The food of our commoner ancestors was quite simple. They had a custom of eating bread, garlic, eggs, salt, and drinking kvass.

For everyone, Russian cuisine was subject to custom, not art.

Although the rich had a variety of dishes, they were rather monotonous. The well-to-do even compiled a gastronomic calendar for a whole year, taking into account church holidays, meat-eaters and fasting.

In addition, everyone cooked soup, porridge, and oatmeal at home. Soup with a piece of bacon or beef was a favorite at court.

Russians revered good bread, fresh and salted fish, eggs, vegetables from the garden (cabbage, cucumbers, turnips, onions, garlic). All food was divided into lean and short, and depending on the products that were used to prepare a particular dish, all food could be divided into mealy, dairy, meat, fish, and vegetable.

Bread.

Mostly they ate rye bread. Although the Russians learned rye much later than wheat. And it appeared on the soil by accident - like a weed. But this weed turned out to be surprisingly tenacious. While wheat died from frost, rye withstood the test of the cold and saved people from hunger. It is no coincidence that, by the 11-12 centuries, the Russians ate mainly rye bread. Sometimes barley flour was mixed with rye flour, but not often, since barley was rarely bred in Russia.

When the stocks of rye and wheat were not enough, carrots, beets, potatoes, nettles, and quinoa were added to the bread. And sometimes the peasants were forced to cook salamata - toasted wheat flour brewed with boiling water.

Pure rye bread was called lively.

They baked from the sown flour spattered bread, or sieve.

They baked from flour sifted through a sieve sieve bread.

From wholemeal flour, fur types of bread ("chaff") were made.

The best bread was considered gritty- white bread made from well-processed wheat flour.

Wheat flour was used mainly for prosphora and kalachi (festive food of commoners).

Bread from unleavened dough was made very rarely, it was mainly made from yeast, sour dough.

Thanks to the fact that our ancestors learned to make flour, they got bread that did not dry out for a long time.

It was difficult to make yeast on your own, so they put the dough on the "head" - the remainder of the dough from the last baking.

They usually baked bread for a whole week.

Round, tall, fluffy, very porous bread was called a loaf. Round and ellipsoidal pies and rolls without filling - loafs.

The rolls were especially fond of; they also baked cakes and pies.

Pies.

They were very famous in Russia - yarn and hearth. On short days they were stuffed with meat, and even several types of meat at the same time; on Shrovetide, they baked yarn pies with cottage cheese and eggs in milk, butter, fish and eggs; on fast fish days - fish pies.

On fast days, instead of butter and lard, lean (vegetable) oil was added to the dough and pies with molasses, sugar and honey were served.

Porridge.

Although in Ancient Russia any dishes made from crushed products were called porridge, traditionally, food made from cereals is considered porridge.

The porridge had ritual significance. In addition to the usual, everyday porridge and festive cereal, there was a ritual - kutia. It was cooked from whole grains of wheat, barley, spelled, and later from rice. Raisins, honey, poppy seeds were added to kutya. As a rule, they cooked kutya on New Year's Eve, at Christmas and at funerals.

In ancient times, a large number of varieties of cereals were known. Juice - a porridge made from crushed grain - was cooked on Christmas Eve, on Christmas Eve. Kulesh - liquid wheat porridge - was often cooked in the south of Russia with potatoes, seasoned with onions fried with lard or in vegetable oil. Barley porridge - made from barley - was very popular in the Urals and Siberia. "Thick" porridge was made from pearl barley. Zavarukha is a special type of porridge that was brewed with boiling water.

Vegetable dishes... Vegetables used to be revered more as a spicy seasoning for food, rather than as an independent dish. This is obviously due to the fact that onions and garlic were the favorite food of the Russian people. They respected very much in Russia "pounded" onion and salt, which was eaten with bread and kvass for breakfast.

Turnip is a primordially Russian vegetable. Chroniclers mention it along with rye. Before the advent of potatoes, it was the main vegetable on the table. One of the most common dishes was turnip stew - turnips and turnip stews.

Cabbage also took root well on the table of our ancestors. They made supplies from it for the winter - they cut it down everywhere in the fall. They fermented not only chopped cabbage, but whole heads of cabbage.

