Nowadays, potatoes are almost the main basis of the Russian table. But not so long ago, only some 300 years ago, they did not eat it in Russia. How did the Slavs live without potatoes?

Potatoes appeared in Russian cuisine only at the beginning of the 18th century thanks to Peter the Great. But the potatoes began to spread among all segments of the population only in the reign of Catherine. And now it is already difficult to imagine what our ancestors ate, if not fried potatoes or mashed potatoes. How could they even live without this root vegetable?

Lenten table

One of the main features of Russian cuisine is the division into lean and smooth. In the Russian Orthodox calendar, about 200 days a year fall on Lenten days. That means no meat, no milk and no eggs. Only plant food and some days fish. Seems poor and poor? Not at all. The Lenten table was distinguished by its richness and abundance, a huge variety of dishes. Lenten tables of peasants and rather wealthy people in those days did not differ much: the same cabbage soup, cereals, vegetables, mushrooms. The only difference was that it was difficult for residents who did not live near the reservoir to get fresh fish on the table. So the fish table in the villages was rare, but those who had money could call him themselves.

The main products of Russian cuisine

Approximately such an assortment was available in the villages, but it must be borne in mind that meat was eaten extremely rarely, usually it happened in the fall or during the winter meat-eater, before Maslenitsa.
Vegetables: turnips, cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, beets, carrots, rutabagas, pumpkin,
Porridge: oatmeal, buckwheat, pearl barley, wheat, millet, wheat, egg.
Bread: mostly rye, but there was also wheat, more expensive and rare.
Mushrooms
Dairy products: raw milk, sour cream, yogurt, cottage cheese
Baking: pies, pies, pies, rolls, bagels, sweet pastries.
Fish, game, livestock meat.
Condiments: onion, garlic, horseradish, dill, parsley, cloves, bay leaves, black pepper.
Fruits: apples, pears, plums
Berries: cherry, lingonberry, viburnum, cranberry, cloudberry, stoneberry, blackthorn
Nuts and seeds

Festive table

The boyar table, and the table of the well-to-do townspeople, was distinguished by a rare abundance. In the 17th century, the number of dishes increased, tables, both lean and modest, became more and more varied. Any large meal already included more than 5-6 changes of dishes:

Hot (cabbage soup, stew, ear);
cold (okroshka, botvinya, jelly, jellied fish, corned beef);
roast (meat, poultry);
body (boiled or fried hot fish);
unsweetened pies,
kulebyaka; porridge (sometimes it was served with cabbage soup);
cake (sweet pies, pies);
snacks (sweets for tea, candied fruits, etc.).

Alexander Nechvolodov, in his book Legends of the Russian Land, describes the boyar feast and admires its wealth: “After the vodka, they began to eat snacks, of which there were a great many; on fast days sauerkraut, all kinds of mushrooms and all kinds of fish cabbage, from caviar and balyk to steamed sterlets, whitefish and various fried fish, were served. With a snack, borsch botvinia was also supposed.

Then they moved on to the hot soup, which was also served of the most varied preparation - red and black, pike, sterlet, crucian carp, combined, with saffron, and so on. Other dishes made from salmon with lemon, white fish with plums, sterlet with cucumbers and so on were also served.

Then, pies cooked in nut or hemp oil with all kinds of fillings were also sent to each ear, with seasoning, often baked in the form of various kinds of animals.

After the fish soup followed: "salted" or "salted", any fresh fish that came from different parts of the state, and always under "zvar" (sauce), with horseradish, garlic and mustard.

Lunch ended with serving "bread": various kinds of cookies, crumpets, pies with cinnamon, poppy seeds, raisins, etc. "

All separately

The first thing that was rushed to the overseas guests if they got to a Russian feast: an abundance of dishes, no matter whether it was a fast or a fast day. The fact is that all vegetables, and indeed all products in general, were served separately. The fish could be baked, fried, or boiled, but there was only one kind of fish on one dish. Mushrooms were salted separately, milk mushrooms, porcini and butter were served separately ... Salads were one (!) Vegetable, and not a mixture of vegetables. Any vegetable could be served fried or boiled.

