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Salt & Time: Recipes from a Modern Russian Kitchen
A collection of delicious modern recipes from Siberia and beyond.
'If anyone had to write a Russian cookbook now, it would have to be her, and her book will end up being a classic' - Olia Hercules
Salt & Time will transform perceptions of the food of the former Soviet Union, and especially Siberia - the crossroads of Eastern European and Central Asian cuisine - with 100 inviting recipes adapted for modern tastes and Western kitchens, and evocative storytelling to explain and entice. Why not try the restorative Solyanka fish soup (a famous Russian hangover cure), savor the fragrant Chicken with prunes or treat yourself to some Chak-chak-fried honey cake.
"Often we need distance and time, both to see things better and to feel closer to them. This is certainly true of the food of my home country, Russia - or Siberia, to be exact. When I think of Siberia, I hear the sound of fresh snow crunching beneath my feet. Today, whenever I crush sea salt flakes between my fingers as I cook, I think of that sound. In this book I feature recipes that are authentic to Siberia, classic Russian flavor combinations and my modern interpretations. You will find dishes from the prerevolutionary era and the Soviet days, as well as contemporary approaches - revealing a cuisine that is vibrant, nourishing, exciting and above all relevant no matter the time or the place."
'If anyone had to write a Russian cookbook now, it would have to be her, and her book will end up being a classic' - Olia Hercules
Salt & Time will transform perceptions of the food of the former Soviet Union, and especially Siberia - the crossroads of Eastern European and Central Asian cuisine - with 100 inviting recipes adapted for modern tastes and Western kitchens, and evocative storytelling to explain and entice. Why not try the restorative Solyanka fish soup (a famous Russian hangover cure), savor the fragrant Chicken with prunes or treat yourself to some Chak-chak-fried honey cake.
"Often we need distance and time, both to see things better and to feel closer to them. This is certainly true of the food of my home country, Russia - or Siberia, to be exact. When I think of Siberia, I hear the sound of fresh snow crunching beneath my feet. Today, whenever I crush sea salt flakes between my fingers as I cook, I think of that sound. In this book I feature recipes that are authentic to Siberia, classic Russian flavor combinations and my modern interpretations. You will find dishes from the prerevolutionary era and the Soviet days, as well as contemporary approaches - revealing a cuisine that is vibrant, nourishing, exciting and above all relevant no matter the time or the place."
240 pages, Hardcover
Published March 5, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 18, 2021
Siberia the old Russian joke the bleak waste lands of the last place any Russian want to go to.So when I heard that a Recipe book by A granddaughter of Jewish-Ukrainian Holocaust survivor had brought out this book I had to have it.
The recipes have been left with their original titles which make them more interesting Svekolnik or Rassolnik is more fun.This has whole chapter on pickles , I love pickling a cookery that is dieing out into days modern society when you can buy pickled onions on any shop shelf but who can buy Malosolnie Cucumbers or Fermented Cheery Tomatoes that go well with Pine nut Vodka or Christmas Vodka.
It is the recipes that are odd that make this book everybody has had bread butter pudding but who has had Rye Bread Butter Pudding? or Bird cherry cake .Also at the back is a www. list of suppliers which often is missing from some cookbooks nothing worse than not been able to make that great dish because cannot find those extra little things that make that dish stand out, from the others.
The recipes have been left with their original titles which make them more interesting Svekolnik or Rassolnik is more fun.This has whole chapter on pickles , I love pickling a cookery that is dieing out into days modern society when you can buy pickled onions on any shop shelf but who can buy Malosolnie Cucumbers or Fermented Cheery Tomatoes that go well with Pine nut Vodka or Christmas Vodka.
It is the recipes that are odd that make this book everybody has had bread butter pudding but who has had Rye Bread Butter Pudding? or Bird cherry cake .Also at the back is a www. list of suppliers which often is missing from some cookbooks nothing worse than not been able to make that great dish because cannot find those extra little things that make that dish stand out, from the others.
April 10, 2023
This is one of the best cookbooks I’ve read over the last few years. I bought the Kindle version to see what it was like, tried a number of the recipes, really liked them, and have now bought the hardback as there are a lot more recipes I want to try and keep.
The author is originally from Omsk, Siberia, now living in the UK, and comes from a mixed background:
Because of this, her recipes are seldom straightforward Russian/Soviet affairs. I particularly liked that thanks to a nineteenth century influx of Korean immigrants, Siberians (or at least the author’s family) have had a predilection to adding chilli and garlic to their cuisine.