The taste of potatoes - the second bread - was learned in Russia late - in the 18th century. But these "earthy apples" very quickly conquered the table of the Russian people, unreasonably replacing the turnip.

Willy-nilly, people became staunch vegetarians during the fast. They ate sauerkraut, beets with vegetable oil and vinegar, pea pies, onions, mushrooms, various dishes of peas, horseradish, and radishes.

Herbal dishes. Nettle cabbage soup, quinoa cutlets were cooked not only when hunger pressed. In the past, a mixture of thistle leaves, sorrel, and onions was also used in cooking. They also ate duckweed, adding butter and horseradish. And for cabbage soup, hogweed, wild sorrel, hare cabbage, oxalis, and other wild plants were suitable.

Bay leaf, ginger, cinnamon used to replace calamus.

Angelica, St. John's wort, mint, lovage, lemon balm, saffron were used as a seasoning.

Teas were infused from willow tea, oregano, linden blossom, mint, and lingonberry leaves.

Modest meals.

As a meat-eater, the Russian people allowed themselves to taste meat food, dishes from fish, cottage cheese, milk. However, little is known about traditional Russian curry dishes. Moreover, there were some prohibitions on mixing products. Therefore, you will not find minced meat, rolls, pates, cutlets in the primordially Russian cuisine.

Fish was considered a semi-fasting dish. It was not allowed to eat it only on days of especially strict fasting. However, an exception was made for herring and roach even these days. But on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, fish dishes formed the basis of the menu.

Milk played an important role. However, in poor families, only the smallest children were allowed to drink milk, and adults ate it with bread.

Butter.

After the adoption of Christianity among the Russians, it was customary to divide all types of edible oils into shallow (of animal origin) and lean (vegetable). Vegetable oil was especially appreciated by the people, as it could be eaten both on fast and fast days. In the northern regions, preference was given to linseed, in the southern - hemp. But there were also known such oils as nut, poppy, mustard, sesame, pumpkin. Sunflower oil became widespread only in the 19th century.

Vegetable oil was widely used in Russian cuisine. Various dishes (cereals, snacks, soups) were served with it, cakes were dipped into it. Usually eaten without prior heat treatment.

Russian national cuisine has a very long history. It originated in the 9th century and has undergone many changes since then. The unique geographical location had a huge impact on the process of its formation. Thanks to the forests, a lot of dishes made from the game that lived there appeared in it, the presence of fertile lands made it possible to grow crops, and the presence of lakes contributed to the fact that fish appeared on the tables of the local population. In today's publication, it will not only tell what they ate in Russia, but also consider several recipes that have survived to this day.

Features of becoming

Since Russia has long been a multinational state, the local population enjoyed learning culinary tricks from each other. Therefore, each region of the country had its own unique recipes, many of which have survived to our times. In addition, domestic housewives did not hesitate to adopt the experience of overseas chefs, thanks to which many new dishes appeared in the domestic cuisine.

So, the Greeks and Scythians taught the Russians to knead yeast dough, the Byzantines told about the existence of rice, buckwheat and many spices, and the Chinese talked about tea. Thanks to the Bulgarians, local chefs learned about zucchini, eggplants and sweet peppers. And from the Western Slavs they borrowed recipes for dumplings, cabbage rolls and borscht.

During the reign of Peter I, potatoes began to be massively grown in Russia. Around the same time, previously inaccessible cookers and special containers designed for cooking on an open fire began to appear at the disposal of housewives.

Cereals

What they ate in Russia before potatoes, experts managed to find out thanks to excavations carried out on the territory of ancient settlements. In the texts found by scientists, it is said that the Slavs of that time ate exclusively plant foods. They were farming and believed in the benefits of vegetarianism. Therefore, the basis of their diet was made up of cereals like oats, barley, rye, wheat and millet. They were fried, soaked, or ground into flour. From the latter, unleavened flat cakes were baked. Later, local housewives learned how to make bread and various pies. Since then no one knew about yeast, baked goods were prepared from the so-called "sour" dough. It was started in a voluminous vessel made of flour and river water, and then kept warm for several days.

