Borscht

Put the beef shin in a large heavy pan and pour over the 3 litres of cold water.

Bring it up slowly over about 20 minutes, to the point where the first lazy bubbles break the surface.

Start it in cold water and bring it up slowly. Meat dropped into water already boiling seizes and holds its scum inside, and a broth clouded at this stage never clears afterwards.

Skim the grey foam off with a ladle as it gathers, and go on skimming until the surface stays clear.

Add the halved onion, the halved carrot, the bay leaves and the whole peppercorns.

Hold it at a bare simmer with the lid ajar for 2 hours, until the meat has shrunk back from the bone and gives under a fork.

Lift the beef onto a plate and strain the broth into a clean pan, discarding the boiled aromatics.

Pull the meat off the bone once it is cool enough to handle, discard the fat and gristle, and shred it into pieces that will sit on a spoon.

Warm the sunflower oil in a wide pan over medium heat.

Cook the diced onion and grated carrot for 8-10 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft with the first hint of gold at the edges.

Add the grated beetroot, the tomato puree, the 2 tbsp of cider vinegar and the sugar, and turn everything over together.

Stew the beetroot in its own pan with the acid rather than tipping it raw into the broth. Betanin is destroyed by long heat and held by acid, and beetroot simmered for an hour in a neutral pot gives a soup the colour of weak gravy.

Cover and stew gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the beetroot has softened and the pan has gone deep red rather than raw purple.

Bring the strained broth back to a simmer while the beetroot cooks and slide in the potatoes.

Simmer for 10 minutes, until a knife tip meets only slight resistance in a cube.

Add the shredded cabbage and cook for 5-8 minutes, until it is tender but still has some bite.

Stir the beetroot mixture and the shredded meat into the broth.

Bring it back to a bare simmer for 5 minutes and no longer. Every extra minute of heat from here costs colour, and a pot boiled hard after the beetroot goes in turns brick brown.

Stir in the chopped garlic off the heat, so it stays sharp rather than cooking out.

Season with the ground peppercorns and then with fine salt, tasting as you go.

Taste for the balance of sour and sweet, and correct it with more cider vinegar a teaspoon at a time. It should taste distinctly sour rather than merely savoury.

Cover the pan and stand it off the heat for 20 minutes before serving, which lets the flavours settle and takes the raw edge off the garlic.

Ladle into warm bowls, scatter the dill over and put the smetana on the table.

Let each person stir their own spoonful of smetana in. Soured cream stirred into the whole pot over heat splits into grains in a soup this acidic, and it cannot be brought back.

Cool any left over in a shallow container, refrigerate within two hours and eat it within three days.

Expect it to be better on the second day and a duller red. Reheat it to a simmer and no further.