Traditional dishes of the Old Believers of the village of Kamskoye, cooked in a Russian oven. Fresh dough products

TraditionalCuisine of the Old Believers of Transbaikalia

The Old Believers of Transbaikalia are hospitable and hospitable people.At the beginning of the third millennium, they retained the main set of time-tested and quality recipes and dishes from the cuisine of the Russian Middle Ages. The peculiarity of the cuisine is due to confessional, climatic and socio-economic relations. Semeyskie preserved the tradition of preparing the products necessary for cooking according to the seasons of the year.

Diligence is also characteristic of modern Old Believers. 100 years later, family households developed a household plot, a wide variety of production tools, adapted for obtaining food by their own labor. To the questions “How did you live? What did they eat? They answered: “It is necessary to plow, sow, reap, harvest grain. There will be food. Potatoes - the bulb must be planted. Care for the garden. Livestock, pigs, sheep, chickens were always kept. In the house, in the family, everything was always their own. They didn’t run to the neighbor - this is the last thing. It was considered shameful to go to the store for food. Purchased was only matches, salt, sugar. They worked hard." Each farm had a bird and animals that gave milk.

On ordinary weekdays, during the busy season, food consisted of a small number of dishes: meat broth, thick meat cabbage soup, porridge, bread, tea with dairy products, including vegetable dishes in the form of cucumbers, tomatoes. Plants were medicines - onions, garlic, wild garlic, beets.

In foods, calorie content, taste, fast cooking for the whole family and for the whole day. Food is cooked in cast iron, in pans in Russian ovens. Previously, when eating, wooden cups and spoons, wooden glasses were used. Tueski made of clay, birch bark were widely used; dairy products, jam, and berries were stored in them.

Potatoes, cabbage, and other vegetables were consumed in large quantities. The menu consisted of meat cabbage soup (shtey), soup, stew, scrambled eggs in bacon, milk, butter, sour cream, cottage cheese, curdled milk, potatoes in butter, potatoes with lard, dumplings, soup - noodles with meat, pies with liver, jelly. On holidays, the food was plentiful and tasty: meat pies, dumplings, roast pigs, noodles with meat or milk, potatoes with meat, boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, rich concoction. As second courses, there were mainly stewed porridge, dairy products, lightly salted cucumbers and tomatoes.

Bread

The main product is bread and many products made from rye and wheat flour. Bread was kneaded on a dough and baked on a hearth, i.e. on bricks. Opara is placed on sourdough, which is prepared from wholemeal rye flour. To do this, rye flour is steamed with boiling water, aged, acquires a sour taste and promotes fermentation. The sourdough is stored in a separate container, covered with a rag, in a warm place, usually behind the stove on cabbage rolls. On holidays, food was distinguished by a wide variety of dough products.

Rye-yaritsa in the territory of Buryatia was marked by rich harvests. Wheat was always born poorly, the harvests were small, and products made from white wheat flour, semolina were baked for the holidays. It was used to make dough kalachi, mixed with water or spiced with milk, pies with fish, and rich pastries.

Cakes with a sweet filling (figured bun), cheesecakes with cottage cheese, folds stuffed with butter and sugar, cakes stuffed with berries, or sweet pies, patties the size of a chicken egg with an egg , bird cherry, sweet carrots.

Pies were especially decorated. On a rectangular cake, smeared with jam, a lattice of rolled thin sticks, previously cut with cloves, was laid out, baked, then it was dressed up with lingonberries or strawberries. Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar on top. From any dough for breakfast on the coals, the housewives baked pancakes or flat cakes, pancakes. They ate them, “dipping into the fat from the sizzling hot fried lard"or diluted halva, steamed pine nuts, honey, sour cream, butter or berries.

From unleavened dough in milk, palm-sized pies (pies) were wrapped, oblong in shape with corners, stuffed with cabbage, mushrooms, green onions, oserdi (animal entrails), dumplings, dumplings and grout for stew, noodles for soups.

For the fun of the children, rolls were baked from unleavened dough on sour cream, and donuts were baked from sourdough and dough. By special recipe oatmeal was prepared from cereal flour and eaten in separate pieces, salamat was brewed and fried in animal fat. A ritual dish kutya is prepared from wheat grains and honey.

Beverages

Drinks were prepared from flour of different varieties of cereals. Wine, beer, family vodka do not drink, because. Drinking alcohol has always been considered a great sin. In set traditional cuisine there are a number of recipes for making drinks that have useful qualities and are environmentally friendly products - these are varieties of kvass (bread, beetroot), botvinia, malt, wineskins. Used in food and other drinks from products of plant origin - fruit drinks from berries with honey, jelly. Always harvested birch sap.

Tea

The Old Believers have a rule: first give tea, then only feed. They drank tea from samovars, a lot, 3-4 times a day, before meals and after. Samovars are still preserved in many houses, although not everyone uses them anymore. Water for tea was taken only from spring sources.Wild plants were added to the tea: bergenia, Ivan-tea, lingonberry, currant leaves, raspberry leaves, shultu (birch core), chaga (birch growth), rhubarb.

The family did not take tea for a long time, they considered it a sin, instead of tea they drank boiled water or an infusion of herbs. The "Great Tea Road", laid from China to the West in the 17th century, changed the attitude towards tea and by the end of the 20th century. a new tradition of drinking tea was formed. A number of reasons contributed to this:

family merchants and wealthy peasants involved in carting were attracted to caravans for goods to China, where they got acquainted with the culture of tea consumption.

this was facilitated by a large consumption of pastries and bread.

tea was consumed by local residents - Buryats, using varieties of inexpensive green brick tea, brewing it with full-fat milk. As a result, there appeared new recipe drink - Semey, strong brewed tea with milk.

Dairy

Milk products were consumed only on milk days. Cottage cheese was cooked from cow or goat milk, sour cream and butter were whipped. Cooked porridge with milk, homemade noodles, added milk to pastry. Dishes from dairy products and eggs were constantly on the table. They drank fresh, baked milk.

meat dishes

The meat-eaters' diet consists of lamb, pork, beef, meat of wild goats and red deer. Meat is eaten fried and stewed. Don't eat rabbit. In the food of the family, it was typical to use a large amount of meat in the form of fatty broth, cabbage soup, boiled meat with a minimum amount of adding various seasonings. Often these dishes were both the first and second, which were called: asp, roast, roast.

Traditionally, the most favorite meat product is lard, the family knows how to raise pigs of different quality: lard can be with or without a meat layer. Fresh fat with layers goes for frying, and without a layer for a snack in a salty form. Pork meat goes to minced meat for dumplings. Bones - for stews. Legs on jelly, and ears and tails, fried at the stake, are eaten by children at the slaughterhouse. Shchi from sauerkraut is cooked from the head in winter. The stuffing for pies is made from the insides of the animal. Beef and pig intestines and blood used to be thrown out to dogs until the end of the 20th century.

Beef meat is distributed in the same way, only the ears and tail are not fried on the slaughter. Soup is boiled from the stomach, which is called “trebushina soup”. From it, “brawn” is tormented in a Russian oven, after filling it with meat of different grades. Bouhler (meat in broth) is cooked from beef bones. This recipe cooking beef borrowed from the Buryats

Fresh lamb goes to fry in a brazier. For this, the chest part of the body is selected - a falcon. Meat with bones goes to stews with potatoes and homemade noodles. Legs are added to jelly to pork and beef legs. The head is thrown away. The entrails and washed intestines are fried in a frying pan on coals in the morning when the stove is flooded.

Poultry meat has always been used for food: chickens, ducks, geese. The feather was always used on pillows, and the carcasses were divided and boiled stews. From fatty meat they cooked "chicken soup with mash", flour mashed on eggs, homemade noodles or potatoes. Fat geese and ducks were fried and their fat was rendered. Fat was used for food and stored for medicinal purposes. Baked meat was eaten with cereals or sauerkraut. Poultry eggs were used to prepare scrambled eggs, which were a dish of molos and festive ceremonial cuisine. Eggs were always eaten only boiled. Geese and ducks were raised in the summer, and in the fall they were all slaughtered.

They tried not to leave meat for the summer, as it was poorly preserved in cellars or pits. In such cases, it was salted and kept for mowing. In the summer, sheep and goats were slaughtered for meat.

Fish meals

Fish dishes were available in small quantities, since not all Old Believer settlements are located near the river and long-term transportation did not allow diversifying the table with fish products. Pies were baked in such settlements. Gutted fish was put into the pie whole with bones and head, and seasoned with onions and vegetable oil. Such a pie was served to the family table as a whole. The bread crust was removed from it on top and laid out around the edges, and the fish in the pie was eaten in the same way as from a common cup of stew placed in the middle of the table. Fish - perches, horned omul, crucians were fried in fat or boiled fish soup with potatoes with the addition of rice and onions.

Modern fish cuisine is varied with dishes of fried cutlets, steamed koloboks, meatball soup, poses of fish and belyashi, stuffed fish. Fish dishes were used in family meals on fast days.

Plant food

Semeyskie grew a variety of vegetables: potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, turnips, radishes, radishes, beets, carrots, rutabaga, etc. Vegetables were eaten in a wide variety of forms: raw, in the form of salad, boiled, stewed, fried. They served as a good seasoning for a variety of meat and fish dishes and as a staple food on religious holidays and during fasting. Wild-growing plants were used as salads in the bad season, in haymaking, in the taiga when collecting forest berries, pine nuts, wild garlic. Procurement of plant products was carried out only in warm summer and early autumn.

