Acknowledging Intangible Cultural Heritage

Nowadays, people are travelling more, taking an interest in everything that is happening in the world and expanding their horizons, all of which is wonderful. Every different country evokes some associations in us, be it their national flag, language, their unique nature, architectural monuments, certain sports and, of course, their traditional cuisine. My country, the Ukraine, is known to the world, amongst other things, for its sports, cultural achievements and delicious traditional food.

Upon arriving in Canada, I was pleased to find pierogi and my favorite dish cabbage rolls here. These dishes are very popular in Ukraine, so the very first thing I decided to do was to cook Ukrainian borscht for my new friends. This type of soup is not only food for us, but also a real cultural heritage. Borscht is known not only in Ukraine though; it is on the list of national dishes of Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Poland and Jewish cuisine. There were many disputes about the origins of borscht. According to many experts, borscht originally appeared in Ukraine in the late Middle Ages and gradually spread to other territories.

These days tourists coming to the Ukraine can find this dish in almost any restaurant, regardless of its classification and status. They will be pleasantly surprised by the varied taste and original presentation of this dish. For example, it can be placed in the center of fresh cabbage or brought in a pot made of bread.  In 2020, a Museum of Cooked Borscht appeared in one of the Ukrainian villages in the Poltava region. Poltava Oblast (region) is in the center of Ukraine and known for its outstanding theater scene, art galleries and cultural centers.

The museum’s  owner has collected at least 365 borscht recipes and every day visitors can not only get acquainted with the history of this dish, but also try borscht cooked according to one of his recipes. The first written mention of Ukrainian borscht appeared in Kyiv in 1584 and there is much archival evidence that for century’s borscht has been and is a favorite dish of Ukrainians of different social status. It has become a classic dish that has swept the entire country.

In 2022, UNESCO announced the inclusion of the culture of cooking Ukrainian borscht in the List of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine in need of preservation. By definition intangible heritage is part of the living cultural heritage (knowledge, practices and expressions) that community’s value.

For those who are unaware, borscht is a vegetable soup made with beets and cooked in pork or beef broth. It has a distinctive sweet and sour taste and red color, which is given to it by the beets. In order to achieve the desired degree of acidity, people used to add sour berries, beet kvass (fermented beet juice), apples or cherries to borscht. Later, they began to use tomatoes. Borscht also contains finely chopped fresh cabbage. The ingredients for this dish vary depending on the region in which people lived.

As an example, in my family, one grandmother lived in a forest zone and cooked borscht with collected forest mushrooms, and the other lived in the steppe zone and added sweet peppers and beans to her dish. What's surprising is that in both cases, borscht did not lose its characteristic aroma and taste. If there was a stove in the house, borscht was cooked on coals, using a clay or cast iron pot and the borscht was incredibly aromatic.

My parents' house still has my grandmother's cooking pot and many other old memorabilia that Ukrainians used at that time.  There is a very old wooden board for ironing and a vereteno (spindle for a spinning wheel) which my grandmother used to weave rugs for the floor. In the city of Kyiv you will find the Pirogov National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine. This museum is located in the open air and is a landscape complex of all regions of Ukraine. It contains the same household items as in our family collection and I am very glad that they have been preserved as a memory of our ancestors.

As for borscht, it is unique in that it can be used as a full breakfast, lunch or dinner. Usually, borscht is served with sour cream and buns with garlic, green onions and hot red pepper. If borscht is prepared for guests, then a shot of vodka can be served with it. I can safely call the preparation of this dish is a real creative process. Each housewife brings something of her own to it.  For example, some can add smoked pear or dried plums to borscht, and some recipes include river fish. In our family, borscht was also cooked in different ways. My grandmother sometimes cooked borscht from a domestic rooster, adding a lot of sour cream and fried bacon to it. My second grandmother was quite religious and often cooked lean borscht in vegetable broth. With the onset of spring, she sometimes added some fresh nettles and greens grown in her garden to her borscht. We had a distant relative who knew how to cook special borscht and everyone he treated to his culinary masterpiece believed so. They said that he boiled the meat on the bone for a very long time over low heat, and then gradually added vegetables and spices. He tried to achieve the same taste as borscht cooked in the oven, and he succeeded. There is a memory in the family that he spent half a day on this.  I don't know if it's true or not, but no one has ever managed to make the same borscht as his. He lived in the Ukrainian city of Zhitomir and in our family we called his borscht "Zhitomirskiy borscht".

Nowadays, borscht has become a common everyday dish, but in the past it was served to guests at weddings and other celebrations including being served at the Christmas table. Borscht was also cooked on memorial days. Since there is no single correct recipe for Ukrainian borscht, this dish was the subject of disputes among housewives, because each wanted to boast of her own special recipe. Interestingly, it is impossible to teach how to cook this delicious repast. To do this, you need to visit your relatives and friends' houses more often, share your recipes, and enjoy delicious food and a warm, pleasant atmosphere.

The secret of cooking delicious Ukrainian borscht is this. The vegetables and tomatoes need to be fried in a frying pan or baked in the oven ahead of time. But the most important secret is to cook it only while in a good mood, with thoughts about your loved ones and those dear to you.

My last word on this cultural specialty is this, "If borscht is prepared for guests, then a shot of vodka should be served with it, and then definitely washed down with green onions, previously soaked in salt. There is an opinion out there that this sequence is very beneficial for health. I will not claim this, but the men in Ukraine certainly think so. I can safely call the preparation of this dish a real creative process and each housewife brings something of her own to it"