Classic Russian cuisine. Russian national dishes: names and recipes

Dishes of Russian national cuisine have a fairly rich history and a large assortment. The composition of the dishes of modern Russian cuisine is quite diverse, and, as a rule, their recipes imply several different cooking options, ranging from the simplest to very complex and multicomponent. Having a centuries-old tradition, the national cuisine of Russia combines both traditional primordially Russian dishes and those borrowed from other peoples.

Traditional Russian cuisine

Due to the fact that for the preparation of food in peasant Russia they used mainly the Russian oven, the main methods of thermal processing of products were cooking, languishing, stewing or baking. Fried dishes were an exception, since the design of the closed Russian oven did not allow obtaining the temperatures required for frying. The peculiarities of Russian cuisine in its traditional old version are 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 widespread are cabbage soup, borscht, pickle, hodgepodge, fish soup, mushroom and vegetable soups, okroshka, botvinya.

The most popular all over the world are Russian cabbage soup and borscht. Cabbage soup is prepared from fresh or sauerkraut, nettle, sorrel. In modern culinary reference books, you can find several dozen different types of Russian cabbage soup: with meat, fish, poultry, mushrooms, etc.... Borsch, a beetroot cabbage soup, is also rightfully considered a very popular and widespread Russian dish.

As a rule, porridge was used as the second course of Russian cuisine. Porridge was considered an indispensable attribute of any table at any time, there was even a saying: cabbage soup and porridge - our food. The prevalence of porridge was determined, firstly, by the variety of grain crops growing in Russia, and secondly, by the simplicity of their preparation.

For the preparation of porridge, crushed grain was often used, which made it possible to reduce the cooking time and obtain a product of a more delicate consistency. Porridge was seasoned with butter and ghee, honey, berries and fruits. After the appearance of potatoes in Russia, it gradually gained popularity and became "the second bread". Recipes for cooking 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 was most often cooked whole, beef, lamb, pork and meat of large wild animals were served in large pieces, since meat products were not allowed to grind during the cooking process.

There are features of the Russian national cuisine that are not widespread in the culinary addictions of other countries. These are pickles 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 can do without pickled, salted, soaked mushrooms, vegetables and fruits. The recipes for the most successful options for preparing these snacks are often inherited from parents to children.

It should also be noted the popular recipes for Olivier salads and vinaigrette. The latter is called "Russian salad" all over the world. Vinaigrette is a Russian invention... For its preparation, 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 the same characteristic feature of the Russian festive feast as the 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 drink and jelly based on fruit or berry broths are also a pleasant addition to the festive 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 about Russian cuisine when they see black caviar, pancakes and Russian vodka.

Culinary dough products

Initially, Russian pastries were made from yeast dough prepared by the sponge method. Yeast dough for dough began to be used in Russia much earlier than in many other countries. Pies and pies, pies, kurniki, kulebyaki and many other products were baked from different types of such dough. Various types of fish, meat of domestic animals and game, mushrooms, berries, vegetables, fruits, cottage cheese served as the filling.

Russian chefs began to use unleavened dough much later. Therefore, the range of products made from it is relatively small: noodles, dumplings, dumplings, pancakes.

Pies were necessarily served with the first courses: soup, soup, cabbage soup. Kurnik and loaf were traditionally baked for the wedding table. For "sweet" things were served sushi and bagels, rolls, koloboks, cheesecakes, rugs, donuts.

An important component of the Russian table is the traditional Russian gingerbread. Before the advent of sugar, gingerbread, like other sweet dishes, was cooked with honey. Therefore, gingerbread was originally called honey bread. Later, when various spices brought from India and the eastern states were used for the dough, honey bread began to be called gingerbread.

Gingerbread was baked mainly for the festive table, since many of the ingredients for the gingerbread dough were expensive products. Large printed gingerbread has long been considered a good gift for various holidays, weddings, birthdays, name days. For special occasions, huge gingerbread cookies weighing up to 5 kg were baked. Gingerbread with letters became the first alphabet for children.

Gingerbread was made with various fillings and seasonings. In addition, gingerbread cookies were of various shapes: oval, round, rectangular, curly - and sizes. After the widespread use of sugar in the diet of Russian people, gingerbread cookies began to be coated with sugar glaze. In various regions of the vast country, there were special recipes for making gingerbread. The most famous were and remain the Tula gingerbread.

The Orthodox Church made its contribution to the formation of Russian culinary traditions. Numerous fasts, during which it was impossible to eat meat, dairy, fish dishes, made pastries with mushroom, vegetable and fruit and berry fillings an irreplaceable component of the diet. For many religious holidays, special types of pastries were prepared, for example, Easter cakes and Easter to celebrate Christ's Resurrection.

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 arrival of European traditions in Russian cuisine, they began to bake thin pancakes.

They were eaten with honey, vegetable oil, sour cream, jam. In addition, pancakes were stuffed with meat, cereals, cottage cheese, mushrooms, vegetables, berries and fruits.... Pancakes were used to make pancake pies with various fillings. Although pancakes were baked frequently, over time they became the main festive dish at Shrovetide. Small pancakes (pancakes) were made 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 the food of only common people. In fact, black bread was served at the table in merchants, boyars, and noble houses.

White bread from wheat flour was baked much later than rye bread. It became the food of the mostly urban nobility. Many Russian landowners preferred traditional Russian cuisine, contrary to the misconception that Germans and French were ubiquitous chefs in landowners' houses.

In addition to rye and wheat flour, Russian cuisine used other cereals for baking. Agriculture was the main occupation in Russia.

The respectful attitude to the hard work of the farmer is reflected in many rituals, customs and traditions of the Russian people. Guests have long been greeted with bread and salt, the bride at the wedding was showered with grain, the farewell to the deceased on the last journey did not pass without a funeral kutya.

Delicious and easy-to-prepare "Chaika" salad - a classic of Soviet cuisine! Despite the simplicity and not a large number of ingredients, salad with cheese, eggs and peas has a rather original taste. A wonderful simple salad for the holiday and on a weekday!

eggs, hard cheese, canned green peas, onions, green onions, mayonnaise, salt

Lazy cottage cheese dumplings prepared according to this recipe turn out to be very tasty, soft and airy, like white clouds. And the preparation is not difficult at all. Serve lazy dumplings in a savory version - with cracklings and feta cheese. Very tasty, satisfying and original!

Do you want to transform the familiar curd casserole with semolina so that a healthy dessert sparkles with new colors? Follow this wonderful recipe - add kiwi and banana slices to the curd mass! The sweetness of the curd mass and the sourness of kiwi go well with each other, and bananas give the curd casserole an appetizing exotic flavor.

cottage cheese, banana, kiwi, kefir, eggs, sugar, semolina, baking powder, powdered sugar

Let's prepare thin pancakes in milk from two types of dough - white and with the addition of cocoa. To give the pancakes an original look, we will make them not just one-color, but polka-dotted! Pancakes with polka dots look elegant and even funny. With or without filling, but such pancakes will definitely not remain without attention! Great recipe for Shrovetide!

eggs, salt, sugar, flour, milk, cocoa powder, sunflower oil, cottage cheese, condensed milk

A very tasty and unusual minced dough pie with a chocolate-orange filling, which magically divides into two layers during baking.

flour, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, orange, lemon, chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, orange peel, powdered sugar

Stewed potatoes with mushrooms in a slow cooker are a simple and hearty homemade dish for a family dinner. Cooking potatoes according to this recipe will take you a minimum of time, since the main work will be taken over by your kitchen assistant - a multicooker!

potatoes, fresh champignons, onions, sunflower oil, water, salt, ground black pepper, parsley

