How to Make Authentic Russian Borscht

I was born in Riga, Latvia, a country in Eastern Europe that borders Russia. When I was born, it was still part of the USSR. I grew up eating a fairly traditional Easter European diet until we immigrated to the United States. My diet consisted of smoked fish, dark rye bread, fermented pickles and sauerkraut, homemade cottage cheese, caviar, cured meats and lots of soups. We always had a pot of soup at home, whether it was Uha (fish soup), vegetable soup with meatballs, bean soup, or my favorite, borscht. My mom always made the most amazing borscht. I could eat it daily and sometimes more than once a day. When I moved out of the house, making soup seemed so daunting to me and it was one of the last things I learned to cook.

A couple of years ago, I asked my mom to share her recipe with me. As I've mentioned before, I'm really bad at following recipes and luckily my mom is really bad at writing them down. She explained to me how she made it and gave me some pointers on how to get my borscht to be the most beautiful ruby red color. Over the last two years, I've been perfecting my recipe and now I am ready to share it with the world.

Authentic Borscht
1 lb of pastured/organic beef bones (knuckles and femur are best)
1 large pastured/organic beef short rib
1 large onion
3 medium beets
3 large carrots
1 small red or green cabbage
1/2 cup of sauerkraut
12 green peppercorns
2 tbsp Celtic Salt
1 spring of Parsley and another half spring for later
1 spring of Dill and another half spring for later

Process:
1. Put bones, short rib, onion, peppercorns, salt, parsley and dill into a large pot. I like to put the peppercorns and herbs into a large unbleached teabag 

2. Bring to boil and then reduce to low heat and cook for 24-36 hours

3. After broth is done cooking, let cool and take off layer of fat that forms at the top

4. Remove bones, but leave any meat inside the pot. Remove onion and bag of herbs

5. Peel beets and carrots and add to pot. Bring to boil

6. Shred cabbage

7. After about 45 minutes, remove beets and carrots and shred using a food processor

8. Add shredding beets and carrots back into the pot, add sauerkraut and cook for another 20 minutes

9. Chop dill and parsley and add into the soup

10. Turn off heat

11. Enjoy!