 A serving of shchi. This variant containssaffron milk-caps, a type of mushroom. | |
| Type | Soup |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Russia |
| Main ingredients | Cabbage orsauerkraut |
| Ingredients generally used | Potatoes, onions, garlic, carrot, parsley |
Shchi (Russian:щи,IPA:[ɕːi]ⓘ, sometimes transliterated as šči) is aRussian-stylecabbage soup. Whensauerkraut is used instead, the soup is calledsour shchi, while soups based onsorrel,spinach,nettle, and similar plants are calledgreen shchi (Russian:зелёные щи,IPA:[zʲɪˈlʲɵnɨjeɕːi]). In the past, the termsour shchi was also used to refer to a drink, a variation ofkvass, which was unrelated to the soup.[1][2]
Shchi (fromOld East Slavic:съти, the plural of "съто" (s(i)to) – "something satisfying, feed")[3] is a traditional soup of Russia. Cabbage soups have been known in Kievan Rus as far back as the 9th century, soon after cabbage was introduced fromByzantium. Its popularity in Russia originates from several factors:
As a result, by the 10th century shchi became astaple food of Russia, and a popular saying sprang from this fact: "Щи да каша — пища наша." (Shchi da kasha — pishcha nasha "Shchi andkasha are our food").
The major components of shchi were originally cabbage, meat (beef, pork, lamb, or poultry), mushrooms, flour, and spices (based on onion and garlic). Cabbage and meat were cooked separately andsmetana was added as a garnish before serving. Shchi is traditionally eaten with rye bread.[4][5]
The ingredients of shchi gradually changed. Flour, which formerly was used to increase the soup's caloric value, now was excluded for the sake of finer taste. The spice mixture was enriched with black pepper andbay leaf, which were imported to Russia around the 15th century, also fromByzantium. Meat was sometimes substituted with fish, due to reasons related to theEastern Orthodox Church calendar-related fasting. As for the vegetables, carrot andparsley could be added to the shchi. Beef was the most popular meat for shchi in Russia, while pork was more common in Ukraine. The water-to-cabbage ratio varies and whereas early shchi was often so viscous that a spoon could stand in it, more diluted preparation was adopted later.[4][5]
Sometimes, tomato sauces (such asketchup) are added to shchi (forming atomato soup).
To mitigate accidental overspiceness, oversaltiness or general sourness ofkvashenaya kapusta (e.g. sauerkraut), a portion of cookedpasta (rigatoni, penne or macaroni) can be added to the batch of shchi.
Tushonka can also be found in shchi in place of meat or fish.
On some occasions,caviar d'aubergine (a puree made of cooked eggplants) orcourgette caviar (made ofzucchinis), is added to shchi to improve the thickness of the resulting soup.Caviar (orroe in general, such aspollock roe), can be found in shchi as an artisan additive rather than a "serious" component of shchi.
The two-letter word щи contains the letterщ, which lacks a counterpart in most non-Cyrillic alphabets and istranscribed into them with several letters. InGerman, щи becomes eight letters,Schtschi.[6][7]Devanagari script can render щи with onlyone glyph श्ची, albeit one that takes four keystrokes to type श ् च ी which combine to give श्ची.