For those who do not know what they ate in Russia before potatoes, it will be interesting that the menu of our distant ancestors consisted of a large number of crumbly, cool cereals. In those days, they were cooked mainly from millet or whole peeled oats. It was steamed for a long time by the stoves, and then flavored with butter, hemp or linseed oil. Rice was then very rare and cost a lot of money. Ready-made porridge was used as an independent dish or as a side dish for meat or fish.

Vegetables, mushrooms and berries

For a long time, plant food remained the main thing that was eaten in Russia by those who closely engaged in agriculture. The main source of protein for our distant ancestors was legumes. In addition, they cultivated turnips, radishes, garlic and peas on their plots. From the latter, they not only cooked soups and cereals, but also baked pancakes and pies. A little later, vegetables such as carrots, onions, cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes became available to Russians. Local housewives quickly learned how to make various dishes from them and even began to prepare them for the winter.

Also in Russia, various berries were actively harvested. They were not only eaten fresh, but also used as a base for jam. Since sugar was not available to the housewives of that time, it was successfully replaced with more useful natural honey.

The Russians did not disdain mushrooms either. Milk mushrooms, mushrooms, boletus, boletus and white mushrooms were especially popular in that era. They were collected in the nearby forests, and then salted in huge barrels, sprinkled with fragrant dill.

Meat and fish

For a very long time they lived in peace with animals, because agricultural products were the basis of what they ate in Russia before the arrival of the nomads. It was they who taught our distant ancestors to eat meat. But at that time it was not available to all segments of the population. On the tables of peasants and ordinary townspeople, meat appeared exclusively on major holidays. As a rule, it was beef, horse meat or pork. Poultry or game were considered less rare. Large deer carcasses were stuffed with lard and then fried on a spit. Smaller prey, like a hare, were supplemented with vegetables and roots and simmered in clay pots.

Over time, the Slavs mastered not only agriculture, but also fishing. Since then, they have had another option for what they could eat. There are many rivers and lakes in Russia, in which there are a sufficient number of various fish. The caught prey was dried in the sun to preserve it for a longer period.

Beverages

A special place in the menu of the old Slavs was given to kvass. They not only replaced water or wine, but also treated for indigestion. Also, this amazing drink was used as a basis for the preparation of various dishes like botvinia or okroshka.

Jelly was no less popular with our ancestors. It was very thick and tasted sour rather than sweet. It was made from oatmeal diluted with plenty of water. The resulting mixture was first fermented, and then boiled until a thick mass was obtained, poured with honey and ate.

Beer was in great demand in Russia. It was boiled from barley or oats, fermented with hops and served on special occasions. Around the 17th century, the Slavs learned about the existence of tea. It was considered an overseas curiosity and was used on very rare occasions. Usually it was successfully replaced with more useful herbal preparations, brewed with steep boiling water.

Beet kvass

This is one of the oldest drinks, which was especially popular among the Slavs. It has excellent refreshing properties and excellent thirst quencher. To prepare it you will need:

• 1 kg of beets.
• 3.5 liters of water.

Beets are peeled and rinsed. The fifth part of the product processed in this way is cut into thin circles and placed on the bottom of the pan. The rest of the roots are immersed in the same place entirely. All this is poured with the required volume of water and boiled until tender. Then the contents of the pan are left warm, and after three days they are removed to a cold cellar. After 10-15 days, the beet kvass is completely ready.

Pea mash

This dish is one of those that were eaten in the old days in Russia in the most ordinary peasant families. It is made with very simple ingredients and has a high nutritional value. To make this puree, you will need:

• 1 cup dry peas
• 2 tbsp. l. oils.
• 3 cups of water.
• Salt (to taste).

Pre-sorted and washed peas are soaked for several hours, and then poured with salted water and boiled until soft. The finished product is mashed and flavored with oil.

Pork kidneys in sour cream

Those who are interested in what they ate in should pay attention to this rather unusual, but very tasty dish. It goes well with various cereals and will allow you to slightly diversify the usual menu. To prepare it you will need:

• 500 g fresh pork kidneys.
• 150 g of thick non-acidic sour cream.
• 150 ml of water (+ a little more for cooking).
• 1 tbsp. l. flour.
• 1 tbsp. l. oils.
• 1 onion head.
• Any herbs and spices.

