National cuisine is a traditional set of dishes/techniques/features of serving a certain people. Russian cuisine has come a long way of development from wooden barrels and cast-iron stoves to the latest technology and global recognition. This was facilitated by urbanization and a departure from the class-social structure of society. National cuisine is formed under the influence of a certain climate, economic/geographical/social conditions of the country. Traditional Russian food was formed from a craving for the earth, long winters, colossal physical labor and a variety of products.

How has Russian cuisine changed over the past 100 years?

History reference

There are several periods of formation of Russian cuisine. One of them falls on the XVI-XVII. As the historian Kostomarov wrote, at that time the diet of the Great Russian people was based solely on customs, and not on art, as would happen several centuries later. The food was as simple and non-diverse as possible, as required during fasting, and the Slavs strictly observed the fast. Dishes were prepared from basic ingredients: flour, meat, plant foods. After the 18th century and the emergence of a “window to Europe”, Russian cuisine was filled with escalopes, steaks, entrecote, tomatoes, omelettes and sausages.

The church had a tremendous influence on the eating habits of the population. A similar process can be traced in other Christian countries. More than half of the days of the calendar year were fast days. Fasting is a tradition with religious overtones. It provides for temporary abstinence from eating and drinking (both completely and restriction on certain foods) for spiritual and ascetic practices. It is because of such prohibitions that mushrooms, fish, grains, wild berries, herbs, and vegetables predominate in traditional Russian cuisine.

According to the research of the historian Boltin, the peasants ate food 4 times a day. In the summer, during working hours, this figure rose to 5: breakfast (an alternative name is interception), afternoon tea, lunch, dinner, and dinner. Breakfast was in the early morning - 6:00, lunch - 12:00, afternoon tea - 15:00, dinner - 19:00, dinner - 23:00.

Features of the diet

In Russian cuisine there is a wide variety of products and dishes from them.

Bread and flour products

Bread was mostly eaten. Moreover, the very word "bread" meant exactly the product from rye, which was later replaced. In addition, the ancient Russian people used. Wheat flour was intended for kalachi, one of the favorite delicacies of the local population. It was noteworthy that they were never added to flour products, preferring natural plant flavors.

One of the most common dishes of that period is oatmeal. This is flour that has been crushed in a mortar or ground in a mill. The grain is pre-steamed, dried, lightly roasted and cleaned. Oatmeal was prepared mainly from oatmeal. From rye and wheat flour, pies were prepared with various fillings: meat, cottage cheese, fish, berries, mushrooms, eggs. The basis for the pie could also serve as noodles or some kind of porridge. The locals prepared rich loaves, pancakes, pancakes, cones / brushwood from dough, perepichs, nuts.

Vegetables and grains

The vast majority of the population were peasants. The bulk of their diet consisted of vegetables and grains, foods that could be grown on their own plot of land. Pickles, cereals, bakery products, soups were prepared from these ingredients. The most popular soups are hodgepodge, kalya, fish soup, botvinya, okroshka, borscht, pickle. Later, with the advent of potato, the locals got the hang of cooking sweet kissels, which are still popular in Russian territories.

The main vegetable for the Russian people was. The situation changed only from the second half of the 19th century, when potatoes became widespread.

Vegetables were eaten not only raw, but also subjected to various types of heat treatment. Plant foods were boiled, baked, steamed, fermented, salted or pickled. There were also no problems with cereals due to the climate and fertile soils. A colossal amount of grain grows in Russian territories, and several varieties of cereals can be separated from each type of grain - from whole to crushed.

Dairy and dairy products

As a seasoning, we used a set of spices that was not foreign or familiar to us. At that time, the common people did not have access to such goods. Acted as the main spice. Its creamy taste set off cereals, salads, soups, pastries and any other dishes. He was also held in high esteem. They ate it in its pure form, added fruits, prepared cheesecakes.