Pancake cake with sour cream and condensed milk cream is an elegant and delicious treat made from ordinary pancakes! Such a pancake cake will successfully fit into any festive menu, but it will be especially relevant during Shrovetide week. Be sure to pamper yourself and loved ones on occasion with this wonderful, tender and easy-to-prepare pancake cake!

pancakes, sour cream, condensed milk, sprinkles

Delicious, tender, almost delicate pancakes on kefir. They are baked quickly. The pancake dough is prepared using a choux method.

kefir, boiling water, flour, eggs, sugar, salt, soda, vegetable oil

A beautifully designed, intriguing layered salad "Mistress" with beets, carrots and cheese. This beetroot salad has both sweetness and spice. Layered salad "Mistress" will become an unusual dish on your festive table on Valentine's Day. It is better to prepare such a salad on the eve of February 14, so that it has time to soak.

beets, carrots, hard cheese, prunes, walnuts, mayonnaise, salt, sugar, garlic, olives

Don't know where to put the pasta left over from the previous meal, or want to diversify the assortment of pasta dishes? Make a pasta casserole with bacon and cheese! This pasta casserole will be a godsend for those who love tasty and satisfying food, but cannot spend a lot of time in the kitchen!

pasta, onion, bacon, hard cheese, garlic, cream, sunflower oil, salt, ground black pepper

The recipe for a delicious soup with chicken and egg dumplings! For some reason, children often like soup with dumplings more than soup with pasta or other flour products, although there is dough both there and there. Chicken soup with dumplings is easy to prepare, it turns out rich. This is a great first course at any time of the year!

chicken legs, potatoes, onions, carrots, eggs, flour, sunflower oil, parsley, bay leaves, salt, ground black pepper, water

We all know that the liver is a healthy product that must be included in the diet of both adults and children. Today we will cook turkey liver pancakes in sauce. At first glance - ordinary liver pancakes, but no - creamy onion sauce works wonders. It is due to him that the pancakes are very soft, juicy and incredibly tasty. I recommend to everyone!

liver, eggs, onions, flour, bread crumbs, sunflower oil, salt, ground black pepper, onions, flour, water, cream, sunflower oil, salt ...

Pork kidneys are second-class by-products. And all because of the specific smell and taste that are inherent in the kidneys. But it is quite possible to get rid of all this! Today we will cook kidneys stewed in sour cream with vegetables. And at the same time, we will find out what measures need to be taken to properly process and prepare the kidneys.

pork kidneys, onions, carrots, garlic, sunflower oil, sour cream, soda, salt, ground black pepper

Recipe for homemade kefir cake, the dough for which is prepared on the basis of corn flour, with the addition of raisins and orange peel. The cornmeal muffin is very tasty, has a golden brown crust, soft aromatic crumb and a beautiful sunny color. Making corn cake is easy. It is equally good with both hot and cold drinks.

butter, sugar, eggs, corn flour, wheat flour, soda, kefir, orange peel, raisins, powdered sugar, sugar glaze

Thin potato dough pancakes with herbs will surprise anyone! The dough is prepared in an elementary way. It is mixed with mashed potatoes and milk. No soda or yeast is added. Potato pancakes are good both hot and cold. With sour cream just delicious!

potatoes, milk, eggs, garlic, sugar, salt, sunflower oil, flour, herbs, water

Pancake cake with cherries and sour cream is a great treat for Shrovetide! This pancake cake is assembled according to the principle of the "Monastyrskaya hut" cake, which means that its cut turns out to be spectacular, beautiful and appetizing!

pancakes, sour cream, cherries, powdered sugar, chocolate

If you want to please your loved ones with delicious homemade food, cook the duck in the oven. You will definitely like this recipe for baked duck with rice and sauerkraut, because it takes a minimum of your efforts to prepare it. Thanks to roasting duck in a cauldron, the meat is very soft and tender. The whole family will be happy!

duck meat, sauerkraut, rice, vegetable oil, black peppercorns, bay leaves, salt, ground black pepper

Delicious pickle recipe on fresh chicken heart broth. Pickle with chicken hearts and beans turns out to be very satisfying and aromatic. The taste of this Kuban pickle is fresh and rich. Be sure to cook it sometime for lunch.

chicken heart, canned beans, pickled cucumbers, tomato juice, cucumber pickle, onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, parsley, salt ...

The classic recipe for Mimosa salad with canned fish is probably familiar to everyone. But as an experiment, you can make this salad with herring. Thanks to lightly salted fish, the taste of Mimosa salad becomes more intense. The salad is quite budgetary, which allows it to be prepared both on weekdays and on a festive table.

herring fillet, processed cheese, potatoes, carrots, eggs, onions, mayonnaise, ground black pepper, salt

Russian cuisine is so multifaceted and extensive that, at the very least, it should be divided into central, southern and northern. Moreover, the taste preferences of the Russian aborigines, the most numerous people in our country, vary greatly depending on the geographical location and the plant and animal raw materials that grow and live nearby.

Let's start with central part of Russia because it is here, in the two historical capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg, that the streams of products, recipes and talented culinary specialists from all over vast Russia traditionally flock.

Modest and lean

Ancient Russian cuisine, until about the 14th century, was based more on custom than on culinary arts. It was simple and not varied. In the peasant diet, such a technique as frying is almost never used. Food was cooked in a Russian oven, widely used: cooking, languishing and stewing. For blanks for the future, salting, fermentation, and soaking were widely used. For a long time, the table was very clearly divided into lean and modest. The abundance of vegetable, berry, and mushroom dishes in Russian cuisine is due precisely to the fasting for many days. On the one hand, such a strict division led to a simplification of the menu, but on the other hand, to the creation of many original dishes that have become the hallmark of Russian cuisine and have no analogues in any foreign cuisine. For instance, sauerkraut, salted cucumbers, dried mushrooms... Again, during fasting, a lot of forbidden milk accumulated in the house. To prevent it from disappearing, they made cottage cheese, but not ordinary, it was squeezed tight and several times, pressed, then simmered in the oven until it became completely dry. But after such processing, the cottage cheese was stored for many months. From the same series - melted butter that retains freshness and taste for a long time after a truly unique technology and processing.

Bread and porridge - our food

Bread was mostly eaten rye... However, rye flour was often mixed with barley... Wheat began to bake later, from about the 17th century, such delicacies as rolls, and even later - bagels and bagels. No salt was added to flour products. The common food of the common people was oatmeal: semi-cooked oatmeal was ground into flour, which was then diluted with water, less often milk. Grains and vegetables have long been the basis of peasant food. Rye, oatmeal and even pea flour was used to cook thick jelly... Sweet berry jelly appeared later, with the arrival of potatoes and, accordingly, potato starch.

There is an inexhaustible number of grain crops growing in the central part of Russia: rye, wheat, barley, oats, add to this different types of beans and peas, plus several types of flour were obtained from each grain using different grinding. All this led to a variety of cereals. Initially, porridge was a ceremonial, festive dish. And the word porridge itself meant - collective... It is cooked in one porridge - to work or live together. Classmate, you can't cook porridge with him - expressions from the same series. By the way, Peter I was very fond of barley porridge, which is why during his reign the cereal was renamed into pearl barley(pearl).

A special domestic culinary pride is gingerbread... At first, it consisted entirely of a mixture (50x50) of flour and honey, it was called honey bread and was unusually tasty and aromatic. Gradually, they began to add berry juice to the gingerbread cookies, then spices - cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, lemon zest, nutmeg, mint, anise, ginger and many others.

What is Aksinya, such is botvinya

Traditionally for central Russia, a variety of soups: cabbage soup, Borsch, kalya, ear, pickle, botvinya and okroshka, and each name is several dozen species. However, the word "soup" itself is borrowed; it appeared only at the end of the 17th century, when broths and mashed soups penetrated into Russia from Europe. Before that, the liquid dish was called - "bread"... Russian cabbage soup is the most popular both before and today. There are up to 60 types of them: with meat, fish, head, mushroom, empty, diurnal, green, etc. In winter, in the villages, cabbage soup was frozen for travelers, which, they say, only made them tastier.

Botvinha, made from fresh or dried beet leaves, nettle or other greens, was deservedly considered the queen of soups. Alas, aromatic, refreshing, nutritious botvinia is almost never prepared either at home or in restaurants.

Soups were traditionally filled with sour cream.

Simpler than a steamed turnip

Before the widespread use of potatoes, the main vegetable was turnip... They ate it steamed, boiled, baked, fermented, salted, dried and, of course, raw. Turnip keeps well, enduring the harsh Russian winters. Dried turnips are the forerunner of modern dried fruits. Previously, not only the root vegetable was used for turnips, but also the tops, which were added to soups and salads.

Lots on the menu and fishes, allowed in lax posts: baked, boiled, stuffed, jellied, dried, dried. Salty, even pickled. There is also a unique, almost lost today technology for preparing boneless fish fillets, called - corporeal... A delicacy has always been caviar, especially sturgeon and white fish. Moreover, it was not only salted, but also boiled in vinegar and poppy milk.

Meat has always been divided into game(taken from the hunt) and slaughter(livestock). Both were boiled or baked in large pieces in the oven. Dishes from minced meat gained their distribution later, from about the 17th century, then appeared cutlets, sausages, bitlets and meatballs.

And for sweet?

A common dessert that has survived to our time - baked apples... They were baked by themselves, with honey, nuts, wild berries, and later with raisins, cinnamon, ginger and even chocolate. But sweets such as carrots and cucumbers, boiled in honey, long forgotten today. They were boiled, by the way, not over an open fire, but in a water bath. Why they became transparent and retained an elastic consistency: a kind of Russian candied fruits were obtained. No less tasty, according to contemporaries - boys, oven-dried pieces of carrots and beets. Crushed berries (viburnum, raspberry, mountain ash) were popular, crushed and dried in the sun, or in the same oven in the form of flat cakes. They were called snacks, served with tea, used in winter and during fasting, as a remedy against vitamin deficiency.

Crosses and larks

Ritual dishes have always been of great importance in Russia: kutia for Christmas and Epiphany, pancakes- for commemoration and carnival, cake, Easter, colored eggs for Easter. These customs have survived to this day. But unfortunately almost forgotten larks- buns in the form of birds. They were baked on March 22, the feast day of the 40 Martyrs of Sebastia. On the one hand, the lark was considered a cocky bird, but humble before God. On the other hand, it was a symbol of the imminent arrival of spring. The custom of baking has also been lost crosses- a special baking that served as a delicious consolation in the third week of the Cross-worship of Great Lent. They baked such a treat on Christmastide, and taking it out of the oven, they wondered which cross each guest would have to carry at the table. Well-baked, yellow-pink - promised health and prosperity, cracks and breaks - promised a change in fate. Burning and not baked predicted sadness and illness, therefore they did not eat it, they fed it to the birds.

The diploma for that is ...

The lack of records caused serious damage to Russian cooking. The first cookbook appeared only in 1547. And instead of recipes, it contained only a list of the most common dishes, without any explanation. The consequences of this historical fact are deplorable. Even connoisseurs of our language today cannot decipher even a quarter of its records. We will probably never know what, for example, "Shchipanaa subpaired" is.

More or less real culinary books appeared only in the 18th century, in the wake of the Russian nobility's enthusiasm for French cuisine. But the recipes of primordial Russian dishes were inserted there occasionally, as an addition. The compilers were sure that there was no need to write them down, because "any woman knows how to cook", for example, biscuit... Baba, maybe, knows. But the recipe came to us only in a modernized, heavily modified version. And when, finally, grabbing, already in the 19th century, the famous metropolitan chefs began to restore traditions, many dishes were lost forever. The first book of Russian recipes was compiled by the Tula landowner Vasily Levashin in 1816. He also cited many descriptions approximately from memory. Because of this, "Russian Cookery" is far from reflecting the true wealth of the national table.

A mixture of French with Nizhny Novgorod

Until the 18th century, Russian cooking was not distinguished by a special ability to combine and combine products, emphasizing and revealing their taste. They cooked mainly in the oven, which, of course, gave the dishes their originality, but sharply limited the methods of heat treatment. Mixing of ingredients, their crushing and grinding is not allowed. Even fish and meat were not crushed into pies, but plastered. Some flavors have been achieved using different oils: nut, poppy, hemp, a little bit later - sunflower... From spices mainly used garlic and horseradish.

It was only from the 18th century that the cuisine of the central part of the country began to acquire European features. Rich nobles, leaving for Europe, brought from there first German and Dutch, and then French chefs. It was French cuisine that introduced grinding, combining products and precise dosages in recipes into Russian cuisine. There were sausages, cutlets, mousses, salads, compotes, omelets.

After the war of 1812, on the rise of patriotism, everything Russian came into vogue. And the national cuisine is entering its heyday, gaining worldwide recognition, becoming organic and diverse. However, even at that time, new dishes were still given French names. Langets, escalopes, beef stroganoff. Russian salads are invented, the most famous of which is the vinaigrette... Its highlight is the use of our original products - sauerkraut and pickles.

Pozharsky and Kiev cutlets

By the way, the famous salad Olivier salad also created in Russia by the French chef Lucien Olivier, who owned a tavern in the Moscow Hermitage garden. Alas, that lost recipe has very little to do with its modern counterpart. It is only known that it consisted of crayfish, veal tongue, pressed caviar, pickles and other delicacies.

French chefs have not only had a huge impact on our cooking. But they also brought up a whole galaxy of talented Russian chefs. For example, the author of the famous fire cutlets - Daria Pozharskaya, the wife of an innkeeper in Torzhok. There is a version that we owe their birth to Alexander I, who stayed in a provincial town due to a breakdown in the crew. It was lunchtime, the tsar decided to have a bite to eat and chose the most decent establishment. Veal cutlets were on the menu, but veal, as if it were a sin, was not available. And Daria made them from chicken. The monarch liked the cutlets extremely and became a popular Russian dish. And the equally famous Kiev cutlets were first served around the same time on Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. They were called then new Mikhailovsky, in honor of the nearby Mikhailovsky Castle. And they became Kiev in 1947, when they were prepared for Ukrainian diplomats who returned from Paris after the signing of a peace treaty with Germany. And beef stroganoff is an invention of a domestic chef - the serf Count Stroganov. Unfortunately, history has not preserved his name.

With the coming to power, the Bolsheviks tried to bring the life of our people, including culinary, to a common denominator. However, Soviet cuisine also added a bright and significant page to the formation and development of our today's taste preferences. But "this is a completely different story", and we will definitely return to it!

School of the original recipe

The text is taken from a book of the 18th century: "take beet leaves, fresh or dried, or nettle or other herbs used in cabbage soup, boil, squeeze, chop finely, dilute with kvass. Chopped onions, fresh or pickled cucumbers, boiled, are usually added to the botvin. finely chopped beets ".

Evgeniya Keda

Russian cuisine is incredibly tasty and satisfying, striking with a variety of dishes and unique gastronomic combinations. It is not for nothing that Jean Anthelme Brija-Savarin, a famous French gourmet and author of the book "The Physiology of Taste", considered only three cuisines great, including the Russian one. For many centuries in a row, it has been an integral part of the culture and a marker of the historical authenticity of the Russian people. Let's remember the primordially Russian dishes, the tradition of which has survived to this day.

Russian roast

For this purpose, any fatty cuts of meat are perfect, which are supplemented with potatoes, cut into large pieces. By the way, Russian roast is the only dish awarded a title of nobility. It received it thanks to the admiration of the English king Charles II. He was so impressed with the taste of the roast beef that immediately, right at the table, he awarded him a high title.

Porridge

Previously, porridge was called anything that could be prepared from chopped food. Today we are happy to use wheat, millet, pea, buckwheat and other types of cereals. And for Christmas and for funeral dinners, it is still customary to cook kutya - porridge made from wheat or rice with the addition of honey, poppy and raisins.

Cabbage soup

The inhabitants of Russian villages prepared them in different ways, depending on their income. Some cooked cabbage soup only with onions and cabbage, while others added crushed bacon or meat. Other recipes include rye flour, turnips, mushrooms and fish. And the characteristic sour taste was achieved due to sauerkraut or brine, sorrel, kvass. The editors of the site notes that cabbage soup could well be included in our rating of the most delicious dishes for less than a hundred rubles.

Siberian dumplings

In Siberia, dumplings were harvested for many months in advance, since they are wonderfully stored frozen. In the traditional recipe for minced meat, three types of meat are used: elk, pork and beef. Today Siberian dumplings have a more prosaic filling - minced pork and beef, but they are still very juicy and tasty. By the way, it is imperative to use ice water to prepare the dough - this gives it a unique taste.

Pie

The editors of vnizyvsё.rf notes that historically pies were made from leftover food: they put inside what was left after dinner. But most of all were appreciated pies with fish filling: minced river fish, pieces of sturgeon, salmon or beluga. An open pie was poured over with melted butter or hot broth, which made it even more delicious and juicy.

Pancakes

Pancakes with butter and dozens of fillings are very tasty: mushrooms, meat, cabbage, potatoes, liver, cottage cheese and caviar. And also pancakes became the basis for making kurnik - in this unique pie, thin pancakes are filled with chicken and mushrooms, and then covered with a “cap” of puff text. Kurnik is the king of pies, it is also called royal or festive. Very often it was served at weddings and other special events.

Boiled pork

Today, as before, boiled pork is served hot and cut into thick slices so that guests can eat from the heart. However, as an appetizer, it is also good cold, so the hostesses often cook it a day or two before the festive event.

Kvass on rye bread

Pozharsky cutlets

There are a lot of recipes for its preparation, but in most cases it contains boiled meat (as an option - boiled sausage), radish, fresh cucumber, potatoes, chicken eggs, green onions, dill or parsley. And for dressing, they use low-fat kefir, whey, vegetable broth, kvass and even mineral water diluted with sour cream.

Any national culture is rich in unusual traditions that relate not only to cooking, but also to many other areas of life. So, from generation to generation are passed (although sometimes very dubious) folk recipes for medicines for anything. The editors of the site invites you to read about the strangest and most dangerous medicines for serious diseases.
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Russian national cuisine has gone through an extremely long path of development, marked by several major stages, each of which left an indelible mark. Old Russian cuisine, which developed from the 9th-10th centuries. and reached its greatest flowering in the XV-XVI centuries, although its formation covers a huge historical period, is characterized by common features, which have largely survived to this day.

At the beginning of this period, Russian bread made from sour (yeast) rye dough appeared - this uncrowned king is on our table, without him the Russian menu is unthinkable even now - and all the other most important types of Russian baked goods and flour products appeared: the known cakes, bagels, juices, crumpets, pancakes, pancakes, pies, etc. These products were prepared exclusively on the basis of sour dough, which is so characteristic of Russian cuisine throughout its entire historical development. The addiction to sour, leavened foods was reflected in the creation of real Russian jelly - oatmeal, wheat and rye, which appeared long before modern ones. Mostly berry jelly.

A large place in the menu was also occupied by a variety of gruel and porridge, which were originally considered ritual, solemn food.

All this bread, flour food was diversified most often with fish, mushrooms, wild berries, vegetables, milk and very rarely - with 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 non-meat (milk-egg-meat) emerged, which had a huge impact on its further development until the end of the 19th century. The artificial creation of the line between the fast and the lenten table, the isolation of some products from others, the prevention of their mixing ultimately led to the creation of only some original dishes, and the entire menu as a whole suffered - it became more monotonous and simplified.

We can say that the lean table was more fortunate: since most days of the year - from 192 to 216 in different years - were considered fast (and these fasts were observed very strictly), it was natural to strive to expand the range of the lean table. Hence the abundance of mushroom and fish dishes in Russian cuisine, the tendency to use various vegetable raw materials - grain (porridge), vegetables, wild berries and herbs (nettle, snow, quinoa, etc.). Moreover, such well-known from the X century. vegetables like cabbage, turnips, radishes, peas, cucumbers were cooked and eaten - whether raw, salted, steamed, boiled or baked - separately from one another.

Therefore, for example, salads and especially vinaigrettes were never characteristic of Russian cuisine and appeared in Russia already in the 19th century. as borrowing from the West. But they were also initially made mainly with one vegetable, giving the appropriate name to the salad - cucumber salad, beet salad, potato salad, etc.

Each type of mushroom - milk mushrooms, mushrooms, honey agarics, white mushrooms, morels, peppers (champignons), etc. - were 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 find juicy, "tasty" names for fish dishes: sigovina, taimenina, pike, halibut, catfish, salmon, sturgeon, sevryuzhina, beluzhina and others. And the ear could be perch, and ruff, and burbot, and sterlet, etc.

Thus, the number of dishes by name was enormous, but all of them differed little in content from one another. Taste variety 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 Russia already in the 10th-11th centuries. Later, in the 15th - early 16th centuries, they were supplemented with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, calamus (ore root) and saffron.

In the initial period of the development of Russian cuisine, there was also a tendency to use hot liquid dishes, which then received the general name "Khlebova". The most widespread are such types of bread as cabbage soup, stews based on vegetable raw materials, as well as various pastes, brews, talkers, lettuce and other varieties 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, milk was drunk raw, stewed or sour. Dairy products were used to make cottage cheese and sour cream, 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, 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 the further development of options for lean and light meals continues, but also the differences between the cuisines of various classes and estates are especially sharply marked. From this time on, the cuisine of the common people began to simplify more and more, the cuisine of the boyars, nobility and especially the nobility became more and more refined. She collects, combines and generalizes the experience of previous centuries in the field of Russian cuisine, creates new, more complex versions of old dishes on the basis of it, and also for the first time borrows and openly introduces a number of foreign dishes and culinary techniques, mainly of Eastern origin, into Russian cuisine.

Particular attention is drawn to the speedy festive table of that time. Along with the usual corned beef and boiled meat, poultry (i.e., cooked on spits) and fried meat, poultry and game take pride of place on the table of the nobility. The types of meat processing are becoming more and more differentiated. So, beef is mainly used for cooking corned beef and for boiling (boiled slaughter); ham is made from pork for long-term storage, or it is used as fresh meat or dairy pig in fried and stewed form, and in Russia only meat, lean pork is valued; finally, mutton, poultry and game are used mainly for roasts and only partially (mutton) for stewing.

In the XVII century. all the main types of Russian soups were finally formed, while kals, hangover, hodgepodge, pickle soup, unknown in medieval Russia, appeared.

The lean table of the nobility is also enriched. Balyk, black caviar, which was eaten not only salted, but also boiled in vinegar or poppy milk, began to occupy a prominent place on it.

To the culinary of the 17th century. Eastern 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 from unleavened dough (noodles, dumplings), such products as raisins, apricots, figs (figs), as well as lemons and tea, the use of which has since become traditional in Russia, entered Russian cuisine. Thus, the sweet table is also significantly replenished.

Next to the gingerbreads, known in Russia 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. they began to bring cane sugar to Russia, from which, together with spices, they cooked 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 raw beetroot were created only in the late 18th - early 19th centuries. (The first plant was 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 indicated sugar and candies.]

The boyar table is characterized by an extraordinary abundance of dishes - up to 50, and at the royal table, their number rises to 150-200. The size of these dishes is also huge, 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 are built from food, fantastic animals of gigantic proportions.

Court dinners turn into a pompous, magnificent ritual lasting 6-8 hours in a row - from 2 pm to 10 pm - and include almost a dozen changes, each of which consists of a whole series (sometimes two dozen) of the same name dishes, for example from a dozen varieties of fried game or salted fish, from a dozen types of pancakes or pies.

Thus, in the XVII century. Russian cuisine was already extremely diverse in the range of dishes (we are talking, of course, about the cuisine of the ruling classes). At the same time, the art of cooking in the sense of the ability to combine products, to reveal their taste was still at a very low level. Suffice it to say that mixing of products, their grinding, grinding, crushing 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 perceive various minced meat, rolls, pates and cutlets. All kinds of casseroles and puddings turned out to be alien to the old Russian cuisine. The desire to cook a dish from a whole large piece, and ideally from a whole animal or plant, persisted until the 18th century.

The exception, it seemed, were the fillings in pies, in whole animals and poultry, and in their parts - abomasum, omentum. 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 plastered, but not chopped. 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 crushed on purpose.

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, a radical demarcation of the cuisine of the ruling classes and the cuisine of the common people took place. If in the XVII century. the cuisine of the ruling classes still retained a national character and its difference from the folk cuisine was expressed only in the fact that in quality, abundance and range of products and dishes, it sharply surpassed the national 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, one dish was served at each break. This order was maintained until the 60s and 70s of the XIX century:
1) hot (cabbage soup, stew, ear);
2) cold (okroshka, botvinya, jelly, jellied fish, corned beef);
3) roast (meat, poultry);
4) body (boiled or fried hot fish);
5) pies (savory), 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. Wealthy nobles who visited Western Europe bring foreign chefs with them. At first they were mostly Dutch and German, especially Saxon and Austrian, then Swedish and mostly French. From the middle of the 18th century. foreign chefs were discharged so regularly that they soon almost completely ousted cooks and serfs from 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 hitherto unknown on the Russian table were combined with old 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 food intake - breakfast.

There were also new alcoholic drinks - ratafia and erofeichi. Since the 70s of the 18th century, when tea began to gain more and more importance, in the upper circles of society, sweet pies, pies and sweets stood out outside the dinner, which were combined with tea in a separate serving and timed 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 Slavophil circles with foreign influence, the progressive representatives of the nobility began to revive their interest in the national Russian cuisine.

However, when in 1816 the Tula landowner V. A. Levshin tried to compile the first Russian cookbook, he was forced to state that "information about Russian dishes was almost completely exterminated" and therefore "it is already impossible to present a complete description of the Russian cookery and should be content with only what else can be collected from what remains in the memory, for the history of the Russian cookery has never been devoted to description. "

As a result, the descriptions of Russian cuisine dishes collected by V. A. Levshin from memory were not only inaccurate in their recipes, but also in their assortment did not reflect the entire real 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 the folk, 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, omelets, mousses, compotes, etc., and the displacement of native Russians, 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. even the restoration of the Russian national menu begins, however, again with French adjustments.

A number of French chefs worked in Russia during this period, radically reforming the Russian cuisine of the ruling classes. The first French chef who left a mark on the reform of Russian cuisine was Marie-Antoine Karem - one of the first and few cooks-researchers, cooks-scientists. Before coming to 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 got acquainted in detail with Russian cuisine, appreciated its merits and outlined ways to free it from the superficial.

Karem's successors in Russia continued the reform he had begun. 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 way of serving, when one dish was replaced by another. At the same time, the number of changes was reduced to 4-5 and such a sequence in serving lunch was introduced, in which heavy dishes alternated with light ones and stimulating the appetite. In addition, meat or poultry cooked as a 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 the replacement of dishes made from crushed and mashed products, which took a large place in the cuisine of the ruling classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries, with dishes made from natural products more characteristic of Russian cuisine. This is how all kinds of chops (lamb and pork) from a whole piece of meat with bone, natural steaks, klops, splints, entrecotes, escalopes appeared.

At the same time, the efforts of the culinary specialists were aimed at eliminating the heaviness and indigestibility of some dishes. So, in the recipes for cabbage soup, they discarded the flour puff that made them tasteless, which remained only by virtue of tradition, and not common sense, they began to widely use potatoes in side dishes, which appeared in Russia in the 70s of the 18th century.

For Russian pies, they suggested using tender puff pastry made from wheat flour instead of sour rye. They also introduced a safe method of making dough on 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 XVIII century. predominantly the German form of serving snacks - sandwiches, then in the XIX century. began to serve snacks on a special table, each type on a special dish, beautifully decorating them, and thus expanded their assortment so much, choosing among the snacks a number of old Russian not only meat and fish, but also mushroom and vegetable pickled dishes that their abundance and variety from now on did not cease to be a constant subject of surprise to foreigners.

Finally, the French school introduced a combination of products (vinaigrette, salads, side dishes) and precise dosages in recipes that were not previously adopted in Russian cuisine, and introduced Russian cuisine to unknown types of Western European kitchen technology.

At the end of the XIX century. the Russian stove and the pots and iron pots specially adapted to its thermal regime were replaced by a stove with its oven, pots, saucepans, etc. Instead of a sieve and sieve, they began to use colanders, skimmers, meat grinders, etc.

An important contribution of French chefs to the development of Russian cuisine was the fact that they trained a whole galaxy of brilliant Russian chefs. Their students were Mikhail and Gerasim Stepanovs, G. Dobrovolsky, V. Bestuzhev, I. Radetsky, P. Grigoriev, I. Antonov, 3. Eremeev, N. Khodeev, P. Vikentiev and others who supported and disseminated the best traditions of Russian cuisine to throughout the 19th century. Of these, G. Stepanov and I. Radetsky were not only outstanding practitioners, but also left behind extensive guidelines 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. estates up to the 70s of the XIX century.

The source for this collection was folk cuisine, in the development of which a huge number of anonymous and unknown, but talented serf chefs took part.

By the last third of the XIX century. Russian cuisine of the ruling classes, thanks to the unique assortment of dishes, their exquisite and delicate taste, began to occupy, along with French cuisine, one of the leading places in Europe.

At the same time, it should be emphasized that, despite all the changes, introductions and foreign influences, its main characteristic features have been preserved and have remained inherent in it to the present day, since they have persisted in the national 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, a variety of fish and mushroom tables, the widespread use of pickles from vegetables and mushrooms, an abundance of festive and sweet table with its jams, cookies, gingerbread, Easter cakes, etc.

Some of the peculiarities of Russian cuisine should be discussed 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 well-to-do one. In the countryside, four pores of food were taken, and in the summer during working hours - five: breakfast, or interception, afternoon tea, before lunch, or exactly at noon, lunch, dinner and pauzhin. These vyti, adopted in Central and Northern Russia, were preserved in Southern Russia, but with different names. There, at 6-7 in the morning they ate, at 11-12 they had dinner, at 14-15 they had noon, at 18-19 they had an evening out, and at 22-23 they had supper.

With the development of capitalism, the working people in the cities began to eat at first three, and then only twice a day: they had breakfast at dawn, had lunch or dinner when they came home. At work, however, they only had afternoon tea, that is, they had a snack with cold food. Gradually, any complete meal, a full table with a hot brew, sometimes regardless of the time of day, came to be called lunch.

Bread played an important role at the Russian table. For cabbage soup or other first liquid dish in the village, they usually ate from a pound to a kilogram of black rye bread. White bread, wheat, was actually not widespread in Russia until the beginning of the 20th century. It was eaten occasionally and mainly by the wealthy strata of the population in the cities, and the people looked at it as festive food. Therefore, white bread, called a bun in a number of regions of the country, was not baked in bakeries, like black bread, but in special bakeries and was slightly sweetened. ["Bulka" is from the French word boule, which means "round as a ball." Originally white bread was baked only by French and German bakers.]

Local varieties of white bread were Moscow cakes and rolls, Smolensk pretzels, Valdai bagels, etc. Black bread did not differ in the place of production, but only in the type of baking and the type of flour - baked, custard, hearth, peeled, etc.

Since the XX century. other flour products made from white, wheat, flour, previously not characteristic of Russian cuisine - vermicelli, pasta - also came into use, while the use of pies, pancakes and cereals decreased. Due to the spread of white bread in everyday life, tea drinking with it sometimes began to replace breakfast and dinner.

The first liquid dishes, called from the end of the 18th century, remained unchanged in Russian cuisine. soups. Soups have always played a dominant role on the Russian table. No wonder the spoon was the main cutlery. She appeared with us before the plug for almost 400 years. "With a fork that is a milk yield, and with a spoon that a net," said the proverb.

The assortment of national Russian soups - cabbage soup, paste, stews, fish soup, pickles, hodgepodge, botvinia, okroshka, prison - continued to grow in the 18th-20th centuries. various types of Western European soups such as broths, mashed soups, various filling soups with meat and cereals, which took root well thanks to the love of the Russian people for a hot liquid brew. In the same way, many soups of the peoples of our country have received a place on the modern Russian table, for example, Ukrainian borscht and kulesh, Belarusian beetroot soup and soups with dumplings.

Many soups, especially vegetable and vegetable-cereals, were obtained from liquefied gruel-lumps (that is, gruel with vegetable filling) or are the fruits of restaurant cuisine. However, it is not they, despite their variety, but the old, primordially Russian soups like cabbage soup and fish soup that still define the originality of the Russian table.

To a lesser extent than soups, fish dishes have retained their original meaning on the Russian table. Some of the classic Russian fish dishes like tel have fallen out of use. Meanwhile, they are delicious, 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 Pomorie. The inhabitants of these grain-free areas in those days have long been accustomed to cod, halibut, haddock, capelin, navaga. "The lack of fish is worse than the lack of bread," the Pomor proverb then said.

Known in Russian cuisine is steam, boiled, body fish, that is, made in a special way from one fillet, boneless, fried, groomed (filled with porridge or mushrooms filling), stewed, jellied, baked in scales, baked in a skillet in sour cream , salted (salted), dried and dried (sushik). In the Pechora and Perm Territories, fish, in addition, were fermented (sour fish), and in Western Siberia they ate stroganina - frozen raw fish. Only the method of smoking fish was uncommon, which developed mainly only in the last 70-80 years, that is, from the beginning of the 20th century.

The widespread use of spices in a fairly large assortment was characteristic of the old Russian cuisine. However, the decrease in the role of fish, mushroom and game dishes, as well as the introduction of a number of German dishes into the menu, has affected the reduction in the proportion of spices used in Russian cuisine.

In addition, due to their high cost, many spices, as well as vinegar and salt, date back to the 17th century. people began to use re in the process of cooking, and put it on the table and use it already during a meal, depending on everyone's desire. This custom later gave rise to the assertion that Russian cuisine allegedly did not use spices.

At the same time, they referred to the well-known work of G. Kotoshikhin about Russia in the 17th century, where he wrote: "The custom is to cook without seasonings, without pepper and inbir, lightly salted and without acetic acid". Meanwhile, the same G. Kotoshikhin explained: "And how the nets begin and in which there is little vinegar and salt and pepper, and they add food to the table." Since those distant times, the custom has remained to put salt in a salt shaker, pepper in a pepper shaker, mustard and vinegar in separate jars while eating on the table.

As a result, the skills of cooking with spices did not develop in the national cuisine, while in the cuisine of the dominant classes, spices continued to be used in the cooking process. But Russian cuisine knew spices and seasonings even at the time of its formation, they were skillfully combined with fish, mushrooms, game, pies, soups, gingerbread, Easter and Easter cakes, and they were used carefully, but nevertheless constantly and without fail. And this circumstance must not be forgotten and overlooked when speaking about the peculiarities of Russian cuisine.

Flavored oil was used quite often. For flavoring, the oil was heated (but not fried) in a pan or saucepan and seeds of coriander, anise, fennel, dill or celery, parsley were added to it.

Finally, it is necessary to dwell on some of the technological processes inherent in Russian cuisine.

In a large segment of the development of Russian national cuisine, the process of cooking was reduced to cooking or baking food in a Russian oven, and these operations were necessarily carried out separately. That which was intended for cooking was boiled from beginning to end, that which was intended for baking was only baked. Thus, the Russian folk cuisine did not know what a combined or even different, combined or double heat treatment was.

Heat treatment of food consisted of heating with a warm Russian oven, strong or weak, three degrees - "before the loaves", "after the loaves", "at the free spirit" - but always contactless with fire and either with a constant temperature kept at the same level, or with a falling, decreasing temperature, when the oven gradually cooled down, but never with an increase in temperature, as in the case of on-top cooking. That is why the dishes always turned out not even boiled, but rather stewed or half-stewed, half-stewed, which is why they acquired a completely special taste. It is not for nothing that many dishes of old Russian cuisine do not make the proper impression when they are cooked in different temperature conditions.

Does this mean that it is necessary to restore the Russian stove in order to get real Russian cuisine in modern conditions? Not at all. Instead, it is sufficient to simulate the thermal regime of the falling temperature created by it. Such imitation is possible in modern conditions.

However, one should not forget that the Russian stove had not only a positive, but, to a certain extent, a negative impact on Russian cuisine - it did not stimulate the development of rational technological methods.

The introduction of plate-based cooking led to the need to borrow a number of new technological methods and, along with them, dishes from Western European cuisine, as well as to reform the dishes of old Russian cuisine, their refinement and development, and adaptation to new technology. This direction turned out to be fruitful. It helped to save many dishes of Russian cuisine from oblivion.

Speaking about Russian cuisine, we have so far emphasized its features and characteristics, examined the history of its development and its content as a whole. Meanwhile, one should bear 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 influence of neighboring peoples, as well as the variegated social structure of the population in the past.

That is why the cuisine of Muscovites and Pomors, Don Cossacks and Siberians is very different. While in the North they eat venison, fresh and salted sea fish, rye pies, dezhni with cottage cheese and a lot of mushrooms, in the Don they fried and stewed steppe game, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, drink grape wine and make chicken pies. If the food of the Pomors is similar to the Scandinavian, Finnish, Karelian and Lappish (Sami), then the cuisine of the Don Cossacks was significantly influenced by the Turkish and Nogai cuisines, and the Russian population in the Urals or Siberia follows the Tatar and Udmurt culinary traditions.

Regional features of a different plan 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 dissimilarities, such as differences in the technology of preparation or in the availability of their own dishes in each area, as was the case, for example, in Siberia and the Urals, but in the differences between the same dishes, in the differences are often even insignificant, but nevertheless quite persistent.

A striking example of this is at least 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, their own minor differences in their recipes, their own appearance, their own methods of serving to the table, etc.

We owe this, if I may say so, "small regionality" to the emergence, development and existence so far, for example, of different types of gingerbread - Tula, Vyazma, Voronezh, Gorodets, Moscow, etc.

Regional differences, both large and small, naturally enriched and diversified Russian cuisine even more. And at the same time, all of them did not change its basic character, because in each specific case, the above-mentioned general features attract attention, which together distinguish the national Russian cuisine throughout Russia from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean.

Russian cuisine has long been widely known all over the world. This is manifested both in the direct penetration of the most famous dishes of the Russian national menu into the 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.

Influenced by the haute restaurant cuisine that developed in Russia in the second half of the 19th century (culinary restaurateurs Olivier, Yar and many others), the range of Russian cuisine at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. became so diverse, and its influence and popularity in Europe is so great that they started talking about it by this time with the same respect as about the famous French cuisine.

In the early 1950s in the USSR, according to Stalin's instructions for cooks, a thick volume "COOKING" was prepared and published, reflecting the peculiarities and richness of the developed Russian cuisine. A summary of this essay for housewives was also published - "A book about tasty and healthy food." The latter was reprinted and changed many times, but its first "Stalinist" edition is of particular interest.

Russian traditions
TRADITIONS OF RUSSIAN ZASTEL
From the history of the traditions of the Russian table

Each nation has its own way of life, customs, its own unique songs, dances, fairy tales. Each country has its favorite dishes, special traditions in the decoration of the table and cooking. There is a lot in them that is expedient, historically conditioned, corresponding to national tastes, lifestyle, climatic conditions. For thousands of years, this way of life and these habits have taken shape, they collect the collective experience of our ancestors.

Culinary recipes formed over the years as a result of centuries of 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 nutrient content.

The way of life of a people is formed under the influence of many factors - natural, historical, social, etc. Cultural exchange with other peoples also affects it to a certain extent, but foreign traditions are never mechanically borrowed, but acquire a local national flavor on new soil.

Ever since medieval antiquity, rye, oats, wheat, barley, millet have been cultivated in our country, long ago our ancestors borrowed the skills of making flour, mastered the "secrets" of baking various products from fermented dough. That is why pies, pies, pancakes, pies, pies, pancakes, pancakes, etc. are essential in the food of our ancestors. Many of these products have long become traditional for festive tables: kurniks - at weddings, pies, pancakes - at Shrovetide, "larks "from dough - on spring holidays, etc.

Dishes from all kinds of cereals are no less typical for Russian traditional cuisine: various cereals, cereals, pancakes, oatmeal jelly, casseroles, dishes based on peas, as well as from lentils.

In the more northern parts of our country, dishes made from millet are of particular importance. This tradition has deep historical roots. Once upon a time among the Eastern Slavs who came to these lands in the VI century A.D. and lived mainly in forest areas, millet was cultivated as the main crop.

Millet served as raw material for flour, cereals, brewing beer, kvass, making soups and sweet dishes. This folk tradition continues to this day. However, it should be borne in mind that millet is inferior in its nutritional value to other cereals. Therefore, it should be prepared with milk, cottage cheese, liver, pumpkin and other foods.

Cereals were not the only cultivated by our ancestors. From antiquity, through the centuries, such cultures of Ancient Rome, such as cappus, beets and turnips, have come down to our days and have become the main ones in our garden. The most widely used in Russia was sauerkraut, which could be preserved until the next harvest. Cabbage serves as an irreplaceable snack, seasoning for boiled potatoes and other dishes.

Cabbage soup from various types of cabbage is a well-deserved pride of our national cuisine, although they were prepared in ancient Rome, where a lot of cabbage was specially grown. It's just that many vegetable plants and recipes for dishes "migrated" from Ancient Rome through Byzantium to Russia after the adoption of Christianity in Russia. The Greeks created Russia not only writing, but also transmitted much of their culture.

Nowadays, cabbage is especially widely used in the cooking of the northern and central regions of Russia, in the Urals and Siberia.

Turnip in Russia until the end of the 18th - early 19th centuries. was as important as potatoes are today. Turnips were used everywhere and many dishes were prepared from turnips, stuffed, boiled, steamed. The turnip was 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 supplanted by a much more productive, but much less useful potato (practically, it is empty starch). But the turnip also contains very valuable biochemical sulfur compounds, which are excellent immunostimulants when eaten regularly. Now the turnip has become a rare and piecemeal product on the Russian table - on sale for it, and the price is determined not by kilograms, but by the piece.

After the switch to potatoes, Russian cuisine has significantly lost its high quality. As well as after the practical abandonment of Russian table horseradish, which is also an indispensable aid to health, but retains its beneficial properties no more than 12-18 hours after cooking, i.e. requiring preparation shortly before serving. Therefore, the modern store "horseradish in jars" has neither such properties nor the proper taste at all. So if now in Russia Russian table horseradish is served to the family table, then only on great holidays.

For some reason, rutabaga is not mentioned in ancient sources, probably because earlier rutabaga was not distinguished from turnip. These roots, once widespread in Russia, now occupy a relatively small share in vegetable growing. They could not stand the competition with potatoes and other crops. However, the peculiar taste and smell, the possibility of various culinary uses, transportability, storage stability make it possible to think that at present one should not abandon turnips and rutabagas, 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 but name 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 distribution of the potato and its popularization belongs to the famous cultural figure of the 18th century. A.T. Bolotov, who not only developed agricultural techniques for growing potatoes, but also proposed a technology for preparing a number of dishes.

Animal products remained virtually unchanged. From time immemorial, our ancestors consumed meat of cattle ("beef"), pigs, goats and sheep, as well as poultry - chickens, geese, ducks.

Until the XII century. horse meat was also used, but already in the XIII century. it almost fell out of use, because Mongol-Tatars, who needed horses more, began to take away "extra" horses from the population. In the manuscripts of the XVI-XVII centuries. ("Domostroy", "List of tsarist dishes") mentions only individual gourmet horse meat dishes (aspic from horse lips, boiled horse heads). In the future, with the development of dairy cattle breeding, milk and products derived from it were increasingly used.

Forestry was a large and significant addition to the economy of our ancestors. In the annals of the XI-XII centuries. it speaks of hunting grounds - "goshawks"; later manuscripts mention hazel grouses, 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 the gifts of the forest 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 kernels were pounded, a little boiling water was added, wrapped in a rag and put under oppression. The oil gradually dripped into the bowl. Nut cake was also used in food - added to cereals, eaten with milk, with cottage cheese. Crushed nuts were also used for the preparation of various dishes and fillings.

The forest was also a source of honey (bee-keeping). Various sweet dishes and drinks - honey were prepared from honey. At present, only in some places of Siberia (especially in Altai among local non-Russian peoples) methods of preparing these delicious drinks have been preserved.

However, from the most ancient times until the mass production of sugar, honey was the main sweetness of all peoples, 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 the Russians, but all the peoples who had fish at their disposal, from time immemorial, ate caviar.

The very first artificially cultivated fruit tree in Russia was the cherry. Under Yuri Dolgorukov, only cherries grew in Moscow.

The nature of Russian folk cuisine was largely influenced by the geographical features of our country - the abundance of rivers, lakes, seas. It is the geographical location that explains the number of all kinds of fish dishes. In the diet, many river fish species, as well as lake ones, were quite widespread. Although much more different fish dishes were still in Ancient Greece and, especially, in Ancient Rome - the creator of the foundations of the modern wealth of European cuisine. What were Lucullus's culinary fantasies worth? (Unfortunately, his many recipes have been lost.)

In Russian cuisine, a wide range of products was also used for cooking. However, it is not so much the variety of products that determines the specificity of the national Russian cuisine (the same products were available to Europeans), as the methods of their processing, the technology of cooking. 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, 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 the excavations of the Trypillian settlements in Ukraine (third millennium BC), not only the remains of the furnaces were found, but also a clay model of the furnace, 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; in 1896, their mass production was already established.)

But we should not try to artificially "cleanse" our table of dishes once borrowed from other peoples, which have long become familiar to us. These include, for example, pancakes (borrowed in the 9th century from the Varangian cuisine along with stewed fruit and dried fruit), cutlets, meatballs, langets, steaks, escalops, mousses, jellies, mustard, mayonnaise (borrowed from European cuisine), barbecue and kebab (borrowed from the Crimean Tatars), dumplings (borrowed from the Mongols in the 12th century), borscht (this is a national dish of Ancient Rome, which came to Russia along with Orthodoxy from the Byzantine Greeks), ketchup (an invention of cooks from the English navy), and others.

