Meat Selyanka (Solyanka)

History

Molokhovets records «Селянка мясная» (meat selyanka) among her soups, standardizing a dish far older than her book rather than inventing it. The name carries a documented pun: the earlier form selyanka derives from selyanin, "villager," while the later, now-dominant solyanka leans on sol' ("salt"), because the dish was made markedly salty and sour. Its first written mention comes in the 17th century, when it was not a soup at all but a hot dish of cabbage, brined cucumbers and assorted meats, poultry, fish or mushrooms, soured by cucumber brine or vinegar; an early recipe appears in N. Osipov's 1794 housekeeping manual. As late as the 1822 Dictionary of the Russian Academy it was still classed as a main course, not a soup, and only in the 1830s did the soup form emerge (Gerasim Stepanov, 1834), settling into an independent dish by the mid-19th century. Tavern-keepers were known for their showy restaurant versions, and selyanka is defined by its spicy-sour profile — mixed meats, brined cucumbers, olives, mushrooms and a pour of cucumber brine, finished with sour cream and dill, much as Molokhovets lays it out.

Ingredients

• funt beef
• plateful (not full) assorted meats
• roots and onion
• tbsp butter
• tbsp flour
• salt cucumbers
• olives
• champignons
• each marinated/salt mushrooms
• stakans cucumber brine
• head fresh cabbage
• stakan sour cream or thick cream
• dill, parsley, green onion

Instructions

1. Make and strain a white beef bouillon; add assorted cut meats.
2. Fry onion and flour, thin with broth, and add cucumbers, olives, mushrooms and brine.
3. Combine with the meats, add sour cream, boil once, and serve with dill, parsley and green onion.