What did they eat in the Middle Ages? How ordinary people ate in pre-revolutionary Yekaterinburg

Peter's reforms led to a radical change in the culinary traditions and customs of the country. According to a contemporary, "in all the lands where European enlightenment penetrates, the first thing it does is dance, dress and gastronomy." Not only the set of dishes has changed, but also the order of eating. At the beginning of the 19th century, many nobles still remembered the time when dinner began at noon.

Emperor Paul I tried to accustom his subjects to dine at one o'clock.

The story of Countess Golovina is interesting:
« One day in the spring (this happened before leaving for the dacha), after dinner, which was usually at one, he< Павел I >walked around the Hermitage and stopped on one of the balconies overlooking the embankment. He heard the ringing of a bell, at least not a church bell, and, having checked, found out that it was the bell of Baroness Stroganova, calling for dinner.
The emperor was angry that the baroness dined so late, at three o'clock, and immediately sent a police officer to her with orders to continue to dine at one. She had guests when she was informed of the arrival of a policeman.
Everyone was extremely astonished at this visit, but when the policeman carried out the task entrusted to him with great embarrassment and an effort not to laugh, it was only the general amazement and fear felt by the mistress of the house that prevented the company present from surrendering to the explosion of gaiety caused by this order of an entirely new kind.» .

During the reign of Alexander I, lunch time was constantly shifting, and by the end of the first third of the 19th century, the Russian order of eating was finally supplanted by the European one. Emperor Paul I almost always dined at the same time ("at one o'clock in the afternoon"), which cannot be said about Alexander I.

In the years immediately preceding the war with Napoleon, recalls D.N. Begichev, “they dined mostly at one, some more important at two, and only fashionistas and fashionistas a little later, but no later than at 3 o’clock. They gathered for balls at eight or nine o'clock, and even the most excellent dandies arrived from the French performance no later than ten o'clock.

As early as the 1890s, doctors “unanimously preached that even 3 o’clock in the afternoon in regular life for dinner was somewhat late, and four o’clock in relation to health they were almost horrified!” However, despite the warnings of doctors, after the war, dinner "almost everywhere began at 3 o'clock, and in some places even at three and a half."

The dandies came to the balls after midnight. Dinner after the ball was held at 2-3 o'clock in the morning. .

Thus, as in the first decade of the XIX century, and in the 20-30s, the nobility dined an hour, or even two hours later than the average nobility.

Since lunch time has shifted to 5-6 o'clock, there is no need for a hearty dinner.

Dinner was even called a meal at night. “We dined exactly at midnight, and our conversation and conversations continued almost until the morning,” we read in A.M. Fadeev.

And yet, in Moscow, European customs did not take root in the same way as in St. Petersburg. Foreign travelers were unanimous in their opinion: in Moscow, the national character is more pronounced, and in St. Petersburg, the inhabitants are less specific in their way of life.

All foreign travelers note the extraordinary hospitality of the Russian nobles. The custom of accepting everyone who wants to “dine” was preserved at the beginning of the 19th century. The superstitious hosts kept a close eye on the fact that there were no 13 people at the table. Belief in omens and superstition was widespread among both the landlord and the capital's nobility. It was considered no less a bad omen not to celebrate your name day or birthday.

The Frenchman Segur, who visited Russia at the end of the 18th century, noted with some surprise: “It was customary to celebrate the birthdays and name days of every familiar person, and it would be impolite not to come with congratulations on such a day. These days no one was invited, but everyone was accepted, and all acquaintances came. One can imagine what it cost the Russian bars to observe this custom; they constantly had to arrange feasts.

Dinner parties differed from the daily ones not only in the number of guests, but also in "many ceremonies." Let's try to reproduce step by step the whole course of the dinner party.

The form of the invitation to the dinner table deserves special attention - a replica of the dining butler. “The butler, with a napkin under his arm, immediately reported that dinner was served,” an unknown author writes to a friend in Germany. A snow-white napkin is an invariable detail of the table butler costume.

