Pete's Romanian Cabbage Soup
My parents got divorced when I was 5 years old, and years later my father still came to the house once in awhile to eat his favorite soup. Boy, that must have been great soup!!
My parents got divorced when I was 5 years old, and years later my father still came to the house once in awhile to eat his favorite soup. Boy, that must have been great soup!!
- 1 lemon juiced
- 6 cups water
- 1 28-oz can whole tomatoes
- beef flanken (also called short ribs ) 3 lbs
- 2 soup bones preferably marrow bones they are delicious . be sure and eat the marrow inside when soup
- 2 cups tomato paste or tomato sauce
- 2 lbs cabbage (coarsely) shredded
- coarse salt or any regular salt
- 0.75 cups sugar to taste
- Carbohydrate 45.16395 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.65635 g
- Fiber 7.29599995851517 g
- Protein 5.2876 g
- Saturated Fat 0.136285 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (488g)
- Sodium 96.765 mg
- Sugar 37.8679500414848 g
- Trans Fat 0.20808 g
- Calories 183 calories
Step-by-step
- Combine tomato and water in large stockpot and bring to boil. Remove all fat from beef except a little fat for taste. Cut meat into cubes chunks or etc.
- Add beef, bones tomato paste or sauce cabbage salt sugar lemon juice to stock pot, stirring to blend.
- Simmer with lid ajar, 2-2 1/2 hours or until meat is tender. Remove bones before serving (don't forget to eat the delicious marrow out of the bones) Makes 6-8 servings.
Unlike lighter clear broths built on rapid chicken stocks, Eastern European sour cabbage soups rely on extended simmering periods to break down dense connective tissue and release gelatin from bones. Achieving the proper consistency requires careful attention to both heat control and timing during the two-hour cook.
- Trim excess fat from the beef short ribs before cubing, leaving only a thin outer layer to prevent the broth from becoming greasy as the collagen renders down.
- Maintain a gentle simmer with the pot lid slightly ajar, which allows steam to escape steadily while concentrating the tomato and cabbage flavors without scorching the bottom of the stockpot.
- Test the beef chunks for doneness around the two-hour mark by pressing them with a fork; the meat should yield completely and pull apart easily when fully tender.
- Extract the marrow from the cooked bones promptly before serving while it remains hot and easily spreadable or scoopable.
Proper acid balance finishes the pot just before ladling. Stirring fresh lemon juice into the hot broth brightens the heavy tomato base without masking the natural sweetness of the long-cooked cabbage.
