Rassolnik is one of the favorite soups of Russian cuisine, very pleasant in taste, slightly sour, nutritious, light and tonic. The soup is prepared on the basis of pickles, cereals and potatoes, and it can be meat or vegetarian. Pickle soups have been cooked in Rus' since the 15th century, seasoning the dish with lemon juice or cucumber pickle. Interestingly, a couple of centuries ago, rassolnik was a pie filled with buckwheat porridge, eggs and pickles, and rassolnik soup was known as kalya. There are many pickle recipes for cooking at home, each tastier than the other, but they are all prepared using the same technology. The first rassolniki were seasoned with cream and yolks, adding fish roe, beets and plums to the soup in addition to the classic ingredients.
Rassolnik at home: general principles of preparation
Meat pickle is cooked using beef, pork, chicken or offal, of which the most popular are beef and pork kidneys, as well as any offal. Sometimes fish is used to prepare the dish - salmon, stellate sturgeon or beluga. If you want to cook a truly delicious pickle, use meat on the bone or whole fish - this dish will have a brighter and richer taste. Meat and fish are removed from the broth, separated from the bones and added back just before the dish is ready. It is better to first soak the by-products in water for 2 hours, then boil and cut into cubes or strips.
In addition to potatoes, carrots and onions, cereals are added to the soup - barley, rice, buckwheat, oatmeal or barley. In many recipes you can find cabbage, celery root, parsley, parsnip and any spicy herbs - dill, parsley, celery, leek, tarragon and thyme. The most commonly used spices are bay leaves and peppercorns.
Subtleties of preparing rassolnik in Rus'
In addition to cucumbers and a sour base, potatoes, carrots, onions, turnips, a large number of all kinds of spices and herbs (celery, parsley, dill, sorrel, savory, tarragon) were added to the pickle. Barley or oatmeal could be used as cereal.
Kidneys and beef could be added to the pickle (then it is better to supplement the soup with pearl barley), offal of chicken, turkey and other poultry (rice is more suitable for this recipe), pork, lamb, poultry with bones (traditionally oatmeal was used as an addition).
It is advisable to cook meat with bones. Upon completion of cooking, they were removed, and the meat was finely chopped and sent back to the cauldron.
Recipes for fish pickles were also mentioned in historical books. Housewives tried to take several types of fish at once, and sometimes even salted fish fillets.
Cucumbers and pickle - the basis of pickle
The most important ingredient of the soup is cucumber brine and pickled cucumbers without heat treatment, as well as stewed or fried. First, remove the seeds from the cucumbers, peel them and pour boiling water over them to preserve their shape. Pickled and lightly salted cucumbers are not suitable for this dish, although sometimes they are replaced with pickled mushrooms. Marinated milk mushrooms are especially good in pickle. By the way, it is better to cut the cucumbers not very large - it will be tastier, and it is better to add them at the end of cooking, otherwise the potatoes will harden and turn gray. The cucumber brine is first boiled and filtered and then added to the broth. Boiling the brine makes its taste richer and prevents fermentation processes. Each housewife decides how much brine to add on her own, but ideally it makes up a quarter of the total liquid in the soup.
Rassolnik, despite the name, should not be too salty, so it is not salted during the cooking process. Properly cooked soup usually has a very soft, delicate and slightly acidic taste.
How to cook delicious pickle sauce
How much pearl barley to put
The standard proportions of medium-thick pickle sauce are 1/7 cup per 1 liter pan, designed for a volume of 250 milliliters. For a 3-liter pan you need a little less than half a glass of pearl barley. For a 5 liter pickle pan - 0.7 cups. If you like brothy soup, add a third less.
When to add cucumbers and brine
All chopped or grated cucumbers are placed in a fryer, at the end of which a few tablespoons of brine are poured. The rest of the brine is poured directly into the broth before adding the potatoes. The standard proportion is 1/5 cup of brine per 1 liter of water.
