Brine Is the Transformative Base for Everything from Brisket to Borscht

I was never a huge fan of borscht until Tomasz Skowronski made me a beet-liever at last year’s Worlds of Flavor conference at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. When the chef/co-owner of Eastern European vegan Apteka demo’d the dish, we quickly learned that the secret to bringing depth to the savory jewel-toned bowl is its lacto-ferment-y brine. “It’s just a huge jump start for any kind of soup,” Skowronski told Cate Huguelet in her feature on building complexity with brine. “It’s adding salt of course, and it’s adding acidity, but it’s also adding all these in-between compounds: aromas and flavors and kind of middle-body umami.” For her story from our Salty issue, Huguelet also talked to chefs like Snackbar’s Vishwesh Bhatt about the sweet-tea brine that kicks up his fried chicken and Yingtao’s Jakub Baster about using brine to enhance texture and moisture in steamed fish. Get the recipes and read about all the dishes and drinks here.