The kidneys, previously cleaned from films, are rinsed and soaked in cold water. Three hours later they are poured with new liquid and sent to the fire. As soon as the water boils, the kidneys are removed from the pan, rinsed again, cut into small slices and refrigerated. Not earlier than an hour later they are put in a frying pan, which already contains flour, oil and chopped onions. All this is seasoned with spices, poured with water and stewed until tender. Shortly before turning off the fire, the dish is supplemented with sour cream and sprinkled with chopped herbs.

Turnip chowder

This is one of the most popular dishes that our ancestors ate in Russia. It can still be prepared today for those who love simple food. To do this, you will need:

• 300 g turnips.
• 2 tbsp. l. oils.
• 2 tbsp. l. thick rustic sour cream.
• 4 potatoes.
• 1 onion head.
• 1 tbsp. l. flour.
• Water and any fresh herbs.

Pre-washed and peeled turnips are processed with a grater and placed in a deep saucepan. Finely chopped onion and cold water are also added there. All this is sent to the fire and boiled until half cooked. Then they send potato wedges to the vegetables and wait for them to soften. At the final stage, the almost ready-made chowder is supplemented with flour and oil, boiled for a short time and removed from the heat. It is served with finely chopped herbs and fresh sour cream.

We are used to seeing a variety of food on our table, and throughout the day we have something to eat. And what did our ancestors eat and why were they almost vegetarians?

Hippocrates said: "We are what we eat." Interested in the history of our people, we sometimes miss such a moment as traditional cuisine. And this is an important factor. After all, folk cuisine is one of the ways of manifesting cultural development. Eaten food speaks of the ability or inability of people to manage the household. Our ancestors cooked many vegetables and, oddly enough, ate little meat. Was there really a lack of experience in animal husbandry, or is there another reason?

The very first meal

In those distant times, when people were just learning to sow fields and raise animals, the main food was what they could collect. The Slavs used the rich gifts of the forest: they hunted, collected mushrooms, nuts, berries and fruits of trees. Then they knew how to dry berries for the winter, but apples and pears were eaten only fresh.

Also, the Slavs mined honey from forest bees. Borticulture did not exist then, but our ancestors knew how to take care of wild insects, cutting down special grooves in tree trunks for their hives.

In early spring, vitamin deficiency was fought with the help of birch and maple sap, from which syrups were cooked. Nettles were also used. They ate it not raw, of course, but boiled or scalded with boiling water.

The Slavs were skilled fishermen. It was fish that was the main substitute for meat. Many dishes were prepared from it, including the famous fish soup. Then they caught with the help of special traps - woodpeckers, which were woven from willow twigs.

Native products

Before the trade between the Russians and other countries was not yet established, our ancestors could serve only those products that grew in the middle lane. The earliest cultivated plants were rye, barley and oats. The grinding of grain was a laborious undertaking requiring the efforts of many people. Therefore, in each settlement there was only one mill with stone millstones, and it worked infrequently. From the obtained barley and rye flour, they prepared porridge and baked bread.

Instead of potatoes, rutabagas were fried. This plant required care and sufficient watering, and gave a poor harvest. But it could be stored in the cellar right up to spring, or even until the next harvest. Cabbage was another common product. True, then it was not yet heady and resembled the present salad, but it was stored for a very short time.

Remember the tale about the Turnip? Yes, she was the most "Russian" product. She could be seen in every vegetable garden. Turnip grew quickly and was stored for a long time, and almost dozens of dishes could be prepared from it.

Russified products

Have you ever wondered why buckwheat has such a name? The answer is simple: it appeared in Russia when trade relations with the Black Sea region were established. They bought it from the Greeks, and that's why they called it buckwheat. This not very demanding plant quickly took root on the banks of the Dnieper, and also quickly fell in love with our ancestors. Porridge was cooked from it, and flour was added to bread.

Together with buckwheat, the Slavs got from the Black Sea region cucumbers, onions and some varieties of fruit trees. True, horticulture developed very slowly in Russia: our ancestors liked more to collect fruits from wild trees than to take care of the garden.