In total I tried fourteen of the recipes, ranging from starters, side dishes, to main courses and fermented vegetables. All the recipes were easy to follow, most turned out very well (those that didn’t were when I didn’t follow the instructions) and were very tasty.
The ‘Buckwheat Vinegret Salad’ I will make again and again. There were a number of excellent patties recipes, of which I have so far only tried two – the best being ‘Potato and Sauerkraut Patties with Dill’. Lots of interesting soups, including the ‘Lagman’ with beef and noodles.
My husband’s (who does most the cooking, but cannot eat any solids) voted the easiest, most stress-free recipe, and most satisfying end product (appearance and aroma) to be the ‘Plov’ – a lamb pilaf.
The recipes I was perhaps most taken with – mainly because they were new techniques to me – were the ones for pickled and fermented vegetables. I made ‘Red Sauerkraut with Garlic and Chilli’, ‘Apple, Fennel and Dill Sauerkraut’ and ‘Honey pickled Mooli’, which were all fantastic, and I have been eating regularly over the last few weeks. Fermented tomatoes, mini cucumbers, carrots and ‘Cabbage & Beetroot’ still to try.
I made a full quantity of ‘Baba Toma’s Pirozhki Dough’, using half to make the ‘Belyashi Buns with Spiced Minced Beef’ and freezing the other half to make some of the other three fillings I marked.
There are lots of useful photos of the finished recipes, some of the ingredients, and some just artistic. Each recipe is accompanied by personal comments about family or national history, and/or how the author has adapted them.
I highly recommend this cookbook.
The author is originally from Omsk, Siberia, now living in the UK, and comes from a mixed background:
“Due to its complex history of exile and other forms of resettlement, Siberia has become a melting pot of culinary traditions from Ukraine and the Caucasus to Central Asia, Mongolia and Korea.”
Because of this, her recipes are seldom straightforward Russian/Soviet affairs. I particularly liked that thanks to a nineteenth century influx of Korean immigrants, Siberians (or at least the author’s family) have had a predilection to adding chilli and garlic to their cuisine.
In total I tried fourteen of the recipes, ranging from starters, side dishes, to main courses and fermented vegetables. All the recipes were easy to follow, most turned out very well (those that didn’t were when I didn’t follow the instructions) and were very tasty.
The ‘Buckwheat Vinegret Salad’ I will make again and again. There were a number of excellent patties recipes, of which I have so far only tried two – the best being ‘Potato and Sauerkraut Patties with Dill’. Lots of interesting soups, including the ‘Lagman’ with beef and noodles.
My husband’s (who does most the cooking, but cannot eat any solids) voted the easiest, most stress-free recipe, and most satisfying end product (appearance and aroma) to be the ‘Plov’ – a lamb pilaf.
The recipes I was perhaps most taken with – mainly because they were new techniques to me – were the ones for pickled and fermented vegetables. I made ‘Red Sauerkraut with Garlic and Chilli’, ‘Apple, Fennel and Dill Sauerkraut’ and ‘Honey pickled Mooli’, which were all fantastic, and I have been eating regularly over the last few weeks. Fermented tomatoes, mini cucumbers, carrots and ‘Cabbage & Beetroot’ still to try.
I made a full quantity of ‘Baba Toma’s Pirozhki Dough’, using half to make the ‘Belyashi Buns with Spiced Minced Beef’ and freezing the other half to make some of the other three fillings I marked.
There are lots of useful photos of the finished recipes, some of the ingredients, and some just artistic. Each recipe is accompanied by personal comments about family or national history, and/or how the author has adapted them.
I highly recommend this cookbook.
February 4, 2023
I loved this meditative journey through the history and evolution of Russian cuisine, from high-flown imperial feasts to creative solutions for gustatory delight under the Soviet system and on into the fractious present, so full of potential. The photos of these dishes, all so unusual to my western eyes, are gorgeous, full of pale, earthly colors that illustrate a different kind of bounty than I'm used to. Timoshkina's loving descriptions of childhood favorites that she's transformed, or the specialties of her generations of forebears that she's replicated, are just as gorgeous, and so evocative of a different way of living. (I especially loved the story about her mother striking up a friendship with her state-sponsored Polish penpal, getting to go visit her family, and returning home with apparently the ultimate in youth social markers in 1970s Soviet Russia: really nice stationery.) I also really enjoyed the frequent reminders of Russia's size and scope, its innate multiculturalism and international reach, facts that are often elided in casual thoughts about the country and its culture; I look forward to trying the many Korean-influenced dishes out of the nation's east.
This is my library's pick for its March Pot Luck Club event, so here's hoping the products of this cookbook turn out well for us!
