How to cook Tsakhton sauce at home. TOP 5 recipes, including a recipe for cooking for the winter.

Today we will talk about Tsakhton sauce. We will give you 4 sauce recipes and teach you how to prepare it for the winter.

Cahton or cehton

Tsakhton is a spicy Caucasian sauce, one of the traditional dishes of Ossetian cuisine. It is prepared from sour cream or other fermented milk products (matsoni, katyk), adding herbs, spices and nuts.

There is no generally accepted recipe for tsakhton. There are several options that differ in composition, and each can be called traditional.

When preparing sauce at home, you can experiment with the choice of ingredients and their quantity. Some people like their tsakhton spicier, others like it milder. Only the fermented milk base remains unchanged (and preferably fat – at least 20%).

Currently, tsakhton has already become an international dish – it has found a place in the cuisines of all countries and peoples of the Caucasus. But in the original it comes from Ossetia, where it is called tsyvzy-tsakhton. Therefore, the form “tsakhton” is correct, but the spelling “tsakhton” is erroneous.

As for the prefix “tsyvzy-”, it indicates the use of unripe pods of red hot pepper in the sauce. If the recipe does not contain this ingredient, it is no longer tsyvzy-tsakhton, but simply tsakhton. However, this does not make the sauce any less tasty and spicy.

Classic recipe

As mentioned above, tsakhton has several different traditional recipes. But the “most classic” one is usually considered the recipe with cilantro and garlic. Tsakhton sauce is prepared from these ingredients throughout the Caucasus.

Composition:

• sour cream (or katyk) – 500 ml;
• green cilantro – 1 bunch;
• dill – 1 bunch (can be replaced with any other herbs – to taste);
• garlic – 5 cloves;
• red pepper (chili) – 1 pc.;
• walnut kernel – 1 tsp;
• sol – 0.5 h. l.

Preparation:

1. Finely chop the greens. It is better to remove the hard stems – use only the leaves.
2. Finely chop the garlic. It is not customary to use a crush when preparing tsakhton (although no one forbids it). Therefore, it is better to cut with a knife or grate.
3. Remove seeds from peppers. Chop a little larger than the garlic.
4. Add all crushed ingredients to the container with sour cream.
5. Add salt and mix.
6. Pour the mixture into a gravy boat. Garnish with crushed walnut kernels and put in the refrigerator.

The sauce prepared according to this recipe is perfect for fish and meat dishes. It can be easily stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, but at room temperature it risks spoiling within a few hours.

Also use it as dip sauce, for example  for French fries or as sauce for zucchini pancakes.

Ossetian sauce with parsley

Ossetian tsakhton sauce is often prepared without cilantro. Not everyone likes the specific taste and aroma of this herb, and therefore cilantro is often replaced with parsley.

Also, in Ossetia they usually don’t add walnuts to the sauce. Here is a step-by-step recipe for Ossetian-style tsakhton based on parsley.

Composition:

• sour cream – 300 g;
• parsley – 1 bunch (larger);
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• hot pepper – 1 pc.;
• salt, ground black pepper – to taste.

Preparation:

1. Wash and dry the parsley. If you use wet greens, the sauce will not be as tasty due to water ingress. Then finely chop the parsley.
2. Chop the pepper, plus or minus, into the same pieces as parsley.
3. Grate the garlic to a paste.
4. Mix all ingredients with sour cream.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can also use other dried spices – they will be quite appropriate in tsakhton. Mix.
6. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes (or longer).

Tsakhton prepared in this way goes well with any type of meat, especially poultry. In the homeland of the sauce, it is also traditionally served as barbecue sauce.

Georgian with khmeli-suneli

Residents of Georgia remember very well that Tsakhton comes from Ossetia. But in Georgian cuisine the recipe has been somewhat transformed, acquiring a new taste thanks to a unique component – Suneli hops. Here is the recipe for how to make Georgian tsakhton sauce.

