The essence of Russian cuisine is the combination of simple staples to create hearty, belly warming meals. Today, the majority of Russian food comes from household plots. Seasonal, local ingredients, such as vegetables, mushrooms, grains, pork, fish, poultry, dairy, and local honey populate Russian plates. Russian people do not shy away from sour flavors, and in fact enjoy a significant amount of pickled vegetables and soured dairy products due to their ease of winter storage. Thick porridges, dumplings, and long-simmered soups also frequent Russian tables.
The recipes used by Russian home cooks today reflect two distinct historical eras: traditional Russian cuisine and Soviet cuisine. Although ingredient palettes differ between the two eras, both historical iterations of the Russian diet countered the cold with hot, nourishing food and copious amounts of scalding tea.
Traditional Russian cuisine has developed over hundreds of years. It is a mix of Slavic, Byzantine, Mongolian, Bulgarian, Polish, Finnish, Ukrainian, Eastern European and other flavors. The traditional cuisine is characterized by the dietary restrictions of the Russian Orthodox Church, the opulent tastes of the Russian nobility, and the wide variety of food sources available across Europe.
Star ingredients: caviar, grain products such as flour and pasta, smoked fish, pastry, salad greens, beets, locally produced wines and vodkas, honey
Soviet cuisine is characterized by locally sourced, storable peasant food and a few intentionally curated multiethnic additions. It is not heavily spiced, and it involves very few ingredients. Due to times of famine during the five year plans and World War II, Russian people had to work with restricted access to food. The resulting Soviet recipes reflect incredible creativity in times of hardship.
Star ingredients: grains, cabbage, fish, cucumbers, tomatoes, dill, eggs, pork, honey
