Russian Cuisine
Cultural Recipe Book
Is made by the teacher of foreign languages
Larisa Sergeeva from Belgorod region, Russia

 

1) Salad of beetroot

2) “Okroshka“ ( an exquisite cold soup )

3) Gurjevskaya porridge
4) Beaf-Stroganov
5) Curd’s cake
6) Fruit cake
7) Russian Pancakes
8) Milkshake
9) Kvass

 

The History of Russian Cuisine

Bread has always played a special role in the life of Russians. Foreigners were often surprised to see this affection and could not understand why no meal could start without bread, even in spite of the fact that there was so much wild game in Russian forests.
According to an ancient tradition, if someone dropped bread he had to kiss it and ask its pardon for such carelessness. Peasants, as well as town-dwellers, never threw crumbs away, but put them in a hand and ate them. Guests were welcomed with the words "bread and salt", which symbolized hospitality.
At first, rye bread was the most popular, but, little by little, white bread also came into use. Normally bread was cooked from leavened dough and it was round. Besides, leavened dough was useful for preparing cookies and pancakes. The latter was considered to be a ritual dish, as pancakes were usually served for funeral repast and during Pancake Week.
A special Russian dish is rye and oatmeal: kisel. It was served as an everyday meal and at the same time was traditional at weddings and funeral repasts.
Cereals were used to prepare soups and kashas. It is to be noted that in different regions people cooked kashas from different cereals. In the south of the country, people liked millet; in the south of Siberia they preferred buckwheat and so on. When there was not enough flour or cereals, people ate the so-called "second bread", that is, potatoes.
The plant appeared in Russia only in the 18th century and at first people did not know what part of it to eat. You can guess whether the peasants appreciated potatoes or g not, if you learn that they ate not the tubers but the flowers of the vegetable in the beginning! No one could understand what Peter the Great, who brought the strange plant to Russia, found tasty in it; but little by little people
discovered its real value. Since then we have been cooking potatoes in different ways: we boil and bake them, in peel, we have been frying them and even making kisel out of it.
Cabbage cannot be replaced either. It is impossible to cook shchi without it and we know that shchi and kasha have always been irreplaceable for Russians. I am sure that most of our readers could name different kinds of shchi: sauerkraut, sorrel soup...
Centuries ago Russians ate many stewed vegetables, such as carrots, beets, turnips. It was not expensive, and at one time turnips were even more popular than potatoes. In Germany today they are still served very often.
An important part of Russian cuisine is oil. It is less expensive than butter, besides, during fast periods, people are allowed to add only oil to dishes. Earlier, northern citizens of the country used linseed-oil and southern ones hempseed and sunflower-seed oil.
Russians were not only farmers but cattle-breeders as well. That is why they liked so many diary products: milk, whey, sour cream, cottage cheese. Usually poor peasants did not eat either sour cream or cheese, as it was much more profitable to sell them. A cow gave more revenue if it was milked; that explains the not very common use of meat in meals. At the same time, Russians could cook many dishes out of meat. They fried, boiled, baked it, and
prepared sausages and ham. During fasts, meat was replaced by fish.
In their gardens people grew berries, vegetables and fruits. Mushrooms were in favor as well - though the population of southern regions did not usually eat them as much as people in other parts of the country.
A huge diversity can be found among Russian traditional drinks. A daily one - kvas - was made of bread or beet and pears. Dry fruits were used to prepare compote; honey and barley were substances for beer. The popularity of honey and beer can be witnessed by Russian fairy-tales, where at the end of the story the main hero always has one of these drinks. But the most popular Russian drink is, no doubt, vodka, which was made from different berries and herbs.
Tea came into fashion only in the 19th century. People often drank it out of a saucer, with jam, honey or sugar. In some areas, bordering Mongolia and Turkic territories, people drink black Kalmyk tea with flour, fat and salt! In fact, it can be considered a soup - a very nourishing one.
Russians, just like other peoples, have preserved their culinary traditions better than their peculiarities of home or clothes, for example. Today there are many new dishes appearing in our daily lives. No one will be surprised to see Italian spaghetti or pizza, olives, French wine or brandy set before them on the table.

Russian cuisine is rich and varied. In Russia there is a large variety of milk products: a sort of dry, granulated cream cheese called "tvorog", thick sour cream called "smetana", several types of sour milk products of the youghourt type. Kefir is pleasant, useful beverage made from cow's milk, yeast and lactic acid bacteria. It's dietary product. Ryazhenka is a sour milk product made from baked milk, very pleasant to taste.
There is a big chose of appetizers, soups, hot dessert dishes. I can recommend our guests salmon, hot and cold smoked sturgeon, pikeperch in aspic or stuffed, herring, red herring. Baltic salt-sprats; fried, smoked, marinated smelt and the like. As for cold meat dishes our guests can taste ham, lean cold boiled pork with spices (buzhenina), jellied tongue, meat jelly and horse-radish sauce and various salads beginning with salad "Stolychnii" up to Russian salad. For a change, you can taste frozen apples. They are delicious. Russian blini are popular hot appetizers. How about soups? There are plenty of them. Shchee, borshch, rassolnic, salyanka, ookha (special fichermen's soup), mushroom soup and soups in season - okroshka and cold beetroot soup are very popular with our guests.
For the hot dish guests can order fried burbot or carp, or meat dishes to their taste: beef-Stroganoff and mashed potatoes, roast veal, golubtsy, pelmeni and so on. There is a large variety of poultry and game dishes: roast chicken, roast duck and goose stuffed with apples, roast partridge, hazel-grouse, wood grouse, blackbird, pheasant and quail. They are juicy and tender dishes.
How about desert? For desert you can have baked apples, fruit and berry kisel, compot, dessert fruit: aromatic melons from Middle Asia, water-melons from the Volga, juicy grapes, apricots, peaches, oranges.
Russian cuisine is famous for its Russian pies which were baked in Russia in good old times and remain popular nowadays. They are: kulebiaka, rastegay, vatrushki, krendeli, boubliki, baranki, sooshki, Russian Easter cakes and various fancy-cakes.

We want you to cook our Russian dishes. Believe, it's very tasty!