Hot dishes are also prepared according to the same principle: poultry are baked separately, individual pieces of meat are stewed.

The old Russian cuisine did not know what finely chopped and mixed salads, as well as various finely chopped roasts and meat basics, were. There were also no cutlets, sausages and sausages. Everything finely chopped, chopped into minced meat appeared much later.

Chowders and soups

In the 17th century, the direction of cooking finally took shape, which is responsible for soups and other liquid dishes. Pickles, hodgepodge, hangover appeared. They were added to the friendly family of soups that stood on Russian tables: stew, cabbage soup, fish soup (usually from one kind of fish, so the principle of "everything separately" was observed).

What else appeared in the 17th century

In general, this century is the time of novelties and interesting products in Russian cuisine. Tea is delivered to Russia. In the second half of the 17th century, sugar appears and the assortment of sweet dishes expands: candied fruits, jams, sweets, lollipops. Finally, lemons appear, which begin to be added to tea, as well as to rich hangover soups.

Finally, during these years the influence of the Tatar cuisine was very strong. Therefore, dishes made from unleavened dough have gained great popularity: noodles, dumplings, dumplings.

When did the potatoes appear

Everyone knows that potatoes appeared in Russia in the 18th century thanks to Peter I - he brought seed potatoes from Holland. But the overseas curiosity was available only to rich people and for a long time potatoes remained a delicacy for the aristocracy.

The widespread distribution of potatoes began in 1765, when, after the decree of Catherine II, lots of seed potatoes were brought to Russia. It was spread almost forcibly: the peasant population did not accept the new culture, since it considered it poisonous (a wave of poisoning by poisonous fruits of potatoes swept across Russia, since at first the peasants did not understand that it was necessary to eat root crops and ate the tops). The potato took a long and difficult time to take root, even in the 19th century it was called “the devil’s apple” and refused to plant. As a result, a wave of "potato riots" swept across Russia, and in the middle of the 19th century, Nicholas I was still able to massively introduce potatoes into peasant gardens. And by the beginning of the 20th century, it was already considered the second bread.

What did our ancestors eat
In Russia, starting from the XI century, monks kept their records from the words: "In the summer ...". The chronicler believed that someday his descendant "Will find my hard work, nameless, He will shine, like me, his lamp -And shaking off the dust of centuries from the charters, Will rewrite the truthful sayings, May the descendants of the Orthodox of the Earth know their past fate"
(A. Pushkin. Boris Godunov)
Of course, they wrote mainly about the fate of the state, about the wars and disasters of the people, and there is little information about the food of our ancestors and, moreover, the preparation of dishes in the annals, and yet ...
Year 907 - in the annals, among the monthly tax, wine, bread, meat, fish and vegetables are named (in those days, fruits were also called vegetables).

from 969th - Prince Svyatoslav says that the city of Pereyaslavl is conveniently located - there converge "different vegetables" from Greece and honey from Russia. Already at that time, the table of Russian princes and rich people was decorated with salted lemons, raisins, walnuts and other gifts of Eastern countries, and honey was not only an everyday food product, but also an object of foreign trade.
Year 971 - during the famine, the cost was such that a horse's head cost half a hryvnia (insanely expensive!). It is interesting that the chronicler is not talking about beef or pork, but about horse meat. Although the case takes place during the forced wintering of the troops of Prince Svyatoslav on the way from Greece, the fact is still remarkable. This means that there was no ban on the consumption of horse meat in Russia, but it was probably used in exceptional cases. This is evidenced by the relatively small proportion of horse bones in kitchen waste found by archaeologists.
Usually for the characteristic, as we would now say "price index", the value of products of everyday demand is indicated. So, another chronicler reports that in the lean 1215 in Novgorod "there was a cart of turnips for two hryvnias."
Year 996 - a feast is described at which there was a lot of meat from cattle and animals, and bread, meat, fish, vegetables, honey and kvass were transported around the city and distributed to the people. The squad grumbled that they had to eat with wooden spoons, and Prince Vladimir ordered to give them silver ones.
Of course, it was not turnips and cabbage that were distributed to the people, but simply at that time they did not distinguish between vegetables and fruits, honey and kvass were their favorite drinks.
Year 997 - the prince ordered to collect a handful of oats, or wheat, or bran and ordered the wives to make "tsezh" and cook jelly. This is already a direct culinary recommendation.
So bit by bit, you can collect in our chronicles a lot of interesting information about nutrition in the X - XI centuries. Describing the simplicity of the morals of Prince Svyatoslav (964), the chronicler says that the prince did not take carts with him on campaigns and did not cook meat, but thinly slicing horse meat, beef or animals, ate them, baking them on coals.

