Recipes for table dishes of the USSR. History in recipes

26.02.2022

Many people treat recipes from the USSR era with disdain. What could be cooked there if there wasn’t even butter on the store shelves? But even without jamon, dor blue and marzipan, Soviet women created real masterpieces.
Salad "Olivier"
The Soviet version of the salad was very different from the pre-revolutionary one. It was so “based on” that it could well be called a parody. No hazel grouse, no pressed caviar, no crayfish...
The Soviet version, which is familiar to us, was invented in the Moscow restaurant in the capital immediately after the revolution. All the most delicious things disappeared from it, and the hazel grouse were completely replaced with boiled chicken. And during the special “revelry” of developed socialism, many housewives gave up poultry altogether, replacing it with boiled sausage. Oddly enough, it was in this form that the salad became known almost throughout the world. In Europe it is now called “Russian salad”, which, in general, is fair.
How to cook. Everything is very simple. To begin with, they boiled potatoes, meat, eggs, took pickles from a barrel or jar, brought onions from the cellar and opened a jar of green peas. Now the most dreary part remained: they chopped everything into cubes, except for the peas, of course. They added mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and the last magical action: stirred. For a normal bowl of salad, half a kilo of meat, the same amount of potatoes, ten eggs, five cucumbers, two onions and a jar of peas is enough.
How to make it tastier. Firstly, you can make your own mayonnaise with olive oil, rather than buying it at the store. Secondly, it is not forbidden to add shrimp to all this riot. To be happy you need three hundred grams, don’t regret it.

Salad "Shuba"
There is a very beautiful revolutionary legend. Say, during the Civil War, caring Komsomol members came up with the proletarian salad Sh.U.B.A., abbreviated to Chauvinism and Decadence - Boycott and Anathema. The salad contained the simplest ingredients, without any bourgeois frills.
Believing this story or not is a personal matter for everyone. “Shuba” became popular after the war, and Soviet cooking can be proud of it - this is an absolutely unique dish that immediately became popular. But, unlike “Olivier”, in the world it is known exclusively as “this extravagant Russian salad with herring”, or “oh my God, why do they do that”.
How to cook. There are many variations of the recipe, but they all have one thing in common: you need boiled beets. In addition to it, the usual list includes boiled potatoes, carrots and herring. Not everyone can handle the vegetarian version with seaweed. Vegetables were boiled, cooled, peeled, chopped or grated. The herring was also crushed and vegetable oil was added. The whole point of the salad is that the products were laid in layers and each of them was generously coated with mayonnaise. Herring came first, then carrots, potatoes and beets. Ideal proportions: there should be the same amount of each vegetable in the salad as the herring “base”.
How to make it tastier. Don't skimp on the mayonnaise—the salad loves it. Nowadays, in addition to traditional ingredients, onions and eggs are often added. Neither one nor the other will definitely spoil the “fur coat”. Gourmets use salted red fish instead of herring, but this, you see, is somehow not proletarian.

Salad "Passenger"
Another invention of Soviet chefs. Unique, although not as popular. Most housewives became acquainted with it thanks to cookbooks of the seventies and were still very surprised: why is it called “Passenger”? Mayonnaise somehow does not require long-term storage, you don’t take salads on camping trips, and you can’t quickly cut it up by the fire.
There is a version that in the sixties this dish was actively promoted in dining cars. Apart from the memoirs of individual railway workers, no other evidence of this could be found.
How to cook. The salad contains only three main products, plus the usual dressing - mayonnaise. It was made from beef liver, which was first fried in large pieces and then cut into strips. Pickled cucumbers were cut in the same way. Onions, chopped into half rings, were sautéed. Then they mixed it all, salted, peppered and added the magical “Provencal”. Half a kilogram of liver required the same amount of onions and half as many cucumbers.
How to make it tastier. The combination of products is almost perfect; it is unlikely that anyone will be able to achieve better. However, some housewives, at the request of faint-hearted husbands, reduce the amount of onions. The move is questionable.