Fish meals

Fish was most often steamed, stewed, baked, boiled, fried, stuffed with various fillings (mainly mushrooms or porridge). The fish has created a huge scope for creativity. It was also salted, dried, fermented, dried, cooked in flesh or aspic, added to the ear, pickle or hodgepodge. Caviar was considered a rare and valuable delicacy. Fresh granular sturgeon caviar was especially revered. It was boiled in vinegar with poppy milk or salted.

Meat dishes

Meat was rarely eaten until the 17th century. Despite the fact that there are no religious prohibitions on eating meat, the locals preferred to eat grains and fish. Animals served as household helpers, not food, but over time the situation changed slightly.

Meat was to be limited only on days of fasting and special religious holidays.

In Russian cuisine, the following types of meat were used:

• Domestic bird;
• all varieties of game (wild duck / / / wild boar / elk).

The meat was divided into game and slaughter. Wild game is meat obtained by hunting, and slaughter is meat obtained from livestock/poultry. The product was served boiled or baked. It was considered common practice to add meat to first courses. Shredded meat was especially popular - cutlets, cue balls, sausages, fire cutlets, Stroganoff beef, Orlov. But most often they cooked boiled pork - a large piece of pork baked whole in the oven.

Dessert

The most famous desserts are kalachi, gingerbread, honey and jam. Baked or other baked berries/fruits are considered traditional for Russian cuisine. The Slavs boiled vegetables (mainly and) in honey in a water bath, and not on an open fire, so as not to burn the product and damage its structure. Ready vegetables became transparent and acquired an elastic texture. The dish is very similar to modern unsweetened candied fruits.

As a dessert, they ate crushed berries dried on the stove in the form of cakes (a prototype of modern marshmallow). Cakes were made from, and other seasonal berries. Drinks were jammed with marshmallow and even used in folk medicine as a cure for colds or with a lack of vitamins.

The drinks

Popular among soft drinks, and. It is these drinks that can be attributed to the national ones. By the 15th century, more than 500 varieties of kvass, hundreds of varieties of fruit drinks and honey liquids were being prepared in Russia. Russians did not have much love for alcoholic products, which refutes the myth about the drinking past of the people. The booze was prepared only for the holidays, and its strength was minimal. Most often they brewed kvass and honey vodka. The strength of alcohol varied from 1 to 6% vol.

ritual dishes

This is a special category of food, which is closely intertwined with religious beliefs and traditions. Dishes have a ritual meaning and are consumed only on a special occasion - a holiday or ritual. Ritual dishes of Russian cuisine:

1. Kurnik. Served for a wedding. The dish is called the king of pies, festive or royal pie. It consists of several layers of dough and various fillings - lamb, beef, nuts, potatoes, porridge and more. For the wedding, the kurnik was decorated with dough figures and various decorative elements.
2. Kutya. Served at Christmas/Koliada. This is a memorial Slavic dish. Consists of wheat / barley or rice porridge, poured with honey and. Nuts, jam and milk are also added to the porridge.
3. Pancakes. Served at Maslenitsa, until the 19th century they were considered a memorial dish. A traditional Russian dessert that has not lost its popularity to this day. The product is made from batter, which is poured into a hot frying pan and fried on both sides. Pancakes are served as an independent dish or wrapped in various sweet / salty fillings.
4. Kulich/Easter/Paska. Served for Easter. Cylindrical festive bread, which is still baked for the main church holiday.
5. Omelette. Served on Trinity. In modern Russian cuisine, scrambled eggs have become a commonplace breakfast. Previously, the dish was served only for the feast of the triune deity.
6. Oatmeal jelly or cold. Served on Generous Evening, Ivan Kupala and memorial days. This is a traditional drink with a dense texture, more like jelly or loose marmalade. It was prepared by fermenting oatmeal.