Frying on coals is the oldest method of heat treatment, characteristic of all peoples, and it was not borrowed by the Russians from the peoples of the Caucasus and the East, but has been used since ancient times. Historical literary monuments of the 15th-16th centuries often mention chickens, geese, hares "twisted", that is, on a spit. But nevertheless, the usual, most common way of preparing meat dishes was boiling and frying in large pieces in Russian ovens.
Of course, only comparing the materials of the chronicles with archaeological data, with folk epics and other sources, one can imagine the life of our ancestors in the 9th-10th centuries.
After all, the chroniclers were also living people who had their own convictions, sympathies, and, finally, to some extent, they were censored.
It is necessary to be critical of such, for example, the statements of the chronicler-Polyanin: "And the Drevlyans live in a bestial manner, they live like a beast: I will kill each other, everything is unclean." The fact is that many Slavic tribes, long after the adoption of Christianity, preserved many pagan rituals and customs in their everyday life, causing the wrath of their more faithful neighbors. Remember that the Vyatichi, one hundred and twenty-five years after the baptism of Rus, killed a missionary from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
Despite the above assertion of the chronicler about the "bestial way of life", "Vyatichi, Drevlyans, Radimichi, northerners and all the Proto-Russian peoples, as science testifies, ate about the same thing that we eat now - meat, poultry and fish, vegetables , fruits and berries, eggs, cottage cheese and porridge, seasoning dishes with butter, anise, dill, vinegar and eating bread in the form of kovrigs, rolls, loaves, pies. They didn't know tea or vodka, but they knew how to make intoxicated honey, beer and kvass ”(V. Chivilikhin. Memory. M .: Soviet writer, 1982).
Let's try to restore several ancient dishes.
Turnip dishes.
It is no coincidence that turnip is mentioned many times in the annals. It was once the most widespread vegetable in Russia, and a turnip crop failure was as popular a disaster as an invasion of enemies or a plague epidemic. Therefore, along with the major events, the chronicler reports that in one of the years "the worms on the turnips ate the tops."
Some vegetables came to us from overseas countries relatively recently (potatoes and tomatoes), and some have been grown in Russia since time immemorial. Among such ancient vegetables, turnip and cabbage should be named first of all. If you hold a competition for a vegetable crop, which is most often found in Russian folklore, then, probably, turnip will take the first place. She appears in many fairy tales, sayings, proverbs and riddles. Meanwhile, turnip now plays a very modest role in our diet. It was different in the old days. Steamed turnip (turnip) was one of the most popular everyday dishes on the Russian table.
Turnip was cultivated for a very long time, and during fire farming, when forests were burned for arable land and vegetable gardens, turnip gave excellent yields and was one of the main agricultural crops. Much later, a hybrid of turnip and cabbage, rutabaga, became widespread in our country.
In the 18th century, when potatoes became most widespread, turnips lost their former importance, but rutabaga still occupied an important place in nutrition. The reason for this is that its roots are larger, they contain more nutrients than turnips, and vitamin C is more stable during cooking. And although these vegetables are now little used, they should not disappear from our diet, since they contain essential oils and glucosides, which give dishes a unique taste and aroma, vitamins, valuable minerals and trace elements. It is very important that the ratio of calcium to phosphorus in these vegetables is close to 1: 1, while the optimal ratio is not more than 1: 1.5. Sinegrin glucoside gives turnips and rutabagas a specific bitter taste. This substance is found in all plants of the cruciferous family (cabbage, mustard, horseradish, radish, radish, etc.) and is a strong bactericidal substance. There is especially a lot of it in horseradish and radish. Here are some recipes for these now less popular vegetables that can diversify our diet.

