted and pepper.
Beat well with a fork or whisk until the yolks and whites are combined.
Heat the omelet pan, wipe it thoroughly with a dry cloth.
Add 10 g of oil, heat until it foams (but not until dark).
Add eggs and fry quickly, stirring continuously with a fork until the mixture thickens slightly, then remove from heat.
Fold the omelet in half.
Tap the bottom of the pan to separate the edges of the omelet.
Gently flip the pan completely so that the omelet slides into the middle of the dish or plate.
If necessary, adjust the shape of the omelet and serve immediately.

You can add to the omelet:

Finely chopped greens (parsley, chervil and chives);
mushrooms (fried, sliced, forest mushrooms or mushrooms);
grated cheese;
tomatoes (in the center of the finished omelet, make a notch, fill with hot tomatoes in concasse, serve with tomato sauce);
chicken liver (pieces fried in oil and seasoned brown sauce) finish in the same way as an omelet with tomatoes;
kidneys (cooked in the same way as chicken liver);
shrimp (combined with béchamel sauce, finish in the same way as an omelet with herbs, that is, sprinkle it with fried onions);
ham, bacon, onions, potatoes, etc. can be added to the omelet.
Tomato concasse is added to the Spanish omelet, finely chopped fried onion, Red allspice and parsley. This omelet is served without rolling.

How to cook concasse tomatoes

This blank is used not only for making an omelet, but also for many other dishes. She will always help you out if you suddenly need the same tomato sauce.

Required: 400 g tomatoes, 25 g chopped onions, 25 g butter or vegetable oil, salt, pepper.
Blanch the tomatoes for 5-10 seconds in boiling water. How more ripe tomatoes, the less time it takes. Cool immediately, peel off. Cut the tomatoes in half across and remove all seeds. Chop the pulp coarsely. Fry chopped onions in oil. Add tomatoes and spices. Simmer until the moisture evaporates completely.

And since we often use chicken eggs in our diet, it doesn't hurt to learn and

Egg secrets

…Chicken eggs, however, if they are fresh, they are very useful. They contain valuable fats and proteins, calcium, potassium, iron, phosphorus and vitamins A, B6, D and E.

... If there is a letter "C" on the shell of an egg, these are table eggs that are already 8-25 days old. If there is a letter "D" - it is dietary eggs with a life span of no more than 7 days. The letter "B" means " top grade"- the mass of one egg is over 75 g. The letter" O "means" perfect "- its mass is 65-75 g.

... To check the freshness of an egg, you need to:

Shake the egg slightly. If it is fresh, its contents will be almost motionless; if not, it will begin to overflow inside. An egg that is not very fresh gurgles when shaken.

You can dip the egg into a glass of water. The fresh egg will sink to the bottom of the glass. Stale will float up with a narrow end down due to air at the blunt end of the egg. The older the egg, the larger the puga (the space between the shell and the albuminous films, filled with air, at the blunt end of the egg).

... If you want to buy quality eggs, please note that:

Eggshells must be clean and intact.

If you buy eggs with white shells, make sure that they are pure white, not yellowish or light gray.

When buying in a store, be sure to pay attention to the date of the last sale date and the category of eggs (markings in different countries different, but the principle is the same - fresh (dietary) eggs are sold within 7 days, canteens - up to 25 days).

In summer, you should not buy eggs on the streets and open markets if the air temperature is over 30 degrees.

Do not buy eggs with meat or fish lying next to them. Eggs should be kept separate from these foods.

How to store eggs properly

It is best to lay the eggs with the pointed end down to keep the yolks centered. This is how eggs are packed in stores.

Store eggs only in the refrigerator. Even one day at room temperature reduces the freshness of the egg.

Eggs absorb strong odors (there are thousands of tiny pores in eggshells), so it is best to store them away from strong-smelling foods and in store packaging.

Eggs usually have space on the refrigerator door. If this place is not covered with a lid on top, then for the above reason, you should not use it. If the place is right, then you can transfer eggs there.