Upward Bound: First year. Воробьева М.Г - 110 стр.

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— 110 —
II
Russian Cuisine
There have always been two types of Russian cuisine — on the
one hand, the aristocratic, rich style and on the other hand — a
peasant, simple, every-day style. Russian people loved chicken (turkey
emerged at the beginning of the 17
th
century). Veal wasn’t eaten.
Russian kitchens only boiled, steamed or simmered food. Food was
never heated in fat (butter).
Many different kinds of bread, cakes and pirogs were baked
and filled with things which were in the house, farm, garden, field
or forest: chicken, vegetables, peas and beans, fruit, berries or
mushrooms. The rivers were full of fish, so pirogs filled with all types
of fish were very common. Chicken pirogs were eaten on public
holidays. Meat was eaten boiled and on special occasions at the end
of the meal like blessed food. There was no shortage of soup, especially
vegetable soup: borsh, stchi — a soup made from marinated cabbage.
Other favourite was the famous Russian kasha. So there is a Russian
saying: «Stchi and kasha is all we ever get to eat».
The cuisine of the aristocracy preferred the blins cakes
(pancakes) or towers, which were invented by Russian gourmands
and comprised blins of all manner of different fillings piled up on
top of each other. In the times of Catherine II it became fashionable
to serve French and Russian meals at receptions, followed by delicious
desserts and exotic fruits. The evening meal at the tzarist court
comprised 80 courses for each person. There were hot broths,
marinated chicken, rabbit, tortoise, sausages, pirogs, salads, oysters,
bitter oranges, pastry, blins, sweets.
It is of upmost importance for the Russian hospitality to set
a rich table. blins are still very popular — both by themselves or
filled with meat, fish, caviar, sour cream. Originally, they
symbolized the sun.
These traditions still exist. They have survived — at family
dinners and friendly parties at the kitchen, where the housewife
cooked her own special dish. To this very day, the greatest praise
which can be said to a cook is that it «tastes as if it were home-
made». And foreigners can’t believe their eyes: «What? You can do
all that at home?»

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