Russian Cooking

by Helen Waite Papashvily, George Papashvily

We sell Rare, out-of-print, uncommon, & used BOOKS, PRINTS, MAPS, DOCUMENTS, AND EPHEMERA. We do not sell ebooks, print on demand, or other reproduced materials. Each item you see here is individually described and imaged. We welcome further inquiries.

Genres: Cookbooks, Reference, Russia, Food, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, Cooking

Hardcover

First published December 28, 1969

Reviews

[RebL · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE the Time-Life Foods of the World series. I first ran into them in the University of New Mexico library in the mid-90s, when the books and I were both about 25 years old. They didn't have but a few, and I eventually collected the complete set of 27 through the power of thrift shops and the trend on early eBay for listing used books for a dollar and seeing what happens. These hardback books are mostly cultural commentary and travelogue, with the food of whatever particular region as the centerpiece. A few recipes are at the end of each chapter (there's a harder-to-find accompanying spiral-bound paperback booklet for each hardback volume which contains more recipes).

I pulled out Russian Cooking to read while I was in the middle of "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking" (a memoir, not a cookbook, read it) earlier this year. It's not just Russia they cover; there's Ukrainian, Georgian and Central Asian chapters as well, but I expect that a book called The Foods of the Soviet Union wouldn't have gone over too well in the late 60s when this was being researched and written.

Last time I was in the ReStore they had a few books from this series on their book shelf at 50¢ each, so snatch them up if you run across any. They really are great reading, even if you don't cook.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It is when food is precious that cooks display all their skill and ingenuity.”

Like many of the Foods of the World series, this is filled with wonderful photos of the area; it also has above-average maps. There is a lavishly illustrated map of the “Vast and Varied Nation” in the introductory chapter on “The Bygone Days of the Czars” that looks like something out of a Dungeons and Dragons supplement, something Darlene might have made if the USSR were Greyhawk. If I’m reading the credits correctly, it was by Charles Mikolaycak, and if you want to be delighted do an image search on his name. He’s also done some amazing science fiction work, such as his cover for Andre Norton’s Knave of Dreams.

George Papashvily was born in what would now be the Republic of Georgia. He has an amazing history, if Wikipedia is to be believed: apprenticed as a swordmaker and ornamental leatherworker, served as a sniper with the Imperial Russian Army, fought against the 1921 Red Army invasion, fled to Istanbul and then the United States, a sculptor, an author, an engineer and inventor. He married a bookstore manager in Berkeley and settled down to a farm in Quakerstown. His life was, apparently, even made into a movie.

There is nothing overtly anti-USSR in this book; but it does often seem to go up to the point where if it went one sentence or even one word further, it would be. Just about every satellite nation is described as providing X% of some important resource for the Soviet Union, where X is far out of proportion to their size in the Soviet Union—especially the Baltics and Ukraine. The people of many of the regions, if not most, are described as fiercely independent, and the repeated occupations of their lands described from occupier to occupier, but stopping before the Russian occupation.

Food is described with a sense of abundance, as if everyone has more than enough. But they also describe queues that would make American DMVs blush with shame.

Before you can purchase anything, you must make a selection and get the attention of a clerk, who tells you the price. Then you go [to] the cashier, pay the sum, get a receipt and claim your purchase. Since each of these steps may involve waiting in a queue, shopping is a time-consuming task even in the newest and most modern gastronom.

As tourists, they were allowed to avoid some of the queues.

A queue of at least 1,000 apple lovers ran completely around the pavilion waiting to get in. As tourists—which, in Lithuania, means welcome guests—we were accorded the privilege of entering the pavilion without having to queue up.

In Russia itself, they were advised by a Russian friend to “Walk boldly to the entrance door, knock sharply on the glass with a coin. When the attendant opens the door, talk English at him until in desperation he lets you inside. Then someone will find you a table, because you are foreign guests. But remember, don’t speak a word of Russian, for if you do and the queue hears you!… I doubt that even your Ambassador could help you.”

But of course this book is about food. And some of the foods and their celebrations are amazing. What appears to be Mardi Gras, in Russia is called the “Butter Festival”. This is not so much because everything is heavily buttered, but because butter will be off limits during Lent… and so everything is heavily buttered in preparation for the fast.

On Easter itself, the selection of Easter egg is very important, because “we are going to crack eggs together, and by a process of elimination determine who has the strongest one… The contest is joined; some side bets are made. Accusations are hurled: this egg is not being held straight, that one was struck off center. Finally a victor with an iron-shelled egg and a clever technique emerges—and then, inevitably, he is suddenly defeated by a little boy or girl.”

These sorts of amazing detail is potentially tarnished by some histories that sound very cookbookish.

We took the old Silk Road that runs eastward toward China, a road worn eight feet deep below the adjacent fields by the shoes and hoofs and wheels of many millennia’s caravans.

This sounds perfectly plausible, and a wonderful depiction of true antiquity. I’ve been completely unable to verify it so far with any kind of text or image search.

“Talking about food is hungry work.”

Next up, the recipes.

The cover depicts Ukrainian Easter eggs, and detailed instructions on decorating eggs in the Ukrainian style are provided in the Easter section. This is not something I’m likely to try, but it is fascinating.

