The major components of shchi were originally cabbage, meat (beef, pork, lamb, or poultry), mushrooms, flour, and spices (based on onion and garlic).

The spice mixture was enriched with black pepper and bay leaf, which were imported to Russia around the 15th century, also from Byzantium.

Meat was sometimes substituted with fish, due to reasons related to the Eastern Orthodox Church calendar-related fasting.

To mitigate accidental overspiceness, oversaltiness or general sourness of kvashenaya kapusta (e.g. sauerkraut), a portion of cooked pasta (rigatoni, penne or macaroni) can be added to the batch of shchi.

[6][7] Devanagari script can render щи with only one glyph श्ची, albeit one that takes four keystrokes to type श ् च ी which combine to give श्ची.