The Semeyskys were always fed by the forest. These are mushrooms, berries, nuts, field onions, garlic (mangir). Of the mushrooms of the pine forest, mushrooms, butter mushrooms, milk mushrooms, and rows were eaten. Pichuritsu (champignons) were collected in the gardens. On Baikal they took white, boletus. The mushrooms were fried and salted with wild rosemary (rhododendron) in large barrels for the winter. Butter was dried in Russian ovens for mushroom soup. Milk mushrooms and rows were also salted into barrels separately. Ryadovki were salted with wild rosemary, and milk mushrooms with garlic and dill, after soaking in water. Pies were baked with mushrooms at any time of the year, caviar was made with onions and butter.

To the south of the capital of Buryatia, Ulan-Ude, there is a land of rare beauty: high mountains and ridges, centuries-old pine forests, sandy ravines and water meadows in river valleys. Tarbagatai district is located here. The Trans-Siberian Highway Moscow - Vladivostok passes through Tarbagatai, a beautiful Old Believer village. More than 18,000 people live in 22 villages and villages of the district. This is mainly the Russian Old Believer population - "Semei".

Semeyskie - a very bright and ancient branch of the Russian people - a particle of pre-Petrine Moscow Russia. Who are they, why did they end up in Transbaikalia and why are they called that?
In the second half of the 17th century, fundamental changes took place in the history of Russia.
The two largest phenomena in the history of Russia: the split and Peter I. The Russian ruler wanted to win over the peoples professing Orthodoxy (Slavs, Georgians, Armenians, Greeks) to Russia. To this end, the Tsar decides to reform and bring the forms of worship and rituals closer to the modern Greek models that were already adopted in other Orthodox centers (Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia). Books were corrected, salting walking was changed, i.e. walking in the sun around the lectern while performing rituals, the number of bows was reduced, church hymns were also greatly changed, because of which it actually deprived the “polyphony” that reduced the service in the church.

The spelling of the name Jesus with two "and" was introduced; all adjustments were made in accordance with the rites of the Greek church. For many believers, it seemed that in fact a new faith was introduced in Russia. In 1656, all supporters of the two-handedness were equated with heretics, excommunicated and cursed. The reform divided the Russian Church into two camps of Orthodoxy: the dominant and the Old Believers.

The Old Believers are that part of the Russian population that has abandoned innovations, continuing to adhere to the old faith, rituals, and way of life. For this, they were subjected to the most severe repressions, many were forced to flee to free lands on the Terek, Don, beyond the Urals, and many abroad, to Poland.
In the second half of the 18th century, by decree of Catherine II, the schismatics were forcibly driven out of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. An unknown land awaited them, harsh Siberia, untouched lands. The first Old Believers taken out of Vetka in 1766 were settled near Verkhneudinsk in the villages of Tarbagatai, Kuitun, B-Kunaley, Desyatnikovo, Burnashevo.
They settled with whole families, so they were later called "family". They quickly got used to the harsh Siberian nature. Thanks to the exceptional industriousness of the family, good-quality villages soon grew up.
Non-material culture served as a constant support in the difficult fate of the Semey or Old Believers, eternally persecuted by the official church and state.

It's been about 240 years. Semey Transbaikalia firmly rooted in the Siberian land and found a second home here. Family huts are tall wooden buildings, they are painted inside and out and washed twice a year. If you approach from outside, you can barely reach the window with your hand. Frames and cornices in many huts are decorated with carvings and painted. Semeyskie from the 17th-18th centuries to the present day have preserved the old form of clothing unchanged.

The traditional folk culture of the Semesy is a unique, original ethno-cultural phenomenon. The value of Semey, as a historical, cultural phenomenon in Russia, is difficult to overestimate. They managed to preserve the spiritual experience, which was actually lost among other groups of the Russian people. Folk singing traditions have a relic character, which are a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage, originating in ancient Russian musical culture and whose roots go back to the depths of the Middle Ages.

The skill and original technique of polyphonic singing, which has absorbed many special techniques, deserve the highest praise.
Representing exceptional value for the new civilization, the original spiritual culture of the Semey Tarbagatai district of the Republic of Buryatia in May 2001 in Paris was proclaimed by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” and included in the first list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

By visiting the museum, created at the temple in the village of Tarbagatay by father Sergei, you will see antiques, icons, household utensils, touch the distant past of the family.

Ltd. offers tourist routes to the villages where the Old Believers live.

Among the known ways of cooking and eating food, Russian traditions dominated, and the influence of Ukrainian cuisine was strong. In the methods of processing, storing and preserving food products, many borrowings from the culinary arts of the peoples of the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Volga region, Siberia and the Far East are found. The methods of preparing and storing food and dishes in field conditions, known among the Cossacks, are similar to those that existed among the Russian population of different regions and non-Russian peoples of the outskirts of Russia (freezing meat, fish, dumplings, milk, drying cottage cheese, vegetables, fruits and berries and etc.). Everywhere the most common was bread made from sour dough with yeast or sourdough. Bread was baked in a Russian oven (on a hearth or in molds), pies, pies, shangi, rolls, pancakes, pancakes and more were baked from sour dough. The Ural Cossacks baked eggs into bread intended for the journey. Pies are a festive and everyday dish stuffed with fish, meat, vegetables, cereals, fruits, berries, including wild ones.

From unleavened dough they baked flat cakes (freshmen), bursaks, koloboks, knyshes, makantsy, nuts, rozantsy (brushwood). They were cooked in a Russian oven or fried in oil. Flat cakes were often cooked in a frying pan without fat, similar to the baking traditions of the nomadic peoples of Central Asia. From sour choux pastry made buns and pretzels. Dishes from flour brewed in boiling water - zatiruha, djurma, balamyk, salamat formed the basis of the lean diet, they were prepared during fishing, on the road, in haymaking. Dumplings, dumplings, noodles, dumplings were among the dishes of everyday and holiday table. Kulaga was also cooked from flour (flour was brewed with fruit broth), jelly for funeral and Lenten meals. Cereals played an important role in nutrition; cereals on water and milk, vegetables (pumpkin and carrots) were added to them. On the basis of cereals, dishes like pudding were prepared - wheaten (from millet and rice), with the addition of eggs and butter. "Porridge with fish" was known among the Ural, Don, Terek and Astrakhan Cossacks.

Dairy dishes are an important part of the daily diet. The basis for the preparation of many dishes was sour milk. They made aryan (airan) from it - a drink to quench thirst, loose milk, suzbe, like cheese. Dried cheese was common among many troops. The Kuban Cossacks made cheese in a similar way to the traditions of Adyghe cooking. Kaymak (cream melted in a Russian oven) was added to many dishes, giving them a special taste. Remchuk, sarsu - sour milk dishes borrowed from nomadic peoples, existed among the Ural, Astrakhan, Don Cossacks. Varenets, fermented baked milk, sour cream, cottage cheese were also made from milk.

Fish dishes are the basis of the diet of the Don, Ural, Astrakhan, Siberian, Amur, and partly Kuban Cossacks. The fish was boiled (ear, shcherba), fried (zharina), languished in the oven. From fish fillet they prepared cutlets and calf - a dish also known among the Pomors, Russian Ustyans. The festive table was served with pies with fish, aspic and stuffed fish. Cutlets and meatballs were made from caviar of partial fish. The fish was dried, smoked, dried (balyk).

First courses (borscht, cabbage soup, noodles, stew, soup), second courses (roast with vegetables, roasting, pozharok), stuffing for pies were prepared from meat.

Dishes from vegetables and fruits were very diverse. The most popular vegetable dish among the Kuban, Don and Terek Cossacks was borsch with meat, among the Urals - cabbage soup made from meat, cabbage, potatoes and cereals. carrot, pumpkin, braised cabbage, fried potatoes included in the daily diet. Kuban and Terek Cossacks prepared dishes from eggplant, tomato, pepper and other, similar to the traditions of Caucasian cuisine. The Ural Cossacks made melon dumplings in the same way as the Turkmens, only after drying in the sun they were languishing in a Russian oven. vegetable dishes with kvass (okroshka, grated radish) were popular with Siberian, Trans-Baikal, Orenburg, Ural and Don Cossacks. Melon crops - watermelons, melons and pumpkins dominated the food of the Cossacks of many troops in the summer. Salted watermelons and melons. Salted tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage were poured with the pulp of watermelon. A widespread dish of watermelon and this molasses among the Don, Astrakhan, Ural and other Cossacks was bekmes. Terek and Kuban Cossacks added spicy seasonings from local herbs to dishes.

Wild (thorns, cherries, currants, cherry plums, apples, pears, nuts, rose hips) were used everywhere. Hominy (Terek and Kuban Cossacks) was cooked from corn, steamed in a Russian stove, boiled. From beans, peas and beans cooked porridge and liquid dishes. Bird cherry was widely used by the Transbaikal Cossacks, they baked gingerbread (kursuny), made stuffing for pies.

Drinks were varied: kvass, compote (uzvar), sour milk diluted with water, full of honey, buza from licorice and others. Intoxicating drinks were served at the festive table: braga, sour, chikhir - young grape wine, moonshine (vodka). Tea was very popular among the Cossacks. All festive, often daily meals ended with tea drinking. The Cossacks of the Trans-Baikal army drank tea with “zabela” made from milk, butter and eggs, adding wheat flour and hemp seed to it. Old Believers in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. observed the ban on the use of tea, brewed wild herbs and roots.

Until the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. the existence of a large undivided family is characteristic of the Cossacks. The special social position of the Cossacks and the specific way of life contributed to its long-term preservation: the need to cultivate large land plots, the impossibility of separating a young family during service or before it began, and the isolation of family life. The Cossacks of the Don, Ural, Terek, Kuban troops had 3-4 generation families, the number of which reached 25-30 people. Along with large families, small families were known, consisting of parents and unmarried children. The class isolation of the Cossacks in the 19th century significantly limited the range of marriage ties. Marriages with non-residents and representatives of local peoples were extremely rare even at the beginning of the 20th century. However, traces of marriage unions of the Cossacks with non-Russian peoples in the early period of the existence of the Cossack communities can be traced in the anthropological type of the Don, Terek, Ural and Astrakhan Cossacks.