Popular pumpkin and garlic are also "foreigners" on the Russian table. They came to us during the ruinous raids of the nomadic Volga Khazars somewhere in the 9-10th centuries. Our ancestors stored pumpkin for the winter to add it to cereals, and garlic was used for salting and as a seasoning for meat.

The meat question

So why did our ancestors eat fish and mushrooms more often than meat? Is it really true that the stereotype that the Slavs are born lazy, and do not even want to engage in animal husbandry? Of course not! The reason lies elsewhere.

Those who live in the countryside know how difficult and costly it is to keep livestock. A few pigs, goats or cows were still all right, but very few people can afford to feed the herd in order to eat meat themselves every month. It was the same in antiquity. The cattle were kept, but not enough, and they slaughtered it only for major holidays. Therefore, our ancestors often bred poultry, and less often goats, pigs and rounds - the predecessors of cows.

But if it is difficult to keep livestock, why not get meat from the forest? But even with the desire it was not so simple. To stock up on meat for a long time, it was required to hunt not hares or birds, but wild boars, elks, roe deer or rounds. And this is a dangerous and difficult business. The hunters united in small groups and went far from the villages, leaving the family for several days. In addition, rich lands often belonged to princes or boyars, and hunting for ordinary villagers was prohibited there.

Therefore, our ancestors replaced meat with fish and mushrooms, and went hunting for furs. You can get squirrel, marten or sable alone, and selling their skins was much more profitable, especially in the markets of the Black Sea region. The Slavs knew how to make furs since ancient times. To do this, they used salt and oxalic acid.

What our ancestors ate
In Russia, starting from the XI century, monks kept their records with 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 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 item of foreign trade.
Year 971 - during the famine, the high 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 nevertheless remarkable. This means that there was no ban on the use 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 garbage 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 handed out 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 by 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, living like a beast: I will kill each other, everything is unclean to poison ...". 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 anger of their more faithful neighbors. Remember that the Vyatichi, one hundred and twenty-five years after the baptism of Rus, killed the missionary of 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 did not 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 the 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 an epidemic of plague. 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 mentioned 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 were most widespread, turnips lost their former importance, but rutabaga still played an important role in the diet. The reason for this is that its roots are larger, there are more nutrients in them than in 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, sprinkle with butter and bake. Minced meat is prepared as for pies.
Peeled turnip 250, fried minced meat 75, cheese 5, butter 20.
Baked rutabaga.
Rutabaga is 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 letting down. After that, add salt, pepper, mix with sour cream or sour cream sauce, lay out on kronchels 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 holds its position in our diet. This is due primarily to its culinary merits and the ability to ferment.
Cabbage was brought from the shores of the warm Mediterranean Sea and has taken root perfectly 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 in the culinary books of the beginning of the 20th century was called "turnip cabbage", took root much faster in our country. Finally, already in the second half of the 20th century, broccoli began to be used in cooking. The use of collard greens 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%), somewhat 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, 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 cabbage soup, a favorite dish of our people. Let's 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 chopped 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. Grease the stewpan with oil, sprinkle 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 over 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 everything 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 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 oatmeal jelly, which was a favorite dish among the Russian people. Here is the recipe for this jelly.
Oatmeal jelly. Pour the groats with warm water and leave in a warm place for a day. 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. Maybe pea soup with smoked meats. But in vain: peas contain about 23% proteins, 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 laid out 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 the 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 ".

The people call her “the foremother of bread”. They say that an ancient culinary specialist once cooked porridge and inadvertently poured more cereals than necessary. The error turned into a cake. People, having properly scolded the careless cook, nevertheless tried the new dish, and, apparently, they liked it. Over time, the tortillas were baked from flour. So, according to a popular saying, bread was born from porridge. By the way, modern science does not deny this assumption.
In Russia, porridge from time immemorial occupied the most important place in the nutrition of the people, being one of the main dishes of both poor and rich people. Hence the Russian proverb: "Porridge is our mother."

