Initially, meat is boiling to prepare a broth; the boiling time depends on the type of meat – 2 hours for beef or lamb, 1 hour for pork or half of hour for chicken. To make the broth more dense, it is better to choose those parts of meat which contain bones and fat. Ribs are the best choice.
After the broth is ready, need to add additional meat ingredients. Ham, sausage, Russian kolbasa or any smoked meat are welcome. It is believed, the taste will better if you add as many meat and meat-based ingredients as possible. That is why we call every chaotic set with the byword “sbornaya solyanka”.
There are two necessary ingredients for solyanka – salted cucumbers and olives. Other vegetables are optional – potato, fresh or sour cabbage, carrot or any other vegetable you will find in your refrigerator.
To give this dish a spicy taste, seasonings should be added. It is usually garlic, onion, black pepper, dill and parsley.
The mix should be boiled for 15-20 minutes. It needs 30 minutes of waiting for smoothing the taste after turning off the fire. All the process takes about 3 hours, including 2 hours of boiling meat for bouillon. Sour cream and a few pieces of lemon should be added when the soup is serving up.
Some recipes include unusual ingredients like kvass or sour cabbage juice. Solyanka can be cooked of everything that eatable, but not sweet. That is why, you can often find this soup in Russian supermarkets. They cook it with the aim of utilization a meal with expiring shelf time.
How and where to taste this soup in Russia
A restaurant is the best choice, because you can taste original solyanka with all the necessary ingredients inside and dense bouillon. You will not find this dish in a fast-food, unfortunately. If you find “Mu-mu” restaurant, then you will be able to taste almost every dish of Russian cuisine.
Few types can be found In a supermarket. You can purchase the already cooked soup and warm it in a microwave oven. You can also buy the frozen type. It is interesting, this box of frozen solyanka contains few packages with different ingredients inside. Pay attention to our gallery below.
Unfortunately, the result is not very good. You will receive a few pieces of meat and no dense bullion inside. It is not good, but better than nothing.
How to bring solyanka back home
We recommend the frozen type. Of course, it will defrost while you travel home, but it is not dangerous. The content of the box may be stored up to 2 days without risk. Just do not forget to store it in a fridge until you leave Russia.
Solyanka and alcohol
The second name of this soup is “pohmelka” translates as “pottage for hangover”.
Thanks to dense bullion, this soup contains a lot of fat. That is why it is the best meal for drinking alcohol. If you drink vodka with solyanka together, you will get drunk slower, will have not so terrible hangover and harm of alcohol will be less.
Do not think this soup is healthy. A lot of fat, a large portion of salt and long list of seasonings cannot have any health benefits. The only situation, when it will help your body, is drinking alcohol.
The soup was very popular in taverns in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. There were even taverns with menu contained alcohol and only one meal, and it was solyanka.
The history of this dish and its name
The history of this dish is mysterious. Nobody knows when and how it has appeared, and no similar soups can be found in neighboring countries cuisines. If this dish existed in the old Russia, then it would be procurable only for rich people. Solyanka contains a lot of salt, that means it was very expensive in the old times in our country.
One portion of the soup contains as much salt as a family consumed in a day. The high price of salt left a heritage in the Russian culture. Even in modern Russia accidentally spilling salt is an omen of misfortune.
The most probable theory tells the name “solyanka” originates from Russian word “sol” translates as “salt”.
There is another theory, that this name is the transformation of the word “selyanka” translates as “woman resident of a large village”. But in this case, in the old times this dish was very different from modern type. Salt was valuable, olives and lemon imported only from the Byzantine Empire (modern Greece), and the price of this foodstuffs was extremely high.
Some sources on the internet say this soup is mentioned in the old Russian text “Domostroy”. We have read “Domostroy” many times and never found any information about solyanka in the text. The mystery of the origin of this name is still kept actuality.
We wish you a good trip to Russia and read other our articles (list of links can be found below and on the left of text of any article).