The head of the family (grandfather, father or elder brother) was the sovereign leader of the entire family: he distributed and controlled the work of its members, all income flowed to him, he had sole power. A similar position in the family was occupied by the mother in the absence of the owner. The peculiarity of the family structure of the Cossacks was the relative freedom of a Cossack woman in comparison, for example, with a peasant woman. The youth in the family also enjoyed greater rights than the peasants.

The long coexistence of the Cossack agricultural, fishing and military community determined many aspects of social life and spiritual life. The customs of collective labor and mutual assistance were manifested in the association of working livestock and equipment for the period of urgent agricultural work, fishing gear and vehicles during fishing, joint grazing, voluntary assistance during the construction of a house, etc. The Cossacks are characterized by traditions of joint leisure activities: public meals after the end of agricultural or fishing work, seeing off and meeting the Cossacks from the service. Almost all holidays were accompanied by competitions in felling, shooting, horse riding. A characteristic feature of many of them were "death" games that staged military battles or Cossack "freemen". Games and competitions were often held at the initiative of the military administration, especially equestrian sports. Among the Don Cossacks, there was a custom to “walk with a banner” at Shrovetide, when the chosen “cottage ataman” walked around the houses of the villagers with the banner, accepting treats from them. At the christening, the boy was “consecrated to the Cossacks”: they put a saber on him and put him on a horse. Guests brought arrows, cartridges, a gun as a gift to a newborn (by the teeth) and hung them on the wall.

The most significant religious holidays were Christmas and Easter. Patronal feasts were widely celebrated. A combined-arms holiday was considered the day of the saint - the patron saint of the army.

Agrarian-calendar holidays (Christmas, Maslenitsa and others) were an important part of the entire festive ritual, they reflected traces of pre-Christian beliefs. In festive ritual games, the influence of contacts with the Turkic peoples is traced. Among the Ural Cossacks in the 19th century, among the festive amusements was entertainment known among the Turkic peoples: without the help of hands from the bottom of the boiler with flour stew (balamyk) it was supposed to get a coin.

The peculiarity of the everyday way of life of the Cossacks determined the nature of oral and poetic creativity. Songs were the most widespread folklore genre among the Cossacks. The traditions of choral singing had deep roots. The common life on campaigns and training camps, the performance of agricultural work by the whole “world” contributed to the widespread existence of the song.

The military authorities encouraged the Cossacks' passion for choral singing, creating choirs, organizing the collection of old songs and publishing collections of texts with notes. Musical literacy was taught to schoolchildren in village schools, the basis of the song repertoire was old historical and heroic songs associated with specific historical events, as well as those that reflected military life. Ritual songs accompanied the holidays of the calendar and family cycle, love and comic songs were popular. Under the influence of the city, "cruel" romances and literary alterations spread in the early 19th century. Of the other genres of folklore, historical legends, epics, and toponymic stories are widely spread.

Shanezhki-I got shanzhishshchi out-typically Siberian yeast pastries. And our filling is Transbaikal-ground bird cherry. Fragrant, lush, light - a real delicacy for tea. I don’t agree with what they sometimes write - take sour dough - no, not sour, but from the highest grit, rich and sweet, then there will be shaneshki! A sponge method, a long proofing, a rather large amount of baking, knocking out the dough - all this gives the shaneshki tenderness and sourness, does not allow them to become stale for several days. In the absence of bird cherry, you can grease the top with sour cream, a little mixed with flour and sugar - also a local shaving brush. And now I would like to introduce you to the concept of "family" .... In poetic form, the history of the resettlement of the Old Believers and their consolidation in new lands beyond Baikal is described by N.A. Nekrasov in the poem "Grandfather": A handful of Russians were exiled To a terrible wilderness for a split, They were given land and freedom; A year has passed imperceptibly - The commissars are going there, Look - the village is already standing, Rigi, sheds, barns! The hammer knocks in the smithy ... Again a year later they visited, A new miracle was found: The inhabitants gathered bread From the previously barren land ... So gradually in half a century A huge settlement grew - The will and labor of man Wonderful divas create! Semeyskie - a very bright and ancient branch of the Russian people - a particle of pre-Petrine Moscow Russia. Who are they, why did they end up in Transbaikalia and why are they called that? In the second half of the 17th century, fundamental changes took place in the history of Russia. The two biggest events in the history of Russia: the split and Peter I. The Russian ruler wanted to win over the peoples who professed Orthodoxy (Slavs, Georgians, Armenians, Greeks) to Russia. To this end, the Tsar decides to reform and bring the forms of worship and rituals closer to the modern Greek models that have already been adopted in other Orthodox centers (Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia). Books were corrected, salting walking was changed, i.e. walking in the sun around the lectern while performing rituals, the number of bows was reduced, church hymns were also greatly changed, because of which it actually deprived the “polyphony” that reduced the service in the church. The spelling of the name Jesus with two "and" was introduced; all adjustments were made in accordance with the rites of the Greek church. For many believers, it seemed that in fact a new faith was introduced in Russia. In 1656, all supporters of the two-handedness were equated with heretics, excommunicated and cursed. The reform divided the Russian Church into two camps of Orthodoxy: the dominant and the Old Believers. The Old Believers are that part of the Russian population that has abandoned innovations, continuing to adhere to the old faith, rituals, and way of life. For this, they were subjected to the most severe repressions, many were forced to flee to free lands on the Terek, Don, beyond the Urals, and many abroad, to Poland. In the second half of the 18th century, by decree of Catherine II, the schismatics were forcibly driven out of Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. An unknown land awaited them, harsh Siberia, untouched lands. They settled with whole families, so they were later called "family". They quickly got used to the harsh Siberian nature. Thanks to the exceptional industriousness of the family, good-quality villages soon grew up. Non-material culture served as a constant support in the difficult fate of the Semey or Old Believers, eternally persecuted by the official church and state. It's been about 240 years. Semey Transbaikalia firmly rooted in the Siberian land and found a second home here. Family huts are tall wooden buildings, they are painted inside and out and washed twice a year. If you approach from outside, you can barely reach the window with your hand. Frames and cornices in many huts are decorated with carvings and painted. Semeyskie from the 17th-18th centuries to the present day have preserved the old form of clothing unchanged. The ethnography of the Semey people gives an indelible idea of ​​the originality and originality of their culture. We find this in their way of life, in everyday life, in the culture of the family, the strength of moral principles, in the majesty of their clothes, in the design of their dwellings, in the painting of their utensils, living quarters. Until now, they have preserved the golden fund of Russian folk culture. The traditional folk culture of the Semesy is a unique, original ethno-cultural phenomenon. The value of Semey, as a historical, cultural phenomenon in Russia, is difficult to overestimate. They managed to preserve the spiritual experience, which was actually lost among other groups of the Russian people. Folk singing traditions have a relic character, which are a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage, originating in ancient Russian musical culture and whose roots go back to the depths of the Middle Ages. The skill and original technique of polyphonic singing, which has absorbed many special techniques, deserve the highest praise. Representing exceptional value for the new civilization, the original spiritual culture of the Semey Tarbagatai district of the Republic of Buryatia in May 2001 in Paris was proclaimed by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” and included in the first list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Family hospitable, hospitable people love bright cheerful colors. The coloring of the cornice, shutters, platbands pleases the eye with cheerful colors. This speaks of the vitality of the people, their cheerful disposition and prosperity. Family cuisine, presents a large selection of meat, dairy dishes, pastries. Having visited the family farmstead, having tasted pies, shanegs, pancakes, cabbage soup, porridges, everyone wants to come back again. In order to get reliable information about the life of the people living on the territory of the Tarbagatai region, you need to drive through the villages: Tarbagatai, Kunaley, Desyatnikovo, Kuytun, you will find yourself at the end of the 19th century on a typical Old Believer street. By visiting the museum, created at the temple in the village of Tarbagatai by father Sergei, you can see old things, icons, household utensils, touch the distant past of the family. I was there, I saw the museum created by the father on my own, I talked with Father Sergius - an amazing person - there are few such unmercenaries now ... Of course, they were visiting the family themselves - many now work for the tourism business. They treated us with pickles - very tasty, plentiful, patriarchal! They sang and danced for us, played games - an amazing and unforgettable journey ... The echo of which - my shanezhki - according to old recipes ... Help yourself - and come to us, huh ?!

The proposed article and video material, without any doubt, will be received with interest by our associates. Extremely curious facts are revealed to us in the process of getting to know the nutritional habits of the ancient Slavs. By no means denying the usefulness of vegetarianism and Ayurvedic cuisine, however, we are forced to admit that the food of our ancestors was much more diverse. In places where, due to natural conditions, it was difficult to grow grain or keep pets, the Slavs were forced to eat what a successful hunt or fishing would send them. And yet bread, milk, kvass and porridge are our strength. It's hard not to agree.

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FOOD OF THE EASTERN SLAVES

The traditional food of the East Slavic peoples has not been studied enough. The economic activity of the population was studied much more intensively. Methods of processing products and preparing them various dishes, that is, the methods of folk cooking, attracted attention to an incomparably lesser extent. Meanwhile, it is in the various details of the folk cuisine, in the daily diet and nutrition, in the festive and ritual food, that the characteristic features of the traditional everyday way of life of the ethnic group are manifested with particular brightness.

In the 19th - early 20th centuries, information about the food of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians was published mainly in local publications. They characterized the nutrition of the population in one county, province or in separate settlements and were written by doctors, statisticians, military personnel, etc. This determined a different approach to the phenomena under consideration. Thus, in medical articles, the goal was to find out the causes of common diseases and, in this regard, attention was paid mainly to nutritional deficiencies. The composition and quality of products were taken into account in statistical and topographical descriptions. Finally, some works vividly depicted the richness and diversity of the population's culinary skills.