Turnip or rutabaga salad.
Vegetables are chopped on a coarse grater, chopped green onions, salt, pepper are added, poured with mayonnaise or dressing and mixed. Turnip, rutabaga 150, carrots 50, green onions 25, mayonnaise 30 or vegetable oil 20, vinegar 5, herbs.
Delicious salad with turnips (rutabaga).
Cut boiled carrots and turnips into small cubes, add green peas, boiled cauliflower bunches, season with mayonnaise and mix. Carrots 25, turnips 50, green peas 10, cauliflower 30, mayonnaise 20.

The turnips are washed, boiled in water until soft, cooled, scraped off the skin, cut out the core. The removed pulp is finely chopped, minced meat is added and turnips are filled with this filling. Sprinkle with grated cheese on top, pour over with butter and bake. Minced meat is prepared as for pies.
Peeled turnip 250, fried minced meat 75, cheese 5, butter 20.
Baked rutabaga.
The rutabagas are cleaned, cut into cubes, water is added and allowed to soften. Water is taken so much that it almost completely evaporates by the end of the popping. After that, add salt, pepper, mix with sour cream or sour cream sauce, lay out on krones or portioned pans, sprinkle with cheese, pour over with butter and bake. Rutabaga 200, butter or margarine 10, sour cream or sour cream sauce 70, cheese 5, herbs, salt, pepper.
Cabbage dishes. The strongest wins the fight. So, green peas pushed aside Russian beans, potatoes - rutabagas and turnips, beans - lentils, etc. Only cabbage, like many centuries ago, firmly retains its position in our diet. This is due primarily to its culinary merits and the ability to ferment.
The cabbage was brought from the shores of the warm Mediterranean Sea and took root in our climate. The name itself speaks of its origin (Latin "kaput" - head).
Hereinafter, the amount of products is given in grams.
In the early written monuments of Ancient Russia, white cabbage is mentioned as the most important vegetable crop. Other types of cabbage began to appear in Russia in the 17th century. However, such species as Brussels and Savoy were not widely used. Cauliflower and red cabbage, as well as kohlrabi, which was called “turnip cabbage” in the culinary books of the early 20th century, took root in our country much faster. Finally, already in the second half of the 20th century, broccoli began to be used in cooking. The use of kale is very limited, and it was grown in the regions of the Far East.