Soup "Student"
You won’t find this recipe in a Soviet cookbook, but any student who studied then remembers it very well. And even in several versions - depending on the available products and financial capabilities.
For some reason, modern Russian websites and communities dedicated to cooking strongly demand the use of broth in the recipe. Of course, “Student” is similar to French cheese soups, but there was no talk of any special broth. All meat gain was provided exclusively by sausages.
How to cook. As usual, it all starts with peeling potatoes (0.5 kg). In a completely hopeless situation, it was replaced with pasta, but it was not so tasty. Also required were three hundred grams of sausages, a carrot, an onion and two processed cheeses. The simplest grocery set that could easily be bought without using any connections. When the water boiled, finely chopped onions and carrots were thrown in. The sausages were also chopped, usually cut into circles - it’s easier that way. At the very end it was the turn of processed cheese.
How to make it tastier. This is where the real scope for imagination lies. To enrich the taste and out of desperation, the students added everything from bell peppers to olives. And the taste did not lose from this.

Pea soup
The history of pea soup goes back several thousand years. There are mentions of it in Ancient Greece, Rome, and medieval treatises. In Russia, it has also been known for quite a long time and is even mentioned in Domostroy.
In the USSR, it was prepared from dry peas or special briquettes with a semi-finished product. Due to its cheapness, it was especially loved in workers' and student canteens. At home, “musical soup” was also prepared periodically, but the dish was not at all festive.
How to cook. It is useless to consider the briquette option: the cooking method is written on the wrapper. If it was made from dry peas, they were pre-soaked for 6-8 hours. Onions, carrots, any smoked meats or lard were chopped and fried. Be sure to peel some potatoes, literally two or three. They boiled it along with the peas until half cooked, then added everything from the frying pan. When the soup was ready, croutons were thrown into the plate. 250 grams of peas required 200 grams of meat, one carrot, onion and 0.6 liters of water.
How to make it tastier. It is not at all necessary to stop at one type of smoked meat. A soup with two or even three types of meat will be much better.

Navy pasta
Soviet interpretation of Italian pasta. The exact history of this dish is unknown. It appeared in cookbooks in the sixties, but there were mentions of it before. Most likely, this is a classic “folk art” that also appealed to culinary professionals. Naval pasta was offered in the canteens of almost all institutions and especially often in sanatoriums, boarding houses and pioneer camps. Their administration simply adored this recipe: it was almost impossible to understand how much meat was actually put in it. The minced meat was mixed with noodles and no tomatoes were used, as is done in modern recipes.
How to cook. The composition is ingenious in its simplicity. It contains only three products: minced meat, one onion and the pasta itself. No complex manipulations were required. Half a kilo of minced meat was fried in oil until cooked, the onion was added and kept on the fire until it darkened. Peppered and salted. At the same time, boil the same amount of vermicelli. Then drain the water and add the minced meat straight from the frying pan. Be sure to mix thoroughly.
How to make it tastier. Adding something to this perfection means moving away from the original concept and getting closer to what they cook in Italy. Well, okay, cheese or herbs won't be superfluous.

Potatoes with stew
It is now impossible to repeat this recipe. The problem is the stew. The one sold in stores is not at all suitable in quality. There is almost no meat there, only some strange “jellied meat”. You can stew the meat yourself, but the taste you get is not quite the same, not at all Soviet. Why this happens is a big mystery. All that remains is to be nostalgic and make do with the current stew. But you should only buy premium products: the rest is too dubious.
How to cook. Probably everyone has already guessed: Soviet cuisine was captivating precisely because of its simplicity. And this time everything is also elementary. The potatoes were peeled, cut into large pieces and set to boil. When it was half cooked, the stew was added. The entire contents of the jar. There is a recipe on the Internet in which the “white fat” is suggested to be removed and discarded. Frankly speaking, this is blasphemy, for this it is necessary to transfer to a lifelong fasting menu.
How to make it tastier. Many women tried to improve this recipe. The easiest way is to add canned green peas. You can also chop and fry some onions and carrots. In general, there is room for delicious creativity.

