The Disturbing Truth Of Lithuania's Cold Beetroot Soup (Šaltibarščiai) 

Just to clarify the thumbnail image: I’m not saying that šaltibarščiai isn’t Lithuanian. It’s that the specific image used is the search result for auksta zupa.

Strange take. It's like saying that pierogi is not Polish, because there are dumplings in China. Or BBQ can't be Texan, because other countries smoke meat.

All these areas had been called Lithuania for some time in history. ;)

I heard Latvians put "doctors sausage" directly into their cold soup, to any Lithuanian it sounds absolutely wild and nearly blasphemous.

Well, Lithuanians with Belarusians for centuries lived together in same country. No wonder they share some dishes.

You have pizza over all the world, but nobody doubts that it's originated in Italy. Same with the could Lithuanian Soup

And in Poland it is called "Hlodnik Litevwski" meaning "Lithuanian Chlodnik". It is Lithuanian stuff adopted in others ;)

you're on thin ice my friend 😑😁

It's very popular in Poland too, but only in warmer weather. It's called chłodnik litewski (Lithuanian cold-soup).

Even "if" Pink Soup is not originally Lithuanian. It has formed the a part of the national fabric and backbone that is similar to though not as famous as the Japanese Ramen dishes with many different variations which originates from Chinese immigrants or Pasta in Italy.

šaltibarščiai run through my veins

I am a Latvian who lives now in Lithuania and could say that the taste and making of this super tasty soup is almost the same. For example, in the Latvian recipe (in my family) ingredients are marinated beetroot, fresh cucumbers, fresh red radish, boiled egg, dills, and green onions, as base kefir. In Latvia, typical kefir is 2% fat so we add a spoon of Sauer cream, typically 18% fat, which is leaner than a typical Grietine (Sauer cream) in Lithuania. For a more flavoured taste one teaspoon of strong mustard paste, salt, and pepper. You eat with boiled potatoes on a side. Good appetite! PS: Never tasted cold soup with "Doctor" sausage, so can't say that it is a typical thing for Latvian cold soup.

This soup spread when polish lithuanian commonwealth exists

Usually in summer we have +20...+25 and some rain. There are few hot days, about +30. Only then one can understand true value of saltibarsciai. These days we usually eat saltibarsciai, or milk with bread (with berries and honey) or lasiniai with slightly marinated cucumber. Anything else one can't make nor swallow. In my family saltibarsciai can be without beat, but not without cucumber and dill. Caraites or Tatars brought cucumbers to Lithuania, Jews made them very popular.

Very strange video.. Of course nations are not isolated and nabour countries has a lot of similar recipes. Although it's obvious that this is the most popular soup in Lithuania and it's so for a reason. No need to creat "controversy" without any proof.

А носочки-то великолепны!!!!

Many things that are popular or regular in some form, share a totally different root/origin and people should not be too shocked about that, as it is totally normal. There is "šaltibarščiai" that comes from the East Slavic countries, famous Italian "spaghetti", "tagliatelle" or "ravioli" might have came from Asia or our beloved and traditional Czech "guláš" and "klobása" came from Hungary. Also the languages have many interesting secrets...once I have found out that Lithuanian "parduoti" sounds "pretty Slavic", since in Czech, we say "prodat", but it is far from truth, because according to sources, it came from Proto-Indo-European. Sometimes, simple coincidence can aid into language learning, but it is good to always double check the etymology of some words, in order to be even smarter and more cautious. This all means that we should not look too much on where it came from, but rather on how it is doing now, since we live now, not in the past. P. S.: Congratulations for ten thousand subscribers!

Oh dear, fighting words…. You know they have Maple trees in Lithuania, and they make tree syrup from maple and birch trees? And they were doing that before Canada was a country? Let’s just explore your evidence a bit. The Polish call the soup Lithuanian cold soup. The Latvians refer to Aukstai or Aukštai, which is the northern region of Lithuania and the southern region of Latvia excluding the ethnically specific žemaitia, or western region (samogitian). So that’s direct or indirect reference to Lithuania or Lithuanian land in both names. Халаднік seems to translate to cold or cooler. So to be determined there. Check out Balta Mišraine for one that doesn’t seem to come from Lithuania.

There isn't enough time in the world to go over every similarity we have with our neighbouring countries. Where I currently live, my house is entirely Latvian, I am the only Lithuanian here and in all my years abroad I've never felt more at home because of just how much in common we have and food is part of that. Personally I don't care on which patch of land this or that dish was first made. Šaltibarščiai slaps hard regardless. 😋

JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS SIMILAR DOESN'T MEAN IT'S THE SAME!!!!!!!

Apparently it was already mentioned since 1850sh in a Lithuanian cookbook. Even Russians seem to agree on it, so it probably would be correct to attribute it to Lithuanian dishes. Keep in mind, there was a deliberate russification of people in the Russian empire. That could be the reason for lack of records on Lithuania.