In general, we can say that in those days there was a collection work, and there was no unity in understanding the subject of research and methodology. Therefore, such publications are fragmentary. Researchers usually stated the predominance of plant products, largely attributing it to the restrictions imposed by the Christian religion, which established fast days when it was forbidden to eat meat and drink milk. There were more than two hundred such days in a year, which in itself established certain proportions in the diet. Reporting the approximate menu of the inhabitants of a particular area, many authors listed the most popular dishes that are eaten in fasting and in the meat-eater. Basically, the nutritional conditions of the peasantry were displayed, which in most works was considered as a whole, without taking into account its social stratification.

Bread, dough products, cereals, stews

The leading branch of the economy of the Eastern Slavs was grain farming, so flour and cereal products formed the basis of nutrition. Bread was especially important. Due to its high calorie content, good taste, it has been and is an invariable component of the diet of all segments of the population. The expression: "Bread and salt" - served as one of the forms of greeting, meaning the wish for well-being. Especially honored guests and young spouses were greeted with bread and salt on the wedding day, they went to visit the woman in labor with bread. Guests were treated to bread products and brought as a gift to the owners when they went to visit. Going on a long journey, first of all, they stocked up on bread. None of the other types of food can be compared with it for the variety of both methods of preparation and finished products.

Bread differs in the types of flour, its quality, the methods of setting the dough and its recipe, the nature of baking, and the shape. Rye bread "black" - has played a major role in Russia since ancient times. Its predominant consumption in the northern and middle zone of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs (non-chernozem lands) was explained by the zonal features of agriculture: the predominance of rye crops over wheat crops. The expansion of wheat crops observed during the 19th century in the southern part of the chernozem steppes contributed to the fact that by the beginning of the 20th century, wheat - "white" - bread became the main one in the south and southeast. In some places (Altai, Minusinsk Territories), rye bread was no longer consumed at all, and in some areas rye-wheat - "gray" - bread was baked.

However, the rural population did not have enough of their own reserves of rye and wheat, so flour of other grain crops was also used. They baked the so-called chaff (in Belarus) - bread from wholemeal rye flour, to which barley, buckwheat or oatmeal flour was added to half. Depending on the type of flour used, bread was called grechanik (with buckwheat flour), yachnik (with barley flour), millet (with millet). In the Carpathians and in the Urals, where there were poor grain harvests, oatmeal was also used.

In lean years or in the spring, when stocks were running out, various impurities from dried and crushed plants were added to the flour. So, in Belarus and in the Carpathians, in case of crop shortages, bread with the addition of grated potatoes was very common (Belarusians call it bulby bread, Hutsuls - riplyanik, Lemkos - banduryannik). In general, a lot of such impurities were then known: among cultivated plants, it is most often potatoes, then carrots, beets, bran; from wild - crushed bark of pine and oak, acorns, wild buckwheat, quinoa, ferns, etc.

Depending on the quality of the flour, sieve breads were distinguished - from flour sifted through a sieve (with a frequent mesh), sieve breads - from flour sifted through a sieve (with a rare mesh), and fur (or chaff) - from wholemeal flour.

The Eastern Slavs, like other Slavic peoples, baked bread from "sour" dough. The oldest methods of baking bread from unleavened dough in the form of cakes were preserved in the people's memory, but were usually used on a case-by-case basis. As the main and everyday unleavened bread, it was distributed only in the Carpathians: the Boyks baked it from oatmeal (oshchipok), the Lemkos and Hutsuls baked it from corn flour (among the Lemkos it was called adzimok, oshchinok, among the Hutsuls - small, shortbread). They baked it just before eating, kneading the dough in a wooden trough, often without salt.

The preparation of sour bread required a longer processing of products. The flour taken for baking was carefully sifted into a special wooden trough (selnitsa, nochva, nochva, netska). Then the dough was kneaded in wooden (hollowed out or cooperage), and in Ukraine in some places also in clay kneaders (northern Russian kvashnya, southern Russian dezha, Ukrainian dizha, white dzyazha) and at the same time fermented. Yeast, special mixtures with hops, kvass or beer grounds, and most often leftover dough from previous baking were used as a starter. In the southern Russian villages, scalded bread was also prepared, for which the flour was brewed with boiling water before fermentation. The well-kneaded dough was placed in a warm place where it suited. In order for the bread to be lush, zealous housewives "tamped" them and let them come up a second time.

The finished dough was cut into rounded loaves (in the form of tall thick cakes) and baked in a hut oven on a cleanly swept hearth (hearth bread). Bread was sometimes placed on cabbage leaves, and in some areas in the 20th century tin rounded cylindrical or oblong rectangular shapes (tinned bread) were used.

Usually bread was baked once a week, but in areas with stable high yields (south of Western Siberia), daily baking became customary.

In cities at the end of the 19th century, bread was usually bought ready-made. It was baked in bakeries and sold in bakeries. In bakeries, they made a wide variety of products from rich (with the addition of butter and eggs) wheat dough, which differed both in the recipe of the dough and in shape. These were various rounded and oblong rolls and buns, pretzels (in the shape of a figure eight), kalachi (round or curly), etc. From wheat dough, rolled into a ring, boiled in water and then baked, bagels, bagels and dryers (dried and small in size) were made. All these products were very popular. They were sold in bakeries and shops, sold at bazaars and fairs, in taverns and tea houses. They are widely included in the life of the urban commoner and, together with tea for many, were a daily breakfast. These products were brought to the village as gifts.

In rural areas, small biscuits were baked in a frying pan from sour dough left when cutting bread (they were called skavarodniki among Belarusians, pampushki among Ukrainians) in the form of flat cakes or rings, which were usually served for breakfast (in the north and in Siberia they were called soft, soft breakfast).

From pieces of bread, various bread leftovers, crusts and crackers, they prepared tyurya, or murtsovka, which on fast days was the main food of the poorest sections of the population of the city and village (with the exception of Transcarpathia, where it was almost unknown). Tyurya was pieces of bread crumbled into salted water, kvass, spring birch sap, whey, milk, and in Belarus they used a decoction of potatoes for this (the dish was called kapluk). As food for children, prison also entered the life of the wealthy segments of the population: pieces of white bread or buns were soaked in milk or cream with sugar and served as a sweet.

On holidays, pies (pie) were baked from sour wheat or rye dough. In areas with unstable grain harvests (Belarus, the Carpathians, Russian non-chernozem provinces), bread baked from flour of a higher quality was also considered pies, for northern Russians and Belarusians - wheat, for southern Russians and in the Carpathians - even rye, but from sifted flour . For Russians in other areas and Ukrainians, pies with fillings are more typical, which were widely used vegetables, berries, mushrooms, fish, eggs, meat, cottage cheese, cereals, and so on. It is interesting to note that the areas of the most common types of fillings for pies have developed. So, the Russians of the northern provinces and Siberia loved pies with wild berries (blueberries, cloudberries, bird cherry) and especially with fish; in the southern strip of Russia and Ukraine - with garden berries. Small cakes were very popular, on which they put a filling of cottage cheese (cheesecakes) or another kind of dough (shanegi, common in the European North, in the Urals and Siberia), as well as without filling at all, smeared with sour cream on top (pampushkas of Ukrainians and Belarusians ), sprinkled with salt, cumin, poppy seeds, crushed hemp seeds (lacunas, juices of Belarusians), with mushrooms, with porridge. Pies baked from sour dough in the Carpathians were called baked pies and were rarely cooked. More common there were pies made from unleavened dough - knishi stuffed with boiled potatoes, sauerkraut, sometimes cottage cheese and usually had a triangular shape.

Ritual cookies were baked from sour dough, specially designed for annual and family holidays. Each of them was designed in a certain way. So, on Holy Week, for Maundy Thursday, they prepared cookies in the form of animal figures (Russian roes, cows), which were given to livestock, by March 9 ("forty martyrs"), in commemoration of the arrival of birds, larks were baked from dough, on Ascension - ladders (oblong a pie with transverse crossbars), for Epiphany - crosses, for Easter Easter cakes (high lush rich bread in cylindrical shapes). In these cookies, ancient religious and magical ideas were reflected in a materialized form, for example: a ladder symbolized the ascension and was baked both on the corresponding holiday and on the days of commemoration of the dead.

Large ritual cakes for the wedding were baked from the best varieties of flour. In the Russian North, in the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia, such pies were called kurniks, they were stuffed with chicken, lamb, and beef. In the southern Russian provinces (on the Don, Kuban), as well as in Ukraine and Belarus, high lush bread was baked for a wedding - a loaf. It was decorated with cones baked from dough, animal figurines, as well as flowers or tree branches.

Pancakes (Russian pancake, white pancake, Ukrainian pancake) were an ancient ritual dish. They were baked from sour dough of any kind of flour (buckwheat, millet, oatmeal, barley, sometimes pea), and in the 20th century mainly from wheat; they ate with butter and lard, with sour cream and liquid cottage cheese, sometimes with honey, with salted fish and sturgeon caviar. For Russians and Belarusians, pancakes have long been an obligatory dish during funeral rites. Until now, Russians eat them in large quantities and with a variety of seasonings in the spring, on the holidays of seeing off winter. Significantly less used pancakes from sour dough among Ukrainians (mlintsi). They were baked in the central Ukrainian provinces, usually from buckwheat flour (Grechaniki). More often, pancakes were prepared from unleavened dough, known to all East Slavic peoples (Russian blintsy, Ukrainian and Bel. nalisniki).

