History and peculiarities of the preparation of Russian tavern cuisine. 10 best hodgepodge recipes for every day and for a special occasion. Video recipes for making a hodgepodge at home.
Solyanka is a dish of Russian tavern cuisine, which is a thick brine soup made from a mixture of different products that are completely incompatible at first glance. It is usually called "combined", since an impressive set of ingredients is used in the cooking process. It has a fragrant aroma and a rich unusual sour-salty-sweet taste: sourness comes from tomatoes, sweetness comes from onions fried in oil, salt comes from pickled cucumbers. And the basis can be meat, fish or mushroom broth. Further, the features of cooking and popular recipes.
Features of cooking hodgepodge
Solyanka is a multicomponent dish of Russian tavern cuisine, which has a rich sour-salty-spicy taste and a distinctive history.
In written sources, it was first mentioned in the XVIII century. under the name "selyanka" (from the word "village"), as the dish was popular with the villagers. However, not as a soup, but as hot from cabbage, cucumbers, meat, fish, mushrooms and with the addition of other products. The sour taste was decisive, which was achieved by introducing brine and vinegar into the recipe. That is why hodgepodge is still called not only the first dish, but also stewed cabbage prepared with various fillings, for example, with the addition of mushrooms.
Also, according to one of the versions, the hodgepodge was used as a snack for vodka. It was cooked spicy and oily so that it would help to drink for a long time without getting drunk. The dish was called very eloquently - "hangover". And the aristocracy recognized it exclusively as a food for drinking peasants.
They began to cook the hodgepodge as a liquid dish later, in the 1830s and 40s. The first recipes included pickles and mushrooms, and it acquired a familiar look in the second half of the 19th century. Numerous versions appeared with smoked meats, sturgeon, capers, and lemon was added when serving. Each innkeeper attracted customers with unthinkable tastes, so it is not entirely correct to talk about a classic hodgepodge - there was simply no such recipe.
Today the dish is prepared with a steep broth - meat, fish or mushroom - and it turns out to be incredibly thick. To make it rich, with a thin oily film, use beef on the bone, small fish with small bones. The amount of the product must be significant. According to the rules, the water is drained for the first time after boiling. Cooks advise adding tongue, smoked ribs, and using kidneys during the preparation of the broth.
Solyanka belongs to pickled soups: it contains cucumber or cabbage pickle. However, no vinegar content.
An ingredient such as pickles is responsible for the formation of that very sour-salty aftertaste. Better to use barrel. Chefs say that lightly salted or pickled ones spoil the taste. It is advisable to peel them off, remove the flabby center and boil them for 10 minutes to obtain a sour broth, which is also added to the soup.
During the preparation of the hodgepodge, any smoked meats and sausage-meat products that are in the water are used. The more there are, the richer the taste will be.
The vegetable part of the soup, in addition to pickles, includes onions, carrots, pickled or pickled mushrooms, and capers. The latter, by the way, in Soviet times were replaced with green peas, although the taste of these ingredients is different. In the cold season, the recipe includes converted pelati tomatoes - peelless tomatoes cooked in their own juice. Solyanka ingredients can be added at the same time or added to the soup in turn. Thus, a truly original dish is obtained, which in the course of cooking acquires the distinctive features of cabbage soup, pickle, fish soup, mushroom and meat soup.
The recipe for hodgepodge, as a rule, does not provide for the addition of potatoes, since the dish is already rich and thick. However, to make the soup more satisfying, you can safely bow to it.
The dish includes many spices and seasonings. It is traditionally dill, parsley, pepper, bay leaf, garlic. Sometimes parsley root is added. But salt should be added carefully: it is already available in pickles, brine, mushrooms.
The hodgepodge ends on a plate: add olives, sliced olives and a slice of lemon. They fill the soup with sour cream, but this moment causes a lot of controversy, so it is better to focus on your taste.
Note! Some recipes use flour to simmer onions. However, this should not be done: it is important to maintain the transparency of the dish.
TOP 10 recipes for hodgepodge
There are many recipes for hodgepodge: meat, fish, and mushroom. This is a large field of improvisation, since you can use the most unexpected products - for example, kidneys, tongue and even smoked squid, and instead of the traditional ingredient - pickled cucumbers - take fresh ones, and substitute tomato paste for tomato paste. What can we say about a wide variety of smoked meats that can be used for cooking.
Prefabricated meat hodgepodge
Meat hodgepodge is a soup with an unusually rich taste, which is prepared in meat broth with the addition of a large number of ingredients. There are sausages, ham, and a lot of vegetables and herbs. The prefabricated classic hodgepodge does not imply the use of potatoes, the dish in the traditional version turns out to be very satisfying, but if you wish, you can add it.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 842 kcal.