You can’t find everything googling around in English ;) Did you know that the second most popular way to make it would be a white version with radishes instead of the beetroot.

Blasphemy. Who paid you off 11!1!!

I'm a Lithuanian and i personally love it, regardless if its unique to us or not, i don't think i had even 3 months in my adult life without eating it at least once and i'm 40.

It was the second food I had in LIETUVA. The first was Cepelinai

They have Saltibarsciai buffet??? My god, I would stay there for the whole day..... :|

Poles know better! Belorussians however borrowed a lot of Polish words, did not add "Litewski" because...they once were part of Lithuania. We also do not call it Lietuviški šaltibarščiai for the same obvious reason. I eat no other soup during Summer season and never got bored😁. Great research!👍

All of this could be explained in the nicer way. It seems a very negative attitude. We never told that we own the soup and we know well that the neighbours are making it too (thanks god). Although you say all the right information, it really sounds that, for some reason Lithuanians are stubborn to admit all the other versions of our dear neighbours.

I hope the author of the video feels very good now, revealing what is already so obvious. Now please make the video, where potatoes come from Latin America and Pasta from China. We all will be so shocked.

Is Awesome

Dear LitEx, you have an undusputedly Canadian things like Tim Hurton's and mapple syrup. Can we please keep our "šaltibarščiai" 😀 ?

It’s a good dish. I love it.

At least the recipe has evolved organically, unlike Pattaya. Yes Latvians and Lithuanians share this dish, but only our southern brethren made a big deal out of it. We need a P.R. campaign dedicated to hot boiled potatoes, picked herring, marinated onions and cottage cheese salad. Before anyone else will.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Since I dont agree fighting over food - i propose we share it. Multiple countries can have same food as traditional right? C`mon... its a food - we suppose to share it 😄

😲

It originated in baltics. Simple as that

Nothing wrong with shared heritage. It reminds that in the end, we're not that different from our neighbours.

We never claim who's this soup is. We eat it.

💚❤️🇵🇹👍🏻🇱🇹

you cheeky clickbaiter :)

nu ka broliuk, prisibazarinsi

Im an Aukstā zupa enjoyer myself

saltibarsciai is lithuanian and is made with "rugpienis" and not kefyr or anything else and with some dill beetrots cucumbers or a pickles some green onion and some potatoes on the side this is true lithuanian cold borsch it originated from rugpienis it's a milk that is kinda spoiled but super tasty and the cold borsch was made so that you could not just drink rugpienis but also eat something and not get too hot in the summer And the it spread to poland latvia and mostly belarus cuz it was first made when it was times of the LDK(Grand Duchy of Lithuania) and it covered a lot you know.

Origin of Chłodnik [Litewski]/Šaltibarščiai is apparently the modern day region of Podlaskie around Bialystok and surrounding areas in North East Poland. Historically used to be dominated by ethnic Lithuanians even though the modern concept of ethnicity may be difficult to apply to Poland/Lithuania of those days. It basically was a single country and arguably a single nation. So geographically, from the current geographical point of view at least, it is a "Polish" dish whereas ethnically and culturally there is a strong case for it to be considered "Lithuanian". In reality I think it is both: Polish-Lithuanian. Just like in the good old days of the Commonwealth. That's where Belarus and Latvia come into play. Simply because they were part of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. It's just not the version of culinary history Latvians and Belarusians would like to share with the world, which is why you probably couldn't find much information on the origin of Chłodnik/Šaltibarščiai on Latvian or Belarusian sources :)

The name is Lithuanian😂

Welp, cold soup originated in Lithuania,s grand duchy and everyone in the comments start fighting over food around the world.

fun fact only Lithuanians call it borscht all other call it just cold soup

10 thousand subs🎉🎉🎉🎉

Nowadays, Belarusians take everything that Lithuanians used to eat and do for decennials. Or.. Lithuanians just did not care of and did not know nearly anything about Belarusians for all those decennials or a hundred years.

Šaltibarščiai is Lithuanian. It’s practically impossible that Belarus (Russified Lithuanian territory) or Poland (failed experiment) ever came up with anything good and I guarantee that Latvias version of the dish was imported from Lithuania.

It's just a hustle I reckon. Lietuviai don't have a strong internationally oriented culture like for example the US/Japan/Korea does. All these 3 countries have their own media products that are geared toward their internal market but fundamentally appeal to an international audience (think k-pop, anime, hollywood). Lietuva has a small population (not a lot of people to create for, brain drain, weak economy etc.) and considering our history, we've liquidated our upper class almost periodically (those who could pull off production projects of such a scale). We have a weak culture, or rather weakened by the waves of time, imposed religion, language, emotional attitude. This borsch marketing stunt is just an attempt to find something of our own, although it's a rather low hanging fruit... I hope we can find ourselves again.

tbh cepelinai is also not lithuanian.