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, in the cities of central Russia, gingerbread, known since the 17th century, which were distributed throughout Russia as a festive treat, sometimes served as ritual cookies. They were baked from round dough with abundant spices, on molasses with honey or on pure honey, sprinkled with raisins on top, decorated with embossed patterns (gingerbread patterns were cut out on pear or linden boards). Gingerbread was brought as a gift to relatives and distributed to the poor on the day of commemoration of the dead. They have long been a favorite hotel at all wedding and pre-wedding parties, and in the cities they replaced a kurnik and a loaf.

A lot of variety of dishes made from unleavened dough. Cakes are known to all agricultural peoples. Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians baked them from flour of any kind, usually as a substitute for bread when there was a lack of it. In some areas of Belarus, flat cakes (lapuny), smeared with cottage cheese, crushed poppy seeds or hemp, were sent to relatives during family holidays.

Dishes made from dough cooked in boiling water, milk, broth are very common not only among the Eastern Slavs, but also among many peoples of Western Europe, as well as the peoples of the East. Of these, the most famous is noodle soup (Russian noodles, Ukrainian lokshina, white noodles). A tough dough for noodles was kneaded on eggs, thinly rolled out, cut into small narrow strips, dried and then boiled in broth or milk. Less complicated cooking had other soups, prepared with boiled dough, selected with a spoon (Ukrainian dumplings, Russian dumplings) or torn off (torn). They ate boiled pieces of dough without broth, pouring them with sour cream (Ukrainian dumplings) or "milk" from poppy and hemp (white kama).

Dishes made from unleavened dough in the form of small pies with filling boiled in water were very popular: dumplings and dumplings.

Dumplings were a favorite national food of Ukrainians, they were also prepared by Belarusians and Russians in the southern provinces. The dough for dumplings was thinly rolled out, cut into circles and stuffed with cottage cheese, shredded cabbage, and in the summer with berries, primarily cherries. After boiling, dumplings were taken out and eaten with sour cream or butter. Ukrainians also made dumplings from yeast dough, stuffing with plums or cheese (cottage cheese).

Dumplings were a favorite dish among the Russians of the Urals and Siberia. The dough for them was rolled out not with a sheet, but with a thin sausage; they cut it, kneaded each small piece into a cake; stuffed with minced meat and folded into a half ring. Boiled dumplings were taken out of the broth, if with spicy seasoning: vinegar, pepper, mustard. There is an opinion that dumplings were adopted by Russians from the peoples of the Urals (the Komi-Permyak word "pelnyan" means "bread ear"). In Siberia, in winter, dumplings were prepared in large quantities, frozen, put in bags and used as needed.

Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians who lived in Central Asia adopted from the local peoples a dish similar to dumplings - manti. They were made larger, stuffed with minced meat with lots of onions and steamed on special grills.

Dough products boiled in boiling fat, among the Eastern Slavs, as well as among many other peoples of Eurasia, were dishes of the festive table. Their forms were very varied. Most often, the dough was cut into narrow strips (Russian brushwood, shavings), in Ukraine they rolled round nuts (peas), they were served at a wedding, in Siberia they used various tin forms (they were dipped in dough, and then in boiling fat). In cast-iron molds with drawings, the dough was dried and waffles were made, which were considered a delicacy.

In Ukraine, dough in the form of balls was boiled in boiling honey (cones). Brewing in honey, as you know, is very common among the Caucasian peoples.

Among the everyday dishes were easy to prepare, but extremely high-calorie dishes from custard or steamed flour. Russians and Ukrainians everywhere used salamata (Ukrainian salamakha), which was made from fried flour, brewed with boiling water and steamed in an oven. The finished salamata was poured over with fat (animal or vegetable). Kulaga (kvasha) was prepared from sweetish malt flour with the addition of viburnum berries in the north and Siberia, and fruits in the south. This sweet dish was served as a treat, usually during Lent. The Ukrainians prepared kash from a mixture of millet, buckwheat and rye flour; from buckwheat, strongly boiled flour, they made cakes that were eaten with fresh milk. Ukrainians and Belarusians prepared grout in the form of flour crumbs brewed with boiling water (Russian grout, Ukrainian grout, white zatsirka). Liquid dishes made from boiled flour (bautukha, kalatukha, zatsirka) were especially common among Belarusians. They are still boiled now, but already in milk. Similar dishes are known in Poland (zacirca).

Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians used oatmeal to make oatmeal (also called milta by Belarusians), which some researchers consider an ancient Slavic dish. For this, oats were steamed, then dried and crushed into flour. When eating, it was diluted with salted or sweetened water, kvass, milk, or added to liquid dishes. In the North and in the Urals, oatmeal was one of the ubiquitous dishes; Ukrainians prepared it less often than others. Oatmeal was very common in central Europe and in Asia, but it is almost unknown to the southern Slavs.

Kissels were cooked from fermented flour (most often oatmeal, as well as rye and pea flour) (white zhur, Ukrainian kisil). Flour for this was poured with boiling water, defended for several days, changing the water ("fermented"), and then filtered and boiled. Russians and Belarusians ate these thick jelly with the addition of cow or vegetable oil, and Ukrainians also with full honey and milk. Kissels were an ancient ritual dish, they were served at all family holidays (homelands, weddings), as well as at commemorations.

No less than flour, cereal dishes were also common, and especially cereals. In the Russian North, in the Urals, in Siberia and in the Ukrainian Carpathians, oatmeal and barley groats were mainly used, in the south - millet, on the border with Moldova - corn. Greek was very much loved by the East Slavic peoples, which is not very common in other countries. Rice cereal was available to the rural population of the southern strip of Siberia and Central Asia, where it was purchased from the local indigenous population. In the European part of the country, only the privileged strata of the urban population had the opportunity to buy rice. In the Amur region, they used budu - Manchurian millet.

Kashi was boiled in water and milk, steamed in the oven. From time immemorial, they have been ritual food, they were fed to the young at the wedding, they were served at christenings, cooked boiled kutya (sometimes with honey or raisins).

From ancient times, porridges were eaten with liquid hot dishes (shchi, borscht), in the south-west of Ukraine, kulesha was served with liquid dishes - corn porridge, which replaced bread. Widespread among Ukrainians and Russians in the southern regions, kulesh (Ukrainian kulish) was a liquid millet porridge boiled with lard (in the 20th century also with potatoes and onions). Russians in the northern provinces of Siberia and the Urals prepared thick, so-called "thick" cabbage soup, boiling barley groats with flour dressing. In the 20th century, potatoes began to be added. Ukrainian groups in the Carpathians made "rye borscht". To do this, the flour was poured with water and fermented, and then boiled. Since that time, this borscht has been eaten with separately boiled potatoes. Belarusians also prepared a hot dish of cereals (krupnik).

Liquid hot dishes (Russian stews, Ukrainian yushki) were also cooked from vegetables. However, cereals or a dressing made from flour loosened in water were often added to them. Gradually, these dishes became predominant. From legumes, peas were used for stew, and in the south, beans and lentils.

Shchi (“Schi and porridge is our food”) was the most popular dish among Russians in the middle and southern strip of the country. For their preparation, sour or fresh cabbage was used, root vegetables were added to it and seasoned with flour dressing. A similar dish among Belarusians was called cabbage.

In Ukraine and in the southern Russian and Belarusian provinces, a favorite hot dish was borsch, which was made from beets, sometimes with the addition of other vegetables. It was boiled on beet kvass (the beets were poured with water and kept for a day - kvass) or on bread kvass (syrovets). Ukrainians put many different vegetables in borsch besides beets: cabbage, potatoes, onions, dill, parsley, beans, seasoned with flour or cereal grout, lard or vegetable oil. In the Kuban, plums were also added to borscht.

In the spring, from young beets and their tops, in many places they prepared botvinya (white. batsvinne) - a stew, to which they added various greens that had grown by this time.

In fast days, hot dishes were cooked in meat broth or seasoned with sour cream, whitened with milk. On Lent 6, they cooked them with mushrooms, fish (in summer - fish soup from fresh fish, in winter - stew with smelt - small dried fish, Ukrainians - with ram - dried fish). Lenten hot dishes were seasoned with vegetable oil.

Vegetables

The use of vegetables differed depending on the possibilities of their cultivation: the food of the inhabitants of the northern provinces was poor in them; the further south, the more various vegetables were used. In the northernmost zone of vegetable growing, only onions, garlic and horseradish were grown. Simple dishes were prepared from onions: they ate it green and onion, cut it, crushed it with salt and ate it with bread, sometimes washing it down with kvass. In poor families, this was a common breakfast. Onions and garlic were added in abundance when boiling and stewing vegetables and meat dishes as a condiment. The East Slavic peoples generally valued hot and spicy seasonings very much, but they used them in relatively small quantities, while more in the southern provinces. Horseradish, vinegar (in the north), mustard (in the south), and in some places also pepper were served at the table in wealthy houses. Imported spices (saffron, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg) and almonds were more familiar to the townspeople, and the wealthy added them to the festive table, and the rest - on special days, such as Easter.

Radishes, swedes, turnips, cabbages, potatoes, carrots, and cucumbers grew in the non-chernozem zone.

For a long time, vegetables (except potatoes, which spread late) were cooked from vegetables: vegetables were heated in an oven in a sealed container until soft.

The radish kept well throughout the winter. It was finely cut (sliced) or grated (trikha) and eaten with vegetable oil, sour cream, kvass.

Rutabaga was eaten boiled, finely chopped and seasoned with milk. Belarusians cooked stew from rutabagas and carrots.

Turnip until the 19th century occupied a leading place in a number of vegetable crops. It was eaten raw, steamed in the oven, dried for future use. In the northern provinces, turnips sometimes acted as a substitute for bread. Its value has fallen due to the spread of potatoes. In the second half of the 19th century, it was already known everywhere and won general recognition.