Frying for pickle
For those who do not like fried onions in soup, you can add two halves of the onion to the pickle broth. After about 30 minutes, the onion will have cooked and released all its flavor into the broth, at which point it can be removed from the broth (and discarded). At the frying stage, you can add 1 tablespoon of sour cream to onions, carrots and cucumbers. Then the pickle turns out fattier and richer. To taste, you can add 1 finely chopped tomato to the frying. You can add capers and sliced or halved olives to the soup itself (at the stage of adding potatoes). If the cucumbers are hard, you should peel them and grate them on a coarse grater or chop them thinly. In order for the potatoes in the pickle to turn out soft, it is important to add the frying with pickles to the broth 15-20 minutes after adding the potatoes.
Seasonings
Italian seasonings are great for pickle soup. Seasonings for pickle soup - basil, turmeric, fennel, oregano. Since brine and pickles are added to the pickle pot, you need to be especially careful when adding salt.
Meat
Meat on the bone in rassolnik is used to increase the richness of the rassolnik and give the broth an original aroma.
How to serve pickle
The pickle should be served with sour cream (which can first be ground with chicken egg yolks) and fresh herbs - dill or parsley. To taste, add chopped garlic and celery to the pickle.
How to cook rassolnik at home: secrets and subtleties
The choice of grains for pickle depends on what kind of meat you use. Barley goes well with beef and kidneys, rice is suitable for turkey and chicken giblets, and barley is very tasty with duck giblets. Buckwheat and rolled oats feel good in vegetarian pickle sauce.
Do not get carried away with too much herbs and spices, so that they do not drown out the taste of pickles; after all, you are cooking pickle, and not some other dish. If you are preparing soup with barley, it is better to cook it separately, otherwise the broth will not look very attractive. Black olives, olives and capers give the pickle a piquant and original taste, while rutabaga and turnips make it thicker and more satisfying. Some housewives add tomatoes to them when frying vegetables.
How to serve pickle
Rassolnik is served on the table with rye bread and sour cream. And according to the canons, it is customary to prepare Lenten pies stuffed with liver. The taste of an ideal pickle should be very delicate with sourness. In this case, it is important to choose the correct proportions of brine, pickles and a neutral absorbent, which is potatoes or sour cream, which is added to the soup when serving. We have revealed to you all the secrets of how to prepare rassolnik.
that will help you create a truly perfect dish.
If you have something to add on this topic or share your experience, leave your comment!
Classic recipe for making pickle soup at home
This aromatic thick soup is prepared according to a traditional recipe and includes classic ingredients. First, cook the broth from a liter of water and 200 g of beef, and while it is cooking, cut half a carrot and a small onion into strips. Sauté the vegetables in the melted butter, stirring until they turn golden brown. Also chop 100 g of white cabbage into strips, small roots of parsley and celery, and cut a couple of potatoes (180 g) into cubes. Peel a few pickled cucumbers (60 g), cut into round slices and lightly simmer in a small amount of broth.
As soon as the meat is cooked, remove it from the broth and set it aside, strain the broth. Add cabbage to it, bring to a boil and throw potatoes and roots into the pan. Let the pickle cook for 5 minutes, then add carrots and onions and stewed cucumbers to it. Season the soup with ground black pepper and bay leaf and cook until the vegetables are tender. Add boiled and strained cucumber brine to the prepared pickle to taste. Pour the soup into bowls and add pieces of boiled meat, fragrant herbs and sour cream to each serving.
Original pickle with squid
If rassolnik is cooked with fish, why not replace it with seafood? Peel 300 g of squid from film and cartilage, boil them in water for 5 minutes, skimming off the foam. When the squids have cooled, remove them from the broth and cut into strips, and strain the broth. Fry medium-sized carrots cut into strips, a couple of onions and 2 parsley roots in vegetable oil. Peel 2 pickled cucumbers, chop them into strips and lightly simmer on the stove in a small amount of broth. Chop 200 g of cabbage into strips, cut 4 potatoes into small cubes, boil the brine. Next, the soup is prepared according to the standard procedure - add cabbage to the broth, and when it boils, throw the potatoes into the pan. As soon as it becomes slightly soft, add the sautéed vegetables. After 10 minutes, add the remaining ingredients - squid, cucumbers and brine. Season the pickle with black pepper and serve with sour cream and plenty of fresh dill.