Archaeological finds indicate that this dish was known to our ancestors more than a thousand years ago - this is exactly the age of the porridge found in a pot under a layer of ash during excavations of the ancient city of Lyubech in Ukraine.
Cooked porridge "on the abyss of frets", on weekdays and holidays.
By the way, porridge in Ancient Russia was called not only cereal dishes, but in general everything that was cooked from crushed products. So, in ancient sources, cereals are mentioned, which were made from rusks, as well as a wide variety of fish porridges: herring, whitefish, salmon, salmon, sterlet, sturgeon, beluga, porridge with head. Apparently, the fish was finely chopped and, possibly, mixed with boiled cereals. In the 18th-19th centuries, cereals were cooked together with potatoes. Dressed with onions and vegetable oil, this dish is called kulesh. They also cooked peas, juice (in hemp oil), carrot, turnip and many other cereals from vegetables.
Porridge, as the most common dish, was used as a ceremonial bush. For example, it was cooked at weddings and fed to the young. So, according to the description of the wedding rituals of the second half of the 17th century, they brought porridge to the newlyweds' room, which they "scoop and throw for themselves." Porridge in this case was a symbol of sowing and fertility.
According to earlier sources (16th century), after the wedding, Prince Vasily Ivanovich and his wife went to the soap-house, and there the newlyweds ate porridge. Often, porridge was the only food for young people at a wedding feast. The wedding feast in Ancient Russia was called “porridge”.
The Novgorod Chronicle of 1239, reporting on the marriage of Alexander Nevsky, says that the prince "got married in the Trinity, that (there - VK, NM) they repaired porridge, and another in Novgorod."
And here is the story with Dmitry Donskoy's "porridge". Having decided to marry the daughter of the Nizhny Novgorod prince, he, according to the custom that existed at that time, had to go "to the porridge" to the father of his bride. However, the Moscow prince considered it beneath his dignity to celebrate a wedding on the land of his future father-in-law and invited the latter to come to Moscow. But the prince of Nizhny Novgorod would have fallen in his own eyes and in the eyes of his neighbors, had he agreed to such an "offensive" proposal. And then they chose the golden mean. Porridge was not cooked in Moscow or Novgorod, but in Kolomna, which lies almost in the middle of the road between two glorious cities.
In general, the organization of a wedding feast in those days, apparently, was a rather troublesome business, for it gave rise to the saying "make a mess."

Porridge was also cooked at the conclusion of a peace treaty between the warring parties. As a sign of union and friendship, the former opponents sat down at the same table and ate this porridge. If the parties failed to reach an agreement on peace, they said: "You can't cook porridge with him." This expression has survived to our time, however, its meaning has changed somewhat. Today we often address this phrase to an inept person, and not to an enemy.
Christmas holidays, homelands, christenings, funerals and many other events in the life of the people also did not go without porridge in Russia.
On Vasilyev's Day, before the New Year, in many Russian provinces, porridge was prepared in compliance with a certain ritual. It happened something like this. Cooked porridge "until light". At night, the oldest woman in the house brought cereals from the barn, and the eldest of the men brought water from the river or well. And they put water and cereals on the table, and God forbid anyone
touch them until the oven is heated.
But now the stove is heated, the whole family sits down at the table, and the older woman starts stirring the cereals, saying: “They sowed, grew buckwheat all summer; our buckwheat has become ugly and large and blush; they called and called buckwheat to Constantinople with princes, with boyars, with honest oats, golden barley; waiting for buckwheat, waiting at the stone gates; Princes and boyars greeted buckwheat, they planted buckwheat at an oak table for a feast; buckwheat came to visit us ”. Probably, if the porridge was cooked from other cereals, praise was given to it too. But buckwheat has always enjoyed special respect among the Russian people. It is no coincidence that she was called "princess".
After this lamentation, everyone gets up from the table, and the hostess bows down to putting the pot of porridge into the oven. Then the family sits down at the table again and waits for the porridge to be cooked.
Finally, she is ready, and here comes the crucial moment. With the words "You are welcome to our courtyard with your good", the woman takes the porridge out of the oven and first of all examines the pot in which it was cooked. There is no greater misfortune for a family than if the porridge comes out of the pot or, even worse, the pot turns out to be cracked. Then open the gates for the troubles to come. But that's not all. If the porridge turned out to be red, well boiled - the family should be happy in the new year, with a good harvest. The pale color of porridge is a harbinger of misfortune for the family.
By the way, there were a great many ways of fortune telling in porridge. Most often, the object of fortune-telling was the future harvest. For example, in Galician Russia on the eve of Christmas, when they eat kutya, such an unusual way of predicting the harvest was widespread. The owner of the house, having scooped up a spoonful of this porridge, threw it against the ceiling: the more grains stick to the ceiling, the richer the harvest.