Potatoes were boiled, fried, baked, eaten whole, chopped, mashed, with the addition of meat, butter, dairy products, seasoned with sour and salty vegetables. However, eating it was not the same everywhere: the Old Believers treated it with prejudice as an innovation, called it a "devil's apple"; the Russian old-timers of Siberia also ate little of it. But among the Belarusians, it acquired the greatest importance, they prepared a large number of dishes from it, baked cakes, pancakes (dzeruny), added it to bread, cooked soup, made potato porridge (kamy, potato porridge). This brings Belarusians closer to their western neighbors: Poles, Germans, Czechs, Slovaks.

For all sectors of society, the potato became a necessary product, but its importance was especially great among low-income workers and peasants, where during the years of grain shortages it became almost the only food. The resulting monotony in nutrition adversely affected the health of poor families, and especially children.

Cabbage was no less important in nutrition. In autumn and early winter, it was consumed fresh, the rest of the time - pickled (sour, salty). For sauerkraut, cabbage was chopped in wooden troughs with special cuts. Women from several families usually united for this work (gathered for a kakustka) and prepared several barrels for each household. Sometimes small whole heads of cabbage were laid among the chopped cabbage (they were considered a delicacy), apples, carrots were added, which improved the taste. Sauerkraut, chopped or shredded (very finely chopped), in the winter it was daily on the table. It was seasoned with vegetable oil or kvass and eaten with bread. Also, cucumbers were eaten fresh in summer and autumn, and salted in barrels for the winter. In autumn, as a delicacy, slightly salted, delicate in taste lightly salted cucumbers were served to the table.

Everywhere in Russia, red or table beet was grown, and in the black earth zone of the European part, white sugar beet was also grown. Boiled red beets were eaten (especially in the south), borscht and botvinia were prepared with it. Both types were used to make kvass: they were fermented, and sugar was also simmered in an oven.

Of great importance in nutrition, especially in the black earth belt, was pumpkin (Ukrainian, Bel. Garbuz). The pumpkin was fried, baked, porridge was cooked with it. The seeds were dried and "husked" in their free time, they were used to obtain edible oil or crushed and eaten with bread, pancakes, and cakes. In the southern part of this zone, tomatoes (tomatoes), marrows, eggplants, parsnips, and peppers are widespread.

Vegetables were used as a side dish for other dishes and as an independent dish. They were stewed by cutting, each type separately or in a mixture. In the summer, okroshka (mainly from potatoes, onions, cucumbers) was prepared with vegetables on kvass, with the addition of eggs, fish, and meat. Soups made from vegetables were common among Belarusians (rutabaga hernia, pumpkin garbuzyanka, carrots from carrots, etc.).

Fruits, wild fruits and plants

In Ukraine, in the Volga region, Central Asia, and the Amur region, gourds grew - melons and watermelons. They were eaten fresh, watermelons, in addition, salted, melons dried.

In the European part of the country, almost everywhere, with the exception of the cold regions of the North, gardens were planted and apple trees, pears, cherries, plums, cherries and various berry bushes were grown. Rowan and bird cherry trees were also planted in some places. The most common were apple and cherry trees. Some ancient folk varieties ("Vladimirskaya cherry", "Nezhinskaya mountain ash"), as well as those bred by Tambov breeders in the 19th century (apple trees "Antonovskaya", "Semirenko", etc.) were especially popular.

The fruits were eaten fresh, they were used to make jam, jelly, compotes were prepared from various fresh and dry fruits. Marshmallow was prepared for future use from dried fruit and berry puree and candied fruit from fruits boiled in sugar syrup. Pears were fermented in barrels for the winter, apples were soaked, pouring sweet must.

Everywhere they collected wild fruits (apples and pears for drying and pickling) and berries: currants, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, lingonberries, in the North - cloudberries (they ate fresh and harvested for the winter), in Siberia - bird cherry (dried and ground into flour, which was baked into pies or, boiled with boiling water, eaten with pancakes, pancakes).

Wild plants have been known to people since ancient times, and among many peoples they are still held in high esteem. In Russian national cuisine, wild green products also occupied a worthy place. The folk calendar even set aside a special day "Moor's green cabbage soup" - May 16, when cabbage soup, borscht, botvini, balands made from the leaves of young nettles, lungwort, and quinoa appeared on the table in abundance. The collected leaves were boiled in water, rubbed through a sieve and poured with kvass.

In lean years, the quinoa was threshed, ground and, mixed with rye flour, baked bread. They also collected the brood buds of the spring chistyak, which the wind and rain sometimes demolished and accumulated in large numbers on bends in the lowlands. The peasants called these kidneys "heavenly wheat", "millet" and used them for food. The tubers of the chistyak, washed by rain from the ground, were also eaten; they taste a bit like potatoes.

Fragrant cumin stalks were also eaten in spring, which were called "meadow apples" in peasant everyday life.

In case of crop shortages in the past, they ate grass-giant angelica, and in the North, angelica replaced vegetables for a whole summer.

Horsetail has long been held in high esteem on the peasant spring table, in the Smolensk and Kaluga provinces it was called motley. In early spring, it was a delicacy of village children, and then no less a delicacy were young strong green willow fruits, called "bumps" by the peasants; after that, sorrel and oxalis (“hare cabbage”), wild strawberries, raspberries, wild currants and other gifts of wild nature, still used by the people, ripened. Once upon a time, pies with nightshade ("late") were a considerable delicacy for peasant children. Ripe late fruit was even traded on market days, although it could not compete with raspberries, blackcurrants, and blackberries.

In Siberia and the European North, wild berries - blueberries, strawberries ("depth" - in Altai), raspberries, black and red currants, and bayarka were a great help in food and delicacy. viburnum, bird cherry, blueberry ("shiksha") - gonobobel and marsh - cloudberries, cranberries, lingonberries. In Altai, berries were boiled with honey and eaten on fast days as a special dish, and also used as a filling in pies, shangi. Kissel was prepared from viburnum. Boyarka, raspberries, bird cherry and viburnum were dried, scattering on ovens or in ovens on baking sheets, on cabbage leaves, and often on dryers in the yard, on which grain is dried in summer. In winter, dried raspberries were used for colds, and viburnum and boyarka were steamed in pots in the oven and eaten with bread. Dry bird cherry berries were ground into flour, diluted with water, put in the oven overnight so that it would “pick up”, and eaten with bread.

In Siberia, in the zone of forests, the collected berries of lingonberries and cranberries were often stored in the forest (fresh) in large birch bark chumans lowered into dug closed pits. Some peasants had up to 80 such pits, and berries were taken from them in winter as needed.

In many places, nuts were collected and stored for the winter (hazel in the forest belt, pine nuts in the Siberian taiga), which were a favorite treat at all evenings and gatherings. Pine nuts began to be harvested from the end of August and they often went skiing for them in winter. They were not only a delicacy ("Siberian conversation"); oil was squeezed out of peeled nuts, and the cake was used to whiten tea and, as butter, it was eaten with bread.

Chewing of larch resin (serki) was widespread in Siberia. It was usually prepared by old people who knew how to find suitable trees for this.

Fireweed (popular name Ivan-tea) has long been known as "Koporsky tea" - from the village of Koporye, from where for many years hundreds of pounds of tea were exported, made from young fireweed leaves steamed and dried in the free spirit of the Russian oven. When brewed, fireweed tea is indistinguishable in color from natural teas. The rhizomes of fireweed were dried and ground in case of crop failure. Cakes were baked from the resulting flour or added to bread, which made it sweetish. Hence the folk nicknames of this plant - "bread box" and "miller". Young May leaves of fireweed ("cockerel apples") were used for salad, and fireweed honey. as experts say, the sweetest.

Everywhere they drank an infusion of St. John's wort, and in the European North. Altai and Transbaikalia - oregano herbs, or "white scrolls", "shulpy" (rotted birch wood) and bergenia leaves. For tea, they used brown leathery last year's leaves of bergenia, which had already lost their bitterness. In addition, in Transbaikalia they drank brewed chaga as tea. In Altai, the population ate wild-growing slizun onions and garnetted sweet onions, as well as mountain garlic.

Widely used wild-growing garlic - wild garlic ("flask") in fresh and salty form. Ramson - one of the first spring plants in Siberia - is widely used by the people to this day. In the Far North of Siberia, the roots of the macarium plant - "snake root" were eaten as an antiscorbutic agent.

The use of sunflowers to produce oil testifies to the people's ingenuity. Until the second half of the 18th century, it was only an exotic golden flower, when the serf of Count Sheremetyev, Danila Bokarev, was the first to obtain oil from sunflower seeds. On his initiative, a handicraft butter churn was built in the suburb of Alekseev-ka, Voronezh province. And in three years Alekseevka has become the center of the Russian oil industry.

Mushrooms have been a great help in writing since ancient times. But according to established habits in different places, their use was different. Mushroom picking was more extensive in the central provinces of the European part of Russia different types and fresh consumption. In Siberia, more milk mushrooms and saffron mushrooms were harvested for winter and spring use in salted form. In Ukraine, mushrooms were less respected, while in Belarus and the European North they were widely consumed fresh, salted and dried. White mushrooms are considered the best, followed by black mushrooms: birch and boletus mushrooms, called "babki" in Siberia, then red ones: aspen mushrooms, oilers, mushrooms, milk mushrooms and others. Apparently, in the mushroom regions, the noticed proverbs were born: "If it's mushroom, it's bread"; "They take every mushroom in their hands, but not every mushroom is put in the back." In places, picking mushrooms was of commercial importance - they were sold fresh and dried.