It is impossible to answer unequivocally the question of which type of cabbage is more valuable - each cabbage and red cabbage are approximately equal (about 1.8%), slightly more in kohlrabi, cauliflower and broccoli. Brussels sprouts have the highest protein and vitamin C content, and broccoli has the highest carotene content.
According to the sugar content, they can be arranged in the following sequence (in descending order): Brussels sprouts, red, colored and white.
Previously, fresh white cabbage was used in the diet for only 1-2 months a year, and the rest of the time it was replaced by sauerkraut. Therefore, we have relatively few dishes from fresh cabbage, except for fresh cabbage cabbage, a favorite dish of our people. Let us recall some forgotten or little-known cabbage dishes.
Sauerkraut salad. The sauerkraut is sorted out. Large pieces are chopped. The seed nest is removed from the apples and cut into thin slices. The cranberries are sorted out. Mix everything, add shredded onions, season with vegetable oil. Cranberries can be substituted for pickled cherries.
Sauerkraut salad is squeezed out, cut into squares, fried in oil, placed in portioned pans, poured with a mixture of eggs and milk and baked in ovens.
White cabbage 340/272, egg 1 pc. (40 g), milk 20, butter 20, herbs, salt. Cabbage baked with sour cream. A head of cabbage is cut into slices, boiled in salted water until half cooked, thrown back and squeezed slightly. Slices of cabbage are placed in oiled pans, poured with sour cream sauce, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and baked.
Cabbage 340/272, sour cream sauce 75, rusks 3, butter 10.
Cabbage loaf. A head of cabbage is boiled until half cooked and disassembled into leaves. A saucepan is greased with oil, sprinkled with breadcrumbs. Then the bottom and walls are covered with cabbage leaves, a layer of minced meat, cabbage leaves, a layer of minced meat, etc. are placed. The loaf is lightly pressed with a smaller lid. Then its surface is greased with sour cream, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and baked. The loaf is taken out of the saucepan, cut into portions and poured with sauce (sour cream, tomato, etc.). Minced meat is prepared as for vegetable cabbage rolls. To do this, cut onions, carrots, bell peppers into strips and lightly fry with oil. Add tomatoes, a little water and stew together. Of course, in the old days, tomatoes were not added to minced meat, since they appeared here only in the second half of the 19th century. You can make the same loaf with minced meat or rice and mushrooms. Cabbage 225/180, onions 30/25, carrots 70/55, sweet peppers or eggplants 25/20, tomatoes 30, rice 10, eggs ’/ 5 pcs., Butter 15, crackers 10.
Cabbage in cream. The cabbage is boiled until half cooked, cut into squares, fried with butter, poured with cream and stewed. Cabbage 250/200, butter 10, cream 100.
The legendary author of "The Tale of Bygone Years" Nestor told us an amazing story about how during the siege of one of the cities the Russian squads suffered terrible hunger and the enemies expected that they would surrender in the coming days, but on the advice of the Belgorod elder, the residents gathered the last supplies, cooked jelly , they poured it into a well, sat around and in full view of the besiegers drew jelly from the well and ate. "The Russian land itself feeds them, such a people cannot be defeated!" - the Pechenegs decided and lifted the siege. What kind of jelly are we talking about? Of course, not about modern jelly - a sweet dish, but about hearty, nutritious oat jelly, which was a favorite dish among the Russian people. Let's give the recipe for this jelly.
Oatmeal jelly. Pour the groats with warm water and leave for a day in a warm place. Then strain and squeeze. Add salt, sugar to the resulting liquid and boil, stirring continuously, until thickened. Add milk to hot jelly, mix, pour into plates greased with butter, put in the cold. When the jelly hardens, cut it into portions and serve with cold boiled milk or yogurt. Oat groats (rolled oats) 100, sugar 8, salt 2, water 300, milk 200, butter 5.
Pea block. It is hardly possible to find another cuisine in the world in which cold appetizers from cereals or peas would be prepared, and there are many such dishes in Russian cuisine. They are simple, nutritious, and delicious. The modern city dweller does not hold peas in high esteem. Is that pea soup with smoked meats. But in vain: peas contain about 23% protein, 46% starch, and there are a lot of vitamins. It is difficult to assimilate, but this can be helped by preparing "peas with a shoe", which has been prepared in Russia for many centuries.
"Pea block". The peas are completely boiled and pounded, the resulting puree is seasoned with salt and molded (you can use molds, cups, etc., oiled). The formed pea puree is spread on a plate and poured with sunflower oil with fried onions, sprinkled with herbs. Peas 100, vegetable oil 20, onions 60, salt to taste, herbs.
Ancient Slavic peoples - plots, drevlyans, krivichi, vyatichi, radimichi, northerners and others spoke Russian. They were united not only by a common language, but also by customs, traditions and traditions of the table. V. Chivilikhin writes that even feudal fragmentation, oddly enough, contributed to the formation of general features of the Slavic life: “The princes, willingly or not, moving from one“ table ”to another, took with them a squad, governor, family, servants, "Good old men", favorite singers, masters of the highest qualification, utensils, books ".

Historical and statistical descriptions of the counties and provinces of Russia, numerous publications of ethnographic notes in the provincial records of the 1870-1890s give us the opportunity to get acquainted with various aspects of the life of our ancestors. In particular, with ...

Historical and statistical descriptions of the counties and provinces of Russia, numerous publications of ethnographic notes in the provincial registers of the 1870-1890s give us the opportunity to get acquainted with various aspects of the life of our ancestors. In particular, with that, for example, how they ate. And this, in turn, helps to understand some of the features of today's folk life.

Those of the townspeople who have relatives in the village may have noticed how much, satisfying and, in general, tasteless the peasants cook. And this is not from the mediocrity of the village cooks, but from their sincere rejection of reasons other than providing heavy peasant labor with simple and uncomplicated food to make. Such an approach took shape, probably, in time immemorial. And justified himself with the harsh reality. First, the peasant has always been limited in the choice of products and methods of culinary processing them. Secondly, the main goal of the hostess was to feed the family, workers, with a simple set of products, easy to process and very satisfying food.

