Russian cuisine: traditional dishes that we have lost

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Many of us love to taste the dishes that have been cooked in our families for decades. Of course, among them there are those that we consider traditional for domestic cuisine. But in reality, a huge number of dishes that were prepared in every Russian home more than a hundred years ago can now be found in only a few restaurants, and sometimes they are completely lost.

For your attention, there are five dishes according to the primordially Russian recipe, which you will not find with fire this afternoon.

1. Pies

It would seem that this is something, but there cannot be a lot of pies on our table. However, it is almost impossible to find exactly those that were eaten in the century before last.

Thus, the technology of cooking in a wood-burning oven, which has now been preserved in few places, gave a unique taste to baked goods. In addition, previously rye flour was actively used in the dough, but now it is only used in baking some types of bread.

However, most of all the authentic fillings were lost. Now you can only read about the hare pies sold in every bazaar in the works of Russian writers. And not everyone knows about such a vizig, which they adored to stuff pies in Russian houses.

There were other dishes that you can't look for with fire this afternoon: pie with burbot or beluga liver, baked goods with bird cherry flour and stuffing in the form of cloudberries or peas. Perhaps all this variety of old recipes can be found in specialized restaurants or made to order in bakeries, but in ordinary houses almost no one prepares them.

2. Corned beef

Until a couple of centuries ago, salting was the only option for long-term storage of meat in large volumes. In any long journey or long-term military campaign, smoked or dried products were not helpers, because they simply could not withstand such long periods. Unlike corned beef, which, having rolled up in barrels, could be carried with you for years without fear of deterioration.

But the taste of the salted meat was hopelessly spoiled - it became tough and poorly nutritious. Of course, a more gentle version was made for homemade corned beef - less salt was put on the barrel and left to be stored in a cool, dark place.

In addition, if the meat was going to be eaten, then it was first soaked for 24 hours, and then boiled with spices. However, in military campaigns, and in state institutions of tsarist Russia, such processing of corned beef rarely succumbed, therefore it cannot be called pleasant to the taste. Therefore, as well as after the invention of conservation, it practically went down in history and today it is practically not found anywhere.

3. Game

Just a century ago, game in pre-revolutionary Russia was not something exotic, as it is now. Then she was sold in almost every market: some hazel grouses could be found at once four types. Pheasants, black grouses and capercaillies were more rare, but partridges and quails were more common - they were freely realized in bird ranks.

Interesting fact:Herons and swans were once in use, but they stopped cooking even during the reign of Peter the Great, and the secrets of processing the tough and dry meat of these birds were completely lost.

Another game was also in use: hare was the most accessible, because it was even used as a filling for pies. In addition, it was easier to catch them - if a gun was needed to hunt birds, then there were enough snares and rope loops for the eared fluffy ones. Larger game - wild boars, roe deer and elk - were common prey for hunters. But the bear meat could have been obtained by a longer route, but without chasing through the forests: sometimes the animals were specially raised for meat.

But today it is very difficult to find game: chefs know how to cook it, of course, but not every restaurant has bear or venison on the menu. Hunters remain other connoisseurs and consumers of this type of meat, however, in today's realities, this type of activity is more like entertainment than a vital necessity. Therefore, game in our time has become a rarity.

4. Kalachi

Kalach in its original form is wheat bread of the original type: it was baked in the shape of a lock with a round handle, and was eaten hot as soon as it was pulled out of the oven. It was in great demand, especially among those who worked in the open air: in the heat of the heat, a roll was a great way to have a snack on the go.

Fun fact: it is from the roll that the expression "to reach the handle" has gone. The thing is that the rich bent handle, by which the bread was held, was usually not eaten, but given to the beggars, or left on the ground for the dogs to eat. A person who sank so much that he did not hesitate to pick up these pieces, and was called "come down to the handle."

Alas, the famous pastry, which today everyone knows by name, will be remembered by taste only by those who lived under Khrushchev. After all, rolls ceased to be mass-produced back in the seventies of the last century, and the reason for this is simple enough - the technology for making traditional Russian pastries turned out to be too costly both in time and in finance.

Today, rolls can be found only in individual bakeries, but the industrial scale of their production has not been mastered.