Beverages

Birch, maple, pine sap was collected in the forest strip and used as a refreshing drink. Various drinks were obtained from plant products by fermentation. Sour-tasting kvass was especially popular, the methods of preparation of which are very diverse. Ukrainians and Russians from the southern provinces drank beet kvass. In Ukraine and Belarus, kvass was obtained from apples and pears, which were soaked for a long time, and the infusion was fermented with yeast and hops. Bread kvass had the most pleasant sweetish taste. Ukrainians used it as a liquid for borscht, and among Russians and Belarusians it was a favorite everyday drink. Kvass was made from rye malt, bran or crackers, which were brewed with boiling water, steamed in the oven, fermented, allowed to brew and filtered. Bread kvass, which has a pleasant aroma and light "playfulness", quenched thirst well and satiated. During fasts, kvass with bread was the main food of the poor.

By the holidays, beer was brewed from oats, more often from barley with the addition of germinated malt grains. This intoxicating drink was widespread among Western Slavs, Balts, and Scandinavians. For Russians, beer was a ritual drink in the old days. It was prepared together and drunk on holidays and solemn days. Joint brewing of beer (by families, villages, church parishes) was especially common in the northern Russian provinces. They cooked in special log cabins (breweries or breweries). in large artel boilers. In the 19th century, “brothers” were arranged for church holidays. which manifested the custom of ancient joint drinking from a common larger bowl, usually hollowed out of wood, which was called a brother. Home production of beer lasted the longest in the North and Siberia, industrial production was established in the cities.

Another drink, widespread not only among the Eastern Slavs, but also in many countries of Western Europe, was honey. Bee honey was diluted with water, boiled, hops were added and insisted (sometimes with plant leaves), which caused fermentation and alcohol was formed. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, intoxicated mead had already become a rarity, in some places (in Siberia, Ukraine) the preparation of light beer - mead was preserved, and in the cities they sold a hot honey drink with sbiten spices.

As an intoxicating drink, samosidka vodka was used, which was made at home or distilled in factories from wheat, and also from potatoes in the 19th century. It appeared in Russia in the 16th century, and soon the sale of vodka became a state monopoly. By infusing vodka or alcohol (higher strength) on herbs, they received tinctures ("St. "robin", etc.). On the Don and Kuban, grapes were grown, from which various wines were prepared; but this was not widely used due to unfavorable climatic conditions. Nobles, merchants and philistines who imitated them in everyday life considered it necessary to serve foreign wines and liqueurs to the table on solemn occasions.

In the 19th century, tea imported from other countries, primarily from China, was included in everyday drinks. Wealthy citizens preferred Indian and especially flower tea ( best grade, obtained from the buds of a tea bush), which gave a pale yellow, very fragrant infusion. More accessible was long leaf (black) and cheap, so-called branded, or brick (compressed in the form of tiles - bricks) tea of ​​the lowest grade. When brewing, villagers added dried flowers, leaves and small shoots of some plants that have long been used as aromatic or healing decoctions (mint leaves, currants, raspberries, carrots, linden flowers, roses, apple trees, etc.).

Tea was especially loved in Siberia, where it was served with almost every meal. Here, next to the Chinese and Mongols, who have known this drink since ancient times, tea spread earlier than in the European part of the country. Among Russians, tea has become such a favorite and popular drink that it has caused new national ways of preparing it, like no other borrowed dish. So, water was boiled in samovars. They were developed on the basis of ancient vessels with a heating device in the form of a hollow pipe in the center, where embers were laid. These devices were used to keep hot drinks (sbitennik) and dishes. In the samovar, the heat of hot coals brought the water to a boil and did not let it cool for a long time. The samovar in the house has become a symbol of prestige and prosperity. Tea was brewed in small faience or porcelain teapots, which were placed on the samovar to keep warm. In the cities in the 19th century, many public tea houses were opened, where huge samovars were constantly boiling, containing several buckets of water. Carriages were served on the table. The pair consisted of a small teapot with tea leaves set on a small samovar or teapot with boiling water. In cities, water for tea was also boiled in large tin teapots. Among Ukrainians and Belarusians, teapots were more common than samovars. Rural residents often brewed tea in cast iron, in a Russian oven, where it was steamed.

Tea was usually drunk with bread products. Prosperous families served him confectionery, cream (tea "in English"). Among the people, the addition of milk and cream to tea became widespread in areas where there were contacts with the Turkic and Mongolian peoples. So, in the Urals. In the Lower Volga region, in the North Caucasus and in Southern Siberia, they drank tea "Kalmyk", "Mongolian", "Tatar", adding milk, flour, butter to the boiling broth.

Coffee, cocoa and chocolate (imported, as well as tea) were familiar mainly to the townspeople. Cocoa and chocolate, boiled in milk, were a delicacy and were used mainly in the diet of children of the townspeople. In rural areas, the difference in children's food consisted mainly in the fact that babies were given more dairy, as well as soft or crushed food, and they were limited in the use of fat and hot spices. Prosperous and mostly urban families prepared special meals for the little ones (various cereals with milk, especially semolina, omelettes, meatballs). In all families, they tried to allocate more sweets, delicacies, and fruits to the share of children.

Vegetable oils

Since ancient times, some oil-bearing plants have been used to produce vegetable oils, which were also called "lean", since they could be consumed during fasts. In their distribution, zoning was observed, which was explained by natural conditions. In the northern and central provinces, they used mainly linseed oil, south of Moscow - hemp. Along with it, from the middle of the 19th century, oil was pressed from sunflower seeds in the black earth zone. From here sunflower oil exported to the central provinces. Petersburg, Moscow. It received universal recognition and gradually replaced other varieties. Mustard, poppy, pumpkin oils were mined in small quantities in the black earth zone of the European part of the country, which were used as aromatic flavors and as a delicacy seasoning for flour dishes. The olive oil produced in Transcaucasia was little known to the rural population, it was used only by wealthy townspeople, mainly for salads.

Vegetable oil was cheaper than animal fats and therefore more accessible. Soups, flour dishes (kissels, messes, grouts, salamatu, etc.), porridges were seasoned with them, onions and potatoes were poured over them, cakes were dipped in it, and dough products were cooked in it.

Seeds of some oilseeds were crushed in a mortar until a fat emulsion (hemp, pumpkin, poppy milk) was obtained, which was spread on bread and eaten with cakes. Such use of seeds is also known to the peoples of the Baltic and Ural regions.

Milk and dairy products

The East Slavic peoples used mainly cow's milk, and Ukrainians, Russians of the southern provinces and the Urals - also sheep's; in some farms where goats were kept, also goat. They drank fresh milk (steam - immediately from under the cow and chilled, boiled and baked), ate sour milk (yogurt, sour milk) with bread and potatoes. In the North and Siberia, milk was frozen, cut into thin shavings and eaten with cakes. Frozen milk was stored in the winter, taken on the road, melted as needed.

They drank more milk in the summer. Soups were "whitened" with it, fried eggs were fried with it, milk porridge was cooked, it was added to porridges boiled in water. Baked milk was fermented with sour cream and received varenets. In the southern Russian provinces, they made kaymak (the word is borrowed from the Turkic languages), which was cream with froths removed from baked milk (it was melted several times to obtain as many froths as possible). However, sour milk was more commonly consumed. For fermentation raw milk put in a warm place and add sour cream or other acidic foods (yogurt, bread) to it.

Curd and cheese were made from sour milk. To obtain cottage cheese (in many places also called cheese for a long time), sour milk was drained and the whey was allowed to drain. For longer storage, it was pressed in a wooden vise and dried. If with bread, milk, sour cream. Russians in the Urals and Siberia rolled cakes from cottage cheese, like the local peoples, dried them in the sun. Cottage cheese was used to prepare a ritual dish - cheese Easter.

Cheeses were cooked at home only in some districts of central Russia, in the Kuban and Ukraine. For curdling milk, sourdoughs were used (in particular, the stomach of a young calf or lamb). In Ukraine, cheese was made from sheep's milk. Incomparably greater importance was industrial cheese making. Cheeses were eaten mainly by city dwellers.

Cream (the upper fat layer formed during milk settling) and sour cream (sour cream) were almost never used as a separate dish in peasant families. They were used as a condiment.

With the spread of separators, the development of commercial butter and cheese making, peasants who donated milk to factories either did not leave it to their families at all, or were content with what was taken. In the environment of the prosperous urban and rural bourgeoisie and the nobility, on the contrary, the use of concentrated dairy products has spread: butter, cheese, cream. The latter were used as children food They were served with tea and coffee. Ice cream was prepared on cream (with the addition of eggs and sugar), it was sold on the streets of cities and large villages.

Butter was churned from sour cream, cream and whole milk. The most common was the preparation of butter from sour cream by melting it in a Russian oven. At the same time, an oily mass was separated, which was cooled and knocked down with wooden whorls, spatulas, spoons, and hands. The finished oil was washed in cold water. The resulting so-called butter could not be stored for a long time. It was eaten little, mainly by wealthy citizens, and in a less well-to-do environment, it was given little by little to children. The peasants, on the other hand, usually melted butter in an oven and washed it in cold water, melted it again in an oven and filtered it. Its preparation is typical for all Eastern Slavs and is also known to some of the neighboring peoples, who borrowed it from the Russians (hence its common name Russian butter).

Meat and fish

Traditional meat food was poor among the Eastern Slavs. This was partly due to the fact that in tsarist Russia animal husbandry was one of the most backward branches of agriculture. Although cattle, pigs and sheep were bred everywhere, there were certain zones of animal husbandry and the predominant consumption of certain meat products. So, in the southern Russian provinces, in Ukraine and Belarus, they ate mainly pork. Preference for it is also characteristic of the Western Slavs. Beef was eaten everywhere, but very limitedly, it played a somewhat larger role in the northern provinces. In mountainous areas (the Urals, the Carpathians, the Caucasus), in Siberia and Central Asia, lamb was preferred.