- Servings - 4
- Cooking time - 2 hours 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- Beef - 150 g
- Beef bones - 400 g
- Veal sausages - 400 g
- Boiled ham - 400 g
- Onions - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 100 g
- Pelati tomatoes - 500 g
- Gherkins - 60 g
- Capers - 60 g
- Olives, olives - 12 pcs.
- Butter - 25 g, sour cream - 4 tablespoons.
- Sugar - 10 g
- Salt, black peppercorns - to taste
- Parsley - 10 g
- Lemon - 4 slices, bay leaf - 2 pcs.
Step-by-step preparation of prefabricated meat hodgepodge:
- Wash the vegetables, coarsely chop the carrots and half an onion, then grill them in a skillet.
- Place the beef and bones in a saucepan, add the toasted vegetables and pour 1.5 liters of water over the ingredients.
- Wait for the broth to boil and cook for 1-1.5 hours, according to the recipe for meat hodgepodge, until the meat is cooked. 5 minutes before cooking, do not forget to throw bay leaf and pepper into the broth.
- Remove the meat, place it on a plate to cool, then cut it off the bone.
- Strain the broth and finely chop the onions.
- Puree the plati tomatoes using a blender. You can replace them with tomato paste, but in the first case, you will get a more delicious hodgepodge.
- Melt the butter over medium heat, chopping it into small pieces.
- Add the onion and fry until golden brown, evaporating the moisture and caramelizing the sugar contained.
- Add the tomato puree to the onion and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
- Next, according to the step-by-step recipe for the hodgepodge, chop the gherkins or pickles into cubes and boil them for 20 minutes after boiling to remove the stiffness.
- Dice ham, sausages, cooked meats, or other cold cuts in the refrigerator.
- Bring the broth to a boil, add the onion and tomato puree and wait until it boils again.
- Add meat, sausages and ham, cucumbers and capers to the solyanka broth, cook for 5 minutes.
- Season with salt and a little sugar, but if you are using sweet tomatoes, you can do without this ingredient. And salt can be replaced with liquid from capers or olives.
- The ready-made hodgepodge is poured into plates, olives and olives, pitted, a little parsley are put in each, a spoonful of sour cream is added.
Mixed fish hodgepodge
Fish hodgepodge is a delicious dish that is suitable for everyday meals and a festive table thanks to the use of fish of noble blood - lightly salted salmon. The broth is recommended to be prepared on the basis of small fish with a large number of seeds, which ensure its richness.
Ingredients:
- Sea bass - 500 g
- Lightly salted salmon - 500 g
- Onions - 2 pcs.
- Vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons
- Pickled cucumbers - 3 pcs.
- Cucumber pickle - 1 tbsp
- Bay leaf - 3 pcs.
- Lemon - 1 pc.
- Olives - 1 can
- Capers - 150 g
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
Step-by-step preparation of prefabricated fish hodgepodge:
- Butcher fresh fish using a sharp knife, cut off the head, tail, remove bones.
- Grind the fillet into small pieces: put it aside, you will need it later.
- Pour 3 liters of water over the tails, bones and heads and cook the broth on their basis. To do this, bring the liquid to a boil, strain and bring to a boil again.
- In a separate container, boil the cucumber pickle and strain it using a fine sieve into the fish broth.
- Remove the skin from the pickled cucumbers, and chop the pulp into small cubes.
- Chop 2 onions and sauté in oil until golden brown. Place in a saucepan with fish stock and cucumber pickle.
- Add pickles there.
- Cut the fish fillet into small cubes, similarly chop the slightly salted salmon, after removing all the bones from it.
- Throw the pieces of raw and salted fish into the broth, which should already boil by this time, and cook over medium heat for 30-40 minutes. Make sure that the hodgepodge does not boil intensively during cooking.
- After the specified time, pickled capers are added to the soup and the brine is poured along with them, the olives and pitted olives are put, after which it should be boiled for literally another 1 minute.
- Served ready-made hodgepodge with lemon, which is cut into round slices.
Simple hodgepodge with sausage
This is the easiest and fastest way to cook a hodgepodge, but the dish is still incredibly tasty. It also contains hunting sausages, which makes the soup especially appetizing and aromatic.
Ingredients:
- Boiled sausage - 150 g
- Hunting sausages - 4 pcs.
- Red onion - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Potatoes - 6 pcs.
- Pickled cucumbers - 3 pcs.
- Lemon - 3 slices
- Tomato paste - 2 tablespoons
- Olives - 100 g
- Vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
- Bay leaf - to taste
- Water - 3.5 l
Step by step preparation of a simple hodgepodge with sausage:
- Wash, peel and chop the potatoes, put them in boiling water.