Kutya was prepared from wheat, rice, barley and other cereals with raisins, honey, poppy seeds, etc. As a rule, everywhere it had a ceremonial memorial value, but in Russia it was also cooked for Christmas.
Here is what MG Rabinovich writes about kutya in his book "Essays on the Material Culture of the Russian Feudal City": “Kutia was mentioned for the first time at the beginning of the 12th century. (in the chronicle source "The Tale of Bygone Years". - VK, NM). Initially, it was prepared from wheat grains with honey, and in the 16th century - with poppy seeds. In the XIX century. they already took rice and raisins for kutya, as they do at the present time. If the ancient kutia is apparently of rural origin, then the later one (entirely from imported products) is urban. The Rule of Tikhvin Monastery meals distinguishes between kutya and "how to say wheat boiled with honey and chinen raisins." Apparently, at the end of the 16th century. they had only just begun to add raisins to kutya and to distinguish them they used the name kolivo, which meant the same as kutya. "
The so-called "votive" porridge was eaten on the day of Agrafena Kupalnitsa (June 23) but returning from the bathhouse or after bathing. This porridge was prepared according to a special ceremony. Girls from different houses were going to crush the groats for her, each bringing her own groats. On that day, they also cooked "worldly porridge", which was used to feed the poor.
Porridge occupied an honorable place on the table and at the festivities on the occasion of the end of the harvest, especially if hired workers were involved. When hiring for work in the field, the employee often pronounced the obligatory porridge for lunch as an important condition. Especially insisted on this, for example, the Karelians, who considered millet porridge a great delicacy.
Any collective work, be it harvesting or building a house, could not do without artel porridge. Sometimes the artel itself was called "porridge". They said: "We are from the same porridge."
Few other cuisine can offer as many varieties of cereals as Russian. They differ, first of all, by the types of cereals. The most common cereals for cereals in Russia have always been millet, barley, oats, buckwheat, rice.
Each cereal, depending on the type of processing, was subdivided into types. So, they made a kernel from buckwheat and made pearl barley (large grains), Dutch (smaller grains) and barley (very small grains) from barley. By the way, it is believed that barley porridge was a favorite dish of Peter I.
Millet porridge was cooked from millet, semolina was made from hard wheat groats, and oatmeal was made from whole crushed oats. Green porridge was widespread in some provinces; it was cooked from young, unripe, half-poured rye.
We all know from childhood the fairy tale of Pushkin, in which the priest fed his worker Balda with boiled spelled. What is it? In Russia, spelled was called a spike plant, a cross between wheat and barley. Porridge was also cooked from the cereal. It was considered rough but nutritious, so it was intended primarily for the poorest.

Porridge, as a rule, was cooked from unprocessed grains, crushed and finely ground cereals.
Oatmeal was ubiquitous from finely ground cereals. It was cooked like this: the oats were washed, boiled for a short time, then dried in an oven and pounded in a mortar until the grain turned into small cereals, which was sifted through a sieve.
Buckwheat was considered the most revered among cereals. No wonder Russia was recognized as the world's first buckwheat power. Indeed, once (unfortunately, today you cannot say that) buckwheat could be seen everywhere. She always rescued Russians in difficult times, since she grew up on "lean" land that did not require deep plowing.
Buckwheat porridge is very useful, since 100 g of buckwheat (unground) contains 12.6 g of protein (protein, which is rich in cereals, is well absorbed by the body), 68 g of carbohydrates, calcium, magnesium, iron, a lot of potassium and phosphorus, vitamins B |, Br, PP. In addition, buckwheat goes well with other products: meat, milk, vegetables, mushrooms, etc.
In terms of nutritional value, buckwheat is not inferior to millet, oatmeal, oatmeal. Significantly less minerals and protein in rice.
The energy value of cereals is also great: it is 330 - 350 kilocalories per 100 g of product. And if we consider that any porridge involves, in addition to the cereal itself, all sorts of additives (milk, butter, meat, lard, fish, mushrooms, vegetables, fruits, etc.), then we can quite responsibly state that few other dishes compare with porridge.
Porridge is also good because it can satisfy any, even the most sophisticated tastes. You just need to cook it, like any other dish, with imagination.