Features of kitchen utensils

Most Russian dishes are cooked in the oven. Food products are placed in cast irons or pots; for meat and game, more voluminous forms are used (for example, ducklings). Also, a round frying pan was easily placed in the Russian oven, both with and without a handle. To install kitchen utensils in the oven, a teapot or pan was used. Chapelnik is a large hook with an emphasis on a wooden handle. It is with this hook that the frying pan is captured, placed inside the oven, after which the teapot is carefully disconnected. To install cast irons and pots, a tong was used. A gardener was used to get a finished loaf of bread out of the oven. This is an oblong metal or wooden utensil in the shape of a shovel. Standard utensils - bowls and spoons made of wood. Since the 18th century, samovars for making tea have been considered traditional Russian kitchen utensils.

Modern Russian cuisine

Modern Russian cuisine has reached a radically new level. Chefs are trying to combine authentic Russian ingredients with new techniques, unimaginable sauces and spectacular servings. There are establishments in a truly national spirit, where they cook in the oven, boil and bake on the fire, and the dishes are delivered by waiters in traditional costumes. More neutral loft establishments are also popular, where the whole Russian spirit is concentrated in the menu. The main focus is on the best products from different parts of Russia: from the Volga and Murmansk to Altai honey and black Caucasian walnut.

Young chefs love to play with modern Russian cuisine in such a way that it would not be embarrassing to present it at the world level. Originally Russian products are usually set off with spices of Asian or European motifs. Chefs say that cabbage soup and dumplings are good, but it's time to go further, create a concept and rely on recognition. Now Russian cuisine is represented by pasta, bird cherry flour gingerbread, birch sap desserts, organic farm products and a variety of plant ingredients.

The menu of the Russian McDonald's has positions stylized as a national food culture. In "beef a la rus" they use rye bun instead of the usual wheat bun.

Russian chefs are divided into 2 camps: some support traditions, others modernize them. This is a great option for the consumer. He can always digress from his favorite borscht and mead with exotic sauce or walnut dumplings.

When we organize a Russian-style feast or go to a Russian restaurant, the menu will definitely include pickled cucumbers, sauerkraut, pickled mushrooms, for the first - daily cabbage soup, Moscow borscht and fish soup, delicacies - sturgeon, red and black caviar, game. Siberian dumplings, boiled potatoes, Guryev porridge, pancakes… And what did our ancestors actually eat?

Shchi and porridge are our food.

The usual food of Russian peasants was not very diverse. You need to cook quickly and satisfyingly, using what is grown with your own hands or collected in the forest. They ate little meat, although from time immemorial chickens, geese, cows, goats and pigs have been bred.
Our ancestors called shami any soup, and not just with cabbage, as it is now. Turnips, cabbages, and beets were grown in vegetable gardens. All this could be boiled in water or meat broth, whitened with milk or sour cream - that's the whole recipe. In the spring, sorrel or young nettles were used. For "nutritiousness" they added a "ceiling" of fried lard, and hemp oil was seasoned with food during fasting. In the XVI century. it was possible to try “borshch shti”, “cabbage shti”, “repyan shti”.
They often ate tyuryu - bread crumbled in small pieces into kvass, milk or water. Greens could also be added there, seasoned with vegetable oil. It did not require fire to prepare it, so it could also be made right in the field, where the peasants went to work for the whole day. In addition, in the summer heat, such food does not make you sleepy. From tyuri came today's okroshka.
But at first they called borscht a stew from hogweed (not one that can be burned). Then they began to cook it on beet kvass: they warmed it up in a pot, threw chopped beets, carrots, cabbage into boiling water and sent it to languish in the oven.
The most high-calorie in the diet were cereals. them in the 16th century. there were more than 20 species. Different cereals, different degrees of grinding made it possible to cook something new. Just like with cabbage soup, our ancestors did not bother themselves and the word "porridge" called any thick concoction of chopped foods.
Different porridges were popular in different provinces. For example, in Tambov there was the most millet. It was used to make not only porridge with water or milk, but also a kulesh with lard. In the Novgorod, Tver, Pskov provinces they prepared thick - thick barley porridge from whole grains.
Porridge has become an integral part of many holidays, ceremonies and rituals. She fed young people at weddings, workers after doing collective work. Newborns were greeted with "Babkin's" porridge, military successes were celebrated with "victorious", a truce was secured with "peaceful" porridge, and the deceased was commemorated with kutya.

