Chef Lesia
Buzhenyna (буженина, garlic-studded roast pork)
A whole pork neck takes garlic into little knife pockets, roasts until the crust goes dark and fragrant, then rests overnight so every cold slice tastes better than shop ham.
Culinary Explorer
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Shpundra (шпундра, pork stewed in beet kvas)
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Pork goes into the pot pale and stubborn, then beet kvas takes hold and turns it dark crimson, sour-sweet, glossy, and old enough to make the table go quiet.
Main Dishes
Ukrainian
Comfort Food
Special Occasion
Make Ahead
35 min
Active Time
2 hr 30 min cook•3 hr 5 min total
Yield6 to 8 servings
The most arresting thing is the color. Pork belly and ribs begin as ordinary meat, pale and fatty, then beet kvas floods the pot and everything turns crimson: the onions, the fat, the edges of the pork, even the wooden spoon if you leave it resting too long. It looks like borshch decided to become supper.
Shpundra belongs to Poltava and the older Cossack table, where souring was not decoration but structure. The beet kvas cuts through the pork fat, the fat carries the beet sweetness, and the pot lands in that old Ukrainian place between feast and preservation. Not vinegar. Not wine. A living sourness from beet ferment, mellow and earthy, with enough bite to wake the whole dish up.
The one thing that decides it is the end. Sweat the onion and carrot slowly as a zasmazhka, the Ukrainian flavour base, then stir it in late so its sweetness sits brightly on the sauce instead of flattening into the stew. Aunt Nadia would have written, "until the smell changes," and of course she would have left out the amount of kvas, just to torment me from the graph paper. Taste as you go. When the pork gives under the spoon and the sauce is glossy enough to stain bread, you're there.
Make a big pot. There is no tradition of a small one, and this is better tomorrow, when the beet sourness and pork fat have stopped shouting and learned each other's names.
Shpundra is most strongly tied to central Ukraine, especially Poltava, and appears in Ivan Kotliarevsky's 1798 Ukrainian burlesque Eneida among the foods of a noisy, recognizably local table. The dish preserves an older souring logic: meat braised with beet kvas, buriachany kvas, before factory vinegar became the easy shortcut. Its near disappearance from everyday cooking says plenty about how regional Ukrainian dishes were narrowed by standardized Soviet-era cookbooks.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
pork ribs
Quantity
800g
cut into individual ribs
pork belly
Quantity
600g
skin removed, cut into 4cm pieces
sea salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
black pepper
Quantity
1 teaspoon
freshly ground
unrefined sunflower oil or rendered pork fat
Quantity
2 tablespoons
onions
Quantity
2 large
thinly sliced
carrots
Quantity
2 medium
coarsely grated
beets
Quantity
3 medium
peeled and cut into thick wedges
beet kvas
Quantity
500ml
preferably homemade or unsweetened fermented beet drink
pork stock or water
Quantity
250ml
bay leaves
Quantity
2
black peppercorns
Quantity
6
garlic
Quantity
3 cloves
smashed
honey or dark buckwheat honey (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
rye flour or wheat flour (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
for a thicker sauce
dill
Quantity
small bunch
chopped, to serve
smetana (sour cream) (optional)
Quantity
to serve
rye bread or boiled potatoes (optional)
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| pork ribscut into individual ribs | 800g |
| pork bellyskin removed, cut into 4cm pieces | 600g |
| sea salt | 2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| black pepperfreshly ground | 1 teaspoon |
| unrefined sunflower oil or rendered pork fat | 2 tablespoons |
| onionsthinly sliced | 2 large |
| carrotscoarsely grated | 2 medium |
| beetspeeled and cut into thick wedges | 3 medium |
| beet kvaspreferably homemade or unsweetened fermented beet drink | 500ml |
| pork stock or water | 250ml |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| black peppercorns | 6 |
| garlicsmashed | 3 cloves |
| honey or dark buckwheat honey (optional) | 1 tablespoon |
| rye flour or wheat flour (optional)for a thicker sauce | 1 tablespoon |
| dillchopped, to serve | small bunch |
| smetana (sour cream) (optional) | to serve |
| rye bread or boiled potatoes (optional) | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •A heavy Dutch oven or deep cast-iron pot
- •A wide pan for the zasmazhka
- •A wooden spoon
- •A ladle for loosening the zasmazhka
Instructions
- 1
Season the pork
Salt and pepper the ribs and belly pieces, then leave them on the counter while you slice the vegetables. Even twenty minutes helps the salt settle in. The pork should lose its fridge chill before it hits the pan, so it browns instead of sulking in its own juices.
