Slavic cuisine in Russia - history and traditions

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

“Oh, the brightly light and beautifully decorated Russian land! You are glorified for many beauties: you are famous for many lakes, locally revered rivers and springs, mountains, steep hills, high oak forests, clean fields, wonderful animals, various birds, countless great cities, glorious villages, monastery gardens, temples of God …, - wrote the ancient chronicler. - You are filled with everything, the Russian land!.."

Here, in the vast expanses - from the White Sea in the north to the Black in the south, from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, Russians live in the neighborhood with other peoples - a nation united in language, culture and way of life.

Cuisine is an integral part of the culture of every nation. It is not for nothing that ethnographers begin to study the life of any people with the study of its cuisine, because it reflects in a concentrated form the history, life and customs of the people. Russian cuisine in this sense is no exception, it is also a part of our culture, our history.

The first scant informationabout Russian cuisine are contained in the annals - the oldest written sources of the X-XV centuries. Old Russian cuisine began to take shape from the 9th century and by the 15th century reached its heyday. Naturally, the formation of Russian cuisine was primarily influenced by natural and geographical conditions. The abundance of rivers, lakes, forests contributed to the appearance in Russian cuisine of a large number of dishes from fish, game, mushrooms, and wild berries.

It is rightly believed that by sowing a field, growing and collecting bread, a person first acquired his homeland. From time immemorial, the Rus have grown rye, oats, wheat, barley, millet, and buckwheat on their lands. Cereal porridges were cooked from them: oatmeal, buckwheat, spelled, rye … Porridgewas and remains our national dish. She accompanies the Russian person throughout his life: small children are fed with semolina cooked in milk, adults love buckwheat porridge, kutia * is a memorial dish.

Porridge is considered the “foremother” of bread. "Porridge is our mother, and rye bread is our native father" - says a Russian proverb.

It has been known since time immemorial in Russia unleavened and sour dough … From a simple unleavened dough, they made kalyadki, juicy, later noodles, dumplings, dumplings. Black rye bread was baked from sour yeast dough, without which the Russian table is unthinkable to this day. By the 10th century, wheat flour appeared, and the range of baked goods increased dramatically, there were loaves, rolls, rugs, pies, pancakes, pancakes and other pastries.

The most ancient dishes include Russian oat, rye, wheat jelly … They are at least 1000 years old. The story of how the jelly saved the city is recorded in the chronicle known as the "Tale of Bygone Years". This is what the chronicler Nestor told about.

Nowadays, grain jelly is practically forgotten. They were replaced by berry jelly on starch, which appeared almost 900 years later than cereals.

By the 10th century, turnip, cabbage, radish, peas, cucumbers were already common in Russia. They were eaten raw, steamed, boiled, baked, salted, pickled. Potatoes became widespread in Russia only in the 18th century, and tomatoes in the 19th. Until the beginning of the 19th century, there were almost no salads in Russian cuisine. The first salads were made from any one vegetable, so they were called: cabbage salad, cucumber or potato salad. Later, the recipe for salads became more complicated, they began to be made from different vegetables, add meat and fish, and new names appeared: "Spring", "Health", "Sea Pearl" and others.

Hot liquid dishes, they were then called brew, or bread, appeared in Russia also in the ancient period: first, soup, cabbage soup, stews, zatiruhi, talkers, later borscht, kalya, pickle, then hodgepodge. In the 19th century, hot liquid dishes received a common name - soups.

Among drinks, kvass, honey, all kinds of decoctions from forest herbs, and also sbitni **** were widespread. Spices, and, moreover, in large quantities, have been used in Russia since the XI century. Russian and overseas merchants brought cloves, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, saffron, coriander, bay leaves, black pepper, olive, or, as it was then called, wood oil, lemons, etc. It should be recalled that Russia was engaged in extensive trade: in the west with the Vikings and the Germans, in the south with the Greeks and Danube Bulgarians, in the east with the Asian peoples. The Great Waterway “from the Varangians to the Greeks” and the Great Silk Road ran through Ancient Rus.

Teafirst appeared in Russia in the 17th century. As for alcoholic beverages, in Ancient Russia they drank low-alcoholic beverages - fermented honeys and fermented berry juices. Vodka was first brought to Russia in the 15th century, but was immediately banned for import and reappeared under Ivan the Terrible in the middle of the 16th century, at the same time the first "Tsar's tavern" was opened.

The originality of the dishes of Russian national cuisine was determined not only by the set of products from which the food was prepared, but also by the peculiarities of their preparation. in the Russian oven … Initially, Russian stoves were made without a chimney and were fired in a “black” way. Later, stoves with pipes appeared, and then stoves and ovens were added to the stoves. They cooked food in the Russian oven, baked bread, brewed kvass and beer, and dried food supplies on the oven. The stove heated the dwelling, the old people and children slept on the stove, and in some localities they steamed in the big firebox of the Russian stove, like in a bathhouse.