The next stage of the dinner ritual was the procession of guests to the table. The eldest lady by the position of her husband was considered the "most honorable" guest. If the emperor was present at the dinner, then he, together with the hostess, walked to the table. To the music, the guests walked "from the living room in long Polish pairs, decorously to the dining room." The ball also opened with a Polish or polonaise, "ceremonial march".

“Each man puts his elbow to the lady, and this whole procession of 30-40 couples solemnly performs to the sound of music and sits down for a three-hour dinner feast,” Miss Wilmot wrote in a letter to her family.

Great importance was attached to the decoration of the dining room. “The dining room should be brilliantly lit, the table linen should be very clean, and the air in the room should be heated from 13-16 R,” wrote the famous French deli Brillat-Savarin in the witty book Physiology of Taste, published in Paris in 1825.

Table setting depended on the material well-being of the owners. Preference in noble houses for a long time was given to dishes made of silver. This is explained by the fact that porcelain tableware took root in Russia much later than in Europe. In 1774, Catherine II presented her favorite Orlov with a silver dinner service weighing more than two tons. However, in the houses of the middle nobility, silver appliances were considered luxury items even in the 30s of the 19th century.

Her Majesty Fashion dictated how to decorate the dining room, how to set the table. In one of the issues of the magazine "Molva" for 1831, in the "Fashion" section, we find the following description of the dining room: "In the elegant dining rooms, gilded bronze tripods are located in the corners, supporting huge vessels with ice, in which they put bottles and so on. Breakfasts are dominated by extraordinary luxury. The napkins are decorated with embroidery along the edges, and in the middle of them are the initial letters of the name of the owner of the house. Various porcelain vessels with bouquets of flowers are placed in all corners. They also cover stoves and fireplaces in dining rooms and other front rooms.
It is curious that by the middle of the 19th century it was out of fashion to decorate the table with orange trees, crystal vases with jam, a mirror plateau, candelabra, bronze, porcelain figurines, moreover, it was considered bad form.
Only fruit bowls and flowers have stood the test of time as decorations.

According to the Russian tradition, dishes were served on the table “not all at once”, but in turn. In France, on the contrary, there was a custom "to put on the table many dishes at once."

Since the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian tradition has supplanted the French tradition of table setting. Guests often sit down at the table, not burdened with "a lot of food." The French themselves recognized the superiority of the Russian custom, which by the middle of the century had spread not only in France, but throughout Europe.

Over time, the order of serving wines also changes. In the second half of the 19th century, good manners prescribed not to put wine on the table, “excluding ordinary wine in decanters, which is drunk with water. Other wines should be served after each course.

The guests took their places at the table according to certain rules adopted in secular society. The ranks decreased as they moved away from this center. But if it happened that this order was mistakenly violated, then the lackeys never made a mistake when serving dishes, and woe to the one who served the titular councilor before the assessor or the lieutenant before the captain. Sometimes the lackey did not know the exact rank of a visitor, fixed an alarmed look on his master: and one glance was enough to set him on the right path, ”we read in a letter from an unknown author to a friend in Germany.
Most often, the host and hostess sat opposite each other, and the place on the right hand of the host was given to the guest of honor.

Before sitting down on a chair pulled up by a servant, it was supposed to be baptized. The sign of the cross preceded the beginning of the meal. Behind each guest stood a special servant with a plate in his left hand, so that when the dishes were changed, he immediately replaced the clean one in place. If the owner did not have enough of his servants, their lackeys, who had come with them, stood behind the chairs of the guests.

The first toast was always made by the "most honorable" guest. And one more significant detail: the first toast was raised after a change of dishes (most often after the third), while modern feasts sin by starting immediately with a toast. If the Emperor was present at lunch or dinner, he made a toast to the health of the mistress of the house.

The music that sounded during dinner for several hours was supposed to “caress the ears” of the guests sitting at the table.

It is curious that in the second half of the 18th century “dessert was not served at dinner, but was prepared, as D. Runich testifies, in the living room, where it remained until the guests left.” At the beginning of the next century, the appearance of dessert at the dinner table indicated the end of the meal. In addition to fruits, sweets, all kinds of sweets, ice cream was an invariable accessory of the dessert table.

It is known that among the ancient Romans, before dessert, the tables were cleaned and “swept over” so that not a single crumb would remind guests of dinner. In the noble life of the early 19th century, “to sweep bread crumbs from the tablecloth before dessert,” curved brushes, “like a sickle,” were used.

At the end of the dessert, rinsing cups were served. “After-dinner mouthwash cups made of blue or other colored glass have come into almost universal use, and therefore have become a necessity,” says the Encyclopedia of the Russian Experienced Urban and Rural Housewife. The custom of rinsing your mouth after dinner came into fashion at the end of the 18th century.

Rising from the table, the guests were baptized.

Secular etiquette ordered guests to get up from the table only after the most honored guest did it. “Then the most honorable guest gets up, followed by others, and everyone goes to the living room and the hall to drink coffee, and the smokers (of whom there were still few at that time) go to the billiard room. An hour later (at 9 o'clock) all the guests, having bowed decorously, dispersed ”(from Y. Arnold’s “Memoirs”).

The guest leaves unnoticed, without informing the hosts about the departure, and expresses his gratitude for a good dinner with a visit, which should be made no earlier than 3 and no later than 7 days after dinner.

Based on the materials of the book "Culture of the feast of the 19th century" Lavrentiev E.V.

Historical and statistical descriptions of the counties and provinces of Russia, numerous publications of ethnographic notes in the provincial journals and notes of contemporaries of the 1810-1890s give us the opportunity to get acquainted with various aspects of the life of our ancestors. Particularly with the way they ate...

Those of the townspeople who had relatives in the village noticed how much, and, in general, the peasants cook tastelessly. And this is not from the mediocrity of the village cooks, but from their sincere rejection of other reasons than providing hard peasant labor with simple and easy-to-make food.
There was such an approach, probably, in time immemorial. And backed by harsh reality. Firstly, the peasant has always been limited in the choice of products and the methods of their culinary processing. Secondly, the main goal of the hostess was to feed the family, workers with a simple set of products, easy to process and very satisfying food.
What provided satiety - "gluttony", as it was sometimes called? Of course, potatoes. Boiled potatoes, fried potatoes, potato stew - with "zabela" (adding milk) on a fast day, with vegetable oil - on a fast day ...


Another main vegetable, a pillar of peasant cuisine is cabbage. Shchi from gray cabbage - with the same seasoning as the stew. And all this - under black bread. Such was the daily everyday "menu" for lunch and dinner for a peasant in the center of Russia.
Breakfast and afternoon snack were rye cheesecake with cottage cheese, or rye pie with potatoes or turnips. And more often - if the hostess had no time for frills - just a slice of black bread with boiled potatoes. And, of course, tea.
Tea - like a prayer, twice a day the peasant drank tea - "he took his soul away." Only in the days of modest times did some of the peasants change their tea - they boiled burnt chicory, flavored it with milk. Or milk was added to the same tea - “for color”.
During fasting, the diet changed. The food was white sauerkraut flavored with onions and kvass, radish with butter, "mura" or "tyurya" - a mixture of breadcrumbs, crumbled potatoes, onions and kvass, with the addition of horseradish, vegetable oil and salt. With pleasure they ate something similar to the current uncomplicated vinaigrettes - chopped boiled beets with kvass and cucumbers. There was this simple joy under the “mykotina” - black bread, only baked from flour sifted through a sieve and not as sour as the usual “nigella”.


On Sundays and "small" holidays, they ate almost the same as on weekdays. Only sometimes they prepared "cottage cheese". For this dish, cottage cheese, mashed with sour cream with the addition of a couple of eggs and milk, was kept in a clay bowl in a Russian oven.
It was not without goodies. And they were not gingerbread, cookies, sweets - very costly for a peasant wallet, not dried "blew" - pears, which also had to be bought somewhere, not jam, which required molasses or expensive sugar as a preservative. No, they ate - steamed turnips! Her children loved her, and in winter fasting - and adults, especially respected fruit drink from this root crop.
The tradition of folk “pash-eating” turns out to be not so ancient. Porridge, in fact, was a food concentrate. And it was used only in the "trada", which was recognized as haymaking.
Russian peasants - forced vegetarians - ate meat on big holidays - at Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Trinity, Christmas and the Assumption of the Virgin, the memory of the apostles Peter and Paul. However, like the white "pechevo" - pies and sieves made from white wheat flour.
There was also a special table in other "special" cases. “To the dump” there was meat, and “pecheva” from white flour, and other dishes, including those purchased in the city or in a rural shop - during “help”, at celebrations on the occasion of name days, christenings, on patronal holidays .


At the same time, they also drank wine and tea in plenty. Considering that there are several thrones in rural churches (and not in rural ones either), besides the main one, one can imagine how many reasons there were for gluttony and revelry.
These holidays often lasted from 2−3 (in spring) to 7−10 days (in autumn). If it was a patronal or family holiday, many guests came to each house - relatives or just people who were well acquainted with the owners, and not one by one, but families, with wives and children (both adults and children - except for girls!), In festive clothes . They came on the best horses, in the best carriages.
Those who described these holidays (and they were most often either village priests, or zemstvo figures, or local teachers) especially note how expensive such feasts are - “what is spent on these holidays would be enough with the remainder to pay for the whole year of dues and all taxes and duties - and the peasant would not have been forced to eat something for a whole year ... ".
These were just those holidays, with echoes of which we sometimes meet in everyday life - with a monstrous abundance of food and alcohol, with a fair amount of expenses for the event. Among other things - and this is what we inherited from our ancestors.

Cuisine in Russia in the 19th century was largely class-based, as were other aspects of lifestyle. Good food was expensive, which largely limited the spread of gastronomic delights.

The nobility and the wealthy strata adjacent to it in the 19th century largely adopted elements of French culture. The cuisine of this country has become very fashionable, and French chefs were considered indisputable authorities. It was from France that the concept of haute cuisine came to Russia - haute cuisine that equates cooking with art. Such French dishes as salads, pates, various types of sauces, which were not very common in Russian culinary, have become widespread. The usual dinner in a noble family consisted of at least five or six courses. At the same time, typical French dishes, such as fresh oysters, could easily coexist with traditional Russian soups like fish soup, as well as pies with fillings. The meal was usually accompanied by wines, mostly French. The most popular in Russia at that time were their sweet varieties - Sauternes or semi-sweet champagne. Wines produced in the Russian Empire were also used - for example, in Georgia.

The merchant's table was fundamentally different from that of the nobility. It was plentiful, and among the merchants preferred traditional Russian dishes. Of the soups, cabbage soup was especially popular. Also, various pies often appeared on the everyday and on the festive table, and with fillings that are rarely used in modern cuisine - with porridge, with elm and so on. Often pies were baked not from wheat, but from or rye flour. Of dairy products, sour cream, cream, yogurt were widely used - now yogurt and kefir were practically unknown. An element of the festive table was fish of expensive varieties, for example, sterlet, as well as beluga, sterlet or sturgeon caviar.

Peasant cuisine was simple. The main dishes were all kinds of stews, cabbage soup, as well as porridge. The cuisine was based on subsistence farming and gathering - the everyday table was well complemented by forest mushrooms and. In the second half of the 19th century, potatoes began to become more widespread. It began to be cultivated under Peter I, but until the 1860s it took root with difficulty. Thanks to the wide distribution of potatoes, fruitful and easy to grow, many peasants were saved from starvation.

It is necessary to note another important aspect in the nutrition of the 19th century - religious. Most of the population belonged to the Orthodox faith and observed fasts, which limited the consumption of animal products. Against this background, a special cuisine developed, based on mushroom dishes, lean cabbage soup and cereals.

Alexander Pushkin was a well-known connoisseur of gourmet snacks and drinks. His hero Eugene Onegin also entered the history of literature as a gourmet. In the novel in verse, the poet mentioned more than 30 different dishes, many of which not even every aristocrat could afford. We recall what secular lions of the early 19th century liked to eat, including the dandy Eugene Onegin.

IN PETERSBURG

After the morning toilet and lazy reading of invitations to balls and evenings, Onegin went for a walk. Around four o'clock it was time for dinner. This time was considered "European" for lunch - in winter it is already dark at four o'clock. Unmarried young people who lived in the city rarely hired a cook - a serf or a foreigner. So they went to restaurants for dinner.

In gastronomic terms, the nobles were guided by European and especially French cuisine - a recognized trendsetter in culinary fashion. It is not surprising that Eugene Onegin went to the French restaurant Talon for lunch.

The institution really existed in St. Petersburg. In the restaurant of the Frenchman Pierre Talon in the house number 15 on Nevsky Prospekt, the dandies of that era gathered. Its chefs fed socialites until 1825.

Alexander Pushkin himself often visited this fashionable place. The restaurant was not only one of the most popular, but also one of the most expensive in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 19th century.

Entered: and a cork in the ceiling,

The fault of the comet splashed current ...

Here, of course, Pushkin wrote about champagne - the usual drink of the Russian aristocracy of that era. The poet was referring to 1811 champagne. After a stuffy and dry summer that year, a mild and warm autumn came to Central Europe. The grape harvest was unusually good, and the wine from it turned out to be simply excellent. At the same time, in August, a bright and large comet appeared in the sky, which was also observed by the inhabitants of St. Petersburg.

This year's champagne was stoppered with a comet stopper. Connoisseurs highly appreciated the rare wine for its taste. Because of the war between Russia and France in 1813, only 100 bottles of champagne harvested in 1811 were officially imported into Russia - worth 600 rubles.

“Before him, a bloody roast-beef…”

In 1819-1820, the fashion for the English roast beef dish came to Russia. It was prepared from a good bull tenderloin. In order for the fillet to remain tender inside, it was kept in milk for several hours before cooking. After that, they were fried for three minutes on each side in a pan, poured with dry white wine and cooked for another 15 minutes.

The center of the meat piece was supposed to remain half-baked - a bright pink color. From above, the dish was covered with an appetizing ruddy crust. Roast beef was usually eaten cold. The juice from under the meat was drained and served in a gravy boat. Roast beef was served with fried potatoes or baked vegetables.

And truffles, the luxury of youth,

French cuisine is the best color…

Truffles are another product that only wealthy nobles could afford. Expensive fragrant mushrooms, the famous French chef Jean Antelme Brillat-Savarin called "diamonds of the kitchen."

Vladimir Nabokov, who wrote two volumes of comments on Eugene Onegin, described them as follows: "These delicious mushrooms were so highly valued that we, in the tasteless color of artificial flavors, can hardly imagine." During the time of Eugene Onegin, truffles were brought to Russia from France.

Mushrooms grow at a depth of about 20 cm underground in oak and beech groves in France, Italy, Germany and some other European countries. Now, like 200 years ago, special trained pigs and dogs are looking for them by smell.

A kilogram of truffle mushrooms costs about 1000 euros. It is unlikely that they were cheaper before, if Pushkin called them "the luxury of youth."

"And Strasbourg's imperishable pie..."

