The missing products of the USSR, which are so lacking

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

Human memory is structured in a very peculiar way. Many have already forgotten everything about the Soviet Union, but the taste of an ordinary ice cream has remained the standard.

Ice cream

Most of all, modern Russians yearn for Soviet ice cream. Not without the usual nostalgia for childhood, of course, but still, for many, one of the main losses of the nineties is a simple ice cream for twenty kopecks. Interestingly, in the USSR, almost every large city had its own cold storage facility, and their working conditions could differ significantly, but this did not significantly affect the quality and range.

Although there were leaders here too: Leningrad and Moscow ice cream was considered the most delicious. And the best one was the Kashtan ice cream for 28 kopecks, which could be bought only in Moscow and only if you were lucky.

However, in any regional center they sold the same ice cream in chocolate glaze and for the same money, but it was not that … The quality was ensured thanks to the unshakable GOST 117-41 and the use of exclusively natural milk. Now no manufacturer can afford it.

Condensed milk

It is impossible to imagine Soviet childhood without condensed milk. Tin cans with a white-blue-blue label have become a real symbol of the USSR. Boiled condensed milk was considered especially tasty, but they ate it anyway, making two holes with a knife.

It was also used to make sweets "milk toffee" or just toffee. They could be bought at the store, but some made them at home. The closest analogue in a modern store is Korovka sweets, but in reality they are not at all the same as before.

In general, we all owe the appearance of this product to the Americans, and the popularization to the domestic army. In 1853, the inventor from the United States, Gail Borden, patented the technology of milk condensation, and the Soviet military made sure to add condensed milk to the soldiers' diet because of the calorie content. As a result, the authorities have invested a lot of money in setting up factories throughout the country.

The current manufacturers carefully copy the packaging, but stubbornly refuse to use natural milk. But instead of using vegetable fats - palm oil - the taste is "specific".

Sausage "Moscow"

“Two hundred kinds of sausages in a store” is a famous Soviet meme that summarized Western capitalist abundance. On the Soviet counters, several types of boiled sausage and proletarian cervelat lay quietly, and the coveted assortment of the West often disturbed the society, which gathered in the kitchen to discuss politics.

Now capitalism has taken place, diversity is pleasing to the eye, but the most popular sausage in the USSR - "Moscow" - simply disappeared from the shelves. Of course, a lot of sausages with this name are sold, but once you try them, it immediately becomes clear that this is just a fake.

Frankly speaking, it is not even entirely clear why this happened. And in Soviet times, they used not only clean meat, but also skins, even according to GOST it was allowed. Perhaps they have stopped putting meat at all now?

Sausage "Doctor"

To be fair, I must say that the golden age of "Doktorskaya" ended before the end of the USSR. Its original recipe was developed in the thirties, when it was supposed to be fed in sanatoriums and hospitals. Hence the name.

It should have consisted of 70% pork, 25% beef, 3% eggs and 2% cow's milk. The squad fraud began in the sixties. At first, they began to allow the use of not the most selective meat, up to the skin and cartilage, then they were allowed to change it to flour, so far only within 2%.

In fact, everything depended on the impudence of the management of the meat processing plant and the quality of supplies. It’s even strange that under such conditions in the memory of the people “Doktorskaya” remained a symbol of the Soviet manna from heaven: tasty, affordable and nutritious. Maybe because then the sausage did not allow itself to dye the water in a soft pink color during cooking, and curl up into a tube when frying …

Stew

The Frenchman Nicolas Francois Apper invented to stew meat in cans in 1804, for which he received special gratitude from Napoleon. In Russia, stew appeared at the end of the 19th century, but became widespread only during the First World War.

In the USSR, she became cult back in the Civil War, when the tsar's reserves were being consumed. Throughout the existence of the Union, canneries have been operating at full capacity - and stew has become a common dish on the family table and in canteens.

It turned out to be in short supply at a later period. Anyone who once tasted potatoes, into which a can of "correct" stew was poured and then simmered for half an hour, will never forget this taste.