- Wash the carrots, peel and chop using a coarse grater.
- Wash red onions, peel and cut into half rings.
- Cut the pickled cucumbers into cubes or coarse grater.
- Cut the sausage into thin strips.
- In the next step, chop the sausages into small pieces.
- Pour some oil into the pan and fry the onions until golden brown.
- Add carrots to it and saute until vegetables are tender.
- Next, put the cucumbers in the pan, add the tomato paste.
- Cook the soup for 5 minutes on a low heat.
- After the specified time, according to the recipe for a hodgepodge with sausage, add vegetables to a saucepan, salt, pepper with pepper, add lavrushka and cook until the potatoes become soft.
- After the vegetables, add the sausages and sausage to the pan.
- It turns out very tasty hodgepodge with olives. After adding them, turn off the stove and wait for the first dish to infuse.
- Pour the soup in portions into bowls, add finely chopped fresh herbs. If you wish, you can add sour cream.
Autumn mushroom hodgepodge
The mushroom hodgepodge is a very fragrant, thick first dish that becomes especially popular in the fall and during the fast. Also great for losing weight. A soup based on cucumber pickle, tomato juice and various types of mushrooms is brewed, and dry mushrooms give it a fragrant taste.
Ingredients:
- Salted milk mushrooms - 80 g
- Champignons - 3 pcs.
- Dry mushrooms - 1 handful
- Honey mushrooms -100 g
- Pickled cucumbers - 2 pcs.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Bulb onions - 2 pcs.
- Celery - 1 petiole
- Tomato juice - 1 glass
- Olives - 8-10 pcs.
- Chili pepper - 0, 3 pcs.
- Cucumber pickle - 0, 3 tbsp.
- Salt to taste
- Sugar - 1 tablespoon
- Vegetable oil - 30 ml
- Bay leaf - 1 pc.
- Parsley - 2 sprigs
- Cilantro - 2 branches
- Green onion - 1 pc.
Step-by-step preparation of autumn mushroom hodgepodge:
- Wash vegetables and mushrooms, peel.
- Put dry mushrooms in a saucepan, cover with water and turn on the stove. Simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes. Once the mushrooms have settled to the bottom, strain the broth.
- The next step is to prepare the dressing. Chop onions, carrots, celery, then they should be fried in oil.
- Then we spread the pickled cucumbers, chopped into cubes, to the fried vegetables, pour in tomato juice (you can replace it with tomato paste diluted in water) and, according to the recipe for a hodgepodge with mushrooms, add chili pepper.
- To eliminate sourness, add sugar to the pan and simmer vegetables for 10 minutes.
- Next, we are engaged in mushrooms for hodgepodge: we clean and cut the mushrooms, honey mushrooms, salted milk mushrooms. Put in broth, turn on the stove and cook for 10 minutes.
- After the specified time, pour the cucumber pickle into the pan, add the lavrushka, stewed vegetables and cook for 5 minutes.
- It remains to chop the greens and chop the olives, removing the bone. Add the ingredients to the saucepan, wait for the soup to boil and turn off.
- When pouring mushroom hodgepodge into plates, do not forget to add a slice of lemon to each of them. Black bread, mustard or horseradish will perfectly complement the taste of a fragrant first course.
Winter hodgepodge with cabbage
The classic recipe for hodgepodge involves the use of sausage and smoked meats, but it is much more useful to cook it with chicken meat, and the dish does not lose to taste even once. Cabbage will successfully complement it: you can use both fresh and sauerkraut.
Ingredients:
- Chicken - 800 g
- Champignons - 300 g
- Sauerkraut or fresh cabbage - 500 g
- Hot pepper - 0, 5 pcs.
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Potatoes - 1-2 pcs.
- Tomato paste - 1-2 tablespoons
- Vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons
- Garlic - 2 cloves
- Greens - 10 g
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - 0.5 tsp
- Olives - to taste
Step-by-step preparation of winter cabbage hodgepodge:
- Wash the chicken and chop into pieces using a sharp knife. Place in a saucepan, cover with water and cook for 40-50 minutes over medium heat after it boils.
- After the indicated time, remove the chicken, put it on a plate, and strain the broth.
- Next, you need to peel and chop the potatoes, and then boil them in meat broth for 10 minutes.
- While the potatoes are boiling, peel and chop the onions. Fry it in oil until golden brown.
- At the next stage, according to the recipe for a hodgepodge with cabbage, we are engaged in champignons: they need to be washed, chopped and sent to the onion. Fry them for 6 minutes.