In the southern part of Siberia and Central Asia at the end of the 19th century, pig breeding and, accordingly, pork consumption increased significantly, which was associated with the resettlement of people from the southern Russian provinces and Ukraine. Beyond the Urals, more cattle were bred and the population was better provided with meat food, however, seasonality was also acutely manifested here. This was due to the established deadlines for slaughtering livestock in cold weather (November-December) and the fact. that fresh meat does not withstand long storage. It entered the market at low prices, and at that time the poorest residents of the cities were better supplied with meat products. In the rest of the year, the rural population used them more.

Poultry: chickens, ducks and geese - were bred everywhere (especially chickens), eaten mainly in autumn and winter, slaughtering the bird as needed. Poultry dishes were considered festive, and chicken meat and eggs were used, for example, to make a wedding cake. Fried eggs were prepared from eggs with fried eggs (the eggs were released into a frying pan, keeping the yolks whole), scrambled eggs with milk (milk was added to the pounded eggs) and drachen (grain flour, sugar were added to the pounded eggs and baked), which they ate. drinking milk. Eggs were also eaten boiled, baked and less often raw.

They tried to prepare the meat for the future, for which it was salted (put in barrels and poured with brine), smoked and dried. In winter, the carcasses were frozen. This method of storage most of all corresponded to the climate of Siberia, where it was constantly practiced. In the warm season, they ate mainly corned beef (salted meat).

Mostly boiled meat was eaten. They cooked it in cabbage soup. borscht, noodles, but they also ate as a separate dish, and in rural areas usually without side dishes, and in cities - with vegetables and cereals. Roast meat was festive dish, it was prepared with the addition of various seasonings. Whole carcasses of suckling pigs were fried (sometimes baked in dough), poultry; according to tradition, a roasted goose (Christmas goose) was prepared for Christmas, a pig or a ham was baked in the oven. Stews with the addition of cereals or vegetables were common; especially loved hodgepodge (pieces of meat stewed with sauerkraut). In Ukraine and Kuban, meat was abundantly mixed with lard during stewing.

The traditional dish of the Eastern Slavs, served on all family and many other holidays, was aspic (Russian studen, jelly, white sciudzen, Ukrainian jelly). For its preparation, bones with meat, legs and head, containing many sticky substances, were strongly boiled. Boiled meat was chosen, laid out in bowls, poured with broth and put in a cold place, where jelly was formed - gelatinous jelly. The jelly was eaten with the addition of hot spices: horseradish, mustard, pepper, sometimes kvass was served with it. The head was cooked separately as a ritual dish (for Christmas, weddings). The insides were also eaten. Offal was considered the most suitable for pickle - a hot dish cooked with the addition of chopped pickles.

In Ukraine, in Belarus, and in some places in the southern Russian provinces they made sausage (ukr. kovbasa, white. kaubasa). at the same time, lard and various spices were added to the meat. Sausages were also prepared from chopped liver, blood, mixing them with flour or cereals. All this was stuffed with cleaned and washed intestines of animals. Sausages were smoked or baked in ovens and filled with fat. Ukrainians, Belarusians, occasionally Russians also smoked pork hams.

Animal fat was considered the most valuable product. The internal fat was melted, poured into bowls, cooled and stored until consumed. The outer fat of pork carcasses was salted, cut into pieces, and stuffed into intestines or packed in boxes, barrels.

Salo was used for frying, soups and cereals were seasoned with it. Pieces of lard were fried in a frying pan and served with potatoes and cereals together with roasts (greaves). Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians of the southern provinces used crushed bacon (sometimes with garlic) to season cabbage soup and borscht. In winter they liked to eat frozen lard with hot potatoes. However, lard was a favorite, but not everyday food. As the most high-calorie product, they tried to save it for the holidays, during hard field work, on the road.

Meat and lard of domestic animals were in short supply for the majority of the population. This deficit was partially made up for by hunting products.

Hunting was especially developed in the forest areas of Siberia and the European North. In the central regions, hunting has long been the privilege of feudal lords. They used carcasses of birds (partridges, geese and ducks, swans, hazel grouses, quails, etc.), bear meat, hare, meat of wild boars, elk, deer, etc. But in accordance with the ancient Slavic religious prohibitions, the Old Believers, especially conservative in regarding food, they did not eat hare, bear meat, meat of some birds (pigeons, swans). Among the nobility, game was considered a particularly valuable dish, and for the local nobility it was a matter of pride to serve game from their possessions and hunted with their own hands to the table.

Meat, lard, milk were considered "fast food", which the Christian religion forbade to consume during weekly and annual fasts. This rule was very strictly adhered to by the majority of the population in the European part of the country, various Old Believer groups, and the Cossacks. The peasant masses in the North, in Siberia and Central Asia, where the influence of the official church was not so strong, did not always and everywhere observe it. The advanced layers of the Russian intelligentsia also refused to observe fasts.

Fish was no less important, and at times even more important than meat, since it was considered a "semi-lenten" food, it was not eaten only on the days of the most strict fast. In northern Pomorie, where cultivated plants grew poorly, fish was the main daily food.

Fresh fish was boiled and fried in oil, sometimes it was poured with sour cream and eggs. A favorite dish was fish soup, served as a first course. Especially tasty is the ear, in which several different types of fish were boiled in succession, and the last of them, the best, was served with yushka (broth) to the table.

In the European North, in the Urals and Siberia, fish was baked in dough (fish pie) and eaten with a lower crust of the pie soaked in fat. Belarusians baked fish on coals, in the oven, having cleaned it of scales, in other areas they baked in scales.

Harvesting fish for the future, it was salted, dried, dried, fermented, frozen.

Salted fish in barrels. Herring was in great demand. It was sold in all cities, and was brought to villages remote from water bodies as gifts. Herring was the most accessible fish food for the urban poor, and in families where it was a luxury, herring pickle was bought and consumed with bread and potatoes. Of the dried fish, vobla (Ukrainian ram) was especially loved, which often replaced meat for the urban poor. Small fish, especially smelt, were dried; in winter, cabbage soup and stews were cooked with it.

In the northern coastal strip of the country, fish was fermented in barrels, for which it was poured with weak brine and kept warm. The fermentation process that developed at the same time softened the meat and bones, giving the fish a specific spicy taste. It was seasoned with onions and sour milk, eaten with bread. In the Primorsky region of Eastern Siberia, fish for fermentation was put into earthen pits, where it was fermented. This ancient method of preservation was preserved until the end of the 19th century among the Russians, as well as among the neighboring peoples of the North, where the food of the population is depleted in vitamins.

In winter, the fish was frozen and stored in this form. Russians in Eastern Siberia, like the local population, ate stroganina - finely chopped frozen fish.

In areas rich in sturgeon and salmon species, caviar, which was highly valued on the world market, was harvested - black (sturgeon) and red (salmon), keeping it in strong brine. Such caviar was a delicacy and was consumed mainly by wealthy citizens; it was available to the rural population only where it was mined. Caviar was eaten with bread, pancakes, and red caviar, in addition, was baked in pies, adding chopped onions. Near the seas and large reservoirs, caviar of any other fish was used, which, like sturgeon and salmon, was a high-calorie product and an important source of vitamins. Therefore, they ate a lot of salted caviar, and in the north of Siberia they made cakes, pancakes, pancakes from frozen and mint caviar.

Meals

Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians ate three to four times a day. Breakfast (Russian breakfast, morning, Ukrainian snidanok, sshdannya, Bel. snyadannya) was early, usually at sunrise (5-6 o’clock in the morning) and quite dense (they ate a lot of bread with tea or milk, fresh or salted vegetables and etc.). Lunch (Ukrainian ooid, Bel. abyad, breakfast) was arranged in the first half of the day (10 - 12 o'clock). It was the most plentiful meal. They served two or three dishes, and always among the first - liquid: hot in winter, and sometimes cold in summer.

In the summer time in the afternoon (4-5 hours) there was an afternoon snack (Russian afternoon snack, city of auzina, Ukrainian noon, noon, Bel. paludzin, pydvyachorak), which consisted of tea, milk, light snacks. They had supper in the evening, at sunset (Russian dinner, Ukrainian supper, Bel. vyachera), with something left over from dinner or with tea, milk, and a light snack.

On holidays, they tried to prepare food as plentiful as possible. The table was especially richly decorated for Easter, for Christmas, when after a long fast it was allowed to eat meat food. Several dishes were served for Christmas dinner. Here is a description of such a dinner among Ukrainian peasants: "First of all, they have a snack lean pies, drink a glass of vodka, then serve yesterday's cabbage and peas. Having finished with lenten meals, they proceed to the modest ones: initially they serve pies with pork filling and with brisket, swept with buckwheat flour (baked the day before), and heated sausage. Next comes cabbage with pork. First they eat the cabbage itself, while the meat is served separately on a wooden plate. The owner himself cuts the meat, salts it, takes the first piece for himself, and the rest are taken after him, according to seniority. After cabbage, lokshina (noodles) is served, and again, first they eat noodles, and then goose meat, which is also cut by the owner. In conclusion, yesterday's kutya with honey or poppy seeds appears on the table and, finally, "uzvar".

No less plentiful was the Paschal meal "breaking the fast". They loved not only to eat heartily themselves, but also to feed the guest who came to the house to their fill.

Hospitality - the ability to generously receive guests - was considered a great advantage of the owner. The guests were served the best dishes that were in the house (the Russians had a saying: "What is in the oven - everything is on the table with swords", similar ones were common among Belarusians and Ukrainians). The feasts in the merchant and noble-landlord environment were especially abundant, where each owner sought to outdo the others with a variety of dishes and drinks. At the heart of the meal of the wealthy layers were also dishes of folk cuisine.