The recipes are slightly less clear than in other volumes of the Foods of the World series. The very good Walnut Candy (Caucasus, Gozinakh) was especially odd. It calls specifically for boiling honey and sugar until it “reaches 220° on a candy thermometer.” Then it switches to the older style of instruction and just says to “lower the heat and stir in the nuts. Stirring often, cook 15 minutes.”

“Lower the heat”? To what? It doesn’t say. I made the assumption that the syrup should be brought back to a boil and then lowered to barely continue boiling. This meant that it ended up rising to about 250° after about five minutes, and then maintaining 250-255° for the remaining ten minutes. I don’t know if that was correct, but it tasted very good once it cooled, and it tasted amazing this morning, five days later.

I may choose to let it cool in the pan next time and beat it, and see if it turns into a fudge or cream; this is explicitly against the instructions, but seems like it ought to be even better.

The actual instructions are to brush a 9-inch pie tin with cold water and pour in the hot syrup; let cool and then dip the pan into hot water and invert, whereupon “the candy should slide out in one piece”.

This did not happen when I tried it. I had to pry it out very carefully. Next time I make it as candy instead of fudge, I’ll likely grease the tin or just pour it over a wax-paper-lined tin.

Another sweets recipe I tried is for the Ice Cream (Russia, Plombir Slivochnyi). This is an ice cream without syrup or custard. It’s just whipped cream with some sugar, vanilla, almonds, and glazed chopped fruits mixed in. It’s pretty good, although without all of the nuts and fruits added it would be very plain. The fruit added the sort of chewiness (I’m not sure there’s a word for the texture I’m talking about) that ice cream needs and usually receives from syrup or custard.

Finally, I made Tart Chicken Soup with Coriander (Caucasus/Chikhirtma). Simmer a chicken with onions and saffron for an hour or two; remove the chicken and whisk in eggs to thicken. Flavor with lemon juice, coriander, and salt. (I added pepper, because I like pepper with lemon-flavored soups.)

The chicken is really there to make a stock; because of the saffron, it is a very yellow stock. And because the onions are simmered with the chicken for such a long time, whisking in the eggs pretty much purées the onions, they’re so tender at that point.

The chicken can be shredded and returned to the soup, or it can be shredded and used for salad. I initially chose to add it back to the soup, but it was too much chicken for that much stock; the stock is really the highlight of this soup. This morning I took most of the chicken out and made chicken salad with it. The soup is really much better as a broth-like soup than as a chicken stew.

All three of these recipes were very simple. The Ice Cream isn’t even so much a recipe as it is an idea: take whipped cream and add stuff. Similarly, the Chicken Soup is, boil some chicken and add some eggs to thicken, and some flavorings. The Walnut Candy is more of a recipe in that it contains specific steps that must be followed to get good results but, except for having to guess at the meaning, they are simple steps.

You can find more complicated recipes as well, but I didn’t try them. I may. The Russian Paskha, or Easter Cheese Pyramid with Candied Fruit and Nuts is a good example. It involves draining “large-curd pot cheese” over several hours, rubbing through a fine sieve, heating cream, making a soft of custard out of eggs, mixing in various fruits and almonds, and forming it while weighting it down and chilling it.

Then there’s the Easter Coffee Cake with Nuts and Raisins (Russia, Kulich) which takes two nearly-full pages of ingredients and instructions. The Easter Hazelnut Cake (Russia, Mazurka) looks a lot easier, and is topped with a rum cream, so I’ll probably make that one first.

Other interesting recipes include:

Roast Chicken with Walnut Sauce (Caucasus, Kotmis Satsivi): the chicken is a basic butter-roasted chicken, but the walnut sauce is fascinating: walnuts, onions, garlic, cinnamon, cayenne, saffron, and a lot more.

Yogurt-and-Barley Soup with Herbs (Caucasus/Spas): Yogurt and pearl barley with onion, mint, coriander, and parsley, and eggs to thicken. It’s a very basic soup from grains, something I almost never have, which makes it interesting.

Mint-Flavored Bread Beer (Russia/Kvas): This just sounds fascinating; it’s a beer made over about a week. There appears to be an assumption that Russians will like this, but that everyone else will just want to use it as a cooking beer. Which, of course, makes me want to try it.

Pickled Mushrooms (Russia/Marinovannye Griby): Mushrooms marinated in pepper, cloves, and garlic. A basic pickled mushroom recipe with slightly different spicings.

Flat Armenian Bread with Sesame Seeds (Caucasus/Churek): Just because I usually enjoy flat breads, and I usually enjoy Armenian food.

Flat Onion Breads (Central Asia/Non): Mainly because the word for it is clearly related to Indian Naan. But with onions added!

This is an especially interesting cookbook now, given the current news, since it has both Russia and Ukraine in it. Most of the recipes I’m really interested in are from Russia or the Caucasus region. This is mainly because the Ukrainian recipes include foods I don’t enjoy (beets) or are ridiculously simple (Deep-Fried Straw Potatoes: Cut the potatoes into strips. Fry. This is how I already make french fries).

But their Egg Noodle and Cottage Cheese Casserole certainly sounds interesting, as does the Egg Noodle and Spinach Casserole. And of course Chicken Kiev is one of the more complicated recipes but… butter!

“Bread, or the lack of it—that is what makes history.”

[Davy Bennett]

Nice section on Baltic contries beginning on page 101.
Donating.
I dont think Russians or Germans excel at food anyway.
I do love that cold, pink Lithuanian soup.