Bread on the table - and the table is a throne, but not a piece of bread - and the table is a board

They ate a lot of bread. Peasants baked it from rye flour. Since this process is laborious, it was started once a week. The finished product was then stored in special wooden bread bins.
For a peasant, bread was so important that without it, hunger began, even if there was plenty of other food. In lean years, quinoa, bran, tree bark, ground acorns were added to the dough.
Bread was also an attribute of many rituals. Dear guests were greeted with "bread and salt", they took communion with prosphora, they broke the fast with Easter cakes, they saw off the winter with pancakes on Maslenitsa, they greeted spring with "larks".
Not only bread was baked from flour. Fritters, pancakes, gingerbread, rolls, cheesecakes often appeared on the table. Pancakes in the old days were made from buckwheat flour, loose, fluffy, sour. There were a great many pies, they were served with certain dishes: with buckwheat porridge - for fresh cabbage soup, sour - with salted fish, with meat - for noodles, with carrots - for fish soup.
In the seventeenth century there were at least 50 pie recipes. They differed in the type of dough: yeast, puff, unleavened; baking method: spun in oil, hearth. The sizes and shape (round, square, triangular, elongated), the way the filling was placed (open - pies) and closed ones changed. The filling could be: meat, fish, eggs, porridge, fruits, vegetables, berries, mushrooms, raisins, poppy seeds, peas, cottage cheese, chopped greens.

Good snack - sauerkraut

Winter in Russia is long and harsh, which is why all kinds of pickles were so popular. Cabbage was pickled in barrels, apples, cranberries, lingonberries were added to it. Apples and cranberries were also soaked. When cucumbers appeared, they began to use them.
Mushrooms were especially revered. Milk mushrooms, mushrooms, chanterelles, honey mushrooms, volnushki - each region has its own. Some species, for example, white and mushrooms, dried more.
The berries were dried or mixed with honey for storage. There were also blanks in the oven, for example, raspberries could be laid out in an even layer on a cabbage leaf and sent to a cooling oven. The berries reached the desired condition, and then the dried leaf was removed from the resulting cake.

Potatoes and dumplings

Potatoes appeared in Russia only in the 18th century through the efforts of Peter I and did not immediately become the “second bread”. But when they tasted it, they began to grow it with pleasure, and gradually it replaced turnips from the diet. Thanks to the potato, it became easier to survive the crop failures of wheat and rye.
Pelmeni, on the other hand, got into Russian cuisine, presumably because of the Urals. There is no mention of them in any culinary book in Russia until the beginning of the 19th century. The earliest description of such a dish is found in the "Painting of the Royal Food" (1610-1613), which mentions manti with lamb.
Back in 1817, dumplings were exotic in the European part of Russia, although they were common in Siberia. There they were molded in huge quantities and stored in the winter in the cold. In 1837, Ekaterina Avdeeva wrote about "dumplings" as a word used in Siberia, that in Russia they are called "ears", which is made from pasta dough with chopped beef, also with mushrooms or fish.

