Russian dishes. Traditional Russian dishes: a list. Originally Russian dishes: names, recipes. Festive and ceremonial dishes

To flow down the mustache and into the mouth

Russian cuisine has a very rich and, if I may say so, intricate history. She constantly assimilated the recipes of different peoples, often altered them in her own way, “peeped” something and took notes.

In 1816, the Tula landowner Levshin decided to compile the first (in the 19th century!) cookbook with Russian dishes. Then he complained, the poor fellow, that because of the numerous borrowings, the information was “completely destroyed”: “it is now impossible to present a complete description of the Russian cookery and should be content only with what else can be collected from the memory left, because the history of Russian cookery has never been devoted to the description ".

Nevertheless, thanks to numerous studies of European chefs, who were “discharged” by fashion to rich houses, it was possible to restore the history of primordial Russian cuisine bit by bit and even bring back some old traditions that have survived to this day.

Where cabbage soup, look for us here

Contrary to popular belief, our national soup is not borscht at all, but cabbage soup. Shchi is the head of the whole dinner, they used to say in the old days. At first it was a soup, most often from fish or on bread, seasoned with cabbage and herbs.

There are two main components in real cabbage soup: sour dressing (cabbage pickle or apples, later sour cream appeared) and cabbage (although there could be other vegetables: For example, sorrel is put in green cabbage soup). In poor homes, soup could only consist of this. But meat (mushrooms or fish), roots (carrots, parsley), spicy dressings (onions, garlic, celery) were added to classic cabbage soup.

First, boil the broth with roots and onions, then add vegetables and sour dressing. By the way, sauerkraut was cooked separately from the meat broth and only then added. Spices should be put at the end of cooking.

In some areas, flour dressing was used in cabbage soup - for greater density. Then they abandoned it, believing that it worsens the aroma and taste of the soup. And they began to put potatoes in the dish.

After cooking, cabbage soup should definitely “simmer” under the lid. Sometimes they were put in a warm oven for several hours, or even for a whole day. Hence the name cabbage soup - diurnal.

One brush - soup pot

Ukha is not a "duty" of fishermen's wives, but another traditional Russian soup. After all, for the first time, cabbage soup was cooked in fish broth. There are no recipes for this soup. We offer to try the "royal fish soup" from sturgeon.

A real ear is cooked in a cast-iron bowl. Better, of course, in the oven and on birch wood. Well, also, of course, it would be nice to have recently caught sturgeon, but then someone will be as lucky.

For three liters of water you need 400 grams of sturgeon, 700 grams of potatoes, 2 large onions. All this languishes in the oven for at least an hour.

Buckwheat from Kulikovo field

Well, what's new to tell you about pancakes? This dish appeared in our country in the 9th century. And it has become so popular that now there are more than a hundred of its varieties. However, in Russia most pancakes were made with buckwheat flour. Here, for example, is a popular old recipe from Kulikovo Field - buckwheat. The recipe is not from the warriors, of course, but from the inhabitants of nearby villages.

Prepare 4 cups of buckwheat flour, 20 grams of yeast, 4.5 cups of milk, salt to taste. We breed yeast with half a glass of warm milk, but not just like that, but in a wooden tub. Add another one and a half glasses of milk, pour in two glasses of flour, constantly stirring the dough. We put in a warm place.

When the volume of the dough doubled, our great-great-grandmothers added the remaining flour, milk and salt and put it back in a warm place. When the dough came up again, the pancakes were baked in a cast-iron pan in hemp oil.

Drink kvass, disperse melancholy

Kvass was one of the main drinks of the Russian table. After all, tea, having appeared, was at first too expensive for a simple person. So, kvass was not only drunk, but used as a “broth” for cold and even hot soups. In the 15th century, there were more than five hundred recipes for this drink. Moreover, they made it not only from bread, but also from vegetables, for example, beets or turnips.

The simplest recipe is rustic rye white kvass. Rye flour (2-3 tablespoons) and water are mixed to the density of sour cream, two tablespoons (per half-liter jar) of honey and a few raisins are added for quick fermentation. Add rye sourdough with warm water and leave for a couple of days in a warm place. Then the leaven is poured into a three-liter jar, topped up with water, 2 tablespoons of honey and two tablespoons of rye flour are added.

After a few days, we drain the liquid and get “young kvass”. Honey is added to it to taste, and for a couple of days it goes to a cold cellar.

And the thickening remaining after draining the young kvass is again diluted with water, adding flour and honey and we already get mature kvass. Each time, the leaven becomes more vigorous, and the kvass cooks faster.

Sbiten-sbitenek drinks a dandy

Mentions of this drink can be found in the annals of the XII century. Sbiten - drink from water, honey and spices. Again, until the tea table became commonplace, sbiten was one of the most popular drinks. Too bad it's almost forgotten. Let's try to cook "Moscow sbiten" - it's not so difficult.

For 5 liters of water you will need 200 grams of honey, a kilogram of white molasses, 2 teaspoons of ginger, 2 grams of cinnamon, 5 cloves, 5 tablespoons of dry mint, 3 star anise, 10 black peppercorns, 7 cardamom pieces.

In boiling water, you need to dissolve molasses and honey. Boil for 15 minutes, add spices and boil for another ten minutes. We filter. Ready!

Eat prison, Yasha!

A very simple meal. In fact, tyurya is salted cold water with pieces of bread and chopped onions. Finely chopped vegetables and roots (turnips, for example), greens and herbs, yogurt were added to it. Recall that it was prison that Tolstoy's hero Konstantin Levin ate with pleasure in the middle of summer mowing. We also hope that summer will soon return to the prescribed regime, and in the midst of summer cares, you will use the following recipe.

For a liter of water, you will need two 2 tablespoons of small rye bread crackers, 1 finely chopped onion, 1 tablespoon of finely chopped plantain, the same amount of finely chopped quinoa, salt. Place plantain and quinoa in boiling salted water, bring to a boil quickly, remove from heat immediately and cool to room temperature. Before serving, add the rest of the ingredients.

Berry-viburnum beckoned us to itself

Pies are still one of the favorite Russian dishes. But you probably haven't heard of Kalinnik yet. And in the old days - it was a very common recipe.

There was a special relationship with Kalina in general. After all, this is a symbol of girlish tenderness, the viburnum bush attracts prosperity to the house. Clusters of these berries were used to decorate wedding loaves and towels.

For Kalinnik you will need rye flour, viburnum, yeast, sugar and salt.

300 grams of berries are dried and ground into powder. Brew 200 grams of boiling water to make puree. Rye flour is added to it, kneading the dough (about 500 grams of flour). Form a cake and bake. Traditionally, the pie should be bland. But you can add some sugar.