Even now, when fresh meat is sold freely not only in the market, housewives who grew up in that era dreamily freeze in supermarkets in front of shelves with canned food. Literally for a minute, and then they run away in horror, because the current samples are not at all the same.

"Bird's milk" sweets

They appeared in the USSR only in 1968. The Minister of the Food Industry Vasily Zotov tried the delicacy in the Czech Republic and got fired up with ideas to organize its production here.

Since no one wanted to pay for the author's recipe, a special competition was held, which was won by Anna Chulkova, a pastry chef from Vladivostok. Almost immediately, production was mastered by most factories throughout the Union, and sweets appeared on the shelves of Soviet stores. Appeared to disappear immediately.

A box of "Bird's Milk" served as a kind of currency, like a bottle of vodka. They were given to doctors, teachers and all other people who needed them. We enjoyed them ourselves, but on holidays. Naturally, such a popular brand continues to exist in modern Russia. But the taste of modern sweets fails, and they are no longer in such demand.

Drink "Tarhun"

Domestic soda was not very much appreciated in the USSR. They even became a real deficit only in recent years, when literally everything disappeared. Queues were lined up when licensed Pepsi-Cola was brought into the shops. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, imported brands immediately replaced the familiar “Duchess”, “Baikaly” and “Tarhuny”.

They realized the loss much later, already in the 2000s. Then many manufacturers began to produce modern counterparts of Soviet drinks, but the result of mixing various flavors and dyes was frankly disappointing.

However, you can refresh your memory of the taste of natural "Tarhun". A very similar soda is produced under the Georgian brand "Natakhtari". In Germany, an almost complete analogue, only less sweet, is produced by Wostok. Curiously, it was founded by a German who worked in Moscow at the end of the eighties and found real Soviet lemonades.

Kissel in briquettes

The traditional Russian dish changed significantly during the Soviet era. First, it turned into a drink. And secondly, in big cities, everyone almost stopped preparing it on their own and bought it in briquettes.

The Soviet people also owe the appearance of this semi-finished product to the army, to the supply of which the food industry was also oriented. Very quickly, the nutritious drink fell in love with schools and canteens. They cooked it at home, the dish significantly saved time: grind, add water and boil everything took only twenty minutes.

Children acted even easier: they simply gnawed briquettes. Taking into account the fact that the shops were literally overwhelmed with jelly, and it cost less than ice cream, this could be done without the permission of the parents. Now such gourmets are unlikely to be found. Fruit and berry extracts were replaced with flavoring additives - and this did not go to the benefit.

Kvass

A unique national drink was produced during the Soviet era in huge quantities: in 1985, in Russia alone, statistics showed 55 million decaliters. Kvass was produced mainly in summer and was done on an industrial scale.

Kvass wort was prepared at special factories, which was thickened and sent all over the country. In breweries, it was diluted with water, added sugar and yeast, and fermented. The finished product was not pasteurized; as a result, it was gradually fermented. In barrels, non-alcoholic kvass was already with a strength of 1, 2% of the mass.

In the nineties, like soda, kvass began to be made with "chemistry", and the production of a natural product dropped to 4.9 million decaliters (1997). But he did not at all resemble the Soviet one. Instead of barrels, they began to pour it into plastic containers. Given the distribution through stores and the need to increase shelf life, the product began to be pasteurized and added preservatives. Kvass for six kopecks in a large mug is a thing of the past.

Juices in cans

Hardly anyone in the USSR expected that twenty years would pass and ordinary Soviet juices in three-liter cans would be looked for in stores. The attitude towards them then is very cool. When the shelves were almost empty, birch and apple juices remained on them as a silent reproach to the trading system. And few people considered them tasty.

Adults and kids alike appreciated the exotic tropical fruits with the colorful foreign sticker. Therefore, no one even noticed the displacement of ugly cans by modern tetrapacks. They remembered them already in the twenty-first century, when the production technology as a whole changed significantly.

They began to make concentrates from fruits and berries, which are then simply diluted with water. It is believed that this does not affect its taste in any way, but those who have tried the natural product disagree.