Russian cuisine is not only cabbage soup and porridge, although these dishes deserve attention. The famous gourmet Brillat-Savarin recognized only 3 cuisines, including Russian. First of all, Russian cuisine is famous for its first courses (bread): cabbage soup, solyanka, rassolniki (with pickles, mushrooms), kali (fish or meat soup cooked in cucumber brine), ear.
For some soups, for example, for the ear, it was customary to serve pastries - pies.
In hot weather, a variety of cold soups were served for the first: okroshka, botvinya, tyurya.
Pies were treated seriously and thoroughly. Cooking kulebyaka or kurnik takes time and skill. But what a plus: the country was a leading producer of grain, so flour has always been in almost any home, but the filling is based on availability. Further - the fantasy and skill of the hostess.
Cottage cheese was actively used, it was added to the fillings of cheesecakes and shaneg.
It’s easier with pancakes, which for many have long become the hallmark of Russian cuisine. Pancakes were baked in butter, stuffed or folded into pancake pies.
Mushroom dishes occupy a special place in Russian cuisine: mushrooms were not only boiled or dried, as in other cuisines, but also harvested for future use (salted).
Meat main dishes, as a rule, were prepared on great holidays. But what a variety: from cutlets and roast offal to a whole roasted pig.
Winter in most of Russia lasts almost half a year and it was a sin not to use sub-zero temperatures for cooking. For example, cold. Fortunately, the preparation of selected pieces of meat is not necessary.
A fish alternative to jellied meat is jellied fish, sturgeon, for example. Although for me personally in this case number one is pike perch.
There was also something to drink down the meal: sbitni, kvass, fruit drinks, honey, water, whey with raisins and boiled cabbage juice, as well as tea from dried fireweed leaves, that is, Ivan tea.
Strong drinks were also valued: they knew how to brew intoxicated mead (medovukha), birch tree (fermented birch sap), kvass, and beer. In the 15th century learned how to make "bread wine" - vodka. By the 16th century, vodka became the subject of a state monopoly: in 1533, in Moscow, on Balchug Street, opposite the Kremlin, the first Tsar's tavern was opened.
Of course, over time, Russian cuisine has changed, with the advent of new products, recipes have changed, old recipes have been forgotten. Fortunately, recipes have still been preserved that allow you to get an idea of ​​​​the traditional Russian feast.

What is special about Moscow cuisine? Who invented borscht? Why was the Soviet canteen the best fast food? - We understand.

Portal Moscow-24 asked me to answer all these questions. I will give here the full version of my interview. On the Moscow site itself, for obvious reasons, it is somewhat abbreviated. So, our conversation with the correspondent Anastasia Maltseva.

- Are there any Russian products?

You will be surprised, but the answer will not be simple. Yes and no. All our product variety can be conditionally divided into three large groups. The first is natural products - everything that can be grown. This is, say, buckwheat, turnip, potatoes, lamb, pork, chicken, etc. The second group - products that have undergone preliminary processing: bacon, sauerkraut, pickles, jam. The third group is ready-made dishes that the chef serves on the table. Where can you find national cuisine here? Obviously not in the first group. There is not a single vegetable or fruit that would grow only in Russia. Even our turnips are grown in many countries.

The second group can already claim the title of national. Since here, specific technologies for their processing are added to the products that grow on the territory of Russia. Sauerkraut, cucumbers - an old Slavic tradition. The national products of this group also include, say, our sour cream and marshmallow.

And it is on the basis of products that have undergone specific processing that traditional national dishes arise. So, technology complements the art of cooking. For example, sour cabbage soup was made from sauerkraut. This dish is found only in Russian cuisine. Rassolniki, hodgepodges, okroshka are also rightly considered our national dishes.

Sour cabbage soup - what could be more rucskim? (author's photo)

- Since the conversation turned to soups, the main exciting question, of course, will be about borscht. Whose is he?

This is really the main dispute of the Slavs: "Whose borscht?". Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians - rightly claim the championship in the invention of the famous soup. Which of the nations prepared it first? The answer is simple: nobody. Borsch was born many centuries (or maybe a millennium) ago, when there were no Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Poles yet. Soup was prepared by Slavic tribes in the East European Plain. Each of today's countries can rightly claim his birthright. Another thing is that each nation has its own national versions of this dish. And our Kuban borscht is no less valuable as a historical heritage than Poltava borscht with dumplings or Polish zhurek.

- Speaking of national products, you mentioned pickled cucumbers, sauerkraut, cottage cheese. It turns out that Russian cuisine has a sour-salty taste?

