Cuisines in Russia

The history of Russian cuisine was divided in four groups: Old Russian cuisine (9th to 16th century), Old Moscow cuisine (17th century), the cuisine that existed during the ruling of Peter and Catherine the Great (18th century), and finally Petersburg cuisine, which took place from the end of the 18th century to the 1860s.

In the Old Russian period, the main food groups were bread, grains, and other foods that contained starch. Women baked pies with many different fillings, such as mushrooms or berries. During gatherings, a loaf of bread and salt was always present. Kasha, such as buckwheat and oats, were represented as wellbeing to the household. Many Russians used honey and berries and made them into gingerbread, which is still a popular Russian dessert. Many current Russian dishes were inspired from Asian cultures, such as pelmeni.

In the 17th century, cuisine was separated based on economic class. The rich had meat and delicacies, such as caviar, while the poor had the most simple dishes. During this century, more food appeared, because new countries were annexed.^[1] During the Peter and Catherine the Great era, minced meat was incorporated into dishes and other European countries' cuisine was also mixed into Russian foods. In the last era (Petersburg cuisine), many French, German, Dutch, and Italian meals were incorporated into Russian foods, such as lamb and pork. The French popularized potatoes and tomatoes in dishes. Due to the long-lasting cold weather in Russia, many dishes were made to be preserved, so they would not have to take extra trips in the freezing snowy days.^[2]

Its foundations were laid by the peasant food of the rural population in an often harsh climate, with a combination of plentiful fish, pork, poultry, caviar, mushrooms, berries, and honey. Crops of rye, wheat, barley and millet provided the ingredients for a plethora of breads, pancakes, pies, cereals, beer and vodka. Soups and stews are centered on seasonal or storable produce, fish and meats. Such food remained the staple for the vast majority of Russians well into the 20th century.^[3]

The 16th through 18th centuries brought more refined culinary techniques. It was during this time period that smoked meats and fish, pastry cooking, salads, and green vegetables, chocolate, ice cream, wines, and juice were imported from abroad. At least for the urban aristocracy and provincial gentry, this opened the doors for the creative integration of these new foodstuffs with traditional Russian dishes.^[4]

In the early 20th century, the Revolution saw a rapid decline of elite cuisine, driven both by the new egalitarian state ideology and by disappearance of the old Imperial elites who used to be its consumers. The distinct Soviet cuisine was born, emphasizing fusion of the Union's national cuisines, scientific approach to a diet, and industrial approach to food preparation and serving.^[5]

The fall of the Soviet Union saw the end of state monopoly on food service, and a corresponding diversification of cuisine. As average prosperity grew starting with the second decade after the collapse, so did the demand for fresh culinary experiences, prompting a renaissance of Imperial-era elite cuisine, as well as a wide search for novelty, local specialties, and creative reinterpretations, leading to the birth of what has been dubbed the New Russian cuisine.^[6]

The national Russian cuisine has evolved in a multicultural and multiethnic state, with strong mutual influence from the cuisines of other ethnic groups that live within the nation's borders or had been a part of the Russian state historically.

Despite such deep mutual influence, many national cuisines within the borders of the Russian Federation maintain their uniqueness, such as Tatar cuisine, Sakha cuisine, or Yamal cuisine.

The Russian cuisine itself is also geographically diverse, its variations dependent on raw materials and cooking methods available locally. In the north of Russia, it incorporates local berries such as cloudberry or crowberry, fish such as cod, game meat such as elk, or even edible moss known as yagel. Conversely, in Siberia it includes the local fish varieties, particularly those of the coregonus genus such as arctic cisco or muksun, and borrows the local cooking methods, to result in raw fish eaten frozen or combined with spices. Further east, local specialties are added such as eagle fern, kolomikta fruit, scallops and Kamchatka crabs.

Soups have always played an important role in Russian cuisine. The traditional staple of soups such as shchi (щи), borscht (борщ), ukha (уха́), rassolnik (рассо́льник), solyanka (соля́нка), botvinya (ботви́нья), okroshka (окро́шка), and tyurya (тю́ря) was enlarged in the 18th to 20th centuries by both European and Central Asian staples like clear soups, pureed soups, stews, and many others.

Russian soups can be divided into at least seven large groups:

• Chilled soups based on kvass, such as tyurya, okroshka, and botvinya.
• Light soups and stews based on water and vegetables, such as svekolnik.
• Noodle soups with meat, mushrooms, or milk.
• Soups based on cabbage, most prominently shchi.
• Thick soups based on meat broth, with a salty-sour base like rassolnik and solyanka.
• Fish soups such as ukha.
• Grain- and vegetable-based soups.

Okroshka is a cold soup based on kvass or (less frequently) various kinds of sour milk; kefir is often preferred nowadays. Okroshka is also a salad. The main ingredients are two types of vegetables that can be mixed with cold boiled meat or fish in a 1:1 proportion. Thus vegetable, meat, poultry, and fish varieties of okroshka are made.

There are typically two types of vegetables in okroshka. The first must have a neutral taste, such as boiled potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, or fresh cucumbers. The second must be spicy and aromatic, like radishes or green onion as well as other herbs—greens of dill, parsley, chervil, celery, or tarragon. Different meat and poultry can be used in the same soup. The most common ingredient is beef alone or with poultry. A mild bologna-like sausage is sometimes used. If it is made with fish, the best choice would be tench, European perch, pike-perch, cod, or other neutral-tasting fish. In the coastal areas smoked and/or salted salmon is preferred instead, often in combination with other meats.

The kvass most commonly used in cooking is white okroshka kvass, which is much more sour than drinking kvass. Spices used include mustard, black pepper and pickled cucumber (specifically, the liquid from the pickles), solely or in combination. For the final touch, boiled eggs and smetana (similar to crème fraîche) are added. Often, the mustard, chopped hard-boiled yolks, pepper and pickle brine are combined into a spicy sauce that is added to the soup to taste.

For sour milk-based okroshka, well-shaken natural sour milk (often with the addition of seed oil) is used with the addition of pure water and ground garlic. Sometimes manufactured kefir is used instead of natural sour milk for time-saving reasons, though some say it detracts from the original taste of okroshka.

Tyurya is very similar to okroshka, the main difference being that instead of vegetables, bread, sometimes with addition of onion and vegetable oil, is soaked in kvass, similar to Silesian wodzionka or Portuguese açorda. It was commonly consumed during rough times (such as the Russian Revolution, World War I, and World War II) and by poor peasants. Also, due to its simplicity, it was very common as a meal during religious fasting.

Botvinya is another type of cold soup. The name of the soup comes from the Russian word botva, which means "leafy tops of root vegetables", and, true to its name, it is made with the leafy tops of young beets, as well as sorrel, scallions, dill, cucumbers, and two types of kvass. Mustard, garlic, and horseradish are then added for flavor. The vegetables are blanched, then rubbed through a sieve, and kvass is poured over them.

Svyokolnik (also known as kholodnik) is a cold borscht. It consists of beet sour or beet juice blended with sour cream, buttermilk, soured milk, kefir or yogurt. The mixture has a distinctive orange or pink color.^[7] It is served chilled, typically over finely chopped beetroot, cucumbers, radishes and spring onion, together with halved hard-boiled eggs and sprinkled with fresh dill. Chopped veal, ham, or crawfish tails may be added as well.