Kapusnyak

Ingredients

Meat

• 600 gsmoked pork ribs
• or 400 g smoked pork and 200 g salo
• 2 litreswater

The pot

• 600 gsauerkraut, drained
• 100 gmillet
• or 3 potatoes, in cubes
• 2onions, chopped
• 2carrots, grated
• 3 tablespoonsoil or lard
• 2 tablespoonstomato paste
• 2bay leaves
• 1 teaspoonblack peppercorns
• salt and black pepper

To finish

• 3garlic cloves, crushed
• a handful of dill, chopped
• 200 mlsmetana, soured cream

To serve

• dark rye bread
• salo, cured pork fat
• extra soured cream

Directions

1. Salt is added and the cabbage is pressed down. It ferments over weeks in a cold place. Rinse the millet in several changes of water. Keep rinsing until the water runs clearer. Preparing the sauerkraut takes judgement.
2. Drain the sauerkraut and keep the brine. Taste it to judge the sourness. Rinse it briefly if it is very sharp. Squeeze it out if it is very wet. Chop it roughly if the strands are long. Put the smoked ribs in a large pot. Cover them over with the water. Bring it up slowly to a simmer. Skim off any foam that rises up.
3. Add the bay leaves and peppercorns. Simmering it takes genuine time. Cover it over and simmer gently. Give it about one full hour of that. Lift the ribs out and let them cool. Pick all the meat off the bones. Return the picked meat to the pot.
4. Put the drained sauerkraut in a pan. Add a ladle of the broth to it. Simmer it gently for about thirty minutes. Millet takes far longer as well.
5. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the chopped onions to the pan. Cook them for a good eight minutes. Add the grated carrot to them. Cook it for another five minutes. Stir the tomato paste in as well. Fry it for a good two minutes. Add the rinsed millet to the broth. Give them about twenty minutes.
6. Let it simmer another fifteen minutes. The millet should be soft and swollen. Taste it and adjust the salt now. Add sauerkraut brine if it needs more sourness. Finishing it is done off the heat.
7. Take the pot off the heat entirely. Stir in the crushed raw garlic. Add the chopped dill in with it. Let it stand covered for ten minutes. Serving it is done hot in deep bowls. Ladle it out into deep warm bowls. Add a large spoon of smetana to each. Smetana is the thick soured cream. Serve dark rye bread alongside. It keeps four days refrigerated.

Technique

• Households ferment cabbage in barrels each autumn with salt and its own juice, and that kraut feeds them all winter; the cabbage must stay under its brine, since anything above the surface goes mouldy, and any pink, black or fuzzy growth means the batch should be discarded.
• Millet was the traditional grain long before potatoes arrived, thickening the soup and adding a nutty flavour; potatoes replaced it in many households and both are now traditional.
• Sauerkraut is cooked separately and added later, because its acid stops potatoes softening and slows millet considerably; cooking the kraut apart avoids that entirely.

Substitutions

• Potatoes stand in for millet and are equally traditional now.
• Any smoked pork works, and smoked ribs give the most depth.

Variations

• Some households use both millet and potato together.
• Salo crushed with garlic is stirred in at the end in some versions.
• Sauerkraut brine is added to sharpen the soup to taste.

History

A sour soup made from cabbage, either fresh or fermented, cooked with meat broth, millet or barley and often a splash of pickle brine or vinegar for added tang, documented across Ukraine for many generations as a significant traditional soup, closely related to but genuinely distinct from the country’s more internationally famous borscht. Its distinctly sour flavour, achieved through fermented cabbage or added acidity, reflects a broader Ukrainian and wider Eastern European culinary tradition of building deeply flavoured soups around fermented or pickled vegetables, particularly important historically as a way of preserving cabbage through the region’s long winters. Kapusnyak remains a traditional Ukrainian soup, valued as a warming, tangy dish particularly suited to cold weather.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kapusnyak?

Kapusnyak is a soup & stew from Ukraine: sauerkraut soup with pork and millet. A sour soup made from cabbage, either fresh or fermented, cooked with meat broth, millet or barley and often a splash of pickle brine or vinegar for added tang, documented across Ukraine for many generations as a significant traditional soup, closely related to but genuinely distinct from the country’s more internationally famous borscht. Its distinctly sour flavour, achieved through fermented cabbage or added acidity, reflects a broader Ukrainian and wider Eastern European culinary tradition of building deeply flavoured soups around fermented or pickled vegetables, particularly important historically as a way of preserving cabbage through the region’s long winters. Kapusnyak remains a traditional Ukrainian soup, valued as a warming, tangy dish particularly suited to cold weather.

How long does Kapusnyak take to make?

Kapusnyak takes 25 minutes of preparation and 2 hours of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Kapusnyak?

Yes, within limits. Potatoes stand in for millet and are equally traditional now. Any smoked pork works, and smoked ribs give the most depth.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kapusnyak?

Households ferment cabbage in barrels each autumn with salt and its own juice, and that kraut feeds them all winter; the cabbage must stay under its brine, since anything above the surface goes mouldy, and any pink, black or fuzzy growth means the batch should be discarded.