Tanya's Borscht

From Tanya, to Vera, to Anita, and now to me... Today was the day we would finally documented it properly.

Here's my mother's version of the borscht story:

There are many versions of borscht. I guess every Ukrainian/Russian/Jewish grandma had her own version. We have never tasted borscht like ours anywhere. We’ve seen borscht on the menu on a few occasions at Jewish delis or at ethnic restaurants, but our version has never appeared. It seems as though borscht is unique to each family and depends on what on what is available in the refrigerator at the time of making. My grandmother, Tanya, made borscht almost weekly and according to my mother, Vera. It was a staple in her house, especially during the depression years. It was sometimes hard to find beets and meat in the mid-1930’s in Chicago. On those occasions one would improvise, however we remember that my grandmother’s borscht was pretty consistent.

There is a story that Vera tells about borscht. It goes like this: When she arrived in America with her parents in 1922, they went to live with Grandma Tanya’s brother Saul and his wife Clara. Clara had one daughter at the time, a baby about Vera’s age, named Alyce. Tanya was feeding Vera borscht one day and Clara said in Yiddish, “The de greena (immigrant) doesn’t know how to feed a baby. Babies don’t get borscht. They won’t grow.” But grandma ignored Clara and fed Vera borscht anyway. Vera grew just fine and turned 86 in August.

I recall Vera and I visiting my daughter when she was an undergrad at NYU. We made containers of borscht and brought them to the dorm. I wonder how the smell was received when she heated it up. The soup does have a distinct odor of cabbage. I once brought some to school (in inner city Philadelphia) for lunch and one student came to my door after smelling the warmed up borscht and said, “It smells like wet dog in here.” 


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***WARNING: Borscht can be dangerous!***

TANYA’S BORSCHT

1 can of whole tomatoes with the juice (28 oz.)
2 ½ cans of water (use the can as your measuring cup)
2-3 fresh beets cut into cubes
shank bone with meat, or cubes of beef for stew (about a pound) or 4 – 5 short ribs
(Your choice, but you want it lean as possible. Short ribs are not too lean)
1 medium whole onion
1/4 cup of green pepper cut in 1/2 inch strips
1/4 cup of barley
one carrot cut in 1 inch rounds
2-3 red potatoes, peeled and cubed

Put the first five ingredients in a large soup pot and bring to boil. Then add the potatoes, green peppers, barley and the carrots after it comes to a boil. Boil for about 15-20 minutes until the meat and beets become tender.
Then add: 2 lemons juiced

Then add: 1 head of cabbage, shredded

Cook until the cabbage is tender and adjust the taste with salt, pepper and perhaps a little sugar if the soup is too sour. Sprinkle on chives at serving.

This freezes well in containers with tight fitting lids.

The making of borscht is dangerous. It is dangerous because cutting fresh beets into cubes can be difficult (they are very hard) and they stain your fingers, clothes, cutting boards, and counter tops. Use the lemon rind to clean up the stains. The cutting of the cabbage is dangerous too. The cabbage is hard and unwieldy at times. Be careful. And then there is the danger factor due to the cabbage. This can be flatulence producing, and therefore dangerous.

The making of borscht is not exact. One has to practice and make it often, using the freshest of ingredients. Eventually, the measurements will be become second nature and you will have created your own version of Tanya’s Borscht.

I'm absolutely convinced, after comparing today's recipe with my mother's above, that there is no one version of Tanya's Borscht. Here's what I saw today:

Roll over Notes for more instructions and details.

My mother and my grandmother crack me up, make me so happy, and still have the ability to embarrass me like no other people on the planet.