Last time we talked about the food of the Tsarists, and today we will follow the time to see what the food in the Soviet era was like~
Soviet cuisine actually integrates the cuisines of various ethnic groups. One of its major features is its simplicity, including ingredients and cooking skills. This dish was an indispensable delicacy for the Soviet families at that time. In addition to various ethnic dishes, it was the main component of table .
Most Soviet dishes are simplified versions of Russian, French and Austria-Hungarian dishes, and are also incorporated into Caucasian cuisine (especially Georgian dishes).
For many people, Soviet cuisine is often confused with Russian cuisine . In fact, there are still many differences between the two.
Let’s start with the Soviet Union’s full meal. This full meal (lunch or dinner) usually consists of three or four courses, and there may be a salad. In restaurants, people can eat their favorite dishes in their own order, but in traditional canteens, especially in workers or students, people usually get a set meal called "kopleksny obed".
The first dish is soup, that is, "liquid" food.
The second course is some kind of "solid" food, such as meat or fish dishes, and is accompanied by a certain garnished dish (гарнир). The garnished dish generally includes various forms of potatoes, buckwheat porridge, macaroni , etc.
Russian pancakes , grilled dishes (запеканка zapekanka) or eggs can also be used as the second dish.
The third dish is something to drink, such as tea, coffee, fruit cocktails, milk, kefir , etc.
The fourth dish is dessert.
green vegetables and salads are seasonal, and the Soviet climate played a decisive role. Spices are rarely used in Soviet cuisine, and the food tastes generally mild.
In fact, there is no difference between breakfast, lunch and dinner. Lunch always takes soup as the first dish. Many Soviet families often eat fish (rather than meat) on Thursdays.
Today's Russians still retain some past habits. They will eat a lot, eat several meals a day, but they don't eat anything between meals.
Typical Soviet lunches may use chicken soup or borscht as the first dish, and fried meatballs or stewed beef with potatoes or buckwheat porridge as the main dish. Unlike many Western countries, they use butter or sour cream instead of sauce.
Soviet holiday meals usually come from traditional Russian cuisine and French cuisine, with heavy sauces, marinated meats and cheeses used extensively. Like typical French cuisine, mixing ingredients and diverse cooking are common.
Usually, people spend a lot of time and energy preparing holiday meals. At the same time, the level of a festive meal is about the honor of a family—a point that is actually easy to understand.
In the context of that time, there were many restaurants in the Soviet Union called "Stolovayas". This restaurant is a state-owned buffet restaurant set up for Soviet workers.
Lenin claimed that this kind of restaurant could liberate women from housework and allow them to join the labor force. The popular slogan at that time was "Stop kitchen slavery!"
till whether Stolovayas liberated women, at least it did achieve the purpose of "geographical equality". This restaurant takes into account the value of each food and creates a lot of recipes to minimize food waste. These standardized recipes were passed down across the Soviet Union, so whether you eat in Ukrainian , Vladivostok or Kazakhstan , you can taste the same dish at the local Stolovayas restaurant.
Although many people think most of the food in these state-owned institutions is dull, there are also many Russians who miss them now. For example, the combination set meal mentioned above was a product of state-owned restaurants at that time, so that Russia can still find such set meals now, which can also be regarded as a revival fashion.
Next, let’s take a look at some distinctive Soviet food~
Russian salad
The now well-known Russian salad (also called Olivier salad) is not actually a pure Russian "blood".
In the mid-1800s, a Russian chef named Lucien Olivier, opened a high-end restaurant called "L'Hermitage" in Moscow. The Russian salad comes from this restaurant. It was originally an appetizer, similar to a cold cut, made of game, , frozen , shellfish, potatoes and pickled cucumbers, and later saw many diners mix everything together, and the restaurant remade the dish into a salad form.
0 The restaurant L'Hermitage was closed in the early 20th century due to the chaos in the country. After all, this restaurant was famous for its luxury, and Russia was facing a food shortage at that time. It is said that a chef named Ivan Ivanov stole the recipe during the restaurant's business, so that the Russian salad would not disappear completely.
However, the ingredients of the Ivanov version of salad are more affordable, such as chicken and carrot instead of luxurious ingredients such as grouse and crayfish. As salads become more and more popular, the formula has been further improved. For example, the exotic French seasoning was replaced by the local mayonnaise in the Soviet Union, and the capers was replaced with the canned pea that was popular in the Soviet Union at that time.
canned food
The rapid industrialization of the early Soviet Union stimulated the popularization of canned food. During the Soviet era, there was a canned stew called "tushonka" that was first produced as a military supply in the 1870s. It is estimated that the Soviet Union produced about 600 million cans per year.
Canned food can be stored for a long time, which helps the government regulate the food distribution system. During food shortages, canned food can be transported to more distant places. At that time, the shelves of goods were usually filled with cans that had expired for several months.