You can't feed a Russian peasant without porridge

It is not clear why, but we have reduced porridge to "tasteless and healthy" food. In fact, we simply do not know how to cook it! But without her, dear, the festive table in the old days could not do. Even a peace treaty could not enter into force until the opponents had eaten porridge.

There were a variety of porridges - buckwheat, millet, spelled (wheat), oats ... Barley porridge was a favorite of Peter I. And it is also mentioned dozens of times in the Bible.

It was cooked in a clay pot in an oven. For a liter of milk you need two glasses of barley groats, salt. Bring the milk to a boil, add salt, add the cereal and cook until it thickens. And then we send it to languish in the oven. Read in the oven. And do it.

Turnip - meat, cut and eat

Until the 18th century, turnip was the main ingredient in Russian cuisine. They did not know about any potatoes then. The turnip was boiled, steamed, baked, added to soups and pies.

In a modern way, steaming a turnip is like steaming it. The root crop must be peeled, cut into slices, put in a pot, pour in a little water and send to the oven to languish at an average temperature (about 120 degrees) for 2 hours.

Steamed turnips were eaten with butter and salt. Or with honey.

Good words, but not all gingerbread

Gingerbreads were known in Russia even before the adoption of Christianity. Such a variety of recipes for this dessert is not found in any country.

We got an old recipe for real Tula gingerbread. It doesn't really have exact proportions. So you have to do it by eye.

Liquid honey and eggs are added to soft butter, beaten well. Knead the dough by adding flour, water and baking soda.

For the filling, apples are boiled with sugar. You should get a thick jam.

Roll out two layers of dough. Chilled filling is placed between them. Gingerbread goes to bake in the oven.

At the end, you can apply a glaze of beaten egg white and sugar.

The process of formation and development of Russian cuisine stretched for several centuries. Every now and then, references to it pop up in the annals of the 10th-15th centuries. and in various historical documents. Classics liked to write about her in their immortal works. It has been carefully studied by ethnographers. And all because she is original and incredibly rich. Developing along with its people, it reflected not only their way of life and customs, but also history. And all the time it was improved, replenished with borrowings and expanded.

Today, the phrase "Russian cuisine" is associated with cabbage soup, crispy pickles and pickled mushrooms, fragrant kulebyaka and pies, as well as unique tea from a samovar.

But even 1000 years ago everything was a little more modest...

The history of development

Scientists identify 4 stages in the formation of Russian cuisine, each of which has its own characteristics. This:

1 Old Russian, dating from the 9th-16th centuries;
2 old Moscow - it fell on the 17th century;
3 Peter-Catherine - refers to the XVIII century .;
4 Petersburg - combines the traditions of the late XVIII century. and lasts until the 1960s.

Old Russian period

It was dominated by bread and flour products. In honor of the ancient Russians were pancakes, flour jelly and rye pies. And the filling for them was vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, different types of meat and fish, porridge. Already at that time, dear guests were greeted with a loaf and salt.

By the way, it was porridge in Russia that was considered a symbol of well-being and prosperity. The word "porridge" was used to refer to ancient Russian wedding feasts. And on the tables of the Russians there was always buckwheat, barley, barley, oatmeal, oatmeal or millet porridge.

In addition to it, the diet of that time included vegetables in large quantities - cabbage, turnips, radishes, peas, cucumbers. Here they liked to feast on fruits and berries. In addition to them, the sweet tooth was held in high esteem by honey, on the basis of which delicious syrups and jams were created. Even then, the hostesses baked gingerbread with them.

From the 11th century spices were used in Russia: bay leaf and black pepper, cloves, ginger, cardamom and saffron.
Up until the 17th century. meat and milk were practically not eaten here. And if they did, they made cabbage soup and gruel from meat. They drank stewed or raw milk, made sour cream and cottage cheese from it, and did not know at all about the existence of cream and butter until almost the 16th century.

Around the same period, national Russian drinks appeared - kvass, sidera and hops. In 1284 beer was brewed for the first time. And in the XV century. real Russian vodka was made from rye grain.

In the XVI-XVII centuries. Old Russian cuisine was enriched with noodles and dumplings, borrowing them from the peoples of Asia.

Staromoskovsky

17th century was marked by the division of the kitchen into the one that she preferred to know, and the one that ordinary people were content with. And if earlier these differences were expressed only in the number of dishes, now special attention was paid to quality. And all because newfangled dishes and culinary techniques began to seep into the traditional cuisine.

Since then, more fried meat, which was previously considered tasteless, began to appear on the table of the nobility. As well as ham, boiled pork, corned beef, roast lamb, game and poultry. At the same time, hodgepodge, rassolnik and main delicacies, such as jellied red fish, salted fish, and black caviar, were tasted.

In addition, the Russian people began to actively borrow the products of the Astrakhan and Kazan Khanates, Siberia and Bashkiria, which had recently joined the state. These were raisins, figs, watermelons and melons, apricots, lemons and tea. (Although some sources claim that in some regions lemons have been consumed since the 11th century.) And hospitable hostesses began to adopt recipes for delicious pies, gingerbread, all kinds of jams and apple marshmallows. Although, according to some sources, the latter was being prepared in certain regions of Russia since the 14th century.

Thus, the 17th century characterized by the flourishing of traditional Russian cuisine and the simplification of simple peasant cuisine.

Petrovsko-Ekaterininsky

Following the old Moscow era, a new one came - the era of Peter the Great. It is distinguished from others by a more active borrowing of Western culinary traditions. And now the nobility more and more often brings not only overseas products and recipes, but also "writes out" foreign chefs. They enrich Russian cuisine with pates, casseroles, rolls and cutlets, complement it with hitherto unknown dairy, vegetable and pureed soups and decorate it with sandwiches, butter and real Dutch and French cheeses.

They also replaced the name of the original Russian "stew" with "soup" and taught how to serve it correctly - in pots or cast iron.

Petersburg cuisine

This period coincided with the appearance of the “window to Europe”. It was through him that traditional French, German, Italian and Dutch dishes began to enter Russian cuisine. Among them: chops with and without bones, escalopes, entrecote, steaks, potato and tomato dishes, which were just delivered at that time, as well as sausages and omelettes.
At the same time, they began to pay special attention to table setting and decoration of the dishes themselves. Interestingly, in the process of mastering this art, many salads, side dishes and even vinaigrette appeared.

A distinctive feature of this period is the variety of snacks that were served to the nobility. Fish, meat, mushrooms and vegetables have significantly diversified Russian cuisine and made it fabulously rich and even more delicious.

Russian cuisine: our days

In subsequent years, the traditional cuisine of Russia was only enriched. Talented chefs appeared, whose names are known far beyond the borders of the country. Traveling all over the world, they master the latest culinary technologies, thanks to which they can prepare the most unusual and original dishes. And combine in each of them the incompatible. For example: ice cream from Borodino bread, foie gras borscht with flambé, cocktail salads, lamb with kvass sauce, crayfish neck with vegetable caviar, etc.

The highlight of Russian cuisine

National Russian cuisine has borrowed newfangled dishes and overseas culinary traditions for many centuries. Nevertheless, this did not prevent her from remaining original and original. Having tasted juicy chops, entrecote, and julienne, the Russian people did not change their habits.

And he did not refuse cereals and soups, which over time only became more diverse. Did not change the tradition of serving dinners. As before, the first thing they bring is hot - soups, borscht, hodgepodge or cabbage soup. On the second - a side dish with meat or fish. And on the third - a sweet drink - juice, compote, fruit drink or tea. And remained one of the most hospitable nations in the world.

The main methods of cooking in Russian cuisine:

No matter how rich and varied Russian cuisine is, it is still based on traditional dishes recognizable in every corner of the globe, namely:

cabbage soup. They say that this dish appeared in Russia in the 9th century, at the same time as cabbage. It is a multi-component soup. Shchi is prepared with sorrel, fresh or sauerkraut, meat (sometimes fish or mushrooms), spices, and a sour dressing based on sour cream or cabbage pickle. Throughout the history of its existence, its composition has not changed much, except that the bouquet of spices for cabbage soup has been expanded.

Kulebyak. It differs from ordinary pies in the presence of a complex filling - from 2 to 4 types of minced meat, separated by thin pancakes. Moreover, its volume is necessarily equal to at least half the volume of the test. The first kulebyaks were made from yeast dough and layers of cabbage, eggs, buckwheat porridge, boiled fish, onions or mushrooms and adorned the tables of both the nobility and ordinary people.

Kutya. Funeral dish, which is wheat or rice porridge with honey, poppy seeds, raisins and milk. Prepared and served on Christmas Eve and Epiphany, sometimes at wakes. It is believed that Kutia takes its roots back in pagan times, when with its help they honored the memory of their ancestors. By the way, in Russia, any porridge was called the "foremother" of bread.

Noodles are a borrowed pasta product that is incredibly popular all over the world, including Russia. The very first noodle is called Chinese, it appeared in the 2nd millennium BC.

Kissel. This drink is at least 1000 years old. Initially, it was prepared from oats or wheat, later - from berries. Memories of him also appear in The Tale of Bygone Years.

In the tenth century during the siege of Belgorod, famine began in the city. And when the townspeople had already decided to surrender, one old man ordered to find the remains of oats and wheat, make jelly out of them and pour it into a tub dug into a well level with the ground. Honey was poured into another such tub. And then they invited several conquerors to taste delicacies from the wells. After a few days, they retreated, deciding that the Russian people were fed by Mother Earth.

Ukha is a hot fish dish. Each region has its own recipe for its preparation. For example, on the Don they like fish soup with tomatoes.

Stroganina is a dish of freshly frozen raw fish served in the form of shavings with a mixture of salt and pepper. Very popular in Siberia.

Salad "Olivier" - a national New Year's dish, named after Lucien Olivier, who invented it. The traditional Russian recipe consists of "Doctor's" sausage, boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, pickled cucumbers, green peas, boiled carrots, mayonnaise and greens.

Tea from a samovar. They say that such a drink had a special taste, which was achieved both through the use of the samovar itself, and thanks to the unity of the family, which gathered in the gazebo or on the veranda in order to taste it.

Pies are baked pies with different types of fillings - fish, meat, carrots, eggs, onions and rice and small holes on top.

Pickled mushrooms and pickles are a delicacy that has existed for several centuries.

Vinaigrette is a national Russian dish of beets, potatoes, carrots, green peas, pickles, onions, vegetable oil and spices, although borrowed.

Gingerbreads are flour products that originate in the Old Russian period.

Apple marshmallow is a traditional delicacy that has been prepared since the 14th century. with honey and apples. Modern recipes have been improved and may contain cinnamon, berries, etc.

Bread and salt is a treat - a kind of symbol of Russian cuisine. Today it stands for hospitality. And in ancient times, it was endowed with magical significance. Bread personified the wealth and well-being of the family, and salt protected it from troubles and bad weather. Previously, they appeased the brownie with bread and salt at the entrance to a new house.

Soup, or stew, as they used to say in Russia. In fact, this is the national dish of Russian cuisine. Previously, it was only vegetable, later meat was added to it. Today there is a huge number of soups for every taste.

Soaked apples are a kind of homemade pickles. They were popular several centuries ago.

Sauerkraut is a dish that is obtained by fermenting cabbage. It is believed that it retains all its beneficial substances.

Useful properties of Russian cuisine

For the abundance of soups and cereals, Russian cuisine is considered one of the most useful. It is ideal for vegetarians and is revered all over the world. In addition, she widely uses all the gifts of nature - vegetables and fruits, each of which contains a huge amount of useful substances. A special place in it is given to fermented milk products, as well as sweet drinks - compotes, jelly and juices.

Today, the average life expectancy of Russians is 71 years, and, according to sociologists, it continues to grow.

Plates appeared in Russia in the 17th century. Prior to this, liquid meals were served in one large bowl, from which the whole family ate. Thick food, as well as meat and fish, were laid out on large pieces of bread.
The rules of conduct at the table were strictly observed. During the meal, it was forbidden to laugh and talk loudly, throw food. Subsequently, one explanation was given to this - the reverence of a Russian person for food.
A real Russian stove occupies a special place in Russian cuisine. Having existed for about 3000 years, it managed to perform many functions. They cooked food in it, brewed beer and kvass, dried fruits for the winter, heated huts with it, slept on it, and sometimes also steamed in a large firebox, like in a bathhouse.
It was the stove that gave the dishes of Russian cuisine an exceptional taste. A certain temperature regime was observed in it and uniform heating was provided from all sides. Due attention was also paid to the shape of the dishes - clay pots and cast-iron pots, which differed in the size of the bottom and neck. The latter provided excellent taste, amazing aroma and preservation of all the nutrients of cooked dishes.
In the old days, the Russian table was always covered with a white tablecloth and decorated with bread and salt. It was a kind of sign that guests were welcome in the house.

The concept of "Russian cuisine" is as broad as the country itself. The names, taste preferences and composition of dishes differ quite significantly depending on the region. Wherever the representatives of society moved, they brought their own traditions to cooking, and at the place of residence they were actively interested in the culinary tricks of the region and quickly introduced them, thereby adapting them to their own ideas about healthy and tasty food. Thus, over time, in the territory of a vast country, their own addictions were formed.

Story

Russian cuisine has a rather interesting and long history. Despite the fact that for quite a long time the existence of such products as rice, corn, potatoes and tomatoes was not even suspected in the country, the national table was distinguished by an abundance of fragrant and tasty foods.

Traditional Russian dishes do not require exotic ingredients and specialized knowledge, however, their preparation requires a lot of experience. The main ingredients throughout the centuries have been turnips and cabbage, all kinds of fruits and berries, radishes and cucumbers, fish, mushrooms and meat. Grains such as oats, rye, lentils, wheat and millet were not left aside.

The knowledge about yeast dough was borrowed from the Scythians and Greeks. China pleased our country with tea, and Bulgaria spoke about the methods of cooking pepper, zucchini and eggplant.

Many interesting Russian dishes were adopted from European cuisine of the 16th-18th centuries, including smoked meats, salads, ice cream, liqueurs, chocolate and wines.
Pancakes, borscht, Siberian dumplings, okroshka, Guryev porridge, Tula gingerbread, Don fish have long become a kind of culinary brands of the state.

Main Ingredients

It is not a secret for everyone that our state is mainly a northern country, the winter here is long and severe. Therefore, the dishes that are eaten must necessarily provide a lot of heat to help survive in such a climate.

The main components that made up Russian folk dishes are:

Potato. Various dishes were prepared from it, fried, boiled and baked, they also made chops, potato pancakes, pancakes, soups.
Bread. This product occupies a significant place in the diet of the average Russian. Such food is striking in its diversity: these are croutons, and crackers, just bread, bagels and a huge number of species that can be listed indefinitely.
Eggs. Most often they are boiled or fried, and already on their basis a large number of various dishes are prepared.
Meat. The most commonly consumed types are beef and pork. Many dishes are made from this product, for example, zrazy, chops, cutlets, etc.
Butter. It is very popular and is added to many ingredients. They eat it and just spread it on bread.

Also, traditional Russian dishes were very often prepared from milk, cabbage, kefir and yogurt, mushrooms, fermented baked milk, cucumbers, sour cream and lard, apples and honey, berries and garlic, sugar and onions. In order to make any dish, you must use pepper, salt and vegetable oil.

List of popular Russian dishes

Rationality and simplicity are considered a feature of our cuisine. This can be attributed both to the technology of preparation and to the recipe. A huge number of first dishes were popular, but the main list of them is presented below:

Shchi is one of the most popular first courses. A huge number of options for its preparation are known.
Ukha was popular in all its varieties: burlatskaya, double, triple, team, fishing.
Rassolnik was most often cooked Leningrad, home and Moscow with kidneys, chicken and goose giblets, fish and cereals, roots and mushrooms, corn, meatballs, lamb brisket.

Flour products also played an important role:

pancakes;
dumplings;
pies;
pancakes;
pies;
cheesecakes;
donuts;
kulebyaki;
donuts.

Cereal dishes were especially popular:

porridge in a pumpkin;
pea;
buckwheat with mushrooms.

The meat was most often stewed or baked, and semi-liquid dishes were made from offal. The most favorite meat dishes were:

fire cutlets;
Stroganoff beef;
veal "Orlov";
bird in the capital;
pork roll in Russian;
offal stew;
hazel grouse in sour cream;
boiled scars.

Sweet foods were also widely represented:

compotes;
jelly;
fruit drinks;
kvass;
sbiten;
honeys.

Ritual and forgotten dishes

Basically, all the dishes of our cuisine have a ritual meaning, and some of them have been going back since pagan times. They were used on fixed days or on holidays. For example, pancakes, which were considered sacrificial bread among the Eastern Slavs, were eaten only at Maslenitsa or at a commemoration. And Easter cakes and Easter were prepared for the holy feast of Easter.

Kutya was served as a funeral meal. The same dish was boiled for various celebrations. And each time it had a new name, which was timed to coincide with the event. The "poor" was preparing before Christmas, the "rich" - before the New Year, and the "hungry" - before Epiphany.

Some old Russian dishes are undeservedly forgotten today. Until recently, there was nothing tastier than carrots and cucumbers boiled with honey in a water bath. The whole world knew and loved national desserts: baked apples, honey, various gingerbread and jams. They also made cakes from berry porridge, previously dried in the oven, and “boys” - boiled pieces of beets and carrots - these were favorite Russian children's dishes. The list of such forgotten foods can be continued indefinitely, as the cuisine is very rich and varied.

Traditional Russian drinks include kvass, sbiten and berry fruit drinks. For example, the first from the list has been known to the Slavs for over 1000 years. The presence of this product in the house was considered a sign of prosperity and wealth.

vintage dishes

Modern cuisine, with all its huge variety, is very different from the past, but still strongly intertwined with it. To date, many recipes have been lost, tastes have been forgotten, most products have become inaccessible, but Russian folk dishes should not be erased from memory.

The traditions of people are closely connected with food intake and developed under the influence of a wide variety of factors, among which all kinds of religious abstinences play the main role. Therefore, in the Russian lexicon, such words as “fasting” and “meat-eater” are very often found, these periods constantly alternated.

Such circumstances had a strong impact on Russian cuisine. There is a huge number of dishes from cereals, mushrooms, fish, vegetables, which have been seasoned with vegetable fats. On the festive table there were always such Russian dishes, photos of which can be seen below. They are associated with an abundance of game, meat, and fish. Their preparation takes considerable time and requires certain skills from cooks.

Most often, the feast began with snacks, namely mushrooms, sauerkraut, cucumbers, pickled apples. Salads appeared later, during the reign of Peter I.
Then they ate such Russian dishes as soups. It should be noted that in the national cuisine there is a rich set of first courses. First of all, these are cabbage soup, hodgepodge, borscht, fish soup and botvini. This was followed by porridge, which was popularly called the foremother of bread. On meat-eating days, cooks prepared delicious dishes from offal and meat.

Soups

Ukraine and Belarus had a strong influence on the formation of culinary preferences. Therefore, the country began to cook such Russian hot dishes as kuleshi, borscht, beetroot, soup with dumplings. They are very firmly included in the menu, but still national dishes such as cabbage soup, okroshka, ear are still popular.

Soups can be divided into seven types:

Cold, which are prepared on the basis of kvass (okroshka, turi, botvinya).
Vegetable decoctions, they are made on the water.
Dairy, meat, mushroom and noodles.
Shchi, a favorite dish of all, belongs to this group.
High-calorie hodgepodges and pickles, prepared on the basis of meat broth, and have a slightly salty-sour taste.
A variety of fish broths fell into this subcategory.
Soups that are made only with the addition of cereals in vegetable broth.

In hot weather, it is very pleasant to eat cool Russian first courses. Their recipes are very varied. For example, it can be okroshka. Initially, it was prepared only from vegetables with the addition of kvass. But today there are a large number of recipes with fish or meat.

A very tasty old dish of botvinya, which has lost its popularity due to the laboriousness of preparation and high cost. It included such varieties of fish as salmon, sturgeon and stellate sturgeon. A variety of recipes can require from a couple of hours to a day to prepare. But no matter how difficult the food is, such Russian dishes will bring great pleasure to a real gourmet. The list of soups is very diverse, like the country itself with its own nationalities.

Urination, salting, fermentation

The easiest way to prepare blanks is urinating. They stocked up such Russian dishes from apples, lingonberries and cranberries, sloes, cloudberries, pears, cherries and mountain ash. On the territory of our country there was even a specially bred variety of apples, which was perfect for such preparations.

According to the recipes, such additives as kvass, molasses, brine and malt were distinguished. There are practically no special differences between salting, pickling and urinating, often it is only the amount of salt used.

In the sixteenth century, this spice ceased to be a luxury, and everyone in the Kama region began to actively engage in its production. By the end of the seventeenth century, the Stroganov factories alone produced more than 2 million poods a year. At this time, such Russian dishes arose, the names of which remain relevant to this day. The availability of salt made it possible to harvest cabbage, mushrooms, beets, turnips and cucumbers for the winter. This method has helped to reliably preserve and preserve your favorite products.

Fish and meat

Russia is a country in which winter takes quite a long time, and food must be nutritious and satisfying. Therefore, the main Russian dishes have always included meat, and very diverse ones. Perfectly cooked beef, pork, lamb, veal and game. Basically, everything was baked whole or cut into large pieces. Dishes made on skewers, which were called "twisted", were very popular. Chopped meat was often added to cereals, and pancakes were also stuffed with it. Not a single table could do without fried ducks, hazel grouses, chickens, geese and quails. In a word, hearty Russian meat dishes have always been held in high esteem.

Recipes for fish dishes and preparations are also striking in their variety and quantity. These products cost nothing to the peasants at all, since they caught the "ingredients" for them on their own in large quantities. And in the years of famine, such supplies formed the basis of the diet. But expensive species, like sturgeon and salmon, were served only on big holidays. Like meat, this product was stored for future use, it was salted, smoked and dried.

Below are a few recipes of primordially Russian dishes.

Rassolnik

It is one of the most popular dishes, the basis of which is pickles, and sometimes brine. This dish is not typical of other cuisines of the world, such as hodgepodge and okroshka. During its long existence, it has changed significantly, but is still considered a favorite.

Kalya can be called the prototype of the usual pickle - this is a rather spicy and thick soup, which was cooked on cucumber brine with the addition of pressed caviar and oily fish. Gradually, the last ingredient was changed to meat, and this is how the well-known and beloved dish appeared. Today's recipes are very diverse, so they are both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Such primordially Russian dishes use beef, offal and pork as a basis.

To prepare a well-known dish, you need to boil meat or offal for 50 minutes. Next, send bay leaves and peppercorns, salt, carrots and onions there. The last of the ingredients is peeled and cut crosswise, or it can simply be pierced with a knife. Everything is boiled for another 30 minutes, then the meat is removed and the broth is filtered. Next, a frying of carrots and onions is done, cucumbers are rubbed on a grater and also laid out there. The broth is brought to a boil, the meat is chopped into pieces and added to it, it is poured with rice and finely chopped potatoes. Everything is brought to readiness and dressed with vegetables, let it boil for 5 minutes, add greens and sour cream.

Aspic

This dish is consumed cold, for cooking the meat broth is thickened to a jelly-like mass with the addition of small pieces of meat. It is very often considered a kind of aspic, but this is a serious misconception, since the latter has such a structure thanks to agar-agar or gelatin. Kholodets leads Russian meat dishes and is considered an independent dish that does not require the addition of gelling agents.

Not everyone knows that several hundred years ago such a popular dish was prepared for the servants of the king. Initially, it was called studen. And they made it from the remnants of the master's table. Waste was chopped rather finely, then boiled in broth, and then cooled. The resulting dish was unsightly and questionable in taste.

With the country's passion for French cuisine, many Russian dishes, whose names also came from there, have changed a bit. The modern jelly, which was called galantine, was no exception. It consisted of pre-boiled game, rabbit and pork. These ingredients were ground together with eggs, then diluted with broth to the consistency of sour cream. Our chefs turned out to be more resourceful, therefore, through various simplifications and tricks, galantine and jelly were transformed into modern Russian jelly. The meat was replaced with a pig's head and leg, and beef ears and tails were added.

So, to prepare such a dish, you need to take the gelling components that are presented above, and simmer them for at least 5 hours over low heat, then add any meat and cook for a few more hours. First, carrots, onions and your favorite spices are added. After the time is up, you need to strain the broth, disassemble the meat and arrange it on plates, then pour it with the resulting liquid and send it to harden in the cold.

Today, not a single feast can do without this dish. Despite the fact that all Russian home-style dishes take a lot of time, the process of preparing this is not particularly difficult. The essence of aspic remains unchanged for a long time, only its basis is transformed.

Russian borsh

It is considered very popular and loved by all. For cooking, you will need meat, potatoes and cabbage, beets and onions, parsnips and carrots, tomatoes and beets. Be sure to add spices such as pepper and salt, bay leaf and garlic, vegetable oil and water. Its composition can change, ingredients can be added or subtracted.

Borscht is a traditional Russian dish that requires boiling meat. First, it is thoroughly washed and poured with cold water, and then brought to a boil over medium heat, foam is removed as it appears, and then the broth is cooked for another 1.5 hours. Parsnips and beets are cut into thin strips, onions are cut into half rings, carrots and tomatoes are rubbed, and cabbage is thinly chopped. At the end of cooking, the broth must be salted. Then cabbage is sent to it, the mass is brought to a boil, and the whole potato is laid. We are waiting for everything to be half ready. In a small frying pan, onions, parsnips and carrots are fried a little, then everything is poured with tomatoes and carefully stewed.

In a separate container, it is necessary to steam the beets for 15 minutes so that they cook, and then transfer them to the roast. Next, the potatoes are removed from the broth and added to all the vegetables, after which they knead a little with a fork, as it should be soaked in the sauce. We simmer everything for another 10 minutes. Next, the ingredients are sent to the broth, and a few bay leaves and pepper are also thrown there. Boil for another 5 minutes, then sprinkle with herbs and crushed garlic. The prepared dish must be infused for 15 minutes. It can also be made without the addition of meat, then it is perfect for fasting, and thanks to the variety of vegetables, it will still remain incredibly tasty.

Dumplings

This culinary product consists of minced meat and unleavened dough. It is considered a famous dish of Russian cuisine, which has ancient Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Chinese and Slavic roots. The name comes from the Udmurt word "pelnyan", which means "bread ear". Analogues of dumplings are found in most cuisines of the world.

The story tells that this product was very popular during the wanderings of Yermak. Since then, this dish has become the most favorite among the inhabitants of Siberia, and then the rest of the regions of wide Russia. This dish consists of unleavened dough, for which you need water, flour and eggs, and pork, beef or lamb are minced for the filling. Quite often, the filling is prepared from chicken with the addition of sauerkraut, pumpkin and other vegetables.

In order to prepare the dough, you need to mix 300 ml of water and 700 grams of flour, add 1 egg and knead a stiff dough. For the filling, mix the minced meat with finely chopped onion, pepper and salt a little. Next, the dough is rolled out and with the help of a mold we squeeze out circles into which we put a little minced meat and pinch into triangles. Then boil water and boil until the dumplings float.

A separate section in Russian cuisine that has not changed over the centuries is numerous preparations. In many regions of Russia, the weather was cold for nine months of the year. Because of the weather conditions, the housewives tried to prepare as much food as possible for the future. Various methods of food preservation were used: salting, smoking, soaking, pickling. Shchi was prepared from sauerkraut or soaked cabbage, it was added to cereals, to pies. Soaked apples were also actively used as treats or additions to main dishes. Pickles have become ingredients in many traditional Russian recipes. And salted or dried meat, fish were served at the table when the fast ended.

Festive Russian dishes

Russian cuisine combined ritual and practical functions. For the holidays, certain dishes were prepared, each of which had its own meaning. In poor families, some ingredients were replaced with cheap ones, but the meaning was not lost from this. The main holidays were Christmas, Maslenitsa, Easter, weddings, birthdays.

Traditional Russian food

Each nation has authentic dishes that every tourist is recommended to try. The food of Russia is an acquaintance with the way of life of the people and immersion in traditions. Not all Russian dishes prepared five hundred years ago can be tasted now. But some of the recipes are still popular and show the diversity of Russian cuisine.
Traditional Russian recipes:

You can study the cuisine of Russia according to folk proverbs and sayings. “Rye bread kalach grandfather”, “Schi and porridge is our food”, “Damn is not a wedge, the belly will not split”, “In the post of a radish tail”, “Today it is oatmeal, tomorrow it is oatmeal; Yes, as every day is one, it will be so boring.

But, firstly, folk wisdom ignores kulebyaki, boiled pork, triple fish soup, Guryev porridge and other traditional dishes. And secondly, another proverb is true here: it is better to taste once than to hear a hundred times.

The Kid Passage review is dedicated to the best dishes - choose what to try from Russian cuisine first.

National dishes of Russia: history and traditions

Ah, delicious food in Russia! “What calves fattened there for the annual holidays! What a bird was brought up!.. Turkeys and chickens, appointed for name days and other solemn days, were fattened with nuts, geese were deprived of exercise, forced to hang motionless in a bag a few days before the holiday, so that they swam with fat.

What stocks were there of jams, pickles, biscuits! What honeys, what kvass were cooked, what pies were baked…” - this is how Ivan Goncharov in his novel “Oblomov” describes the rich, aristocratic cuisine of the 19th century.

But folk cuisine looked quite different. It was based on vegetables - cabbage, carrots, beets, turnips, rutabaga, and later potatoes. In the spring, young greens were added - bear onions, nettles, quinoa, and in autumn - mushrooms.

All year round, there were porridges from different cereals on the table, and they were not considered a side dish - it was an independent dish.

But the meat on the tables happened infrequently. This is connected both with long Orthodox fasts and with the poverty of the population.

They ate meat from Christmas to Maslenitsa, meat dishes were prepared for weddings and other significant occasions. The rest of the time, they managed with empty cabbage soup (that is, cooked not in meat broth).

But fish was eaten more often, it is blessed even in regions with a harsh climate.

And it is impossible not to say about one more feature of Russian cuisine. Despite the fact that spices have been known in Russia since the 10th-11th centuries, dishes here are flavored very moderately.

A pleasant aroma (but not a sharp taste) is given to the meat by black pepper and bay leaf. And you can add spiciness yourself by putting grated horseradish or mustard on a plate.

Salads

Russian salads are by no means the section of the menu where ancient dishes appear. Moreover, a dish called "Russian salad" is easier to find in restaurants in Western Europe, and in Russia it is known under a different name - "Olivier".

But some vegetable snacks can still be considered the national food of Russia.

The vinaigrette- salad of boiled beets, potatoes and carrots with green peas and pickles. Cucumbers are sometimes replaced with sauerkraut or pickled mushrooms, and peas with beans. Dress the vinaigrette with vegetable oil.

Herring under a Fur Coat- a snack dish, for the preparation of which lay grated boiled potatoes, chopped herring fillets, onions, grated boiled carrots, beets and finely chopped eggs in layers. The layers are smeared with mayonnaise.

Pickles- an indispensable source of vitamins in the cold season. In order to preserve food until spring, in Russia they fermented cabbage, salted cucumbers and mushrooms, made soaked apples, cranberries and lingonberries.

Soups

Once upon a time, soup was the main dish in Russia. Now it has ceased to be the main one, but it has remained important.

cabbage soup- a well-known national dish of Russia, a soup of fresh or sauerkraut in beef broth. Mushroom soup is prepared for fasting. To give a characteristic sour taste, cabbage pickle, apples, sorrel are added to the soup.

Soup- light vegetable soup with one main ingredient. For example, only fried onions were added to potato stew for taste, lentil stew was flavored with onions and carrots.
Solyanka- rich and spicy soup from several varieties of meat and offal. Pickled cucumbers are also necessarily put in the hodgepodge, lemon and olives are often added. In addition to meat, hodgepodge is fish and mushroom.
Rassolnik- meat or fish soup with vegetables, cereals and pickles. The sour taste is enhanced by the addition of sour cream.
ear- soup, usually from river fish. In addition to the usual fish soup, there is also double and triple: in this case, the broth is first boiled from low-value small fish, and then pieces of pike perch, whitefish, and even sterlet are put into the soup. Transparent, rich broth is the most important thing in the ear, and therefore vegetables are put in it to a minimum (only potatoes, carrots and onions) and cut into large pieces, or even completely laid whole. Milk is added to the Pomeranian ear.