The food cooked in the Russian oven was distinguished by its excellent taste. This was facilitated by the shape of the dishes, temperature conditions and uniform heating from all sides. In the Russian oven, food was cooked in clay pots and cast iron. Both had a narrow neck, a small bottom and large convex sides. The narrow neck reduced evaporation and contact with air, thereby contributing to a better retention of vitamins, nutrients and aromas. Food in the Russian oven was cooked almost without boiling due to the fact that the temperature in the oven gradually decreased, because the oven was first heated and then cooked in it. Thus, food in the Russian oven was steamed more or, as they said before, languished. Therefore, porridges, pea soups, and sauerkraut soup were especially tasty.

The Russian stove, having served with faith and truth for at least 3000 years, has now completely left the city life and is gradually leaving rural houses. It was replaced by gas and electric stoves, electric grills, microwave ovens. The dishes cooked in the oven in a ceramic dish under a dough lid preserve to a significant extent the taste and aroma of old Russian cuisine.

In ancient times, the cuisine of the upper class differed little from the cuisine of the common people. By the 17th century, the food of the royal family, as well as the privileged estates, became more and more sophisticated, differing not only in quantity, but also in composition and method of serving dishes. It should be noted, however, that this applied primarily to the festive, ceremonial table. In the days of fasting, the tsarist cuisine still retained its common features.

Tsarist feasts were distinguished by special splendor, pomp and abundance of dishes. The number of dishes on them reached 150-200, the size of the dishes and the duration of the feast increased: as a rule, it began with lunch and lasted until late at night.

This is how A. K. Tolstoy describes in the novel "Prince of the Silver" a feast arranged by Ivan the Terrible for 700 guardsmen.

The 18th century in Russia was marked by a new stage in the development of Russian society. Peter I not only moved the capital closer to Western Europe and changed the chronology, but also forced to change many customs.

Starting from the times of Peter the Great, Russian cuisine began to develop under a significant influenced by Western European cuisine, first German and Dutch, and later French.

The Russian nobility began to "subscribe" foreign chefs, who completely ousted Russian cooks from the upper class. The stove was taken from the western neighbors along with pots, baking trays, and slotted spoons. The Russian table was replenished with sandwiches, salads, pates and broths, the range of dishes fried in pans (steaks, entrecotes, langets, cutlets) expanded, exquisite sauces, jellies, creams, mousses, etc. appeared. Many primordial Russian dishes began to be called French manners, for example, the well-known Russian appetizer of boiled potatoes and beets with pickles began to be called a vinaigrette from the French vinagre - vinegar. The usual Russian taverns with sex rooms were replaced by restaurants with head waiter and waiters. All these innovations were introduced into the national cuisine very slowly, and many newfangled influences practically did not affect the nutrition of the common people.

It should be noted that over the centuries, along with original dishes, a lot was borrowed from neighbors. So, it is believed that grain processing and yeast dough came to us from the Scythians and from the Greek colonies of the Black Sea region; rice, buckwheat, spices and wine - from Byzantium; tea, lemons, dumplings - from the eastern neighbors; borscht and cabbage rolls - from the Western Slavs. Naturally, having come to Russian soil, foreign dishes assimilated with Russian culinary traditions, acquired a Russian flavor. The desire to cleanse Russian cuisine of foreign influences is just as senseless as an attempt to cleanse the Russian language of words of foreign origin.

The dispute about the purity of Russian national traditions and the purity of the Russian language has long roots. In the 18th century, Russian writers V. K. Trediakovsky and A. P. Sumarokov greeted the appearance of the word soup in Russian with indignation. Sumarokov wrote:

Time has passed, and now no one objects to the soup, but new, later borrowings, such as cocktails, are objectionable. Of course, you can replace the word cocktail with the words dessert drink, but our young people go to bars, go to parties and drink these very cocktails! And this is everywhere in the urban environment - from Novgorod to Vladivostok.

The question of foreign influences and borrowings has been and remains the most controversial both in Russian history in general and in the history of Russian cuisine in particular. It is appropriate to quote the words of Academician D. S. Likhachev: "Russian culture is an open culture, a kind and courageous culture, accepting everything and creatively comprehending everything."

A great influence on the entire Russian life, including on Russian cuisine, had adoption of Christianity … With the spread of Christianity in Russia, there was a sharp division of the Russian table into lean and non-fast, that is, modest. Observance of fasts from 196 to 212 days a year (in different years in different ways) led to a wide variety of flour, vegetable, mushroom and fish dishes. During the fasts, one could not have too much fun, eat meat and dairy foods, eggs and sugar, and during strict fasts it was forbidden to eat fish. Fasts were many days - Great Lent, Christmas, Epiphany and others, as well as one day - on Wednesdays and Fridays.

After the fast, there were holidays, the days of the meat-eater, and then the lean table was replaced by the fast one. There were many holidays - from 174 to 190 per year. We can say that life in Russia was in the necklace of holidays.