Rather sour-fermented, kvass. However, when we talk about cuisine, we must not forget that these are not only tastes and dishes. In addition to purely prescription
details, there are several more important things: products, processing technologies, type and nature of food, norms and customs of serving dishes. Finally, the "table" culture.

- How can the submission method be national?

We are talking about small, sometimes elusive details that are rarely found in other countries. Well, for example, the widespread use of sour cream with soups. Or adding horseradish to hot-smoked fish, aspic, etc. Or a large list of appetizers, sometimes surprising the foreign public (who do not understand the very origin of the term “appetizer” and the functional purpose of this food at the Russian table). Caviar - traditionally on ice, herring - sliced, and salmon - on the contrary, cut into layers.

- Do we have rituals that make up the soul of folk cooking?

For many years, UNESCO has compiled a list of intangible heritage, including in the field of cuisine. It is not just about the dishes, but about the cultural practices associated with them. There is France and Turkey, Armenia and Morocco. But Russia is not on this list. The hands of our officials do not even reach the ratification of the relevant convention. But, say, our modeling of dumplings or sauerkraut could well enter there. The famous culinary specialist Ekaterina Avdeeva (her books were published in the 1840s - in this blog) describes how women in Siberia gathered in the evenings and chopped cabbage. They dressed up beautifully, sang, invited children and told them stories. The word "kapustnik" came precisely from this tradition, and not the actors of the Moscow Art Theater invented it.

- Tell us more about Moscow cuisine. What is its specificity, unlike Russian cuisine?

In the XVI-XVII centuries in Moscow, patriarchal cuisine reached its peak. But we must not forget that food in that era was of a medieval nature, focused more on satiating the stomach than enjoying tastes.

During the time of Peter I, when St. Petersburg became the capital, Moscow cuisine retained its patriarchal, antiquated character. The fashion for French cuisine came to St. Petersburg. The nobility spoke only French, ate oysters, Strasbourg pies and drank Widow Clicquot. Fashion for French cuisine came to Moscow slowly, often brought by retired officials and aristocrats who came here to live on their pensions.
In the 19th century in Moscow, in a wealthy house, food was served to guests in several stages. At first there were snacks in a separate room. There were pantry - supplies - tables with black and red caviar, salmon, baked mushrooms and different types of vodka.

This, already in the dining room, was followed by two or three cold dishes: ham, goose with cabbage, boiled pork with onions, pork head with horseradish, pike perch with galantine, pike or boiled sturgeon, a combined vinaigrette from poultry, cabbage, cucumbers. Sometimes beef jelly was served with kvass, sour cream and horseradish, or boiled pig, botvinya mostly with beluga. What is botvinya? - You can read about it.

Botvinya can be very intricate (photo by the author)

After the cold, dishes with sauces were certainly served on the table. The most commonly used were duck under mushrooms, veal liver with chopped lung, veal head with prunes and raisins, lamb with garlic, doused with red sweetish sauce; Little Russian dumplings, dumplings, brains with green peas, chicken fricassee with mushroom sauce.

The fourth course consisted of a roast: roast turkeys, ducks, geese, piglets, veal, black grouse, hazel grouse, partridge, sturgeon with smelt or lamb side with buckwheat porridge. Instead of salad, pickles, olives, olives, salted lemons and apples were served. In addition to hot dishes, they always offered kulebyaki, or juicy, or cheesecakes, or pies. And the dinner party ended with two types of cakes - as they were called then: wet (jelly, compotes) and dry (biscuits, ice cream, etc.).

- How has the patriarchal serving of food changed?

European influence gradually came to Moscow. Soups became transparent and mashed. The snack table has moved from a separate room to the main serving. The studen became jelly and galantine. The gray broth in it was made transparent, the meat and poultry were beautifully laid out on a plate, and the vegetables were elegantly cut out. Vinaigrette and mayonnaise became familiar (which then were not called sauces, but ready-made dishes of poultry, fish or meat with vegetables under the same name filling).