This is my library's pick for its March Pot Luck Club event, so here's hoping the products of this cookbook turn out well for us!
December 14, 2019
I might upgrade this after I've made some of the recipes. But right now I'm miffed that the recipe I want to start with has an error: when to add the flour in the Pine Nut and Honey Cake. That direction is absent. I've written to the publisher to see if there's a list of errata somewhere on the internet. In the meantime, I will improvise (I've made cakes before and I think I can figure it out...). Still I'm disappointed that my new book is imperfect.
Photos are lovely.
Photos are lovely.
March 19, 2022
I'm working my way through this. My landlady's grandmother was Russian. It is great and we have cooked some delicious food.
July 19, 2024
Because Russia is such a big part of my life, I cook a lot of Russian recipes in our house. This book has some lovely recipes that I’m interested in. But these recipes are more modern than the recipes that I usually make. I’m very interested in the Buckwheat Vinegret Salad, the Siberian Pelmeni Dumplings, the dressing for the Olivier Salad and the Pirozhki Stuffed Buns. These are recipes that I have made before so I would like to compare them to the recipes that I use. I’ve never made Koulebiaka Salmon Pie or Golubtsy, so these recipes also caught my eye. Everything is a bit deconstructed and different than what my husband grew up with. He flipped through the cookbook just slightly confused by it. I am honestly more interested in traditional recipes than this book, so I probably won’t be adding it to my collection. But it’s very beautiful and artistic. Highly recommend to a modern Russian family.
January 5, 2021
I read this much more out of interest in Russian (and mainly in this case Siberian) food than as a cookery book so my rating should be taken as such - I haven’t attempted any of the recipes so can’t comment on their usefulness or tastiness. It also brought back lots of fond memories of my time spent in Russia so there may well be more than a little bias...
Quite a few of the recipes are probably more elaborate than I would ever be likely to attempt but there are also plenty of simpler recipes, including a surprising number that were vegetarian or fish based and on a practical level there is a useful list of UK suppliers for the more hard to find ingredients. I have been reading it alongside another book about Siberia and together they have made a very satisfying pairing. A good new year read.
Quite a few of the recipes are probably more elaborate than I would ever be likely to attempt but there are also plenty of simpler recipes, including a surprising number that were vegetarian or fish based and on a practical level there is a useful list of UK suppliers for the more hard to find ingredients. I have been reading it alongside another book about Siberia and together they have made a very satisfying pairing. A good new year read.
October 17, 2021
Not a classic Russian recipe book. A lot of dishes have a deconstructed feel to them, with the author attempting to put a modern spin on presentation and combination of the ingredients - and in the processes missing the true essence of Russian cuisine, which is wholesome, hearty and simple. The poor olivie salad is just a mix of ingredients on one plate - how can eating half a boiled egg with peas be appealing to someone who hasn’t tried this dish before? It’s highly questionable whether the aim of the book - to lift the stigma around Russian cuisine and make it more approachable for everyone around the world - has been even remotely achieved.
Some recipes are interesting and delicious, but far from traditional - this book shouldn’t be advertised as one.
Some recipes are interesting and delicious, but far from traditional - this book shouldn’t be advertised as one.
March 26, 2020
The photography in this book is lovely, and I wish there was more. A lot of the recipes could have benefited with a picture. Some of the anecdotal stories gave a nice context to some of the recipes, but I wonder how accessible some of the ingredients are. Some of the standard Russian dishes are in the book, but I primarily bought this book to get the recipes for pickles and maybe an idea of what Siberian cuisine is like. This book delivered on both.
January 29, 2022
LOVE this cookbook! Truly, I read a lot of cookbooks and this one was perfect! Gorgeous photography, fascinating vignettes about each dish (I never expected to learn so much about Soviet/Siberian culture), and clear instructions. I can’t wait to try so many of these recipes. If you’re interested in very traditional Russian cooking, you may find some of it unorthodox, but I find the recipes to be very fresh and bright. This quickly went from a library browse to a must-buy.
October 3, 2021
This is a mixture of "authentic" recipes and recipes that are more inspired by the Eurasian food of Siberia. I enjoyed the brief, chatty introductions to each recipe, and the recipes are clearly written and rarely use ingredients that would be difficult to obtain in the UK.
October 17, 2019
A beautiful collection of unusual and surprisingly delicious recipes from Russia.
January 17, 2020
It was fine. Lovely photography, but the recipes just aren’t to my taste.
March 15, 2024
Soviet nostalgia from someone who was 8 in 1989 seems off, and nothing else about this book redeems it. The design is terrible, and the recipes underwhelming. Ick.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews