Russian cuisine main dishes. History of traditional Russian cuisine
Dishes of Russian national cuisine have a fairly rich history and a large assortment. The composition of dishes of modern Russian cuisine is quite diverse, and, as a rule, their recipes imply several different cooking options, ranging from the simplest to the very complex and multi-component. Having a centuries-old tradition, the national cuisine of Russia combines both traditional native Russian dishes and those borrowed from other nations.
Traditional Russian dishes
Due to the fact that the Russian stove was mainly used for cooking food in peasant Russia, the main methods of heat processing of food were boiling, simmering, stewing or baking. Fried foods were an exception, since the design of the closed Russian oven did not allow the temperatures necessary for frying to be obtained. The peculiarities of Russian cuisine in its traditional ancient version lie in a wide variety of liquid, stewed or boiled dishes or dishes from baked meat, fish, and poultry.
The main or first course of Russian cuisine is soups or stews. Among the first courses, the most common are cabbage soup, borscht, rassolnik, solyanka, fish soup, mushroom and vegetable soups, okroshka, and botvinya.
Russian cabbage soup and borscht are the most popular all over the world. Cabbage soup is prepared from fresh or sauerkraut, nettles, and sorrel. In modern culinary reference books you can find several dozen different types of Russian cabbage soup: with meat, fish, poultry, mushrooms, etc.. Borscht, a beetroot cabbage soup, is also rightfully considered a very popular and widespread Russian dish.
As a rule, porridge was used as a second course in Russian cuisine. Porridge was considered an indispensable attribute of any table at any time; there was even a saying: cabbage soup and porridge are our food. The prevalence of porridges was determined, firstly, by the variety of grain crops growing in Russia, and secondly, by the ease of their preparation.
To prepare porridge, crushed grain was often used, which made it possible to reduce the cooking time and obtain a product with a more delicate consistency. Porridges were seasoned with butter and ghee, honey, berries and fruits. After the appearance of potatoes in Russia, they gradually gained popularity and became the “second bread”. Recipes for making baked potatoes, as well as “jacket potatoes,” along with porridge, are still an important part of Russian national cuisine today.
Boiled or baked fish, boiled or stewed meat, and poultry were served with porridge and potatoes used as side dishes. Fish or poultry were most often cooked whole; beef, lamb, pork and the meat of large wild animals were served in large pieces, since meat products were forbidden to be chopped during the cooking process.
There are features of Russian national cuisine that are not widespread in the culinary preferences of other countries. These are marinades and pickles - Russian pickles. The most typical of them are sauerkraut, pickled or pickled cucumbers or mushrooms. Not a single festive feast of the Russian people is complete without pickled, salted, pickled mushrooms, vegetables and fruits. Recipes for the most successful options for preparing these snacks are often inherited from parents to children.
It should also be noted that there are popular recipes for Olivier and vinaigrette salads. The latter is called “Russian salad” all over the world. Vinaigrette is a Russian invention. To prepare it, pickles and sauerkraut are used. Olivier salad can also be considered an attribute of Russian national cuisine, since it is prepared almost exclusively in Russia. Jellied meat is as characteristic of a Russian holiday feast as Olivier salad and vinaigrette.
Russian national drinks
The national cuisine of Russia includes such popular drinks as kvass, fruit drink and jelly. Existing kvass recipes include several dozen options for its preparation. Fruit juice and jelly based on fruit or berry infusions are also a pleasant addition to the holiday table. We can also mention the oldest Russian low-alcohol drink - mead (or honey mash), as well as many different liqueurs and tinctures popular in Russia. However, most often foreigners remember Russian cuisine when they see black caviar, pancakes and Russian vodka.
Culinary products made from dough
Initially, Russian pastries were made from yeast dough prepared using the sponge method. Yeast dough dough began to be used in Russia much earlier than in many other countries. Pies and pies, pies, kurniks, kulebyaki and many other products were baked from different types of similar dough. The filling included various types of fish, domestic animal and game meat, mushrooms, berries, vegetables, fruits, and cottage cheese.
Russian cooks began to use unleavened dough much later. Therefore, the range of products made from it is relatively small: noodles, dumplings, dumplings, pancakes.
Rasstegai were always served with the first courses: stew, fish soup, cabbage soup. Kurnik and loaf were traditionally baked for the wedding table. For “sweets” they served sushi and bagels, rolls, koloboks, cheesecakes, kovrigi, and crumpets.
An important component of the Russian table is the traditional Russian gingerbread. Before the advent of sugar, gingerbread, like other sweet dishes, was prepared with honey. Therefore, gingerbread was originally called honey bread. Later, when various spices brought from India and eastern countries began to be used for dough, honey bread began to be called gingerbread.
Gingerbread cookies were baked mainly for the festive table, since many of the ingredients in gingerbread dough were expensive products. Large printed gingerbread cookies have long been considered a good gift for various holidays, weddings, birthdays, and name days. For special occasions, huge gingerbread cookies weighing up to 5 kg were baked. Gingerbread cookies with letters became the first alphabet for children.
Gingerbread cookies were made with various fillings and seasonings. In addition, gingerbread cookies were of various shapes: oval, round, rectangular, curly - and sizes. After sugar became widespread in the diet of Russian people, gingerbread began to be coated with sugar glaze. In different regions of the vast country there were special recipes for making gingerbread. The most famous were and remain Tula gingerbread cookies.
The Orthodox Church made its contribution to the formation of Russian culinary traditions. Numerous fasts, during which it was forbidden to eat meat, dairy, or fish dishes, made baked goods with mushroom, vegetable and fruit and berry fillings an indispensable component of nutrition. For many religious holidays, special types of baked goods were prepared, for example, Easter cakes and Easter cakes for the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.
Famous Russian pancakes and bread
Separately, it should be said about the world-famous Russian pancakes. They have long been the hallmark of Russian national cuisine. Traditional Russian pancakes were baked from yeast dough and were quite thick. Later, with the advent of European traditions in Russian cuisine, thin pancakes began to be baked.
They were eaten with honey, vegetable oil, sour cream, and jam. In addition, pancakes were filled with meat, cereals, cottage cheese, mushrooms, vegetables, berries and fruits. Pancake pies with various fillings were made from pancakes. Although pancakes were baked often, over time they became the main holiday dish for Maslenitsa. Small pancakes (pancakes) were prepared from sponge dough. Various fillings were added to the pancake dough, creating a wide range of flavors for this product.
Traditional Russian bread has always been black bread made from rye flour. Bread was one of the main dishes; it was consumed a lot, especially with stews, cabbage soup, okroshka, fish soup and other first courses. Rye bread is mistakenly considered to be food only for the common people. In fact, black bread was served at the table in merchant, boyar, and noble houses.
White bread from wheat flour began to be baked much later than rye bread. It became food mainly for the urban nobility. Many Russian landowners preferred traditional Russian cuisine, contrary to the erroneous belief that Germans and French were everywhere cooks in landowners' houses.
In addition to rye and wheat flour, Russian cuisine used other cereals for baking. Agriculture was the main occupation in Rus'.
A respectful attitude towards the hard work of a farmer is reflected in many rituals, customs and traditions of the Russian people. Guests have long been greeted with bread and salt, the bride was showered with grain at the wedding, and seeing off the deceased on his last journey did not take place without a funeral celebration.
So that it flows down your mustache and gets into your mouth
Russian cuisine has a very rich and, if I may say so, intricate history. She constantly assimilated recipes from different peoples, often altered them in her own way, “peeped” on something and took notes.
In 1816, the Tula landowner Levshin decided to compile the first (this was in the 19th century!) cookbook with Russian dishes. Then he complained, the poor fellow, that due to numerous borrowings, the information was “completely destroyed”: “it is now impossible to imagine a complete description of the Russian cookery and should be content only with what can still be collected from what remains in memory, for the history of the Russian cookery has never been devoted to description "
However, thanks to numerous studies of European chefs, who were “dispatched” according to fashion to rich houses, it was possible to piece together the history of the original Russian cuisine and even bring back some old traditions that have survived to this day.
Where is the cabbage soup, look for us here
Contrary to general opinion, our national soup is not borscht at all, but cabbage soup. Cabbage soup is the head of the whole meal, they said in the old days. At first it was a stew, most often made from fish or on bread, seasoned with cabbage and herbs.
Real cabbage soup has two main components: sour dressing (cabbage pickle or apples, later sour cream appeared) and cabbage (although there could be other vegetables: For example, sorrel is put in green cabbage soup). In poor houses, soup could only consist of this. But classic cabbage soup added meat (mushrooms or fish), roots (carrots, parsley), and spicy seasoning (onions, garlic, celery).
First, boil the broth with roots and onions, then add vegetables and sour dressing. By the way, the sauerkraut was cooked separately from the meat broth and only then added. Spices should be added at the end of cooking.
In some areas, the cabbage soup was seasoned with flour - for greater density. Then they abandoned it, considering that it worsened the aroma and taste of the soup. And they began to put potatoes in the dish.
After cooking, the cabbage soup must “float” under the lid. Sometimes they were placed in a warm oven for several hours, or even a whole day. Hence the name cabbage soup - daily allowance.
One brush - fish soup pot
Ukha is not a “duty” of fishermen’s wives, but another traditional Russian soup. After all, cabbage soup was first prepared in fish broth. There are apparently no recipes for this soup. We suggest trying “royal fish soup” made from sturgeon.
Real fish soup is prepared in a cast iron bowl. Better, of course, in the oven and on birch wood. Well, of course, it would also be nice to have recently caught sturgeon, but here it depends on your luck.
For three liters of water you need 400 grams of sturgeon, 700 grams of potatoes, 2 large onions. All this languishes in the oven for at least an hour.
Buckwheat from Kulikovo field
Well, what new can I tell you about pancakes? This dish appeared in our country back in the 9th century. And it has become so popular that there are now more than a hundred varieties of it. However, in Rus', pancakes were most often prepared with buckwheat flour. For example, here is a popular old recipe from Kulikovo Field - buckwheat. The recipe is not from warriors, of course, but from residents of nearby villages.
Prepare 4 cups of buckwheat flour, 20 grams of yeast, 4.5 cups of milk, salt to taste. We dilute the yeast with half a glass of warm milk, but not just like that, but in a wooden tub. Add another one and a half glasses of milk, add two glasses of flour, constantly stirring the dough. Place in a warm place.
When the volume of the dough doubled, our great-great-grandmothers added the remaining flour, milk and salt and put it back in a warm place. When the dough was ready again, the pancakes were baked in a cast iron frying pan with hemp oil.
Drink kvass, dispel the melancholy
Kvass was one of the main drinks of the Russian table. After all, tea, when it appeared, was initially too expensive for the common man. So, kvass was not only drunk, but used as a “broth” for cold and even hot soups. In the 15th century, there were more than five hundred recipes for this drink. Moreover, they made it not only from bread, but also from vegetables, for example, beets or turnips.
The simplest recipe is rustic rye white kvass. Mix rye flour (2-3 tablespoons) and water until thick sour cream, add two tablespoons (per half-liter jar) of honey and a few raisins for quick fermentation. Add warm water to the rye starter and leave it in a warm place for a couple of days. Then the starter is poured into a three-liter jar, topped up with water, 2 tablespoons of honey and two tablespoons of rye flour are added.
After a few days, drain the liquid and get “young kvass”. Honey is added to it to taste, and it is sent to a cold cellar for a couple of days.
And the remaining grounds after draining the young kvass are diluted again with water, we add flour and honey and we already get mature kvass. Each time the starter becomes more vigorous, and the kvass cooks faster.
Sbiten-sbitenek drinks dandy
Mentions of this drink can be found in chronicles of the 12th century. Sbiten is a drink made from water, honey and spices. Again, until the tea table became commonplace in our country, sbiten was one of the most popular drinks. It's a pity he's almost forgotten. Let's try to cook "Moscow sbiten" - it's not that difficult.
For 5 liters of water you will need 200 grams of honey, a kilogram of white molasses, 2 teaspoons of ginger, 2 grams of cinnamon, 5 clove buds, 5 tablespoons of dry mint, 3 star anise, 10 black peppercorns, 7 pieces of cardamom.
You need to dissolve molasses and honey in boiling water. Boil for 15 minutes, add spices and boil for another ten minutes. We filter. Ready!
Eat the prison, Yasha!
A very simple Lenten dish. Essentially, tyurya is salted cold water with pieces of bread and chopped onions. Finely chopped vegetables and roots (turnips, for example), herbs and herbs, and yogurt were added to it. Let us remember that it was prison that Tolstoy’s hero Konstantin Levin ate with pleasure in the middle of the summer mowing. We also hope that summer will soon return to normal, and in the midst of your dacha worries you will use the following recipe.
For a liter of water you will need two 2 tablespoons of small rye bread crackers, 1 finely chopped onion, 1 tablespoon of finely chopped plantain, the same amount of finely chopped quinoa, salt. Place plantain and quinoa in boiling salted water, quickly bring to a boil, immediately remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add remaining ingredients before serving.
Viburnum berry beckoned us
Pies are still one of the favorite Russian dishes. But you probably haven’t heard about Kalinnik yet. And in the old days, this was a very common recipe.
There was a special attitude towards viburnum in general. This is a symbol of girlish tenderness; the viburnum bush attracts wealth to the house. Bunches of these berries were used to decorate wedding loaves and towels.
For viburnum you will need rye flour, viburnum, yeast, sugar and salt.
300 grams of berries are dried and ground into powder. Brew with 200 grams of boiling water to make a puree. Rye flour is added to it, kneading the dough (about 500 grams of flour). Form a flat cake and bake. Traditionally, the pie should be unleavened. But you can add a little sugar.
You can’t feed a Russian man without porridge
It is not clear why, but we have degraded porridge to “tasteless and healthy” food. In fact, we just don’t know how to cook it! But without her, my dear, the festive table in the old days could not be complete. Even a peace treaty could not come into force until the opponents had eaten the porridge.
There were a variety of porridges - buckwheat, millet, spelled (wheat), oats... Barley porridge was the favorite of Peter I. It is also mentioned several dozen times in the Bible.
It was cooked in a clay pot in the oven. For a liter of milk you need two glasses of barley and salt. Bring the milk to a boil, add salt, add the cereal and cook until it thickens. And then we send it to simmer in the oven. Read “into the oven.” And do it.
Turnips are meat, cut and eat
Until the 18th century, turnips were the main ingredient in Russian cuisine. They didn’t even know about any potatoes back then. Turnips were boiled, steamed, baked, and added to soups and pies.
In modern terms, steaming turnips is the same as steaming them. The root vegetable needs to be peeled, cut into slices, put in a pot, pour in a little water and put in the oven to simmer at medium temperature (about 120 degrees) for 2 hours.
Steamed turnips were eaten with butter and salt. Or with honey.
Nice words, but not all gingerbread
Gingerbread was known in Rus' even before the adoption of Christianity. There is no such variety of recipes for this dessert in any other country.
We got hold of an old recipe for real Tula gingerbread. However, it does not have exact proportions. So you have to do it by eye.
Add liquid honey and eggs to soft butter and beat well. Knead the dough, adding flour, water and soda.
For the filling, apples and sugar are boiled. It should turn out to be a thick jam.
Roll out two layers of dough. The chilled filling is placed between them. The gingerbread goes into the oven to bake.
Finally, you can add a glaze of beaten egg white and sugar.
A separate section in Russian cuisine that has not changed for centuries is numerous preparations. In many regions of Russia there was cold weather for nine months of the year. Due to weather conditions, housewives tried to prepare as much food as possible for future use. They used different methods of preserving food: salting, smoking, soaking, fermentation. Cabbage soup was prepared from sauerkraut or pickled cabbage and added to porridge and pies. Pickled apples were also actively used as treats or additions to main dishes. Pickles have become ingredients in many traditional Russian recipes. And salted or dried meat and fish were served when the fast ended.
Festive Russian dishes
Russian cuisine combined ritual and practical functions. For the holidays, certain dishes were prepared, each of which had its own meaning. In poor families, some ingredients were replaced with cheap ones, but the meaning was not lost. The main holidays were Christmas, Maslenitsa, Easter, weddings, and birthdays.
Traditional Russian food
Every nation has authentic dishes that every tourist recommends trying. Food in Russia is an acquaintance with the way of life of the people and immersion in traditions. Not all Russian dishes that were prepared five hundred years ago can be tasted now. But some of the recipes are still popular and show the diversity of Russian cuisine.
Traditional Russian recipes:
Despite the fact that many modern products were unknown in Rus' for a long time: potatoes, tomatoes, corn, rice, foreigners noted that the Russian table is the richest in the world, even among the common people. Dishes of Russian cuisine do not require special knowledge or exotic ingredients, but to prepare a truly delicious dish, a lot of experience is required. The main products in Rus' were turnips, cabbage, radishes, cucumbers, fruits, berries, mushrooms, fish and sometimes meat. The abundance of cereals - rye, wheat, oats, millet, peas, lentils - made it possible to prepare many types of breads, pancakes, cereals, kvass, beer and vodka.
Russia is a multinational state where each nation, having its own “specialty” dishes, borrowed recipes and culinary tricks from its neighbors, passing on its secrets to them. Each region and region of Russia boasts unique dishes. Russian cuisine has always been open to foreign borrowings, which did not spoil it at all, but rather beautified it. From the Scythians and Greeks, the Russians learned to prepare yeast dough; through Byzantium they learned about rice, buckwheat and numerous spices; tea came to us from China; from the Urals - dumplings; Bulgaria shared with us sweet peppers, eggplants and zucchini; Western Slavs contributed to Russian cuisine in the form of borscht, cabbage rolls, and dumplings. In the 16th-18th centuries, Russian cuisine absorbed all the best that existed in the cuisines of European countries: salads and green vegetables, smoked meats, chocolate, ice cream, wines and liqueurs, sugar and coffee.
According to some information, potatoes appeared in Rus' thanks to Peter I, and he contributed to the spread of this plant in the central regions of Russia. But there is an opinion that Russian potato varieties could not have appeared from Europe, because they belong to northern plants, and European varieties are closer to southern plants. In Siberia, the Urals, in the Arkhangelsk, Novgorod and Pskov regions, potatoes may have appeared earlier than in the southern regions.
The design of the Russian stove determined the method of cooking. Since the dishes were heated not from below, but from the sides, their side surfaces had to have a maximum area for heating the entire contents. Hence the rounded shape of pots and cast iron pots and the abundance of stewed, boiled, simmered and baked dishes in ancient Russian cuisine. Under Peter I, stoves and utensils adapted for frying and cooking over an open fire began to appear in Russian kitchens: pots, baking trays, skimmers. French chefs introduced exquisite dishes and sauces into the diet of the nobility, and the custom of frying meat came from Holland. Aristocrats of the 18th and 19th centuries invited European chefs who made a huge contribution to the development of Russian cuisine. Some dishes that are considered Russian actually appeared thanks to French and Austrian chefs: Beef Stroganoff, chicken Kiev and charlotte. Russian cuisine did not succumb to foreign influence, but adapted dishes to Russian realities.
Orthodoxy had a strong influence on all aspects of Russian life, not excluding traditional Russian cuisine. Frequent strict fasts (up to 220 days a year), during which Orthodox Christians could eat only plant foods and sometimes fish, contributed to the emergence of many Lenten (vegetarian and even vegan) soups, appetizers, main courses and desserts. Most Lenten Russian dishes have no analogues in other cuisines of the world, for example, the simplest dish tyurya made from salt water with bread and onions. Lenten dishes are rich in vitamins and microelements, but do not contain fat, which allows you to cleanse the body and give it strength for hard peasant work.
The design of the Russian stove made it possible to cook without oil and fat, so during Lent, Orthodox Christians could prepare delicious steamed, boiled or stewed vegetables, mushrooms, jelly, pancakes, Lenten breads and porridges. The variety of grains and methods of processing them made it possible to prepare several types of porridges.
During non-strict fasts, the Russian table was replete with all kinds of fish dishes. It was baked, stuffed with mushrooms and porridge, dried and boiled. The caviar was salted and boiled in vinegar.
In Rus', porridge was eaten as an independent dish and as a side dish for fish and meat. Initially, porridges had a sacred meaning and were an important part of many rituals. A large amount of porridge was prepared during collective work, especially during the harvest, when it was necessary to quickly feed a whole team. On the Don, the word “porridge” was used to describe an artel or people working together. The best porridges were considered to be the hard, crumbly ones. Liquid porridges were considered the lowest grade. Real crumbly porridge is very easy to cook in the oven. If you steam porridge cooked on the stove in the oven, you will get a similar result.
Among Lenten Russian desserts there is an interesting dish - malt made from sprouted rye grain. This liquid dish is pink in color with a honey aroma, rich in vitamins. Malt was eaten during winter fasts. The sweet taste of this dish is achieved by carefully maintaining the temperature balance, which is important for the fermentation of malt. Kulaga, a sweet dish made from malt flour and potatoes, was prepared in a similar way. The sweet taste of kulaga is due to glucose formed during the fermentation of starch. Oatmeal - a thick, salty, lean dish made from fried oatmeal - was eaten at any time of the year.
In the 19th century, a Russian meal consisted of several courses; later, at dinner parties, all dishes began to be put on the table at once, in accordance with French custom. The first course of the meal was appetizers of cabbage, potatoes, fish or meat. Russian cuisine has almost no salad recipes, except for vinaigrette, which is called “Russian salad”. Black caviar has always been an affordable product in Rus', especially in the south and the Volga region. Appetizers from the century before last can compete with modern main courses in nutritional value.
The second course was hot meat or vegetable soups. The word soup comes from French, and in ancient times liquid dishes in Rus' were called stew. In Russia, great importance was attached to soups, and every housewife knew many recipes for soups for all occasions. In the summer we usually ate cold soups: okroshka and botvinya with kvass, beetroot soups, light vegetable soups. If there was no fasting, noodles were prepared with meat, mushrooms or milk. Shchi, borscht, solyanka, rassolniki and ukha made the table varied and did not require expensive ingredients.
Classic Russian okroshka is made from two vegetables. One vegetable necessarily has a neutral taste (boiled potatoes, rutabaga, carrots, fresh cucumbers), while the other has a pronounced taste and smell (parsley, celery, tarragon). Neutral-tasting fish, beef or chicken are added to okroshka. The obligatory elements of okroshka are boiled eggs and sour cream. Mustard, black pepper or pickles are used as seasonings.
Shchi is one of the oldest dishes of Russian cuisine. Cabbage soup is remarkable because it knows no class boundaries. Although rich and poor use different ingredients to prepare cabbage soup, the basic principle remains the same. The specific taste of cabbage soup was obtained only in a Russian oven, where the cabbage soup was infused for several hours after it was ready. The required components of cabbage soup are cabbage and an acidic element (sour cream, sorrel, apples, brine). Carrots or parsley root, herbs (green onions, celery, dill, garlic, pepper), meat and sometimes mushrooms are added to cabbage soup. Sour cabbage soup is made from sauerkraut; gray cabbage soup - from the outer green cabbage leaves; green cabbage soup - from sorrel.
Ukha was originally called meat broth. Only in the 17th century did this word acquire its modern meaning - fish broth or soup. The ear uses a minimum of vegetables. Classic ukha is a strong broth served with fish pies. For fish soup, small-sized fresh river fish is best suited. Each type of fish in Russian cuisine was prepared separately, without mixing with others, in order to enjoy the pure taste. Therefore, Russian cookbooks describe fish soup from each type of fish separately.
The third course of the classic Russian meal is meat and fish dishes and porridge. Often large pieces of meat were boiled in soup or porridge and served as a separate dish. In ancient Russian cuisine, chopping meat is not encouraged; it is cooked and served as a whole piece. An example of this custom is roasting a whole bird, suckling pig or ham. The only exception to the rule is jellied meat or jelly. Porridge and boiled vegetables served as a side dish for meat dishes. Sometimes soaked sour apples, cranberries and sauerkraut were served. Meat gravies are uncharacteristic of traditional Russian cuisine. Cutlets became a property of Russian cuisine only in the 18th and 19th centuries. Pelmeni became popular only in the 19th century, but they fit so harmoniously into the structure of Russian cuisine that there is no doubt about their origin.
Desserts complete the Russian meal. In Russian cuisine there are many flour dishes: pies, pancakes, gingerbreads, Easter cakes, cheesecakes, cheesecakes, kulebyaki, pies. Ancient Russian drinks (sbiten, kvass) are original and are not found in the traditions of other peoples, although mead and beer are known wherever there is honey and hops.
Russian cuisine recipes
Lenten borscht
Ingredients:
1 head of onion,
1 beet,
1 carrot,
2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil,
1 jar of tomato paste,
5 medium potatoes,
1 Jerusalem artichoke,
1 head of cabbage or kohlrabi,
dill inflorescences,
Bay leaf,
garlic,
salt.
Preparation:
Fry the onions, add beets and grated carrots and simmer until half cooked, add tomato paste. Place potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes in boiling water, add salt and cook for 10 minutes. Add cabbage or kohlrabi and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the stewed vegetables, dill inflorescences, cook for another 5 minutes, add bay leaf and crushed garlic and remove from heat. Sprinkle the borscht in a plate with dill.
Stuffed cabbage rolls
Ingredients:
1 head of cabbage,
800 ml meat broth,
0.5 cups sour cream,
200 g minced meat,
1 onion,
2-3 tbsp. lard,
0.5 cups ground crackers,
0.5 cups boiled rice,
1 tbsp. flour,
2 yolks,
pepper, salt to taste.
Preparation:
Pass the lard and onion through a meat grinder, add minced meat, flour, crackers, rice, yolks, pepper and salt and mix. Soften a head of cabbage over steam, separate the leaves and wrap a spoonful of minced meat in them. Place the cabbage rolls in a pan with broth, bring to a boil, add sour cream and simmer for 20-25 minutes. You can also cook cabbage rolls in a double boiler.
Bishop's ear
Ingredients:
200 g sturgeon,
150 g potatoes,
1 onion,
1 parsley root,
400 ml chicken broth,
20 ml dry white wine,
green onions, dill, black pepper, bay leaf to taste.
Preparation:
Place chopped vegetables into the boiling broth and cook until half cooked, then add the fish and cook until done. Add spices and wine before serving.
Crucian carp in sour cream
Ingredients:
crucian carp,
flour,
vegetable oil,
sour cream,
salt,
pepper.
Preparation:
Gut the crucian carp, cut large ones into pieces, sprinkle with salt and pepper and leave for several hours. Roll in flour and fry in melted butter. When one side is fried, pour in sour cream and bring to readiness. Serve with buckwheat porridge.
Larks
Rolls in the shape of larks were baked on Candlemas (February 15) in honor of the imminent arrival of spring.
Ingredients:
1 kg flour,
30 g yeast,
130 g butter,
1 glass of milk,
0.5 cups sugar,
1 egg,
50 g raisins,
salt.
Preparation:
Dissolve yeast in milk, add flour, melted butter and sugar. Knead the dough until it stops sticking to your hands. Leave the dough in a warm place for 1-2 hours until it doubles in volume. Roll out the dough into a rope, cut into small pieces and fold them into a knot. Shape the ends of the knots in the form of a lark's head and tail, stick raisins in place of the eyes, and make cuts on the tail. Brush the larks with the egg beaten with sugar and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Quick pancakes
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. oils
200 g sifted flour,
100 g milk,
1 egg,
1 yolk,
salt and sugar to taste.
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients and leave for 30-40 minutes. After pouring the pancake batter into the pan, decorate the other side with dill and turn over. Serve pancakes with honey, sour cream or jam.
Easter
Ingredients:
1 kg of high fat cottage cheese,
150 g butter,
3-4 eggs,
3 tbsp. sour cream,
1 glass of syrup from any jam,
100 g raisins,
sugar and vanilla to taste.
Preparation:
Rub the cottage cheese through a sieve. Grind the eggs with a little sugar and mix with the cottage cheese. Add softened butter, sour cream and raisins and stir. Pour in the syrup, stirring continuously. Place gauze at the bottom of the pan or mold, place the mass on it and press down with heavy pressure. Leave in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours, then remove the Easter from the edges of the gauze and decorate with candied fruits and nuts.
Olga Borodina
Russian national cuisine has gone through an extremely long development path, marked by several major stages, each of which left an indelible mark. Old Russian cuisine, which developed from the 9th-10th centuries. and which reached its greatest flourishing in the 15th-16th centuries, although its formation covers a huge historical period, it is characterized by general features that have largely been preserved to this day.
At the beginning of this period, Russian bread from sour (yeast) rye dough appeared - this uncrowned king on our table, without it even now the Russian menu is unthinkable - and also all the other most important types of Russian bread and flour products arose: the familiar saiki, bagels, sochni, pyshki, pancakes, pancakes, pies, etc. These products were prepared exclusively on the basis of sour dough - so characteristic of Russian cuisine throughout its historical development. The predilection for sour and kvass was also reflected in the creation of Russian real jelly - oatmeal, wheat and rye, which appeared long before modern ones. Mostly berry jelly.
Various gruels and porridges, which were originally considered ritual, ceremonial food, also occupied a large place on the menu.
All this bread and flour food was varied most often with fish, mushrooms, wild berries, vegetables, milk and very rarely meat.
The appearance of classic Russian drinks - all kinds of honey, kvass, sbitney - dates back to the same time.
Already in the early period of the development of Russian cuisine, a sharp division of the Russian table into lean (vegetable-fish-mushroom) and fast (milk-egg-meat) was evident, which had a huge impact on its further development until the end of the 19th century. The artificial creation of a line between the fast and fast table, the isolation of some products from others, and the prevention of their mixing ultimately led to the creation of only a few original dishes, and the entire menu suffered - it became more monotonous and simplified.
We can say that the Lenten table was luckier: since most days of the year - from 192 to 216 in different years - were considered fast (and these fasts were observed very strictly), there was a natural desire to expand the range of the Lenten table. Hence the abundance of mushroom and fish dishes in Russian cuisine, the tendency to use various plant materials - grain (porridge), vegetables, wild berries and herbs (nettle, snot, quinoa, etc.). Moreover, they have been so famous since the 10th century. vegetables such as cabbage, turnips, radishes, peas, cucumbers were prepared and eaten - whether raw, salted, steamed, boiled or baked - separately from one another.
Therefore, for example, salads and especially vinaigrettes have never been characteristic of Russian cuisine and appeared in Russia already in the 19th century. as a borrowing from the West. But they were also originally made mainly with one vegetable, giving the corresponding name to the salad - cucumber salad, beet salad, potato salad, etc.
Each type of mushroom - milk mushrooms, mushrooms, honey mushrooms, white mushrooms, morels, pecheritsa (champignons), etc. - was salted or cooked completely separately, which, by the way, is still practiced today. The same can be said about fish, which was consumed boiled, dried, salted, baked and, less often, fried. In the literature we come across juicy, “tasty” names for fish dishes: sigovina, taimenina, pike, halibut, catfish, salmon, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, belugina and others. And the fish soup could be perch, ruff, burbot, sterlet, etc.
Thus, the number of dishes by name was huge, but all of them differed little from each other in content. Flavor diversity was achieved, firstly, by the difference in heat and cold processing, as well as by the use of various oils, mainly vegetable (hemp, nut, poppy, olive and, much later, sunflower), and secondly, by the use of spices.
Of the latter, onions, garlic, horseradish, dill were most often used, and in very large quantities, as well as parsley, anise, coriander, bay leaves, black pepper and cloves, which appeared in Rus' already in the 10th-11th centuries. Later, in the 15th - early 16th centuries, they were supplemented with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, calamus (fir root) and saffron.
In the initial period of the development of Russian cuisine, there also developed a tendency to consume liquid hot dishes, which then received the general name “bread”. The most widespread types of bread are such as cabbage soup, stews based on vegetable raw materials, as well as various mash, brews, chatterboxes, salomat and other types of flour soups.
As for meat and milk, these products were consumed relatively rarely, and their processing was not difficult. Meat, as a rule, was cooked in cabbage soup or gruel, and milk was drunk raw, stewed or sour. Cottage cheese and sour cream were made from dairy products, and the production of cream and butter remained almost unknown for a long time, at least until the 15th-16th centuries. These products appeared rarely and irregularly.
The next stage in the development of Russian cuisine is the period from the middle of the 16th century. and until the end of the 17th century. At this time, not only further development of variants of the Lenten and Fast table continues, but also the differences between the cuisines of different classes and estates are especially sharply outlined. From this time on, the cuisine of the common people began to become more and more simplified, the cuisine of the boyars, nobility and especially the nobility became more and more refined. It collects, combines and generalizes the experience of previous centuries in the field of Russian cooking, creates on its basis new, more complex versions of old dishes, and also for the first time borrows and openly introduces into Russian cuisine a number of foreign dishes and culinary techniques, mainly of Eastern origin.
Particular attention is paid to the fast festive table of that time. Along with the already familiar corned beef and boiled meat, spun (i.e., cooked on spits) and fried meat, poultry and game occupy a place of honor on the table of the nobility. Types of meat processing are becoming increasingly differentiated. Thus, beef is used mainly for preparing corned beef and for boiling (boiled slaughter); Pork is used to make ham for long-term storage, or it is used as fresh meat or suckling pig in fried and stewed form, and in Russia only meat, lean pork is valued; finally, lamb, poultry and game are used mainly for roasting and only partly (lamb) for stewing.
In the 17th century All the main types of Russian soups finally took shape, while kalia, pokhmelki, solyanka, and rassolniki, unknown in medieval Rus', appeared.
The Lenten table of the nobility is also enriched. A prominent place on it begins to be occupied by balyk, black caviar, which was eaten not only salted, but also boiled in vinegar or milk of poppy seeds.
On the cookery of the 17th century. Oriental and primarily Tatar cuisine has a strong influence, which is associated with the accession in the second half of the 16th century. to the Russian state of the Astrakhan and Kazan khanates, Bashkiria and Siberia. It was during this period that dishes made from unleavened dough (noodles, dumplings), products such as raisins, apricots, figs (figs), as well as lemons and tea, the use of which has since become traditional in Russia, came into Russian cuisine. Thus, the sweet table is significantly replenished.
Next to gingerbread, known in Rus' even before the adoption of Christianity, one could see a variety of gingerbreads, sweet pies, candies, candied fruits, numerous jams, not only from berries, but also from some vegetables (carrots with honey and ginger, radish in molasses) . In the second half of the 17th century. Cane sugar began to be brought to Russia, from which, together with spices, they made candies and snacks, sweets, delicacies, fruits, etc. [The first refinery was founded by the merchant Vestov in Moscow, at the beginning of the 18th century. He was allowed to import cane raw materials duty-free. Sugar factories based on beet raw materials were created only at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. (The first plant is in the village of Alyabyevo, Tula province).] But all these sweet dishes were mainly the privilege of the nobility. [The menu of the patriarchal dinner for 1671 already includes sugar and candy.]
The boyar table is characterized by an extreme abundance of dishes - up to 50, and at the royal table their number grows to 150-200. The size of these dishes is also enormous, for which the largest swans, geese, turkeys, the largest sturgeons or belugas are usually chosen - sometimes they are so large that three or four people lift them. At the same time, there is a desire to decorate dishes. Palaces and fantastic animals of gigantic proportions are built from food products.
Court dinners turn into a pompous, magnificent ritual, lasting 6-8 hours in a row - from two o'clock in the afternoon to ten in the evening - and include almost a dozen courses, each of which consists of a whole series (sometimes two dozen) of dishes of the same name, for example from a dozen varieties of fried game or salted fish, from a dozen types of pancakes or pies.
Thus, in the 17th century. Russian cuisine was already extremely diverse in the range of dishes (we are, of course, talking about the cuisine of the ruling classes). At the same time, the art of cooking in the sense of the ability to combine products and bring out their taste was still at a very low level. Suffice it to say that mixing of products, chopping, grinding, crushing them was still not allowed. Most of all this applied to the meat table.
Therefore, Russian cuisine, in contrast to French and German, for a long time did not know and did not want to accept various minced meats, rolls, pates and cutlets. All kinds of casseroles and puddings turned out to be alien to ancient Russian cuisine. The desire to prepare a dish from a whole large piece, and ideally from a whole animal or plant, persisted until the 18th century.
The exception, it seemed, was the fillings in pies, in whole animals and poultry, and in their parts - rennet, caul. However, in most cases these were, so to speak, ready-made fillings, crushed by nature itself - grain (porridge), berries, mushrooms (they were not cut either). The fish for the filling was only flattened, but not crushed. And only much later - at the end of the 18th century. and especially in the 19th century. - already under the influence of Western European cuisine, some fillings began to be specially crushed.
The next stage in the development of Russian cuisine begins at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. and lasts a little more than a century - until the first decade of the 19th century. At this time, there was a radical demarcation between the cuisine of the ruling classes and the cuisine of the common people. If in the 17th century. The cuisine of the ruling classes still retained a national character and its difference from folk cuisine was expressed only in the fact that in terms of quality, abundance and range of products and dishes it was sharply superior to folk cuisine, then in the 18th century. The cuisine of the ruling classes gradually began to lose its Russian national character.
The order of serving dishes at a rich festive table, consisting of 6-8 changes, finally took shape in the second half of the 18th century. However, they began to serve one dish at each break. This order remained until the 60-70s of the 19th century:
1) hot (cabbage soup, soup, fish soup);
2) cold (okroshka, botvinya, jelly, jellied fish, corned beef);
3) roast (meat, poultry);
4) vegetable (boiled or fried hot fish);
5) pies (unsweetened), kulebyaka;
6) porridge (sometimes served with cabbage soup);
7) cake (sweet pies, pies);
8) snacks.
Since the times of Peter the Great, the Russian nobility and the rest of the nobility have borrowed and introduced Western European culinary traditions. Rich nobles visiting Western Europe brought foreign chefs with them. At first these were mostly Dutch and German, especially Saxon and Austrian, then Swedish and mainly French. From the middle of the 18th century. foreign cooks were hired so regularly that they soon almost completely replaced the cooks and serf cooks of the upper nobility.
One of the new customs that appeared at this time is the use of snacks as an independent dish. German sandwiches, French and Dutch cheeses that came from the West and were hitherto unknown on the Russian table were combined with ancient Russian dishes - cold corned beef, jelly, ham, boiled pork, as well as caviar, balyk and other salted red fish in a single serving or even in a special meal - breakfast.
New alcoholic drinks also appeared - ratafia and erofeichi. Since the 70s of the 18th century, when tea began to become increasingly important, in the highest circles of society, sweet pies, pies and sweets were separated from lunch, which were combined with tea in a separate serving and dedicated to 5 o’clock in the evening.
Only in the first half of the 19th century, after the Patriotic War of 1812, in connection with the general rise of patriotism in the country and the struggle of Slavophile circles against foreign influence, advanced representatives of the nobility began to revive interest in national Russian cuisine.
However, when in 1816 the Tula landowner V.A. Levshin tried to compile the first Russian cookbook, he was forced to admit that “information about Russian dishes has almost completely disappeared” and therefore “it is now impossible to provide a complete description of the Russian cookery and should be content with only by what can still be collected from what remains in memory, for the history of the Russian cookery has never been given over to description.”
As a result, the descriptions of Russian cuisine dishes collected by V. A. Levshin from memory were not only not accurate in their recipes, but also in their assortment they did not reflect all the actual richness of the dishes of the Russian national table.
The cuisine of the ruling classes and throughout the first half of the 19th century. continued to develop in isolation from folk cuisine, under the noticeable influence of French cuisine. But the very nature of this influence has changed significantly. In contrast to the 18th century, when there was a direct borrowing of foreign dishes, such as cutlets, sausages, omelettes, mousses, compotes, etc., and the displacement of native Russian ones, in the first half of the 19th century. a different process emerged - the processing of the Russian culinary heritage, and in the second half of the 19th century. The restoration of the Russian national menu is even beginning, albeit again with French adjustments.
During this period, a number of French chefs worked in Russia, radically reforming the Russian cuisine of the ruling classes. The first French chef to leave a mark on the reform of Russian cuisine was Marie-Antoine Carême - one of the first and few research chefs and chef-scientists. Before arriving in Russia at the invitation of Prince P.I. Bagration, Karem was the cook of the English Prince Regent (future King George IV), Duke of Württemberg, Rothschild, Talleyrand. He was keenly interested in the cuisines of various nations. During his short stay in Russia, Karem became familiar with Russian cuisine in detail, appreciated its merits and outlined ways to free it from superficiality.
Karem's successors in Russia continued the reform he began. This reform affected, firstly, the order of serving dishes to the table. Adopted in the 18th century. The "French" system of serving, when all dishes were put on the table at the same time, was replaced by the old Russian method of serving, when one dish replaced another. At the same time, the number of changes was reduced to 4-5 and a sequence was introduced in serving lunch, in which heavy dishes alternated with light ones that stimulated the appetite. In addition, meat or poultry cooked whole was no longer served on the table; they began to be cut into portions before serving. With such a system, decorating dishes as an end in itself has lost all meaning.
The reformers also advocated replacing dishes made from crushed and pureed products, which occupied a large place in the cuisine of the ruling classes in the 18th - early 19th centuries, with dishes made from natural products more typical of Russian cuisine. This is how all kinds of chops (lamb and pork) from a whole piece of meat with a bone, natural steaks, clops, splints, entrecotes, escalopes appeared.
At the same time, the efforts of culinary specialists were aimed at eliminating the heaviness and indigestibility of some dishes. So, in cabbage soup recipes, they discarded the flour flavor that made them tasteless, which was preserved only by tradition, and not by common sense, and began to widely use potatoes as side dishes, which appeared in Russia in the 70s of the 18th century.
For Russian pies, they suggested using soft puff pastry made from wheat flour instead of sour rye. They also introduced a straight method of preparing dough using pressed yeast, which we use today, thanks to which sour dough, which previously required 10-12 hours to prepare, began to ripen in 2 hours.
French chefs also paid attention to snacks, which became one of the specific features of the Russian table. If in the 18th century. The German form of serving snacks predominated - sandwiches, then in the 19th century. they began to serve appetizers on a special table, each type on a special dish, decorating them beautifully, and thus expanded their range so much, choosing among the appetizers a whole range of ancient Russian not only meat and fish, but also mushroom and pickled vegetable dishes, that their abundance and diversity henceforth never ceased to be a constant object of wonder to foreigners.
Finally, the French school introduced the combination of products (vinaigrettes, salads, side dishes) and precise dosages in dish recipes, which had not previously been accepted in Russian cuisine, and introduced Russian cuisine to unknown types of Western European kitchen equipment.
At the end of the 19th century. The Russian stove and pots and cast iron specially adapted to its thermal conditions were replaced by a stove with its oven, saucepans, stewpans, etc. Instead of a sieve and sieve, colanders, skimmers, meat grinders, etc. began to be used.
An important contribution of French culinary specialists to the development of Russian cuisine was that they trained a whole galaxy of brilliant Russian chefs. Their students were Mikhail and Gerasim Stepanov, G. Dobrovolsky, V. Bestuzhev, I. Radetsky, P. Grigoriev, I. Antonov, Z. Eremeev, N. Khodeev, P. Vikentiev and others, who supported and spread the best traditions of Russian cuisine to throughout the entire 19th century. Of these, G. Stepanov and I. Radetsky were not only outstanding practitioners, but also left behind extensive manuals on Russian cooking.
In parallel with this process of updating the cuisine of the ruling classes, carried out, so to speak, “from above” and concentrated in the noble clubs and restaurants of St. Petersburg and Moscow, there was another process - the collection, restoration and development of forgotten ancient Russian recipes, which spontaneously took place in the provinces, in the landowners estates until the 70s of the XIX century.
The source for this collection was folk cuisine, in the development of which a huge number of nameless and unknown, but talented serf cooks took part.
By the last third of the 19th century. Russian cuisine of the ruling classes, thanks to its unique assortment of dishes and their exquisite and delicate taste, began to occupy, along with French cuisine, one of the leading places in Europe.
At the same time, it is necessary to emphasize that, despite all the changes, introductions and foreign influences, its main characteristic features have been preserved and remain inherent to it to this day, since they have been firmly retained in folk cuisine.
These main features of Russian cuisine and the Russian national table can be defined as follows: the abundance of dishes, the variety of the snack table, the love of eating bread, pancakes, pies, cereals, the originality of the first liquid cold and hot dishes, the variety of fish and mushroom table, the widespread use of pickles from vegetables and mushrooms, an abundance of festive and sweet table with its jams, cookies, gingerbreads, Easter cakes, etc.
Some features of Russian cuisine should be said in more detail. Back at the end of the 18th century. Russian historian I. Boltin noted the characteristic features of the Russian table, including not only the wealthy. In rural areas, there were four meal times, and in the summer during working hours - five: breakfast, or snack, afternoon tea, before lunch, or exactly at noon, lunch, dinner and supper. These vyti, adopted in Central and Northern Russia, were also preserved in Southern Russia, but with different names. There, at 6-7 a.m. they ate, at 11-12 they had lunch, at 14-15 they had an afternoon snack, at 18-19 they had an evening meal, and at 22-23 they had dinner.
With the development of capitalism, working people in cities began to eat first three, and then only two times a day: they had breakfast at dawn, lunch or dinner when they came home. At work, they only ate midday, that is, they ate cold food. Gradually, lunch began to be called any full meal, a full table with hot brew, sometimes regardless of the time of day.
Bread played a big role at the Russian table. For cabbage soup or another first liquid dish in the village, they usually ate from half a kilo to a kilogram of black rye bread. White bread, made from wheat, was actually not common in Russia until the beginning of the 20th century. It was eaten occasionally and mainly by the wealthy segments of the population in cities, and among the people they looked at it as a holiday food. Therefore, white bread, called bun in some parts of the country, was baked not in bakeries, like black bread, but in special bakeries and was slightly sweetened. [“Bun” comes from the French word boule, which means “round like a ball.” Initially, white bread was baked only by French and German bakers.]
Local varieties of white bread were Moscow saiki and kalachi, Smolensk pretzels, Valdai bagels, etc. Black bread differed not by place of production, but only by the type of baking and type of flour - pecked, custard, hearth, peeled, etc.
Since the 20th century Other flour products made from white, wheat flour, previously not typical of Russian cuisine, came into use - vermicelli, pasta, while the consumption of pies, pancakes and porridges decreased. Due to the spread of white bread in everyday life, drinking tea with it sometimes began to replace breakfast and dinner.
The first liquid dishes, called from the end of the 18th century, retained constant importance in Russian cuisine. soups. Soups have always played a dominant role on the Russian table. No wonder the spoon was the main cutlery. It appeared in our country before the fork by almost 400 years. “With a fork you can fish, and with a spoon you can fish with a net,” said the popular proverb.
The assortment of national Russian soups - cabbage soup, zatirukh, pottage, fish soup, pickles, solyanka, botvinya, okroshka, prison - continued to expand in the 18th-20th centuries. various types of Western European soups such as broths, puree soups, various filling soups with meat and cereals, which took root well thanks to the love of the Russian people for hot liquid brew. In the same way, many soups of the peoples of our country have found a place on the modern Russian table, for example, Ukrainian borscht and kulesh, Belarusian beetroot soups and soups with dumplings.
Many soups, especially vegetable and vegetable-cereal soups, were obtained from liquefied gruels (i.e., gruels with vegetable filling) or represent the fruits of restaurant cuisine. However, it is not they, despite their diversity, but old, native Russian soups like cabbage soup and fish soup that still determine the uniqueness of the Russian table.
To a lesser extent than soups, fish dishes have retained their original meaning on the Russian table. Some classic Russian fish dishes like telny have fallen out of use. Meanwhile, they are tasty and easy to prepare. They can be prepared from sea fish, which, by the way, was used in Russian cuisine in ancient times, especially in Northern Russia, in Russian Pomerania. Residents of these grainless areas in those days have long been accustomed to cod, halibut, haddock, capelin, and navaga. “Lack of fish is worse than lack of bread,” was the saying of the Pomors at that time.
Known in Russian cuisine are steamed, boiled, whole fish, i.e. made in a special way from one fillet, boneless, fried, mended (filled with porridge or mushroom filling), stewed, jellied, baked in scales, baked in a frying pan in sour cream , salted (salted), dried and dried (suschik). In the Pechora and Perm regions, fish was also fermented (sour fish), and in Western Siberia they ate stroganina - frozen raw fish. The only uncommon method was the method of smoking fish, which developed mainly only over the last 70-80 years, i.e., from the beginning of the 20th century.
Characteristic of ancient Russian cuisine was the widespread use of spices in a fairly large assortment. However, the reduction in the role of fish, mushroom and game dishes, as well as the introduction of a number of German cuisine dishes into the menu, affected the reduction in the share of spices used in Russian cuisine.
In addition, many spices, due to their high cost, as well as vinegar and salt, have been used since the 17th century. People began to use re in the process of cooking, and put it on the table and use it during meals, depending on everyone’s desire. This custom gave rise to later claims that Russian cuisine supposedly did not use spices.
At the same time, they referred to the famous work of G. Kotoshikhin about Russia in the 17th century, where he wrote: “There is a custom of cooking without seasonings, without pepper and ginger, lightly salted and without vinegar.” Meanwhile, the same G. Kotoshikhin further explained: “And when the nets begin and in which there is little vinegar and salt and pepper, they add it to the food on the table.” Since those distant times, the custom has remained to place salt in a salt shaker, pepper in a pepper shaker, mustard and vinegar in separate jars on the table during meals.
As a result, folk cuisine never developed the skills of cooking with spices, while in the cuisine of the ruling classes, spices continued to be used in the cooking process. But Russian cuisine knew spices and seasonings back in the days of its formation; they were skillfully combined with fish, mushrooms, game, pies, soups, gingerbreads, Easter cakes and Easter cakes, and they were used carefully, but nevertheless constantly and without fail. And this circumstance must not be forgotten or overlooked when talking about the peculiarities of Russian cuisine.
Flavored oil was used quite often. To flavor the oil, the oil was heated (but not fried) in a frying pan or saucepan and the seeds of coriander, anise, fennel, dill or celery greens and parsley were added to it.
Finally, it is necessary to dwell on some technological processes characteristic of Russian cuisine.
For a long period of development of Russian national cuisine, the process of cooking was reduced to boiling or baking products in a Russian oven, and these operations were necessarily carried out separately. What was intended for cooking was boiled from beginning to end, what was intended for baking was only baked. Thus, Russian folk cuisine did not know what combined or even different, combined or double heat treatment was.
Thermal processing of food consisted of heating the Russian oven with heat, strong or weak, in three degrees - “before the bread”, “after the bread”, “in a free spirit” - but always without contact with the fire and either with a constant temperature kept at the same level, or with falling, decreasing temperatures as the oven gradually cooled, but never with increasing temperatures, as with stovetop cooking. That’s why the dishes always turned out not even boiled, but rather stewed or half-steamed, half-stewed, which is why they acquired a very special taste. It is not without reason that many dishes of ancient Russian cuisine do not make the proper impression when they are prepared in different temperature conditions.
Does this mean that it is necessary to restore the Russian stove in order to obtain real Russian cuisine in modern conditions? Not at all. Instead, it is enough to simulate the thermal regime of falling temperature it creates. Such imitation is possible under modern conditions.
However, we should not forget that the Russian stove had not only a positive, but to a certain extent also a negative impact on Russian cuisine - it did not stimulate the development of rational technological techniques.
The introduction of stove-top cooking led to the need to borrow a number of new technological techniques and, along with them, dishes from Western European cuisine, as well as to the reform of dishes of ancient Russian cuisine, their refining and development, and adaptation to new technology. This direction turned out to be fruitful. It helped save many Russian dishes from oblivion.
Speaking about Russian cuisine, we have so far emphasized its features and characteristic features, considered the history of its development and its content as a whole. Meanwhile, one should keep in mind the pronounced regional differences in it, explained mainly by the diversity of natural zones and the associated dissimilarity of plant and animal products, the different influences of neighboring peoples, as well as the diversity of the social structure of the population in the past.
That is why the cuisines of Muscovites and Pomors, Don Cossacks and Siberians are very different. While in the North they eat venison, fresh and salted sea fish, rye pies, money with cottage cheese and a lot of mushrooms, on the Don they fry and stew steppe game, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, drink grape wine and make pies with chicken. If the food of the Pomors is similar to Scandinavian, Finnish, Karelian and Lapp (Sami), then the cuisine of the Don Cossacks was noticeably influenced by Turkish and Nogai cuisine, and the Russian population in the Urals or Siberia follows Tatar and Udmurt culinary traditions.
Regional features of a different kind have long been inherent in the cuisines of the old Russian regions of Central Russia. These features are due to the medieval rivalry between Novgorod and Pskov, Tver and Moscow, Vladimir and Yaroslavl, Kaluga and Smolensk, Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod. Moreover, they manifested themselves in the field of cuisine not in major differences, such as differences in cooking technology or the presence of their own dishes in each region, as was the case, for example, in Siberia and the Urals, but in differences precisely between the same dishes, in differences are often even insignificant, but nevertheless quite persistent.
A striking example of this is such common Russian dishes as fish soup, pancakes, pies, porridge and gingerbread: they were made throughout European Russia, but each region had its own favorite types of these dishes, its own minor differences in their recipe, its own appearance , your serving techniques, etc.
We owe this, so to speak, “small regionality” to the emergence, development and existence so far, for example, of different types of gingerbread - Tula, Vyazma, Voronezh, Gorodetsky, Moscow, etc.
Regional differences, both large and small, naturally further enriched Russian cuisine and diversified it. And at the same time, all of them did not change its basic character, because in each specific case, the general features noted above attract attention, which together distinguish national Russian cuisine throughout Russia from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean.
Russian cuisine has long been widely known throughout the world. This is manifested both in the direct penetration of the most famous dishes of the Russian national menu into international restaurant cuisine (jelly, cabbage soup, fish soup, pies, etc.), and in the indirect influence of Russian culinary art on the cuisines of other nations.
Under the influence of the haute restaurant cuisine that developed in Russia in the second half of the 19th century (culinarians-restaurateurs Olivier, Yar and many others), the range of dishes of Russian cuisine at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. became so diverse, and its influence and popularity in Europe were so great that by this time they started talking about it with the same respect as the famous French cuisine.
In the early 1950s, in the USSR, according to Stalin’s instructions, a thick volume “COOKING” was prepared and published for cooks, reflecting the features and richness of developed Russian cuisine. A brief summary of this work for housewives was also published - “A Book about Tasty and Healthy Food.” The latter was reprinted and changed many times, but it is its first “Stalinist” edition that is of particular interest.
Russian traditions
TRADITIONS OF THE RUSSIAN Feast
From the history of Russian table traditions
Each nation has its own way of life, customs, its own unique songs, dances, and fairy tales. Each country has its favorite dishes, special traditions in table decoration and cooking. There is a lot in them that is expedient, historically conditioned, corresponding to national tastes, lifestyle, and climatic conditions. Over thousands of years, this way of life and these habits have developed; they contain the collective experience of our ancestors.
Culinary recipes, formed over the years as a result of centuries-old evolution, many of them are excellent examples of the correct combination of products in terms of taste, and from a physiological point of view - in terms of nutritional content.
The way of life of a people is formed under the influence of many factors - natural, historical, social, etc. To a certain extent, cultural exchange with other peoples also influences it, but foreign traditions are never mechanically borrowed, but acquire a local national flavor on new soil.
Since medieval antiquity, rye, oats, wheat, barley, and millet have been cultivated in our country. Our ancestors long ago borrowed the skills of making flour and mastered the “secrets” of baking various products from fermented dough. That is why pies, pies, pancakes, pies, kulebyaki, pancakes, pancakes, etc. are of significant importance in the food of our ancestors. Many of these products have long become traditional for festive tables: kurniks - at weddings, pies, pancakes - at Maslenitsa, "larks" "from dough - on spring holidays, etc.
No less typical for Russian traditional cuisine are dishes made from all kinds of cereals: various porridges, cereals, pancakes, oatmeal jelly, casseroles, dishes based on peas, as well as lentils.
In the more northern regions of our country, dishes prepared from millet are of particular importance. This tradition has deep historical roots. Once upon a time, the Eastern Slavs, who came to these lands in the 6th century AD. and lived mainly in forested areas, millet was cultivated as the main crop.
Millet served as a raw material for producing flour, cereals, brewing beer, kvass, preparing soups and sweet dishes. This folk tradition continues to this day. However, it should be borne in mind that millet is inferior in nutritional value to other cereals. Therefore, it should be prepared with milk, cottage cheese, liver, pumpkin and other products.
Not only grain crops were cultivated by our ancestors. From ancient times, through the centuries, such crops of Ancient Rome as cabbage, beets and turnips have come down to the present day and become the main ones in our garden. The most widely used cabbage in Rus' was sauerkraut, which could be preserved until the next harvest. Cabbage serves as an indispensable snack, seasoning for boiled potatoes and other dishes.
Cabbage soup made from various types of cabbage is the well-deserved pride of our national cuisine, although they were prepared back in Ancient Rome, where a lot of cabbage was specially grown. It’s just that many vegetable plants and recipes “migrated” from Ancient Rome through Byzantium to Rus' after the adoption of Christianity in Rus'. The Greeks not only created writing for Rus', but also passed on much of their culture.
Nowadays, cabbage is especially widely used in cooking in the northern and central regions of Russia, in the Urals and Siberia.
Turnips in Russia until the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. was as important as potatoes are today. Turnips were used everywhere and many dishes were prepared from turnips, stuffed, boiled, steamed. Turnips were used as a filling for pies, and kvass was made from it. Gradually, from the beginning to the middle of the 19th century, it was replaced by much more productive, but much less useful potatoes (practically, it is empty starch). But turnips also contain very valuable biochemical sulfur compounds, which, when eaten regularly, are excellent immunostimulants. Now the turnip has become a rare and piecemeal product on the Russian table - when it is sold, the price for it is determined not by kilograms, but by piece.
After the transition to potatoes, Russian cuisine significantly lost its high quality. As well as after practically abandoning Russian table horseradish, which is also an indispensable aid for health, but retains its beneficial properties for no more than 12-18 hours after preparation, i.e. requiring preparation shortly before serving. Therefore, modern store-bought “horseradish in jars” has neither such properties nor the proper taste. So if in Russia now Russian table horseradish is served at the family table, it is only on great holidays.
For some reason, rutabaga is not mentioned in ancient sources, probably because previously rutabaga was not distinguished from turnip. These once widespread root crops in Russia currently occupy a relatively small share in vegetable growing. They could not withstand competition with potatoes and other crops. However, the unique taste and smell, the possibility of various culinary uses, transportability, and storage stability suggest that turnips and rutabaga should not be abandoned at the present time, since they give a very special taste to many dishes of Russian folk cuisine.
Of the vegetable crops that appeared in Russia later, one cannot help but mention potatoes. At the very beginning of the 19th century. potatoes made a real revolution in the traditions of the Russian table; potato dishes gained wide popularity. Much credit for the spread of potatoes and its popularization belongs to the famous cultural figure of the 18th century. A.T. Bolotov, who not only developed agricultural technology for growing potatoes, but also proposed a technology for preparing a number of dishes.
Animal products have remained virtually unchanged. From time immemorial, our ancestors consumed the meat of cattle ("beef"), pigs, goats and sheep, as well as poultry - chickens, geese, ducks.
Until the 12th century. Horse meat was also used, but already in the 13th century. it has almost gone out of use, because The Mongol-Tatars, who needed horses more, began to take away the “extra” horses from the population. In manuscripts of the 16th-17th centuries. (“Domostroy”, “Painting the Tsar’s Dishes”) only certain delicious dishes made from horse meat are mentioned (jellied horse lips, boiled horse heads). Subsequently, with the development of dairy farming, milk and products derived from it were increasingly used.
Forestry was a large and significant addition to the economy of our ancestors. In the chronicles of the XI-XII centuries. talking about hunting grounds - "goshawks", later manuscripts mention hazel grouse, wild ducks, hares, geese and other game. Although there is no reason to believe that they have not been eaten before since ancient times.
Forests occupy vast areas in our country, especially in the northern Urals and Siberia. The use of forest products is one of the characteristic features of Russian cuisine. In the old days, hazelnuts played an important role in nutrition. Nut butter was one of the most common fats. The nut kernels were crushed, a little boiling water was added, wrapped in a rag and placed under pressure. The oil gradually dripped into the bowl. Nut cake was also used for food - added to porridge, eaten with milk, with cottage cheese. Crushed nuts were also used to prepare various dishes and fillings.
The forest was also a source of honey (beekeeping). Various sweet dishes and drinks - medki - were prepared from honey. Currently, only in some places in Siberia (especially in Altai, among local non-Russian peoples) methods for preparing these delicious drinks have been preserved.
However, from the most ancient times and before the advent of mass production of sugar, honey was the main sweetness of all nations, and on its basis, even in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, a wide variety of sweet drinks, dishes and desserts were prepared. Also, not only Russians, but also all peoples who had fish at their disposal, from time immemorial also ate caviar.
The very first artificially cultivated fruit tree in Rus' was the cherry. Under Yuri Dolgoruky, only cherries grew in Moscow.
The character of Russian folk cuisine was significantly influenced by the geographical features of our country - the abundance of rivers, lakes, and seas. It is the geographical location that explains the number of different types of fish dishes. The diet included many river and lake fish species. Although there were many more different fish dishes in Ancient Greece and, especially, in Ancient Rome - the creator of the foundations of the modern richness of European cuisine. What was the cost of Lucullus’ culinary fantasies alone! (Unfortunately, his numerous records of recipes have been lost.)
In Russian cuisine, a large assortment of products was also used for preparing dishes. However, it is not so much the variety of products that determines the specificity of national Russian cuisine (the same products were also available to Europeans), but rather the methods of their processing and cooking technologies. In many ways, the originality of folk dishes was determined precisely by the peculiarities of the Russian oven.
There is reason to believe that the design of the traditional Russian stove was not borrowed. It appeared in Eastern Europe as a local original type of hearth. This is indicated by the fact that among the peoples of Siberia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, the main types of ovens were open hearths, as well as an outdoor oven for baking bread or a tandoor for baking flat cakes. Finally, archeology provides direct evidence of this. During excavations of Trypillian settlements in Ukraine (third millennium BC), not only the remains of stoves were found, but also a clay model of the stove, which made it possible to restore their appearance and structure. These adobe stoves can be considered the prototype of later stoves, including the Russian stove.
But the design of the samovar was borrowed by the Russians from the Persians, who in turn took it from the Arabs. (However, Russian nesting dolls were also borrowed from the Japanese in 1893; their mass production was already established in 1896.)
But we should not try to artificially “cleanse” our table of dishes that were once borrowed from other peoples and have long become familiar to us. These include, for example, pancakes (borrowed in the 9th century from the cuisine of the Varangians along with compotes and infusions from dried fruits), cutlets, meatballs, splints, steaks, escalopes, mousses, jelly, mustard, mayonnaise (borrowed from European cuisine), shish kebab and kebab (borrowed from the Crimean Tatars), dumplings (borrowed in the 12th century from the Mongols), borscht (this is the national dish of Ancient Rome, which came to Rus' along with Orthodoxy from the Byzantine Greeks), ketchup (an invention of the cooks of the English navy) and others.