Porridge "downy"

2 glasses of buckwheat, 2 eggs, 4 glasses of milk, 30-40 g of butter, 2 glasses of cream, 3 tablespoons of sugar. 5 raw egg yolks.
Grate buckwheat with 2 raw eggs, put on a baking sheet and dry in the oven. Boil crumbly porridge in milk, add butter and, when it cools down, rub it through a sieve onto a dish.
Prepare the dressing: boil the cream with sugar. Beat the yolks, stir them with the cooled cream, put on fire and heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened.
Arrange the porridge on plates and pour with the dressing before serving.
Pumpkin porridge with rice
800 g peeled pumpkin, 4.5 cups milk, 1 cup
rice, 100 g butter.
Cut the pumpkin into pieces, pour in 1.5 cups of milk, boil over low heat, cool and rub through a sieve. Rinse the rice, pour in milk (3 cups) and cook the crumbly porridge. When it's cooked, mix it with pumpkin, put butter and put in the oven to brown the porridge.
Pour the whipped cream over the prepared porridge.

Porridge with onions and skins

4 glasses of crumbly porridge (buckwheat, millet, wheat, rice), 2 onions, 150 g of bacon.
Finely chop the onion and fry with finely diced bacon.
Mix hot crumbly porridge with sautéed onions and bacon greaves.

Millet porridge with cottage cheese

1 glass of millet, 1 glass of cottage cheese, 50 g of butter, sugar.
Pour sorted and washed millet into boiling salted water (2.5 cups) and cook until semi-cooked. Add butter, sugar, cottage cheese, mix everything and cook until millet is ready.
It is good to serve milk, yogurt, kefir with porridge.

Millet porridge with prunes

1 cup cereals (millet), 1/2 cup prunes, 50 g butter, sugar, salt to taste.
Sort the prunes, rinse, add hot water and boil. Drain the broth, add the required amount of water, salt, sugar,
add cereal and cook a viscous porridge.
Arrange the porridge on plates, add prunes and butter to each of them.

Millet loaf

4 cups steep millet porridge, 3 eggs, 50 g butter, 1/2 cup crushed crackers.
Boil steep millet porridge in milk, cool it.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Mix the yolks with chilled porridge; Beat the whites well and also mix with the porridge. The mass should be homogeneous, without lumps.
Grease a round dish or frying pan with butter, sprinkle with crushed breadcrumbs, put the porridge in an even layer and place in a well-preheated oven. After 15-20 minutes, the loaf is ready.
Serve with sour cream, jam.
Loaf can also be baked from other types of cereals with all kinds of fillers (mushrooms, potatoes, fish, etc.).
Krupenik
4 cups crumbly millet (or buckwheat) porridge, 2 cups grated cottage cheese, 2 eggs, 50 g butter, 1/2 cup sour cream, ground crackers, salt, sugar to taste.
In a large bowl, combine crumbly porridge, grated cottage cheese, eggs, butter, salt, sugar. Put the mass in an even thick layer in a shallow baking sheet (or in a frying pan), oiled and sprinkled with breadcrumbs. Pour sour cream on top.
Bake in the oven until golden brown.

Semolina porridge with cranberry juice

1 glass semolina, 400 g cranberries, 1 glass sugar, 1 glass cream.
Rinse the cranberries, crush and squeeze the juice. Pour pomace with water, boil, strain the broth, add sugar and boil.
Dilute semolina with cranberry juice, pour into boiling syrup and cook a thick porridge.
Pour hot porridge into molds and let cool. Serve with cream.