- Next, we send peppers, peeled from seeds and cut into rings, into the pan and simmer for 1-2 minutes.
- The next ingredient is carrots. We wash, clean, grind using a coarse grater, and send to the pan. Stew vegetables with mushrooms for another 5 minutes
- Now, according to the recipe for the hodgepodge, the turn of the cabbage has come step by step. Chop small and place in the pan, simmer for 5 minutes and add tomato paste.
- After 5 minutes, put the dressing in a saucepan, salt and pepper.
- Add the bay leaf to the pot and cook the former until the vegetables are tender.
- Next, prepare the chicken for the hodgepodge: to do this, remove the meat from the bones and cut into cubes. Put it in a saucepan and boil for 1 minute.
- It remains to add the garlic (optimally grind it in a mortar) and finely chopped herbs.
- Turn off the stove and let the dish sit. It is customary to add olives to each plate before serving.
Note! The name "cabbage hodgepodge" also hides the second dish made from stewed cabbage, meat and mushrooms.
Fish hodgepodge with squid
One of the most original recipes for making hodgepodge is with smoked squid and fried sea fish. Despite the fact that no meat is used for the dish, it turns out to be incredibly rich and satisfying.
Ingredients:
- Fried sea fish - 200 g
- Smoked squid - 200 g
- Olives - 1 can (200 ml)
- Pickled cucumbers - 3 pcs.
- Potatoes - 300 g
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Onions - 0.5 pcs.
- Vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons
- Tomato paste - 1 tablespoon
- Salt - 0.5 tsp
- Water - 2.5 l
Step-by-step cooking of fish hodgepodge with squid:
- Chop the smoked squid into cubes and fry in a little oil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Next, you need to wash, peel and chop the carrots using a kitchen grater. Put it in a multicooker bowl and cook for 5 minutes.
- Butcher the fish, select bones and chop into small pieces. Add to the total mass.
- Chop the pickles into a coarse grater and add to the multicooker bowl.
- Add the tomato paste and cook all the ingredients on the "Simmer" setting for 10 minutes.
- Next, send the potatoes, cut into cubes, to the contents of the bowl and cover with water.
- Cook the hodgepodge in a multicooker on the "Stew" mode for 1 hour. Don't forget to add salt.
- Let the soup steep before serving.
- Pouring the hodgepodge into plates, add chopped olives, a slice of lemon and chopped parsley to each plate.
Note! Tomato paste can be replaced with chopped tomato (1 pc.).
Solyanka with meatballs
Traditionally, homemade hodgepodge is prepared on the basis of sausages and smoked meat products. However, if you want to diversify the menu, you can deviate slightly from the classic recipe and make the first course with meatballs.
Ingredients:
- Minced pork and beef - 300 g
- Smoked meats (sausages, ham, sausage, boiled pork) - 250 g
- Pickled cucumbers - 2-3 pcs.
- Potatoes - 400 g
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Egg - 1 pc.
- Tomato paste - 1 tablespoon
- Breadcrumbs - 2 tablespoons
- Vegetable oil - 2-3 tablespoons
- Salt - 1 tsp with a slide
- Ground black pepper - 1/3 tsp
- Black peppercorns - 5-6 pcs.
- Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
- Lemon to taste
- Olives - 1 can (330 g)
Step-by-step cooking of a hodgepodge with meatballs:
- First you need to peel and dice the onions. Fry it in a little oil for 5 minutes, until it becomes transparent.
- Chop the smoked meats and add to the onions. Fry the ingredients for 3-5 minutes.
- Next, you need to chop the pickles and add to the contents of the pan.
- Next, send tomato paste there, pour in 10 ml of water and simmer for 8-10 minutes, reducing the heat to minimum.
- The next step is to peel, chop the potatoes and boil for 8-10 minutes.
- At this time, do the meatballs: mix the minced meat and breadcrumbs, beat in the egg, salt, pepper and form the meat balls.
- Send the meatballs to the potatoes in a hodgepodge and cook for 5 minutes, after the soup has boiled.
- After the indicated time, add the frying to the pan and cook the dish for another 10 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper, add bay leaves, turn off the stove and leave the hodgepodge under a closed lid to infuse for 10 minutes.
- When pouring the soup into bowls, be sure to add the lemon slice and the olives, which are sliced into wedges.
Meat hodgepodge with kidneys
Another original recipe for making a hodgepodge. The most difficult thing is the correct preparation of the kidneys, and this is where the preparation of the dish should begin.
Ingredients:
- Beef (with bone) - 300 g
- Pork - 200 g
- Kidneys - 200 g
- Ham - 200 g
- Smoked sausage - 200 g
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Pickled cucumbers - 2 pcs.