In the summer in Russia they cook cold soups- okroshka, beetroot, botvinya. They are based on fresh vegetables - radishes, fresh cucumbers, boiled potatoes and carrots, boiled meat and greens.

The base is poured with cold unsweetened kvass, whey, diluted kefir or beetroot broth.

Meat dishes

There are not so many meat dishes in the list of traditional Russian dishes. Meat until the 17th century was a rarity on the tables, it was cooked mainly for the holidays.

Then there were several options: meat was boiled or baked in a large piece, offal was baked together with porridge in pots, and poultry, including game, was fried. Most of the recipes for meat dishes are rather late, and you can’t call them folk.

Roast- a large piece of beef, fried with roots, and then brought to readiness in the oven. The finished roast was poured with a special vegetable or berry sauce. Roast is also made from game: venison, bear meat, hare.

Dumplings- small envelopes made of dough with meat, less often with vegetable filling. Initially, it was a dish of the Ural peoples, but now it is cooked everywhere.

Dumplings are most often boiled and served with butter, sour cream, horseradish or vinegar. Sometimes boiled dumplings are fried. Small dumplings are used as a dressing for the broth.

Bouzhenina- baked pork or beef tenderloin (butt, ham). Sometimes the meat is first marinated, boiled, and then baked.

Jellied or jelly- boiled meat in a strong solidified broth. Kholodets is made from beef, pork, poultry, the meat is seasoned with garlic before pouring the broth.

Fire cutlets- poultry cutlets in breadcrumbs.

Meat Stroganoff or Beef Stroganoff- finely chopped beef, fried and filled with sour cream sauce.

Kashi

Russians, accustomed to cereals, suffer when traveling around Europe they have to make do with only rice and corn porridge.

The inhabitants of Russia use much more cereals: buckwheat, rice, millet, wheat, pearl barley, barley, oatmeal, semolina, after all. Porridges are boiled in water and milk, made salty or sweet.

Buckwheat porridge- the national food of Russians. It is eaten simply with butter. But it is even better to season buckwheat with browned vegetables, mushrooms, boiled eggs.
Monastic porridge- a dish of several types of cereals, most often from buckwheat, rice and millet.
Pumpkin porridge- a dish for which sweet pumpkin and millet (rice) are taken in equal proportions. Often, pumpkin porridge is cooked in milk, sugar or honey, raisins and other dried fruits are added to it.
Guryev porridge- sweet semolina pudding. It is served on the table with jam, honey or sweet berries.

Fish dishes

The seas surrounding Russia are rich in fish. In the Caspian, Azov and Black Seas, sturgeon, sterlet, beluga have long been mined, in the White Sea - salmon and cod, in the Baltic - herring.

Rivers and lakes abound with fish: Baikal is famous as a place for hunting omul and grayling, trout is caught in Lake Ladoga and Onega, pike, pike perch, carp, burbot are caught in the Volga, and taimen is caught in Siberian rivers. Therefore, it is not surprising that there are so many fish dishes in Russian cuisine.

Sturgeon- one of the delicacy dishes of the national cuisine of Russia. Valuable large fish was baked, stuffed, dried, made into aspic, and viziga (vyaziga) - the spinal cartilage of sturgeons - was a popular filling for pies.

But even more than the fish itself, black sturgeon caviar was valued - without it, the proverb says, pancakes are not tasty at Shrovetide.

It ended with the fact that the sturgeon was included in the Red Book, and today the commercial production of this fish is prohibited in Russia. But sturgeons have learned to breed in nurseries, and therefore sturgeon has returned to the menu of Russian cuisine restaurants.

Red caviar- a delicacy product made from salted salmon caviar, trout, taimen and other salmon fish.

Telnoe- one of the varieties of fish dishes. Telnoye is prepared from whole or chopped fillet: it is boiled, rolled up, or fried.

pies

There are a lot of dough products in Russian cuisine - these are pancakes, and dumplings, and noodles, and pies. But at the head of all this is rye, or black, bread. Modern versions of it are sold under the names "Borodinsky", "Zavarnoy", "Moscow", etc.

Rye flour was also used for pies, and white wheat flour came into use only in the 17th-18th centuries.

Kulebyak- a large closed pie, which combines several types of savory fillings. Each filling is separated from the other with thin pancakes. The finished pie is cut into pieces, and each contains all kinds of fillings.

In the drafts of the second volume of Dead Souls, Gogol described another way of preparing kulebyaki - “at four corners”: “In one corner, put sturgeon cheeks and screech for me, in the other, put buckwheat gruel, and mushrooms with onions, and sweet milk, and brains , and what else do you know there such ... ".

Kurnik- a closed pie with chicken and other fillings, similar to a pie. According to one version, the name of the pie is due to the fact that during cooking, smoke is smoked over it, coming out of a hole in the upper part of the chicken coop.

Rybnik- a traditional pie stuffed with raw fish. Whole carcasses or large pieces of fish are usually wrapped in the dough.

shangi- pies with an open unsweetened filling, common in the northern regions of Russia. Like pies, they serve as an excellent addition to soups.

pie- a pie from yeast dough with ajar filling. Inside the pie put minced meat or fish, rice with egg, mushrooms. Pies are served with soups instead of bread.

desserts

Sweet dishes that were served in Russia at the end of a meal were called snacks. There are no special frills here, but simple does not mean tasteless.

Fritters- small sweet pancakes. Sometimes grated apples, pumpkin, zucchini are added to the dough, and they eat pancakes with sour cream, honey or jam.
Cheesecakes, or curds- fried or baked cottage cheese cakes, in which raisins can be added.
Kissel- a jelly-like dessert made from fruit and berry juice thickened with starch. Previously, jelly was made from fermented cereals, and now these traditions are being revived, because oatmeal or rye jelly is a very satisfying and healthy dish.
Jam- a dessert made from fruits or berries boiled in thick berry syrup. Berries in jam retain their shape: strawberry or gooseberry jam looks especially beautiful. Jam is eaten as an independent dish, washed down with tea. You can also pour jam on pancakes, pancakes, cheesecakes.
Paste- a delicacy of boiled and dried fruit and berry puree. Pastila in Russia was made from sour apples, currants, raspberries, mountain ash, lingonberries. Honey was added to make the dish sweet. And in order to give the apple marshmallow a beautiful white color, egg white was mixed into the puree before drying.
Kalach- a fluffy bun made from premium wheat flour. Kalach is given the shape of a ring, and in the old days kalachi in the form of a weight or a barn lock were common: such pastries could be hung from the ceiling for storage.
Bagels, bagels, drying- baking in the form of rings with a crispy crust and soft (bagels) or hard (drying) center. Bagels can be sprinkled with sugar, poppy seeds, sesame, cumin, salt.
Gingerbread- honey cake, often with a layer of jam. Raisins, candied fruits, nuts, poppy seeds are added to the dough for gingerbread.
Cheesecake- a pie with a sweet open filling, most often curd.
Gingerbread- baking from honey dough with spices. In addition to the usual aromatic additives, dried fruits of bird cherry, raspberries or cranberries were used in Russia.

