Souses in Georgian cuisine

Like the French cuisine, Georgian one is impossible to imagine without souses. At that, Georgian souses differ from European in composition and preparing technology. For Georgian souses only vegetable oil can be used as basis. Most often these are sour berry or fruit juices or pure from tkemal, sloe, pomegranate, blackberries, barberries sometimes from tomatoes. Widely spread are also nut souses, which have stamped nuts as basis, diluted with simple water or wine vinegar. Rarely they use for basis of some souses pounded garlic (it is complementary component of majority of souses). In many souses and dressings all numbered vegetable elements are present (sour juice, nuts, garlic) and are combined in different proportions.

Along with basis into the composition of Georgian souses comes a big list of spices, in general spicy greens, spicy herbs, to which a small quantity of dry spices are added. Spicy greens are: basil, tarragon, savory, parsley, fennel, mint; dry spices are: red pepper, seeds of coriander, cinnamon, immeretin saffron, cloves. Every souse has it's own list of spices, i.e. not all spices together but usually tree or four of them. Such a list in every single case makes every souse (together with different basis) differ in taste and aroma.

The technology of preparing Georgian souses adds up to two operations: to boiling out the fruit juice or pure and to pounding nuts, garlic, spices. They boil it out up to one third or up to half until it is a homogeneous paste or emulsion. After boiling out and stamping it is left to mix the components, belonging to this souse. As usual to mix is to dilute the dry components with liquid ones: juices, wine vinegar, bouillon or water. The most of Georgian souse?s consistence is liquid contrary to, for example, European souses, which have dense consistence and sometimes are even denser than sour cream.

The usage of Georgian souses is also peculiar: one souse can be used with completely different basis (meat, vegetable and even fish) and it can result in completely different dishes. For example satsywy souse. Sometimes vegetable dishes can limit the range of souse usage, but such dishes can have different vegetable basis - this means the principle is the same - one souse, different basis. For example to cabbage, beet, haricot can be applied a different souse - tkemaly. From the other side, different souses can be applied to the same basis. The result is dishes, which have different names. For example to one simply roasted chicken can be served such souses as sazebelly, satsywy, garo, tkemaly, wine-garlic, nut, barberry and so on.

Using of souse variation and the small quantity of main products Georgians reach the richness of their second courses. Often haricot, aubergine, poultry are the basis of dishes - thy provide the almost neutral, but not completely, taste background, good for presenting aroma, taste, piquancy of Georgian souses.

Sometimes Georgian souses play a role of independent dishes. They are eaten in such cases with bread. They are rather high-calorie, have plenty of vitamins and very tasty - this is why they are so popular.

And a couple words about the taste gamma of Georgian souses. Their distinguishing feature is astringent sourish, which appear due to the natural fruit and vegetable juices. Sometimes they mistakenly consider it as "poignancy" and tie it with immoderate usage of spices, especially red pepper. Meanwhile this astringent sourish taste has nothing of the sort of "poignancy". Of course, it makes stronger the aroma, given to Georgian souses by used spicy herbs, but the main character of this taste is not poignant.

The natural sourish of the fruit juices has nothing in common with the poignancy of the vinegar, with which the juices are sometimes replaced in restaurants, while preparing the dishes of Georgian cuisine. As to the spices used in Georgian cuisine during preparing souses and food they are also aromatic, but not poignant: not only spicy green (coriander, basil, savory, tarragon, mint), but even favorite in Georgia dry spices (hmely-sunely, cinnamon, immeretin saffron) - soften, abate the sharpness of the taste and are first of all, not poignant but very aromatic.