The dandies of the Pushkin era loved the Strasbourg goose liver pate - a very fatty and expensive dish. Often, chefs added those same delicious truffles to it. In Russia, the pie was not prepared. How could Onegin's contemporaries eat it in Petersburg?

The dish was brought here canned - straight from France. That is why Pushkin called him "incorruptible." Preservation of products to extend their shelf life was invented just during the Napoleonic Wars.

So that the pate would not disappear on the road, it was baked in dough, placed in a deep bowl, filled with lard (fat) and hermetically packed. For reliability, ice briquettes were placed between the boxes of pies.

They cooked goose liver pie not all year round, but only from the end of September to the beginning of December. The pate prepared at the end of the season was considered the most exquisite: the aroma of the truffle mushroom is fully revealed only after the first frosts.

"Between Limburg cheese alive ..."

The next item on the menu of the Talon restaurant is the famous cheese from the Belgian Duchy of Limburg. This soft cow's milk cheese has a tangy flavor and runny texture. That is why the poet called him "alive". Due to the pungent smell, Limburg cheese was not eaten before going out or dating.

They usually served it with dry red wines, shading its spice. In addition to this caustic but tasty Limburg cheese, parmesan, stilton, chester, Neuchâtel, Dutch, Swiss and other cheeses were popular in Russia.

"And golden pineapple"

Exotic fruits were another way to spend money with glamor and glamor. Foreign travelers were especially impressed that Russian aristocrats bought fruits in winter, when they were especially expensive.

During the time of Pushkin, many Moscow estates had their own greenhouses in which fruit trees were grown. The memoirist Katherine Wilmont, who came from England to Russia to visit a relative, wrote:

There were no such greenhouses in St. Petersburg, so pineapples, melons, peaches, oranges and watermelons were brought either from Moscow or from abroad. Pineapple, for example, was sold at 5 rubles apiece.

More glasses of thirst asks

Pour the hot fat over the meatballs...

Eugene Onegin, who tasted roast beef with blood, Belgian cheese, goose liver pie, fruit and washed it all down with champagne, did not eat enough. Next, cutlets were served on the table.

The word "cutlet" came into Russian from French. Cotlett translates as "rib". If today we cook this dish from minced meat, then in Onegin times cutlets were made from pork and veal ribs.

According to the recipe from the Newest Complete Cookbook of 1828, they were recommended to be marinated for about an hour with peppercorns, mushrooms, onions, parsley, garlic and warm oil, and then sprinkled with bread crumb and fried over low heat.

At all times there were their own table traditions, table setting rules, a certain time for eating. Culinary preferences have also changed over the centuries, those dishes that our ancestors cooked 100-200 years ago are now out of use and we can only learn about them from old cookbooks. What was served at the table in peasant huts and rich houses in Russia in the 19th century, how did traditions change depending on foreign influence, where did certain dishes finally come from, without which it is impossible to imagine a modern meal? Food of the 19th century is the topic of today's story on the pages of a women's magazine

It would be wrong to think that the peasant 19th century food- these are only plain garden vegetables and fish, and the table of rich people was served entirely with exquisite overseas dishes and delicacies. In fact, it is in 19th century food began to differ significantly from the one that was served back in the 18th century, the main emphasis was on dishes of national Russian cuisine. The boundaries between the cuisine of the nobility and the representatives of the lower class were erased. But at the same time, some foreign traditions appeared and successfully took root.

Let's go in order.

If we analyze the cooking of an earlier period, then, of course, it meets its time and the needs of people. In places where fishing was developed, fish was the main dish, where livestock was raised, meat was eaten, in areas with fertile soils, they gathered vegetables and fruits, and even learned how to preserve them.

Gradually, the food became more diverse, people adopted the experience of their neighbors, shared their own. Moreover, this was typical not only for the lower class, until some time I did not see any special frills and know.