Many dishes that have now become traditional Russian were invented by French 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 has changed, new products have appeared, and the methods of their processing have improved. Relatively recently, potatoes and tomatoes have appeared in Russia, many oceanic fish have become familiar, and without them it is already impossible to imagine our table. Attempts to divide Russian cuisine into old, distinctive and modern are rather arbitrary. It all depends on the availability of products available to the people. And who will say now that dishes with potatoes or tomatoes cannot be national Russians?

Curious is the culinary use of pineapples in the time of Catherine II and Prince Potemkin (this lover of cabbage stumps, with which he never parted and gnawed constantly). Pineapples were then chopped and fermented in barrels, like cabbage. It was one of Potemkin's favorite vodka snacks.

Our country is vast, and each region has its own local dishes. In the north they like cabbage soup, and in the south - borscht, in Siberia and the Urals there is no festive table without shanegs, and in Vologda - without fishmongers, in 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, a variety of soups and cereals prepared almost every day, but not at all according to the same recipes that many years ago (for which a Russian oven is needed, and even the ability to handle it), pies and countless other products made from yeast dough, without which no fun 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, a lenten table was formed in Russia.

The main advantage of Russian cuisine is the ability to absorb and creatively refine, improve the best dishes of all 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 cookery of the whole world, there is not a single more or less worthy dish that would not have its counterpart in the richest Russian cuisine, and, moreover, in a much better version, corresponding to Russian taste.

EXIT DINING
or meal time. Howl is an old Russian word for mealtime. Each howl, each canteen has long bore its own name, which has survived to our time.

Initially they were called: interception (7 am), afternoon tea (11 am), lunch (3 pm), lunch (17-18 hours), supper (20-21 hours) and pauzhin (23 hours). Not all of these were done at the same time.

From the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th centuries. the following names are set: breakfast (from 6 to 8 in the morning), afternoon tea (from 10 to 11 in the morning), lunch (between 14 and 15 hours), tea (17-18 hours), dinner (20-21 hours). Basically, these vyti are still recognized as a rational meal time for hospitals, boarding schools, sanatoriums. An afternoon snack is now more often called the second breakfast, and as a reminder from the pauzhin in the sanatoriums, kefir remained before bedtime, one and a half to two hours after dinner.

In Western European practice, there are different ways. They are still preserved partly in the restaurant, partly in the diplomatic practice of many countries.

So, breakfast is at 7.30-8 o'clock, then midi (in France) at 12 o'clock, and in most Western European countries, 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 five-o-clock (tea or cocktail in diplomatic terminology) and at 20 o'clock - lunch, which is actually similar to our dinner, since this "lunch" is not served with soup.

There is no supper in the West. But the French practice sometimes also provides for the so-called souper, that is, an evening or night dinner, which is arranged only when the festival drags on well past midnight. In this case, at 23.30 or at 24.00, or even at one in the morning, various snacks and the traditional onion soup, from which this night dinner got its name, are served, and then a light hot fish second (but often limited to one soup ). In practice, supe is rarely used, 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 even more so if he, moreover, a wealthy one could not do without holding festive feasts, because this was part of their way of life. They began to prepare for the festive feast long before the solemn day - they thoroughly cleaned and tidied up the whole house and courtyard, by the time the guests arrived, everything had to be perfect, everything had to shine like never before. Ceremonial tablecloths, dishes, towels, which were so carefully kept for this day, were removed from the chests.

And the honorary place of the leader of this entire responsible process, as well as the purchase and preparation of festive events, was watched by the hostess of the house.

The host, on the other hand, had an equally important duty - inviting guests to the feast. Moreover, depending on the status of the guest, the owner either sent a servant with an invitation, or drove himself. And in fact, the event itself smoothed out something like this: the hostess came out to the assembled guests in festive attire and greeted them, bowing to the belt, and the guests answered her with an earthly bow, 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, then bowed to her again and took a glass of vodka from her hands. When the hostess went to a special women's table, this served as a signal for everyone to sit down and start eating. Usually the ceremonial table was stationary, in the "red corner", that is, under the icons, near the benches fixed to the wall, which, by the way, at that time, was considered more honorable to sit on than on the side benches.

The meal itself began with the fact that the owner of the house cut off and served each invited guest a piece of bread and salt, which symbolized the hospitality and hospitality of this house, by the way, today's hospitable traditions have their origins since 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 a special guest to the guest of honor, as if to emphasize his attention given to him.

Although the tradition of meeting guests with bread and salt has come to us since that time, but the order of serving dishes in those days was noticeably different from that which we are used to today: first they ate pies, after a dish of meat, poultry and fish, and only at the end of the meal were taken to soups.

Order of serving dishes
When all the participants in the meal were already seated in their places, the owner cut the bread into pieces and served them separately with salt to each guest. By this action, he once again emphasized the hospitality of his home and deep respect for everyone present.

At these festive feasts, there was always one more thing - the so-called oprichnina dish was put in front of the owner and the owner personally transferred the food from it into shallow containers (flat dishes) and passed it 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, my dear sir, eat to your health."

If we, by some miracle, could move 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 not be surprised at the order of serving dishes to the table. Judge for yourself, now it is normal for us that first we eat an appetizer, after a soup, and only after that a second and a dessert, and in those days, first they served pies, then dishes of meat, poultry and fish ("roast"), and only then , at the end of lunch - soups ("ear"). Having rested after the soups, they ate a variety of sweet snacks for dessert.

How they drank in Russia
The traditions of drinking in Russia, preserved and extant, are rooted in ancient times, and in many homes today, as in the distant past, to refuse food and drink means to offend the owners. The tradition of drinking vodka not in small sips, as is customary, for example, in European countries, but in one gulp, at once, has also come down to us and is widely practiced.

True, now the attitude towards drunkenness has changed, if today to get drunk it means to deviate from the accepted norms of decency, then in those days of boyar Russia, when it was considered obligatory, and the guest who was not drunk had to at least pretend to be so. Although one should not get drunk quickly, but to keep up with all the participants in the feast, and therefore a quick intoxication at a party was considered indecent.

Royal feasts
Thanks to many ancient manuscripts that have come down to us, we are well aware of the festive and everyday table of the tsar and boyars. And this is due to the punctuality and clarity of the performance of their duties as courtiers.

The number of all kinds of dishes at royal feasts and at feasts of wealthy boyars reached a hundred, and in special cases it could reach half a thousand, and each was solemnly brought to the table in turn, one at a time, and precious gold and silver dishes with the rest of the dishes were held in their hands by those standing around the table. richly dressed servants.

Peasant feast
But the traditions of feasting and dining were also not so wealthy strata of society, and were not only among the rich and noble members of society.

Representatives of almost all strata of the population considered it obligatory to gather at the banquet table for all significant events in life, be it a wedding, christening, name day, meetings, farewell, commemoration, folk and church holidays ...

And naturally, it is this tradition that has come down to us practically unchanged.

Russian hospitality
Everyone knows about Russian hospitality, and it has always been so. (However, what people will say about themselves that they are not hospitable ?! Georgians? Armenians? French? Chukchi? Italians or Greeks? And further down the list ...)

As for food, if guests come to the house of a Russian person and find the family at dinner, they will certainly be invited to the table and seated at it, and the guest is unlikely to have the opportunity to refuse it. (Although among other peoples, the guest is also not forced to stand in the corner until the end of dinner. But, as they say, you cannot praise yourself ...)

Gala dinners and feasts in honor of receiving foreign guests were arranged with a special breadth and scope, they were designed to demonstrate not only the material capabilities of the royal owners (who robbed their own people cleanly), but also the breadth and hospitality of the Russian soul