The prosperity in meat and dairy food entirely depended on the diligence and zeal of the peasant. At the beginning of the century, meat, poultry, fish, game were transported to St. Petersburg and Moscow by carts. The festive table was for the most part rich and plentiful. Abundance, as the Russian historian I. N. Boltin, is one of the characteristic features of the Russian table. For the holidays, they cooked all kinds of pies, baked pancakes, cooked jellies, roasted piglets, geese and ducks.

The Old Russian speedy table was distinguished by the preparation of dishes from a whole carcass of a bird or animal, or a large piece of meat. Shredded meat was mainly used for filling pies or stuffing geese, chickens, lamb and pork legs, and stuffing boxes. Later, under the influence of Western European cuisine, the Russian table became even more diverse.

The famous writer I. S. Shmelev in the novel "The Lord's Summer" describes the lean and modest table at the name day in his father's house: Vladychnuyu ", fish croquettes with granular caviar, burbot fish soup, three pies" on four corners "- with fresh porcini mushrooms, and visiga in zander caviar, - and" venerable "salmon and volovan-ograte, with rice sauce and with caviar baked; and aspic from sturgeon, and puffed cutlets from beluzhin of the highest selection, with gravy from mushrooms with capers-olives, under a lemon; and steamed whitefish garnished with crayfish necks; and nut cake, and almond cream drenched in perfumed rum, and some kind of pineapple maseduvan, in cherries and golden peaches.

The abundance of the Russian table should not be confused with gluttony. Primarily abundance of Russian tablewas associated with hospitality - a national trait of the Russian people, inherent, of course, and many other peoples. Gluttony, the property is superfluous, was considered a vice a lot and greedily. About a person who cannot eat, the people said with condemnation: "There is no whine in him."

Speaking about Russian cuisine in general, it is necessary to dwell on its regional characteristics. They are explained primarily by the difference in natural zones and the associated diversity of animal and plant products.

Regional featuresformed also under the influence of neighboring peoples. Therefore, the cuisine of Novgorodians, Muscovites, Siberians-Urals, Don and Terek Cossacks, White Sea Pomors was quite different from one another. Much of what was well known and familiar in one area remained practically unknown outside its borders.

The turbulent events of the 20th century, which entailed the migration of the population, the development and widespread introduction of the media, the emergence of a public catering system with unified Collection of Recipes, to a large extent smoothed out regional features, but to a certain extent also enriched the nationwide Russian cuisine. Nevertheless, in Novgorod and Pskov they still cook cabbage soup with smelt, in the Don - fish soup with tomatoes, in the North they eat venison, and in Siberia - stroganin *****.

Russian cuisine has come a long way in its development. On this path there were periods of formation, improvement and prosperity, but there were also periods of decline, there were bright original finds, successful borrowings, but also offensive losses.

SNACKS

A distinctive feature of Russian cuisine is the abundance and variety of snacks. For the arrival of guests, both in former times and now it is customary for us to serve all kinds of pickles on the table: sauerkraut, pickled apples, pickled mushrooms, cucumbers, herring. In a hospitable home, the hosts greet guests at the doorstep and promptly invite them to a pre-set table.

All kinds of salads take their permanent place both on the festive and on the everyday table. In recent years, cocktail salads have appeared in restaurants and cafes as snacks, a characteristic feature of which is the thorough grinding of all components. This is the most important condition that determines the taste of the salad and the way it is served. Cocktail salads are served in glass, crystal glasses or bowls with a teaspoon. They are easy to prepare, savory in taste and bring a certain novelty to the use of familiar products. These qualities make cocktail salads quite suitable for the home table.

Before preparing any salads, the food is certainly chilled.

Hot snacks are more rare not only in home, but also in restaurant cuisine. The best of them have migrated to the category of second courses. The exception is boiled potatoes with butter and julienne, which came to us from French cuisine. Meanwhile, hot snacks are the best snacks for strong drinks.

The taste of the appetizers depends to a large extent on the sauces and gravies, that is, on what they are seasoned with. The same dish, seasoned in different ways, is perceived differently.

For a long time, snacks, like other dishes, were usually decorated, or, as they say, decorated. Decoration is, of course, a matter of taste, but there is one immutable rule: you should decorate with those products that are part of the dish. The only exceptions are herbs and sometimes berries. In general, you need to decorate in such a way that the "drools" so that the mere sight of the dish will immediately whet your appetite!

NOTES

* Kutia or kutia - porridge with raisins, honey broth, made from barley, wheat or rice, brought to church at the commemoration and served at the memorial table, and in some places on Christmas Eve.

** Tsyzh is a jelly solution.

*** Syta - honey broth, boiled honey on water.

**** Sbiten is a hot drink made with honey and spices.

***** Stroganina - fresh frozen fish that is eaten without preliminary heat treatment