Composition:

• sour cream – 200 g;
• greens (usually parsley or dill, but cilantro is also used) – 1 bunch;
• garlic – 3 cloves;
• walnut kernel – 50 g;
• hops-suneli – 0.5 h. l.;
• sol – 0.25 h. l.;
• black pepper, coriander, cumin – to taste.

Step by step recipe:

1. Finely chop the greens (leaves only).
2. Cut the garlic (preferably without skin) and walnuts into approximately equal pieces. There is no need to grind it completely into a pulp – these components should feel “to the tooth”.
3. Add suneli hops and all crushed products to sour cream.
4. Mix the sauce thoroughly so that the ingredients are distributed evenly.
5. Add salt and other spices to taste. It is important to consider what type of khmeli-suneli was purchased – some manufacturers add salt to the spice mixture, while others do not. Mix again.
6. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

It is not difficult to make Georgian tsakhton at home – hops-suneli are available in every store, and besides, it can be replaced with utskho-suneli. All that remains is to serve the finished sauce to the table.

Simple recipe

When you prepare tsakhton with your own hands, you don’t want to spend a lot of time fiddling around. This is where a simple sauce with a minimum of ingredients comes to the rescue. It is noteworthy that the ease of preparation does not affect the taste in any way – it is still wonderful.

Composition:

• sour cream – 250 g;
• garlic – 1 head (medium size);
• adjika – 2 tbsp. l.;
• salt – to taste.

How to do:

1. Peel the garlic. Grind in any way.
2. Add adjika and garlic to the sour cream. You can take any adjika – spicy or not, with or without tomatoes. It all depends on personal taste preferences.
3. Add salt and mix.
4. Place in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes.

There are 2 simple recipes in Ossetian cuisine – garlic and pepper. The second differs in that instead of garlic, 1 hot red pepper (without seeds) is used. Otherwise, the recipes are identical.

Feel free to use it for boiled pork or boiled tongue. In general sauces based on adjika, that’s a separate conversation!

Recipe for the winter

Many people are interested in whether it is possible to prepare homemade tsakhton for the winter. Unfortunately, it is impossible to roll the sauce into jars in its full form – the sour cream turns sour in a matter of days. But there is a great way to make the basis for tsakhton for future use.

Composition:

• hot pepper (preferably green);
• garlic – 3 cloves per 1 pc. pepper;
• salt, spices – to taste.

How to cook:

1. Wash and remove seeds from the pepper. Immerse in boiling water and boil for 1 minute.
2. Transfer to cold water and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Remove from water and cool. Then finely chop.
4. Chop the garlic with a knife and mix with pepper.
5. Add salt and any spices to taste. To stir thoroughly.
6. Pour the mixture into a jar and close the lid (you can roll it up with a key or use a regular screw cap).
7. Place in the refrigerator for storage.

Pepper and garlic are 2 strong natural preservatives, so the finished sauce base will be stored in the refrigerator all winter and even longer.

When you want to prepare the sauce, you can mix the base with sour cream at any time. But you shouldn’t put walnuts in a jar – it’s better to add them along with sour cream. This recipe with jalapeno pepper is especially interesting.

Why is tsakhton served?

Gourmets are often interested in what to eat tsakhton with. The answer is:

• traditionally tsakhton is a meat sauce served with all types of cooked meat;
• of course to barbecue from any type of meat;
• The sauce is often used as a marinade for shish kebab (to make it more liquid, dilute it with ayran, tan or yogurt);
• also goes well with fried, stewed and boiled fish;
• goes well with smoked meats;
• the sauce is widely used as salad dressing.

Let’s talk about tsakhton sauce for salad in more detail. The fact is that in the Black Sea part of the Caucasus, tsakhtoni salad is very popular – it is prepared from boiled beef and vegetables.

And the dressing used is tsakhton sauce, prepared according to any recipe. This salad is considered a traditional New Year’s dish, no less iconic than Olivier, which is familiar to each of us.

Read also how to season Olivier instead of mayonnaise!