Why meat was soaked in sweet water in the USSR: a strange life hack

People who did not live in the Soviet Union are surprised by certain habits that used to be considered the norm. Nowadays, most of these life hacks are a thing of the past, as many effective alternatives have emerged.

For example, few people remember why meat was soaked in water before cooking during the Soviet Union. FoodOboz took it upon itself to answer this question.

In those days, there were practically no appliances in the kitchens of housewives to help with cooking. Therefore, in order to defrost meat quickly, housewives had to do some strange manipulations. One of them was soaking the meat in sugar water.

How to make sugar water for defrosting

3 tablespoons of sugar were diluted in 1.5 liters of cold water and the solution was heated. Then the meat was placed in it for about 10 minutes. This was usually enough time for the meat to defrost. And, most interestingly, in those days, absolutely no one cared that such manipulations made the meat acquire a sweetish flavor. This product was already considered scarce, so people were just happy to have the opportunity to buy and taste it.

Sometimes a salt solution was prepared instead of a sugar solution. But in this case, there was a risk of completely ruining a piece of meat with an excessive amount of salt. And to make the meat softer, housewives had to rub it with soda.