What provided satiety - "greediness", as it was sometimes called? Potatoes, of course. Boiled potatoes, fried potatoes, potato soup - with "whitewash" (adding milk) on a fast day, with vegetable oil - on a lean day ... Another main vegetable, a pillar of peasant cuisine is cabbage. Cabbage soup - with the same seasoning as the stew. And all this - under black bread. This was the daily everyday lunch and dinner menu for a peasant in the center of Russia.

Breakfast and afternoon tea consisted of rye cheesecake with cottage cheese, or rye pie with potatoes or turnips. And more often - if the hostess was not up to the frills - just a slice of black bread with boiled potatoes. And, of course, tea. Tea - like a prayer, twice a day the peasant drank tea - "took away the soul." Only in the days of the slow, some of the peasants changed their tea - they cooked burnt chicory, flavored it with milk. Or milk was added to the same tea - "for color."

During the fast, the diet changed. The food was white sauerkraut, flavored with onions and kvass, radish with butter, "mura" or "tyurya" - a mixture of bread crumbs, chopped potatoes, onions and kvass, with the addition of horseradish, vegetable oil and salt.

We ate with pleasure something similar to today's uncomplicated vinaigrette - chopped boiled beets with kvass and cucumbers. This simple joy was accompanied by "mykotin" - black bread, only baked from flour sifted through a sieve and not as sour as the usual "nigella".

On Sundays and "small" holidays, they ate almost the same as on weekdays. Only sometimes they cooked "curd". For this dish, cottage cheese, pounded with sour cream with the addition of a couple of eggs and milk, was kept in a clay bowl in a Russian oven.

The business was not complete without delicacies. And they were not gingerbread cookies, cookies, sweets - very expensive for a peasant's wallet, not dried "duli" - pears, which also had to be bought somewhere, not jam, which required molasses or expensive sugar as a preservative. No, we were eating - steamed turnips! The children loved her, and during the winter fast - and the adults, they especially respected the fruit drink from this root crop.

The tradition of folk “cash-eating” is not that old. Porridge, in fact, was a food concentrate. And it was used only in "harvest", which was recognized as haymaking.

Russian peasants - forced vegetarians - ate meat on big holidays - on Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Trinity, Christmas and the Dormition of the Virgin, in memory of the apostles Peter and Paul. However, like the white "pechevo" - pies and sieve pies made from white wheat flour.

There was also a special table in other "special" cases. "To the dump" there was meat, and "pecheva" made of white flour, and other dishes, including those purchased in the city or in the village shop, during "help", at celebrations on the occasion of name days, christenings, on patronal holidays ... At the same time they also drank plenty of wine and tea. Considering that there are a few more thrones in rural churches (and not in rural ones either), besides the main thing, one can imagine how many reasons there were for gluttony and gullezh.

These holidays often lasted from 2-3 (in the spring) to 7-10 days (in the fall). If it was a patronal or family holiday, many guests came to each house - relatives or simply people who were well acquainted with the owners, but not alone, but families, with wives and children (both adults and little ones - except for girls!), In festive clothes ... They came on the best horses, in the best carriages.

Those who described these holidays (and they were most often either village priests, or zemstvo officials, or local teachers) especially note how expensive such feasts cost - “what is spent on these holidays would be enough with the remainder to pay the rent for a whole year and all taxes and duties - and the peasant would not be forced to eat something for a whole year ... ".

Russian cuisine is characterized by the following features: an extraordinary constancy of the composition of dishes and their range of flavors, strict canons of preparation. The origins of Russian cookery begin with the creation of cereal cereals, primarily oatmeal, rye and national Russian leavened (that is, sour) bread made from rye flour.

Already in the middle of the 9th century, that black, rye, spongy and perfumed bread with leavened leaven appeared, without which the Russian menu is unthinkable.