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Olives - 100 g
- Tomato paste - 2 tablespoons
- Salt to taste
- Black peppercorns - to taste
- Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
- Vegetable oil - 50 ml
- Lemon to taste
- Sour cream - to taste
- Water - 2.5 l
Step-by-step preparation of meat hodgepodge with kidneys:
- You must first soak the kidneys in the refrigerator for 4 hours. Remember to change the water every hour.
- Fill the beef with water in a multicooker bowl, turn on the “Multicooker” mode and cook the meat for 2 hours at 100 ° C. You can also select the "Soup" mode.
- Next, prepare the carrots, onions and cucumbers for the hodgepodge. Chop the vegetables, first fry the onions, carrots, and then add cucumbers and tomato paste to them.
- After 5 minutes, add the chopped kidneys to the contents of the pan, fry well.
- Take out the meat and cut it into small pieces, send it back to the multicooker along with the vegetables and kidneys.
- Chop the sausage and ham, add to the meat.
- Cook the hodgepodge for 40 minutes, setting the "Soup" mode.
- Add the sliced olives 10 minutes before cooking.
- Salt and pepper the dish 3 minutes before cooking. And don't forget to add the bay leaf.
- Place a slice of lemon and a spoonful of sour cream on a plate before serving.
Solyanka with hunting sausages
Solyanka with hunting sausages is a nutritious and aromatic soup that all men, without exception, adore. And for the dish to be hearty, do not forget to add potatoes.
Ingredients:
- Chicken - 0.5 pcs.
- Hunting sausages - 150 g
- Smoked chicken - 0, 5 pcs.
- Potatoes - 4 pcs.
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Tomatoes - 4-5 pcs.
- Pickled cucumbers - 2-3 pcs.
- Greens to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
- Vegetable oil - 30 ml
- Bay leaf - 1 pc.
- Sour cream - to taste
- Lemon to taste
- Water - 3-4 l
Step-by-step preparation of a hodgepodge with hunting sausages:
- Chop the chicken into pieces, cover with water and cook over low heat. Skim off the foam while cooking.
- At this time, chop the cucumbers, potatoes and onions with a knife, and chop the carrots and tomatoes on a coarse grater.
- At the next stage of cooking the hodgepodge, the hunting sausages are step by step peeled and cut, the chicken is taken out of the broth and also chopped.
- Add meat, sausages and potatoes to the broth and cook for 20 minutes.
- Fry carrots and onions in a little oil for 2 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and simmer for another 2 minutes.
- Pour some broth into the pan and add pickles for the hodgepodge. Simmer the vegetable dressing for another 3 minutes.
- Transfer the contents of the skillet to a saucepan and cook for 7 minutes. Don't forget to add the bay leaf.
- Serve the hodgepodge with a slice of lemon and 1 teaspoon of sour cream. You can also garnish the dish with fresh herbs.
Note! Tomatoes in this recipe for hodgepodge with potatoes, chicken and hunting sausages can be replaced with tomato paste.
Solyanka with fresh cucumbers
There are many ways how to cook a hodgepodge, but traditionally pickles are present in each recipe, which set the taste of the first course. According to one of the versions, it was they who gave the name to the soup. If pickles are not available, you can replace them with fresh ones, but in this case the hodgepodge will have to be acidified.
Ingredients:
- Beef ribs - 400 g
- Pork loin - 400 g
- Chicken thighs - 300 g
- Smoked sausage - 150 g
- Fresh cucumbers - 200 g
- Onions - 2 heads
- Green olives - 1 can
- Tomato paste - 2 tablespoons
- Sugar - 1 tsp
- Vinegar 9% - 1 tsp
- Vegetable oil to taste
- Hot pepper - to taste
- Salt - 1 tsp
Step-by-step cooking of a hodgepodge with fresh cucumbers:
- Rinse the meat, add water and cook for about 2 hours.
- Chop the cucumbers using a coarse grater, salt and mix.
- When the meat is cooked, separate it from the bones, cut into cubes and send to the broth.
- Pour chopped smoked sausage there.
- Fry the varnish in a small amount of vegetable oil until golden brown, add chopped cucumbers.
- In the next step, send tomato paste and a little sugar to the pan, stir and simmer for 7 minutes. Remember to stir.
- Chop the olives, add them to the broth along with the remaining brine.
- Next, add vegetable dressing, a slice of pepper, a little vinegar to the pan, salt and cook for half an hour, making a small fire.
- Before serving the pickle with cucumbers, sprinkle the dish with chopped herbs, add a slice of lemon and season with a spoonful of sour cream.