If you do not exchange for details, then behind the table pictures you can find patterns of a new culinary era. A little more than a quarter of a century has passed, and Moscow cuisine has become unrecognizably different. Or rather, not so: its philosophy, its culture has changed. Its language and technology has changed. Moreover, this cuisine still did not become French, retaining an elusive Russian flavor and basis. Unlike St. Petersburg, Moscow has surprisingly preserved the historical originality of its cuisine. Perhaps partly due to this, by the second half of the 19th century, through the efforts of Russian chefs, our gastronomy reached the world level. Indeed, already in the days of Molokhovets, it never occurred to anyone to blame her for backwardness. She became a full participant in the global culinary process.

- What happened to Russian cuisine during the Soviet period?

In the first post-revolutionary years, there was clearly no time for culinary delights. The task of the authorities was to feed the people. Professor M.N. Kutkina told us a curious story. Her teacher, Nikolai Kurbatov, a cook with pre-revolutionary experience in 1919, together with his colleagues, invented a new soup, which later received the name "Leningrad pickle". The former "Moscow pickle" was an elegant dish with poultry, roots, pickles, spices and a clear broth. Where to find roots in 1919? The cooks took the recipe only as a basis - they cooked the broth from the bones, added pickles and ... barley for satiety. Soup came to taste - in Soviet times it was served in every dining room.

Canned meat was also produced in pre-revolutionary Russia.
But it was in the USSR that it became a popularly loved product (photo by the author)

But already from the end of the 1920s, it became clear that serious reforms were indispensable. The country was in a difficult situation. Since 1929, food cards have already been introduced in Leningrad for all basic products. There were no such restrictions in Moscow, but life was not much better. The population was growing, and the old semi-handicraft production base simply couldn't keep up. At the suggestion of A. Mikoyan, a new food industry is being created - dozens of bakeries, meat processing plants, factories for the production of butter, fats, and canned food are being built.

There is also a reform of Soviet cuisine. And Moscow is its showcase. People are instilled with a taste for new products and dishes. We receive canned food, corn, canned peas, Artek cereals, juices, ice cream, doctor's sausage, Soviet Champagne, Crimean wines. This is how the picture of food socialist abundance is created. The picture may be decorative, but convincing for the population.

- Was there a national fast food in the Soviet Union?

Of course, there were cafes where you could quickly drink a cup of broth and eat a pie. There were pancakes and cheburechnye. But if we are talking about fast food in today's broad sense, then they could hardly be considered as competitors to it. Unlike the same McDonald's, which offers a variety of meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you will not eat pasties alone. In general, it seems to me that the best Soviet (and indeed, our national) fast food has always been an ordinary Soviet canteen (in its best embodiment). There has always been a fast and quality meal since the 1930s.

Anniversary cookies were invented in 1913. And in the form we know
its production resumed at the Bolshevik factory only in 1967 (photo by the author)

- What happened in the post-war years?

In the 1960s, a massive influx of national cuisines began to Moscow. Restaurants of the Soviet republics and socialist countries - "Baku", "Uzbekistan", "Prague", "Vilnius", "Sofia" are being created in the capital. This phenomenon undoubtedly enriched Moscow cuisine. But at the same time, and somewhat "led away from historical roots." Until now, shish kebab and pilaf are festive dishes for many of us, and cabbage soup and pancakes are just everyday food. Unfortunately, the subsequent development of Soviet cuisine gradually declined. In the 1970s, the deficit grew. In the 1980s, coupons appeared for many products.

- How did the collapse of the Soviet Union affect Moscow cuisine?