Many dishes that have now become traditional Russian were invented by French chefs and restaurateurs who worked in Russia in the 19th century and created the foundations of modern Russian cuisine (Lucien Olivier, Yar, etc.).
In the process of historical development, nutrition changed, new products appeared, and methods of their processing improved. Potatoes and tomatoes appeared in Russia relatively recently, many ocean fish have become familiar, and it is no longer possible to imagine our table without them. Attempts to divide Russian cuisine into ancient, original and modern are very conventional. It all depends on the availability of products available to the people. And who will now say that dishes with potatoes or tomatoes cannot be national Russian?
The culinary use of pineapples during the times of Catherine II and Prince Potemkin (this lover of cabbage stalks, which he did not part with and constantly gnawed) is interesting. Pineapples were then chopped and fermented in barrels, like cabbage. This was one of Potemkin’s favorite snacks to go with vodka.
Our country is vast, and each region has its own local dishes. In the north they love cabbage soup, and in the south - borscht, in Siberia and the Urals there is no festive table without shaneg, and in Vologda - without fishmongers, on the Don they cook fish soup with tomatoes, etc. However, there are many common dishes for all regions of our country and many general techniques for their preparation.
Everything that was formed at the initial stage of the Russian culinary tradition remains unchanged to this day. The main components of the traditional Russian table: black rye bread, which remains a favorite to this day, various soups and cereals prepared almost every day, but not at all according to the same recipes as many years ago (which require a Russian oven, and even ability to handle it), pies and other countless products made from yeast dough, without which not a single party is complete, pancakes, as well as our traditional drinks - honey, kvass and vodka (although all of them are also borrowed; in particular, bread kvass was prepared and in Ancient Rome).
In addition, with the arrival of Orthodoxy from Byzantium in Rus', a Lenten table was formed.
The main advantage of Russian cuisine is the ability to absorb and creatively refine and improve the best dishes of all the peoples with whom the Russian people had to communicate on a long historical path. This is what made Russian cuisine the richest cuisine in the world.
Nowadays, in the national culinary traditions of the whole world, there is not a single more or less worthy dish that does not have its analogue in the richest Russian cuisine, and in a much better execution, corresponding to Russian taste.
YOU DINNER
or meal time. Howl is an old Russian word for eating time. Each howl, each dining season has long had its own name, which has survived to our time.
Initially they were called: interception (7 a.m.), afternoon tea (11 a.m.), lunch (3 p.m.), lunch (5-6 p.m.), dinner (8-9 p.m.) and pauzin (11 p.m.). Not all of these activities were performed simultaneously.
From the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. The following names are established: breakfast (from 6 to 8 a.m.), afternoon tea (from 10 to 11 a.m.), lunch (between 2 and 3 p.m.), tea (5-6 p.m.), dinner (8-9 p.m.). Basically, these vyti are still recognized today as a rational meal time for hospitals, boarding schools, and sanatoriums. An afternoon snack is now more often called a second breakfast, and as a reminder of the dinner in sanatoriums, kefir is left before bed, one and a half to two hours after dinner.
In Western European practice, different ways have developed. They are still preserved partly in restaurant practice and partly in diplomatic practice in many countries.
So, breakfast is at 7.30-8 o'clock, then midi (in France) at 12 o'clock, and in most countries of Western Europe, according to the English model, lunch is at 13 o'clock. This is, in fact, our lunch, although in diplomatic terminology it is breakfast. At 17-18 o’clock there is a five-o-clock (tea or, in diplomatic terminology, a cocktail) and at 20 o’clock there is lunch, which is actually similar to our dinner, since soup is not served at this “lunch”.
There is no dinner in the West. But French practice sometimes also provides for the so-called souper, that is, an evening or night dinner, which is held only when the celebration drags on well after midnight. In this case, at 23.30 or 24.00, or even at one in the morning, various snacks and onion soup, traditional in such cases, from which this nightly dinner got its name, are served, and then a light hot fish main (but often limited to one soup ). In practice, people resort to supe extremely rarely, literally two or three, at most four or five times a year, on major holidays.
Reception of guests
In the seventeenth century, every self-respecting city dweller, and especially if he was also wealthy, could not do without holding festive feasts, because it was part of their way of life. They began to prepare for the festive feast long before the solemn day - they carefully cleaned and tidied up the entire house and yard; when the guests arrived, everything had to be flawless, everything had to shine like never before. From the chests were taken ceremonial tablecloths, dishes, and towels that had been so carefully stored for this day.
And the honorable place of the head of this entire important process, as well as the purchasing and preparation of festive events, was supervised by the mistress of the house.
The owner had an equally important responsibility - inviting guests to the feast. Moreover, depending on the status of the guest, the owner either sent a servant with an invitation or went himself. And the actual event itself went something like this: the hostess in a festive outfit came out to the assembled guests and greeted them, bowing from the waist, and the guests responded with a bow to the ground, followed by a kissing ceremony: the owner of the house invited the guests to honor the hostess with a kiss.
The guests took turns approaching the hostess of the house and kissing her, and at the same time, according to the canons of etiquette, they held their hands behind their backs, after which they bowed to her again and accepted a glass of vodka from her hands. When the hostess went to the special women's table, this served as a signal for everyone to sit down and start eating. Usually the ceremonial table stood stationary, in the “red corner,” that is, under the icons, near the benches fixedly attached to the wall, on which, by the way, at that time it was considered more honorable than on the benches.
The meal itself began with the owner of the house cutting off and serving to each invited guest a slice of bread with salt, which symbolized the hospitality and hospitality of this house; by the way, today’s hospitality traditions take their origins from that time. As a sign of special respect or affection for one of his guests, the host of the ceremony could himself put some food from a special plate, specially placed next to him, and, with the help of his servant, send it to the guest of honor, as if more emphasizing his attention given to him.
Although the tradition of greeting guests with bread and salt came to us from that time, the order of serving dishes in those days was noticeably different from the one we are accustomed to today: first we ate pies, after dishes of meat, poultry and fish, and only at the end of the meal started on soups.
Serving order
When all the participants in the meal were seated in their places, the owner cut the bread into pieces and, along with salt, served it to each guest separately. With this action he once again emphasized the hospitality of his home and deep respect for all those present.
At these festive feasts, one more thing was obligatory - the so-called oprichnina dish was placed in front of the owner and the owner personally transferred the food from it into shallow containers (flat dishes) and handed them along with the servants to special guests as a sign of absolute attention to them. And when the servant conveyed this peculiar gastronomic message from his master, as a rule he said: “May you, dear sir, eat for your health.”
If we, by some miracle, could travel back in time and find ourselves in the seventeenth century, and why not, if a second miracle happened, we would be invited to such a celebration, we would be quite surprised at the order in which the dishes were served at the table. Judge for yourself, now it’s normal for us that first we eat an appetizer, then soup, and after that the main course and dessert, but in those days they served pies first, then meat, poultry and fish dishes (“roast”), and only then , at the end of lunch - soups (“ear”). Having rested after the soups, we ate a variety of sweet snacks for dessert.
How they drank in Rus'
The drinking traditions in Rus' that have been preserved and come down to us have their roots in ancient times, and in many houses today, as in the distant past, refusing food and drink means offending the owners. The tradition of drinking vodka not in small sips, as is customary, for example, in European countries, but in one gulp, all at once, has also reached us and is practiced everywhere.
True, now the attitude towards drunkenness has changed, if today getting drunk means deviating from accepted norms of decency, then in those days of boyar Rus', when it was considered obligatory, and a guest who was not drunk had to at least pretend to be one. Although one should not get drunk quickly, but keep up with all the participants in the feast, and therefore rapid intoxication at a party was considered indecent.
Royal feasts
Thanks to the many ancient manuscripts that have reached us, we are well aware of the festive and everyday table of the tsar and the boyars. And this is thanks to the punctuality and precision in the performance of their duties by court servants.
The number of all kinds of dishes at royal feasts and at feasts of rich boyars reached up to a hundred, and on special occasions could reach half a thousand, and each was solemnly brought to the table one by one, one at a time, and precious gold and silver dishes with other dishes were held in the hands of those standing around the table richly dressed servants.
Peasant feast
But the traditions of feasting and eating were also among not so rich layers of society, and were not only among the rich and noble members of society.
Representatives of almost all segments of the population considered it obligatory to gather at the banquet table on the occasion of all significant events in life, be it a wedding, christening, name day, meeting, farewell, funeral, folk and church holidays...
And naturally, it is this tradition that has reached us practically unchanged.
Russian hospitality
Everyone knows about Russian hospitality and it has always been this way. (However, what people will say about themselves that they are not hospitable?! Georgians? Armenians? French? Chukchi? Italians or Greeks? And further on the list...)
As for food, if guests come to a Russian person’s house and find the family having dinner, they will certainly be invited to the table and seated at it, and the guest is unlikely to have the opportunity to refuse this. (Although among other nations, the guest is also not forced to stand in the corner until the end of dinner. But, as they say, you can’t praise yourself...)
Gala dinners and feasts in honor of the reception of foreign guests were organized with particular breadth and scope; they were designed to demonstrate not only the material capabilities of the royal hosts (who completely robbed their own people), but also the breadth and hospitality of the Russian soul
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