There are many peculiarities in Russian cuisine, as in any other. It is famous for a wide variety of dishes that are simply impossible to find somewhere abroad. Of course, before Russian cuisine was not so popular, because the food was too simple. Everything changed, and religious fasts could not but influence the appearance of a variety of dishes.
Features of Russian Orthodox cuisine
Fasting did not allow people to eat certain types of food, so I had to get very contrived. There were many dishes from vegetables, mushrooms and fish. All products could be stewed, cooked or baked - in general, they did everything to slightly diversify the limited diet. Despite the fact that Russian cuisine was not full of chicken or other meat products, many Europeans were still interested in some dishes, because they were really tasty.
After a while, Russia itself had its own cookbook, where you could see all the features of Russian cuisine.
Soups
Speaking of traditional Russian dishes, it is difficult not to take into account the soups and stews that both peasants and intellectuals ate. This food was prepared on the basis of everything: kvass, yogurt, meat broths. Of course, cabbage soup, hodgepodge, pickle are also well-known "advanced" dishes of Russian cuisine. Today they can be found in many menus of restaurants and abroad.
Porridge
A feature of Russian cuisine is also porridge. It is a basic dish in the diet of every Russian. They like, for example, buckwheat, oatmeal and millet porridge, which are often eaten without additives. Now there are variations like oatmeal with raisins, buckwheat with meat, herbs or sour cream.
Porridge was not only consumed daily, it was a table decoration. For example, on Christmas holidays it is customary to eat kutya. When they meet a newborn at home, they put on the table "grandmother" porridge.
There were times when bread was replaced with this dish, so it is not surprising that many Russians eat the same cabbage soup with pearl barley or other cereal. Probably, it was such a massive prevalence that helped porridge to become a feature of the national cuisine of Russian people.
Meat
The meat of a cow, calves, pigs, rabbits, moose and many birds is an undoubted feature of Russian cuisine. There are many recipes with which you can cook whole meat, piece by piece, make minced meat, and then cutlets. In Russia, the offal of animals was not ignored, making them the main component of many soups, appetizers, individual dishes in principle.
For example, the beef tongue, known to many, was boiled and served with various side dishes. It’s rare where you can find such food. The peculiarity of cooking dishes in Russian cuisine from meat is that the product can become a component of a completely unusual meal. For example, when they make a cow udder with vegetables or stuff a pig with buckwheat and apples. For every taste and color!
Dumplings
Of course, many people know that the homeland of dumplings is the Urals. Dumplings are somewhat similar to khinkali or manti, but have a different shape, as well as a diverse filling. A product in the form of a bear’s ear can be filled not only with meat or fish, it can be prepared from meat with pumpkin, beetroot, and greens.
Side dishes and sauces
In Russia, they also like to serve dishes with various side dishes so that they become even tastier. For this, potatoes were most often used, they also loved sauerkraut, fresh and stewed beets, and carrots.
For sauces used fat sour cream, which could be seasoned with garlic or horseradish, as well as herbs. If the sauces were made hot, then they were served with the dish, since they were added during cooking. The basis was berries, saffron, onions.
Pickles
Pickles and pickled foods have been done before and are doing now. It is difficult to imagine any Russian table without such a dish. For example, they often cooked sauerkraut, pickled mushrooms or cucumbers, pickled tomatoes.
Bakery products
In Russia, baking was especially revered. Kulebyaki, pies, pies, chicken coops and cheesecakes were prepared. Some dishes were used as bread, so they ate with soups or cereals. Sweet pastries remained for dessert when it was time for tea.
Alcohol
Of course, as without alcohol, because abroad they only say that vodka is a Russian drink. Yes, this drink is Russian, and Dmitry Mendeleev created it. A feature of Russian cuisine is the presence of vodka on the table. Caviar or pickles are used as a snack, and some also like to eat very fatty foods.
And what did Russians drink before vodka? Mead or sbiten! These drinks were very popular throughout Russia. Also in some regions, beer was made on a different basis. The Russians and the fermented kvass were not ignored, since it essentially resembled something like beer.
Many loved to pamper themselves with wine drinks that appeared in Russia at the moment when Christianity was adopted. It is for this reason that at first the wine was not so common and loved by people, but then everything changed.