After him, other types of national bread and flour products were created: dezhni, loaves, juices, pancakes, pies, pancakes, bagels, sausages, donuts. The last three categories are almost a century later, after the appearance of wheat flour

The adherence to kvass and sour was also reflected in the creation of kvass proper, the range of which reached two or three dozen species, very different from each other in taste, as well as in the invention of the original Russian jelly oat, rye, wheat, which appeared almost 900 years earlier than modern berry starch jelly.

At the very beginning of the Old Russian period, all the main drinks, in addition to kvass, were formed: all kinds of digestions (sbitni), which were a combination of decoctions of various forest herbs with honey and spices, as well as honey and honey, that is, natural honey fermented with berry juice or simply diluted juices and water to various consistencies.

Although porridges were unleavened according to the principles of their production, they were sometimes acidified with sour milk. They also differed in diversity, subdividing by the types of grain (spelled, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, millet, wheat), by the types of grain crushing or rolling (for example, barley gave three cereals: barley, Dutch, pearl barley; four buckwheat: kernel , Veligorka, Smolensk, I went through; wheat is also three: whole, cork, semolina, etc.), and, finally, by the type of consistency, because porridges were divided into friable, smears and gruel (completely thin)

All this made it possible to vary from 6-7 types of grain and three types of legumes (peas, beans, lentils) several dozen different cereals. In addition, various flour products were made from the flour of these cultures. All this bread, mainly flour food, diversified mainly with fish, mushrooms, forest berries, vegetables, and less often milk and meat.

Already in the early Middle Ages, there was a clear, or rather, a sharp division of the Russian table into a lean (vegetable fish mushroom) and a milky (egg milk meat). At the same time, the lean table did not include all vegetable products.

So, it excluded beets, carrots and sugar, which were also ranked among the mildest food. Drawing a sharp line between a fast and lean table, fencing off products of various origins from each other with an impenetrable wall and strictly preventing their mixing, naturally led to the creation of original dishes, for example, various types of fish soup, pancakes, kundyums (mushroom dumplings).

The fact that most days of the year from 192 to 216 in different years were lean, caused a completely natural desire for a variety of lean meals. Hence, the abundance of mushroom and fish dishes in the Russian national cuisine, the tendency to use various plant materials from grain (cereals) to forest berries and herbs (snow, nettle, sorrel, quinoa, angelica, etc.).

At first, attempts to diversify the lean table were expressed in the fact that each type of vegetables, mushrooms or fish was prepared separately. So, cabbage, turnips, radishes, peas, cucumbers (vegetables known since the X century) were prepared and eaten raw, salted (pickled), steamed, boiled or baked separately from one another.

Salads and especially vinaigrette were not typical of Russian cuisine at that time and appeared in Russia only in the middle of the 19th century. But they were originally made mainly with one vegetable, which is why they were called cucumber salad, beet salad, potato salad, etc.

Mushroom dishes underwent an even greater differentiation. Each type of mushrooms, milk mushrooms, mushrooms, honey agarics, cepes, morels and peppers (champignons), etc. were not only salted, but also cooked completely separately. The same was the case with fish consumed in boiled, dried, salted, baked and, less often, fried.

Sigovina, taimenina, pike, halibut, catfish, salmon, sturgeon, sevryuzhina, beluzhina and others were considered each separately a special, different dish, and not just fish. Therefore, the ear could be perch, ruff, burbot or sterlet.

The flavor diversity of such homogeneous dishes was achieved in two ways: on the one hand, the difference in heat and cold processing, as well as through the use of various oils, mainly vegetable hemp, nut, poppy, wood (olive) and much later sunflower, and on the other the use of spices ...

Of the latter, onions and garlic were used more often, and in very large quantities, as well as parsley, mustard, anise, coriander, bay leaves, black pepper and cloves, which appeared in Russia since the 11th century. Later, in the 11th and early 12th century, they were supplemented with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, calamus (ore root) and saffron.

In the ancient period of Russian cuisine, liquid hot dishes also appeared, which received the general name Khlyobovak. Particularly widespread are such types of bread as cabbage soup, stews based on vegetable raw materials, as well as various pasties, vernaculars, talkers, straws and other varieties of flour soups, which differed from each other only in consistency and consisted of three elements of water, flour and fat. , to which sometimes (but not always) was added, onions, garlic or parsley.