When the Iron Curtain collapsed in the 1990s, a very curious process began. What was the problem of Soviet cuisine? In isolation from the world. We, after all, almost did not know the new emerging products, spices, cooking techniques and technologies. That is why the 90s is a process of acquaintance with world cuisine, which, in a good way, should have been going on throughout the entire 20th century. And it’s not about the beautiful Snickers packaging that appeared then or the Polish “champagne”. Waves of a different culinary culture swept through Moscow one after another - French, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Chinese. These new flavors are also making their way into home cooking. And traditional naval pasta is complemented by pasta with salmon, and the usual sausage, it turns out, does not contradict pates and terrines at all.

- What can you say about the current state of Moscow cuisine? How did the sanctions affect her?

Sanctions have two effects. On the one hand, this is an incentive for the development of their agricultural production. On the other hand, there is a threat of a new self-isolation, similar to the Soviet one. With another presentation of Russia as the birthplace of elephants in all areas of culture. I am categorically against this. We laugh at how foreigners sometimes imagine us - living among bears, with balalaikas and nesting dolls. But aren't we ourselves partly to blame for this? Maybe stop looking for the ideal of our society and cuisine in the early Middle Ages? It's time to move away from the house-building orders, as the ideal of national cuisine. Yes, we must look for and carefully restore old regional products and traditions. But at the same time, we are also engaged in adapting those dishes and products to today's tastes and concepts of healthy food.

Russian kitchen very versatile and varied. It has evolved over many centuries, enriched by borrowing from the culinary traditions of other peoples. Interestingly, dishes and recipes vary greatly depending on the region: for example, cuisine of the Russian North very different from cuisines of the Volga region, but Siberian- from Moscow.

Traditional Russian food cooked in the oven where a special temperature regime was maintained. Therefore, in Russian cuisine, such methods of processing products as baking, extinguishing, languor, evaporation, yarn(that is, frying in a pan in a large amount of oil).

The basis of the nutrition of the Russian people has traditionally been cereals (cereals, buckwheat) and vegetables - from the already legendary turnips And swede before radish, beets And cabbage. In the XVIII century in Russia (as you know, not without popular unrest) was introduced everywhere potato, which soon replaced all other vegetables from the Russian "culinary Olympus".

One of the features of traditional Russian cuisine is that in the old days vegetables were practically not cut or cut very large, baked and stewed whole and almost never mixed with each other.

Perhaps no other cuisine in the world has such a variety of soups: cabbage soup, pickle, calla, ear, botwinya, okroshka, Borsch, beetroot, refrigerator, kulesh, hodgepodge... Although, we note, the word "soup" did not exist in the Russian language until the 18th century: soups were called "brew", "bread", "pottage" and so on.

Traditionally, Russian cuisine used not only the meat of domestic animals and birds ( beef, pork, mutton, chicken), but also a variety of game - mezhdvezhatina, venison, elk meat, quail, partridges, capercaillie, black grouse. Among Russian meat dishes - boiled pork, aspic (jelly), corned beef, stuffed piglet.

In Russian cuisine, the tradition of fish dishes is very strong, and, with the exception of the "Pomeranian" lands, only River fish. One of the most popular ways of cooking fish was fishmonger- baking whole fish in the dough.

Russian culinary tradition is impossible to imagine without a variety of pastries. This gingerbread, gates, shangi, coloba, Easter cakes, pies, kulebyaka, kurniki, succulents,donuts, cheesecakes, pretzels, koloboks, bagels, drying, rolls, pies And pies with various fillings (from fishes, meat, apples, mushrooms, pears, greenery before blackberries, cloudberries, krasniki And late) - you can list indefinitely. Among other flour dishes - dumplings, pancakes And pancakes.

Russian cuisine cannot be imagined without dairy dishes - cottage cheese(until the 18th century it was called cheese), curdled milk, sour cream, Varentsa, syrniki(cottage cheese) and cottage cheese casseroles.

Great in Russia and the choice of traditional drinks - fruit drink, kissel, kvass, brine, sour cabbage soup(not to be confused with the soup of the same name!), forest tea(this is what is now called herbal tea), nourishing honey, beer, sbiten- and, of course, vodka and varied tinctures on her.