A special kind of gingerbread printed: for their manufacture, the dough was rolled onto special boards with a carved pattern. Tula is still famous for printed gingerbread, they are also made in Gorodets.

In the Russian North, gingerbread figures are baked for Christmas - kozuli, or kozuli.

Festive dishes

There are many holidays in Russia, and there are also many gastronomic holiday traditions. But there are dishes that have long been prepared only at certain periods: at Christmas, Maslenitsa or Easter.

Kutya- sweet porridge made from whole grains of wheat or barley. In the Orthodox tradition, kutya is necessarily boiled for Christmas and Epiphany, and seasoned in different regions in their own way: poppy seeds, dried fruits, nuts.

Explosion, or uzvar- dried fruit compote, a traditional drink on the Christmas table.

Pancakes- originally a ritual dish, symbolizing the sun. Pancakes were baked on Maslenitsa: regular, yeasty, with baking (finely chopped onions, or mushrooms, or a boiled egg were put in a pan, and then poured with dough).

A freshly baked warm pancake is delicious on its own, but it can be dipped in sour cream or jam, sprinkled with honey, wrapped in caviar, mushrooms, cottage cheese and other fillings. Now pancakes are baked at any time of the year.

kulich- Easter pastries made from rich dough with lots of raisins and candied fruits. Ready cakes are poured with icing.

Easter- an Easter dish made from curd mass, rammed into a special form. Easter is not baked, but sometimes the curd mass is boiled before being put into a mold.

Drinks for adults and children

The story about traditional Russian drinks should start with tea. And not so much from the tea itself, but from the way it was drunk starting from the 18th century, when the production of copper samovars was launched in Tula.

Samovars were stoked with birch chocks, and at the end, for smoke, they put dry cones. Plum sprigs, cherry leaves, currants, raspberries, wild strawberries, dried berries were added to the teapot, which was placed on a boiling samovar.

They drank tea several cups in a row, with jam, marshmallow, bagels and pies.

curdled milk- a drink obtained thanks to lactic acid bacteria present in milk.

Ryazhenka, or Varenets- a fermented milk drink made from baked milk. The color of ryazhenka is pinkish-cream, and the taste is very delicate.

Kvass- a sweet and sour drink made from fermented malt or rye bread. Sweetened cold kvass is pleasant to drink in the heat, sour kvass is used to make summer soups.

Morse- a soft drink made from berry juice diluted with water. Sour cranberry, lingonberry, cherry juice perfectly quenches thirst.

Compote- a chilled drink made from boiled berries and fruits. In Russia, lunch traditionally ends.

Sbiten- drinking from honey diluted with water and boiled with spices or fragrant herbs. Sbiten is drunk both hot and cold, in addition, there is an alcoholic version of this drink.

regional cuisine

It is important to clarify that Russian cuisine is only a part of Russian cuisine. Other peoples of the country preserve their culinary traditions: Tatars, Bashkirs, Mordovians, Udmurts, Maris, etc.

For example, in Kazan, you should definitely try dishes of Tatar cuisine: rich fatty lamb shurpa, pilaf with boiled meat, kystyby - unleavened flatbread folded in half stuffed with millet porridge or mashed potatoes, zur-belish - an impressive pie with meat and cereals, echpochmak - small triangular pies with meat filling.

In Ufa you will be treated to dishes of Bashkir cuisine. Among its specialties is kullama, a spicy broth served with pieces of meat and boiled salma dough (in Central Asia, a similar dish is known as beshbarmak).

Thick urya soup is also boiled in meat broth, seasoned with vegetables and cereals.

In Vladikavkaz, one cannot pass by Ossetian pies. The most unusual of them is davonjin, a pie stuffed with Ossetian cheese and wild garlic.

Also in the southern regions of Russia, which border on the states of Transcaucasia, the influence of Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani cuisine is felt: chebureks are fried and khachapuri is baked here, dolma is made and khinkali is molded.

But manti - steamed bags of thin unleavened dough and meat filling - can hardly be called a regional dish. It is common in the Asian part of Russia and is popular along with dumplings.

The same applies to shish kebab: the ancient Russian method of roasting whole carcasses on a spit was replaced by frying small pieces of meat on a skewer, and shish kebab - a dish of Transcaucasia and Central Asia - became a national food in Russia.

Good news for tourists who travel with children: most of the national dishes of Russian cuisine are suitable for a children's table without any adaptation.

Moreover, children eat with appetite (burst, crack, piss, wrap) pies with various fillings, pancakes, pancakes, dumplings, gingerbread, gingerbread and other traditional foods.

Even for children who are just joining the adult table, it is easy to order the right food in a cafe or restaurant. The menu usually includes chicken broth, light vegetable soup, boiled potatoes and cereals.

With boiled meat or fish it is more difficult, it is more likely to be able to order stews. If you are traveling with a baby, restaurants will help you warm up food in jars or cook baby porridge.

With caution, you need to try sour dishes (shchi, pickle).

Where to try

Tasting traditional dishes in Russia is simple and difficult at the same time. The fact is that some folk dishes are so firmly entrenched in modern cuisine that they are cooked in every home.

Accordingly, they can be ordered in any restaurant. For example, cabbage soup, hodgepodge, fish soup and dumplings will definitely not have to be looked for.

You will have to look for other dishes in specialized restaurants of Russian or regional cuisine. In such places, kulebyaks are baked, cold botvinya is served, sturgeon is made from sturgeon and sbiten is boiled.

Well, some rare Russian dishes can only be tasted at folklore festivals or during festive festivities at Christmas, Maslenitsa or Easter.

Culinary festivals are held in many cities of Russia - for example, in Yaroslavl every summer they organize a "Feast on the Volga", in Arkhangelsk - a festival of dishes of Pomeranian cuisine.

There are also specialized events dedicated to only one dish. So, in Izhevsk, the festival "Udmurtia - the birthplace of dumplings" is held annually.

In the Vologda region there is a festival of gray cabbage soup, in Tatarstan - fish soup, in Suzdal - mead (and also cucumber), in the Kuban - kvass, in the Tver region - a festival of gate pies.

In you will find a description of the best Russian museums and family entertainment.