In fact, people did not respond very well when canned food was first introduced to the Soviet Union. So why did canned food become so popular later? According to reports, Soviet politician Viacheslav Molotov announced that a smuggler hid the jewelry in canned fish and then transported it abroad.
To prove his point of view, he also opened a can containing an pearl necklace . Later, canned fish from all over the Soviet Union were sold out within a few days, and many canned fish recipes were born... I have to say that Molotov is very good at marketing.
Baikal
Baikal was born in 1973 and claims to be the Soviet version of American Pepsi . However, its similarity to Pepsi is only in its color and a certain uplifting effect.
This is a beverage based on St. John's wort, licorice root and fir needle oil extract, with a delicate aroma and a unique taste. But sometimes there is not enough St. John's wort, and black tea is used to replace it, and later it is replaced by hawthorn and rowan berries extracts.
Hematogen
Initially, Hematogen was the name of a potion made of bovine blood and egg yolk invented in Swiss in the late 19th century. It later appeared in Russia and was sold in pharmacies as a drug that raises hemoglobin levels. During the Patriotic War, Hematogen became a food that enriched the soldiers' diet.
And in the late 1940s, the Soviet Union began to make Hematogen into sweets and supply them to children.In an era when meat supply was in short supply, Hematogen could supplement the iron that was lacking in the diet, and it was often used to eat with tea.
Doctorskaya
Doctorskaya is a cooked sausage that is deeply loved by the Soviet people. In 1936, Doctorskaya was born at the initiative of Anastas Migoyan, a specialist in the food industry in the Soviet Union.
0 In that era, food was short of money, and the Soviet Union needed a meat product with low production costs. Doctorskaya's recipes include beef, pork, milk, eggs and spices, and many doctors even thought it should be part of the children's diet at that time.
Later, the sausage also added viscera, soybeans and starch. Until now, it is still popular with many Russians. Perhaps this is the taste of childhood.
Chocolate thatched cottage cheese bar
Russians like thatched cottage cheese. They think this cheese is very healthy, so they have given it to children since childhood.
so it was no surprise that chocolate cottage cheese sticks were produced and became popular in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Many parents disguise chocolate cottage cheese sticks as ice cream for their children, believing that they can avoid unnecessary colds.
The original cheese sticks had few flavors, only vanilla and cocoa. However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a wide variety of cheese sticks have appeared, including berries, nuts, caramel and other flavors.
kisel block
kisel is a beverage composed of sugar water thickened by berries and starch.
At the same time, it can also be presented in the form of dry blocks. This Kissel block satisfies the needs of the army, and its semi-finished products quickly became popular in the cafeteria. This Kissel block is also very convenient to make and takes only 12 minutes. In addition, it is cheaper than ice cream and produces a lot of money.
birch sap
Although many countries collected sap at that time, only the Soviet Union began to produce birch sap in industrialization.
Like the Kissel block, birch sap is always found in Soviet stores and it is very cheap.
Marine sauce
In the 1960s, Soviet ships began to fish for krill in the Antarctic, and marine sauce was the first Soviet food made of krill. Until then, krill was only used as feed.
The first batch of marine sauce started selling in 1972. At first, the Soviet chefs didn't know how to deal with it, but later because the taste was really good and the large amount of advertisements were laid, it naturally became popular. In the 1980s, Kaliningrad began to produce similar products, namely coral sauce, which added cheese and cream to the ocean sauce.
Ptichye Moloko
Ptichye Moloko is dark chocolate milk souffle. In the 1960s, Soviet Food Industry Minister Vasirizotov first tasted souffle chocolate on Czechoslovakian , and when he returned, he ordered Russian candy manufacturers to copy the product.
They replaced gelatin with agar , a jelly-like substance extracted from red algae , and the chocolate also became very soft and delicious. After tasting it, Vladimir Gulalnik, a famous pastry chef in Moscow, used it to invent one of the most popular cakes in Russia later - Bird Custard.
Other classic delicacies from the Soviet era are as follows:
Herring under a fur coat (herring mixed vegetable salad)
Vinegret (Russian vegetable salad)
Vitaminniy salat (vitamin salad)
Kholodets (meat frozen)
Various pickled vegetables (such as cucumber, tomato, bear onion and mushrooms)
Borscht
Chicken Noodle Soup
Kharcho
Kharcho
Kharcho
Okroshka (Russian cold soup)
pea soup
Rassolnik
Rassolnik
Shchi (cabbage soup)
Solyanka ( mixed soup )
Sorrel soup (Sour leaf clover soup)
Ukha (Fish soup)
Beef Stroganoff (Yogurt stewed beef)
Chicken Kiev (Kiev chicken)
Cutlet (schnitzel) or meatballs
Different kinds of dumplings
Goulash/ragout (vegetable stew)
Golubtsy (stuffed cauliflower rolls)
Plov (Russian pilaf)
Halva (Halva crispy candy)
Syrniki (cheese pancake)
Chiburekki
Shashlik (kebab)
above are some classic delicacies in the Soviet era~
If you have any ideas, please leave us a message~
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