Borscht Recipe of Eudokia Gula Zdepski, as she made it on the farm in Stockton, NJ, U.S.A., as written by Ruth Mull Zdepski
1 Large bunch of medium size beets, (Stems, Leaves and all). Scrub beets, cut off tops and leaves 2 inches from the beet itself. Peel the beets (or cook them and then skin them). Use two or three quarts of water to scrub. Cook beets any way you wish, but save the red water drained out in the cooking process.
Cut a half a head of cabbage into wedges, Trim off core.
If beets are cool, cut them into julienne strips
Put beets and cabbage, into 3 quarts of boiling water, simmer until tender.
Add 1 ½ lb. of beef cut into cubes, or use ham cubes.
Add 1 sautéed onion [likely diced?] – celery if you have it.
Add 2 quarts of shelled lima beans, Simmer again for 3 hrs.
Add 1 teaspoon of sour salt (Citric acid – from pharmacy) commonly called sour salt.
Simmer all together meat and vegetables are all blended.
Now add reserved beet juice and leaves (chopped with chopped off stems).
When all flavors are blended, stir 1 tbsp of sour cream into each bowl, or put all soup into a large pot or tureen.
Drop some sour cream (as much as you like) stir whole mixture. Our family calls it “Pink Soup”.
Serve hot or chilled with good bread crusts.
A food fit for a King! And the King’s servant can work a long while with full stomachs and strong arms and legs.
The handwriting was shaky, the sentences and wording is incomplete and garbled but this is the way it was presented on three 3”X5” cards sent to Linda & I sometime before 1985 in a letter. My additions are given in brackets [like this].
In discussing this recipe with Linda, we think the timing of adding certain ingredients could be off. It probably doesn’t matter on the timing, because it cooks for so long.
Mark Zdepski
Leave a Reply