In the 16-18 centuries, the cuisine of the peasants mainly differs in lean (the one that was eaten during fasts) and modest (for the rest of the days), the upper classes introduce new traditions, due to the fact that some previously unseen products penetrate Russia. Such innovations include simple tea with lemon. However, for some time the products are not crushed and mixed, even the fillings for pies were laid in layers.

There is also a tradition of cooking certain types of meat: beef, for example, is boiled and salted, pork is used for ham, and poultry is fried. The boyar estate strives not only for diversity, but also for the special pomp of serving, as well as for long feasts. The nobles borrow European traditions in cooking, write out French chefs, due to which there are significant differences between the cuisine of the common people and the nobility.

In the 18th century, dishes borrowed from French cuisine appeared in Russia, such as the cutlets and sausages we all know. They began to cook omelettes from eggs, and cook compotes from fruits.

IN 19th century food ceased to be divided into peasant (traditional Russian) and the cuisine of noble persons (with elements of European). However, soups imported from France have firmly come into use. In Rus', they still knew hot liquid dishes called "stews", while soups differed not only in name, but also in cooking technology.

A special place for the Russian people in 19th century occupied food, which was supposed to be eaten with a hangover. These were mainly liquid hodgepodges and pickles, including fish.

An attempt to accustom the Russian nobility to French delights in the form of frog legs and other things failed during this period - even the nobility, greedy for innovation, did not agree to exchange hearty Russian pancakes for dubious delicacies.

In the middle of the 19th century, a new type of cuisine appeared - the tavern. Russian national dishes were prepared in taverns and taverns, both simple peasant dishes and those that were favored in rich houses, there were also overseas dishes on the menu. Both representatives of the lowest strata (coachmen, clerks) and rich people stopped to eat here. And the owners tried to treat the guests from the heart.

A little earlier, a tradition of preparing fish snacks appeared, in the 19th century the cuisine was supplemented with fish salads. In the peasant version, these were various vegetable dishes with the addition of herring.

Of the fish, the sterlet was considered the most expensive and delicacy, which was used for aspic, fish soup, and other snacks. Eel was in high esteem. By that time, the fish was not only salted and boiled, but also fried, smoked and even preserved with the addition of vinegar and spices.

Black caviar was considered a very simple and affordable product, especially in the southern regions. It was eaten not only by rich people, but by ordinary peasants. IN In the 19th century it was quite cheap food.

The famous Ukrainian borsch with donuts also appeared in Russia, and it was in the 19th century that the restaurant chefs of St. Petersburg made some changes to the recipe in the recipe. Borscht began to be cooked not only on pork belly and veal, but also on bone and meat broths. The recipe also included sour apples, beans, turnips, zucchini.

Both rich and poor families had no shortage of cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, herbs, beets and onions. Knowledge of fermentation processes made it possible to prepare products for the future. Mushrooms were very popular and available, which at that time were mainly cooked baked in sour cream.

But still, the main dish on the tables was fish, and after it - meat and everything else. Served in noble houses and various desserts: fruits, cakes, as well as French dishes with hard-to-pronounce names.

Popular food in the 19th century there was a delicious lamb with porridge, which successfully migrated to the capital's establishments from the landowner's rural kitchens. Especially this dish was liked by the military.

Meat in pots has been cooked in Rus' for a long time. In the 19th century, the fashion for these dishes remains relevant. At the same time, a completely new dish appears - Georgian shish kebab. By the way, at first they were traded almost clandestinely, and only a few years later a tradition was established to eat shish kebabs and drink them with good wine.

Now many traditions of past centuries have long been lost, we cannot cook five types of hodgepodges and have no idea what a nanny, salamata and kokurka are. Many expensive restaurants try to restore Russian traditions and cook 19th century food using old recipes and cooking in a real Russian oven.

However, it seems to me that modern methods of growing vegetables, harvesting meat and other things significantly affect the taste and quality of the dish, and even after eating royal fish soup in the most pretentious institution, it is hardly possible to say with certainty that we tried real 19th century food.