Vegetable pickle with mushrooms
You can add mushrooms to the Lenten pickle for nutritional value - this will make the soup more satisfying and tasty. For a vegetarian pickle, cook vegetable broth from carrots and onions, and while it is cooking, fry carrots and onions cut into strips in melted butter, add chopped mushrooms. Stew 2 pickled cucumbers, cut into thin slices, in the broth.
Add 50 g of pearl barley, 4 diced potatoes and fried carrots with onions and mushrooms to the boiling broth. Cook until the cereal is ready. After this, add pickles and ground black pepper to the pickle, and serve with sour cream and any herbs.
Kuban rassolnik with lard
This amazing homemade pickle soup turns out to be especially tasty and appetizing. Boil beef kidneys and heart, weighing approximately 500–600 g each. Chop 2 onions into strips and fry them in melted butter with 2 tbsp. l. tomato puree. Add 4 pickled cucumbers, cut into thin slices, into the broth. Boil 30 g of pearl barley in broth until soft and add 6 potatoes, cut into cubes. As soon as the soup boils, add carrots, onions and cucumbers. Throw the offal cut into strips or cubes into the prepared pickle and season the soup with black pepper. Pour the pickle mixture into plates and add lard and herbs, mashed with garlic, into each bowl.
The rassolnik is allowed to brew first so that its taste becomes more intense, rich and interesting. This dish is served with sour cream, fresh bread, pies or puff pastries. It is customary not to add sour cream to fish pickles, but it all depends on the gastronomic preferences of your family, because the main thing is that it is tasty! On the “Eat at Home” website you will find many interesting recipes on how to prepare pickle soup at home. Share your delicious ideas and suggestions with us!
Rassolnik with chicken
Of course, chicken in this first dish can hardly be called a traditional ingredient. But if for some reason you have to limit your consumption of red meat, try replacing it with chicken. If you purchase a high-quality carcass with a good chemical composition, you will be able to prepare a delicious pickle recipe. This will definitely be appreciated by everyone who is lucky enough to try at least a little.
You will need:
- 500 gr. chicken carcass (it is better to use ½ carcass, cut lengthwise);
- 0.5 cups pearl barley;
- 150 gr. pickled cucumbers;
- 1 onion;
- 1 carrot;
- 2-3 pcs. potatoes;
- 0.5 cups cucumber pickle;
- Salt, pepper, bay leaf to taste;
- 1-2 tbsp. l. tomato paste.
Rassolnik with chicken
How to cook:
- Wash half the chicken carcass and cut into portions. Make the pieces small to make pickle soup quickly and tasty.
- Wash and soak pearl barley.
- Place the pieces in a 3 liter saucepan and cover with water.
- Bring the broth to a simmer over low heat. Eliminate noise as it occurs.
- After boiling, cover halfway with a lid and cook over moderate heat.
- Peel the vegetables and wash them.
- Chop the vegetables in a way that suits you. Often this is cutting into cubes. But cutting carrots, potatoes and cucumbers into strips also looks appetizing.
- Finely chop the onion.
- Many housewives prepare the classic pickle recipe with photos step by step using cereals that have been pre-soaked overnight. But in reality you don't have to do this. To the chicken, which has already been boiled for about 15 minutes. add pearl barley. Barley is also cooked separately. But it’s better not to do this, because its decoction also has benefits.
- While the cereal is cooking in the broth, prepare the dressing.
- Heat a frying pan with a little butter. Add onions and carrots, fry until soft.
- Add cucumbers, simmer everything together for 5 minutes.
- Add tomato, stir.
- Scoop a ladle of broth from the pan and add it to the ingredients in the pan along with the brine. Cover with a lid, simmer for 5-7 minutes, turn off.
- Add potatoes and bay leaves to the soup (to taste)
- After 30-35 minutes have passed after introducing the cereal, add the dressing to the rassolnik soup. The classic step-by-step recipe is almost ready. All that remains is to bring to a boil, adjust the taste with salt and pepper.
- The dish is ready, just wait a little for it to brew.
- Serve with sour cream and finely chopped herbs.
