About Russian cuisine

Mcooker: best recipes About kitchen and food

Russian kitchen Recipes for Russian dishes are a phenomenon, and by no means accidental. Ancient Russian cities often arose on the high banks of deep rivers, around, as far as the eye could see, stretched endless fields, meadows and forests. The natural conditions of Russia - the climate, the abundance of reservoirs and forests, the breadth of the fields - shaped the economic way of life of our ancestors, their habits and disposition, the nature of their diet.

The main occupation of the Eastern Slavs was agriculture. Its most ancient system - slash, and later - forest fallow determined the widespread use of grain and products of its processing in nutrition.

Plow agriculture constantly required draft power and fertilizers, therefore, along with agriculture, cattle breeding developed rapidly, which played an important role in the formation of Russian cuisine.

Ancillary occupation of the Russians were such trades as hunting and fishing, bee-keeping, which also influenced the diet of our ancestors.

Nevertheless, Russian cuisine developed primarily under the influence of arable farming, the cultivation of rye, barley, wheat, oats, and millet. These cultures, traditionally used in food, have defined several directions in food preparation.

These are, first of all, cereal porridges and bread products ("bread"). Having discovered the secret of making yeast dough, the Russian people for a long time remained adherents of sour (fermented) bread made from rye flour. Leavened bread has become a kind of symbol of the Russian national table. Other types of flour products appeared - dezhni, loaves, compose, pancakes, all kinds pies and pies, pancakes, bagels, cakes, crumpets.

The preparation of cereals (from 6-8 types of cereals) and some legumes (peas, beans, lentils) has become an independent direction.

For many centuries, Russian grain dishes were considered an object of special worship, indispensable attributes of religious rituals, symbols of homeliness and hospitality, while remaining everyday, and then traditional.

In the preparation of products from flour, cereals, Russian chefs have reached unheard-of perfection. The list of these dishes alone would take several pages.

The national Russian culinary art is famous for its wonderful dishes, in which cereals are originally combined with other products - vegetables, milk, cottage cheese, eggs, fish, meat.

In general, Russian folk cuisine since ancient times has been built on a harmonious combination of animal and plant products in one dish - these are dumplings, pies, pies with meat, cottage cheese, fish, cheesecakes, semi-liquid dishes (old ear, etc.) from vegetables and meat , soups with meat and vegetables (cabbage soup, borscht, hodgepodge, etc.), fish (fish soup, fish soups), various casseroles, cereals, cereals with milk, etc.

From the point of view of our current knowledge of rational nutrition, it is noteworthy that these dishes have an amazing balance of nutrients. Since plant proteins are mostly deficient (they lack individual irreplaceable constituents - amino acids), proteins of animal origin complement and enrich their composition. When combined with vegetable proteins, they increase the biological value of the food mixture. Enrichment is especially effective when both proteins enter the body at the same time, that is, they are included in the recipe of one culinary product. Many Russian dishes satisfy this requirement.

However, one cannot but take into account the fact that our life is changing, its rhythm has changed, the ecological situation has changed, some traditions in cooking have lost their meaning.It is important to select from folk experience everything that is not outdated and corresponds to the conditions of modern life, and at the same time proceed not only from traditions and folk experience, but also take into account the latest achievements in the field of nutritional physiology, the individual characteristics of each person, the nature and intensity of labor. But in all cases, food must correspond to national tastes and habits, as the famous Russian culinary expert K. Avdeeva wrote about in the middle of the last century:

Without condemning either German or French cuisine, I think that our Russian, native is more useful for us in all respects, what we have got used to, what has been learned by the experience of centuries, passed on from fathers to children and is justified by the climate, the way of life.

In northern Russian villages, in the foothills of the gray-haired Urals, in villages stretching along the banks of taiga rivers, their own traditions, habits and customs were formed everywhere in the preparation of dishes. As the proverb says, "every city has its own temper." In the north they love fish dishes, in the Don steppes - borsch with peppers and tomatoes, in the Urals - cabbage soup with mushrooms, in the Vologda region - pies with bird cherry, and in the Kuban - with cherries.

Despite the diversity of regional tastes and traditions, under the influence of common historical destinies, common features of a single national Russian cuisine have developed.

The expansion of intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic ties left a noticeable imprint on the nature of the Russians' diet.

Settling from the banks of the Dnieper along the Great Russian Plain, and then stepping far beyond the Urals, having mastered Siberia and the coast of the frozen sea, our ancestors sacredly preserved the customs of Ancient Russia. Kiev long remained the foremother of Russian cities. Even feudal fragmentation contributed to the preservation and development of ancient traditions, since, moving to new possessions, the princes took their retinue, their cooks with them, and resettled all their subjects to new lands. Of course, local conditions, climate features, close communication with the natives affected culinary traditions (for example, the set of products for some dishes changed), but the main features of Russian cuisine, which had developed in Ancient Russia, remained unshakable.

The Russian stove, household utensils, table customs, everyday and festive dishes - all this Russian people did not forget, wherever he settled - near the shores of the White Sea or in the Voronezh steppes, in Altai or in the Donbass.

Stable food tastes and habits, a kind of kitchen conservatism are often formed under the impressions received in childhood. In these impressions, according to the famous writer Vera Inber, "The inexplicable sweetness of the past and the subtle play of memories"... Therefore, a person is far from indifferent to what he was fed in childhood, and favorite "mother's dishes" are remembered for life.

EM Velichko - Russian folk cuisine. Photo Admin