Belly gives gloss, ribs give bone sweetness. Use one if you must, but together they make the pot taste older than it is. - 2
Brown the meat
Warm the sunflower oil or pork fat in a heavy pot and brown the pork in batches, letting each piece take on deep golden edges before you turn it. Don't crowd the pot. You want the smell of roasted fat and browned bone, not boiled pork. Lift the meat to a plate as it colors.
- 3
Start the beets
Add the beet wedges to the same pot and turn them through the pork fat until their edges darken and the fat goes red-orange. Scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon. Those browned bits are not mess; they're the beginning of the sauce.
- 4
Braise in kvas
Return the pork to the pot with the bay leaves, peppercorns, garlic, beet kvas, and stock or water. The liquid should come about halfway up the meat, not drown it. Bring it to the gentlest bubble, cover loosely, and cook until the pork gives when pressed with a spoon and the kitchen smells sweet-sour rather than sharp. If the kvas tastes very fierce, add the honey; it should round the sourness, not make the stew sweet.
Use real fermented beet kvas if you can. If yours is salty, hold back on extra salt until the end; the pot will reduce and concentrate. - 5
Make the zasmazhka
While the pork softens, set a wide pan over low heat with a spoonful of fat skimmed from the stew. Add the sliced onions and cook until they slump, shine, and smell sweet. Add the grated carrot and keep it moving until the carrot softens and the fat turns orange. You're not frying hard. You're coaxing.
This zasmazhka goes in near the end so its sweetness sits brightly on the sauce. Add it at the start and it disappears into the braise. - 6
Thicken if wanted
If you want a thicker, older-style sauce, sprinkle the flour over the zasmazhka and stir until it smells nutty and no dry flour shows. Loosen it with a ladle of the crimson braising liquid, then scrape the whole pan into the pot. If you prefer the sauce lighter and glossy, skip the flour. Both tables will eat well.
- 7
Finish the pot
Simmer uncovered until the sauce clings to the pork and the beets are tender but not collapsed. Taste for salt, pepper, and sourness. A splash more kvas can wake it up; a spoon of honey can soften a very young ferment. Let the pot rest off the heat before serving, because pork fat and beet sourness need a little time to settle.
- 8
Serve generously
Spoon the pork, beets, and crimson sauce into a deep bowl. Scatter with dill and serve smetana on the side, cold against the hot stew, with rye bread or boiled potatoes for dragging through the sauce. The plate should look fed, not arranged.
Chef Tips
- •If your beet kvas is homemade, taste it first. Young kvas is sharper and brighter; older kvas is rounder and saltier. Adjust the pot with honey, stock, or a final splash of fresh kvas.
- •No beet kvas today? Use unsweetened fermented beet juice if you can find it. Plain roasted beets with vinegar make a bit more modern stew, useful on a tired Tuesday, but it won't have the same living sourness.
- •The browning and the kvas are the steps that matter. The exact cut of pork forgives you: ribs, belly, shoulder, or a mix will all give something good.
- •Shpundra is better the next day. Chill it, lift off any excess fat if you like, then reheat gently until the sauce loosens and shines again.
Advance Preparation
- •Beet kvas needs 3 to 5 days at room temperature if you make it yourself: beets, water, and 2 percent salt by water weight, kept submerged until pleasantly sour.
- •The finished shpundra can be made 1 to 2 days ahead and reheated gently. It improves as the pork fat and beet kvas settle together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 325g)
Calories
820 calories
Total Fat
67 g
Saturated Fat
23 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
39 g
Cholesterol
155 mg
Sodium
1080 mg
Total Carbohydrates
21 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
13 g
Protein
33 g
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