They also made sour cream and cottage cheese (in the terminology of that time, cheese). The production of cream and butter remained unknown until the XIV century, and in the XIV-XV centuries these products were rarely prepared and were at first of poor quality. Oil, due to imperfect methods of churning, cleaning and storage, quickly sags.

The national sweet table consisted of berry-flour and berry-honey or honey-flour products. These are gingerbread and different types of unbaked, raw, but folded in a special way dough (Kaluga dough, malt, kulagi), in which a delicate taste effect was achieved by long, patient and laborious processing.

There were times when the Russian peasant could not pamper himself with salted or fresh tomatoes, boiled potatoes. ate bread, cereals, milk, steep oatmeal jelly, turnips. By the way, jelly is the oldest dish. Pea jelly is mentioned in the chronicle collection of the "Tale of Bygone Years". It was supposed to use jelly on short days with butter or milk.

A common dish among the Russians for every day was considered to be cabbage soup, which was sometimes seasoned with buckwheat or millet porridge.
Slice of steeply salted rye bread was fortified by Rusich at work in the fields, on hikes. Wheat was a rarity for a simple peasant's table in central Russia, where it was difficult to grow this grain because of the weather conditions and the quality of the land.
Up to 30 types of pies were served to the festive table in Ancient Russia: mushroom pickers, chicken pies (with chicken meat), with berries and poppy seeds, turnips, cabbage and chopped hard-boiled eggs.
Along with cabbage soup, ukha was also popular. But don't think that this is just fish soup. Ukha in Russia was called any soup, not only with fish. The ear could be black or white, depending on the presence of seasonings in it. Black with cloves and white with black pepper. Ukha without spices was nicknamed "naked".

Unlike Europe, Russia did not know a shortage of oriental spices. The way from the Varangians to the Greeks solved the problem of supplying pepper, cinnamon, and other overseas spices. Mustard has been cultivated in Russian gardens since the 10th century. The life of Ancient Russia was unthinkable without spices - spicy and fragrant.
The peasants did not always have enough grain. Turnip served Russian peasants as an auxiliary food crop before the introduction of potatoes. It was harvested for future use in various forms. The barns of the well-to-do owner were also full of peas, beans, beets, and carrots. The chefs did not skimp on Russian dishes not only with pepper, but also with local spices - garlic and onions. The king of Russian spices turned out to be a hard-core horseradish. They did not spare him even for kvass.

Meat dishes in Russia were prepared both boiled and steamed and fried. There were a lot of game and fish in the forests. So there was never a shortage of black grouse, hazel grouse, swans and herons. It is noted that before the 16th century, the consumption of meat by the Russian people was much higher than in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, here Russia kept up with the European tendency to feed the common people.
From drinks, all classes preferred berry fruit drinks, kvass, as well as strong hop honeys. Vodka was produced in small quantities; drunkenness was condemned by the church and the authorities until the 16th century. Converting grain to vodka was considered a huge sin.
However, it is known. that at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, masters made vodka on herbs, which the Tsar ordered to grow in his pharmaceutical garden. The emperor sometimes consumed a glass or two of vodka for St. John's wort, juniper, anise, mint. Fryazhsky wines (from Italy) and wines from Germany, France were bought by the tsar's treasury for official receptions in large quantities. They were delivered in barrels on the transfer barrels.

The life of Ancient Russia assumed a special order of eating food. In peasant houses, the meal was headed by the head of the family; no one could start eating without his permission. the best pieces were given to the main worker on the farm - the peasant owner himself, who was sitting under the icons in the hut. The meal began with the creation of a prayer.
Localism prevailed in boyar and tsarist feasts. The most respected nobleman at the royal feast sat at the right hand of the Emperor. And he was the first to be presented with a goblet of wine or honey. In the hall for feasts of all classes, the female sex was not allowed.
Interestingly, it was forbidden to come to the dinner party just like that, in passing. Whoever violated such a prohibition could pay with his life - it is likely that they would have been hunted down by dogs or bears. Also, the rules of good manners in the Russian feast recommended not to scold the taste of food, behave decorously and drink in moderation, so as not to fall under the table drunk until feeling insensible.