Chicken Kiev
The prototype was the cutlet de volley of French origin. There is only one difference and it is insignificant, to be honest. The French put a sauce inside theirs, usually creamy with mushrooms. Soviet citizens did not engage in such tenderness: a small piece of butter and a green leaf was enough. Initially, only foreigners in the Intourist system were delighted with cutlet Kiev, but from restaurants for the elite, the luxury moved to Soviet kitchens.
How to cook. This is perhaps the most difficult dish to prepare in our review. Don’t be fooled by the simple name “cutlet” - not minced meat was used for cooking, but a chicken fillet chop. And for the filling, finely chop the greens and mix them with butter, which was taken straight from the freezer. The resulting mixture was placed on the cue ball and wrapped to form a neat oval patty. Then it was rolled in egg and breadcrumbs and placed in a heated frying pan. Fry on both sides until a crust appears. The final stage is ten minutes in the oven.
How to make it tastier. No way. Attempts to add mushrooms or cheese inevitably turn it into a “de-volie” cutlet.

Semolina
The invention is not Soviet, but it was in the USSR that it found its way into every home. In Russia, it began to be prepared back in the 19th century, but exclusively in noble families. For the common people, semolina was too expensive. But the Soviet authorities, rebuilding the food industry from scratch, launched its mass production, and flour mills literally filled stores with semolina. And it would be fine if only shops - in schools and pioneer camps it was suppressed almost every morning. And no one, of course, stirred the lumps... Yes, this porridge turned into a nightmare for Soviet children.

How to cook. It’s a shame to call this process “cooking.” They poured the milk into the pan, waited until it boiled, and then added the semolina a little at a time. For half a liter of milk there are only 3 tablespoons of cereal. Stirring slowly, add sugar and a pinch of salt. This stage took 5-10 minutes. At the end, throw in a piece of butter and mix thoroughly again.
How to make it tastier. Semolina porridge is best perceived as the “base” of a sweet dish. You can add fresh and canned fruits, candied fruits, nuts, chocolate and just jam there.

Napoleon cake"
The most popular cake of those times. However, it was not sold in stores or served in restaurants; it was exclusively “home-made.” Each housewife had her own recipe and her own secret, although they were all, in fact, very similar.
This cake came to Russia from Europe and, despite the name, most likely from the Italian city of Naples. In the USSR, they began to prepare it especially often in the eighties, when the shortage became simply depressing - the so-called “Napoleons for Poverty,” where the cream was made from melted ice cream.
How to cook. Puff pastry cakes were pre-prepared. It was believed that the thinner they were and the more they were used, the better, but the main secret of taste was still the cream. In the USSR they used custard. For it, put one and a half liters of milk on low heat, simultaneously grind the yolks (8 pieces), sugar (400 g) and a bag of vanilla sugar, then add 100 grams of flour. All this had to be added to the milk that had boiled by that time. Bring to a boil again and stir until the cream thickens. They carefully coated the cakes with it and put it in the refrigerator. The dough itself required three hundred grams of butter, 600 grams of flour, half a tablespoon of vinegar, a little salt, half a glass of water and two eggs.
How to make it tastier. It’s easier to ruin a classic cake than to improve it, but you can give some tips for Napoleon as well. For example, you can add three tablespoons of cognac to the dough, and butter to the cream.

For many, the era of the USSR is associated with total deficit and savings. And this concerned not only basic necessities, clothing, but also food. On the counters, canned fish and condensed milk were stacked in pyramids, and a plump saleswoman in a starched cap asked with all importance: “What do you want?” As if there was so much choice.

But even at that time, our mothers and grandmothers managed to prepare amazingly delicious desserts, the recipes of which are still relevant today. Recipes are not just kept in family cookbooks, but also passed down from generation to generation. Every young housewife considers it necessary to bring something new to a well-known recipe, improving it. It's time to remember the good old recipes.

bird's milk

Ingredients

280 g butter
410 g sugar
1 egg
150 g wheat flour
2 pinches of vanillin
2 egg whites
0.5 tsp. citric acid
20 g gelatin
100 g condensed milk
130 ml water
100 g chocolate
100 ml cream

Preparation

Start by making the crust. To do this, beat 100 g of butter and 100 g of sugar. Add 1 egg and a pinch of vanilla. Beat the whole mass thoroughly. Add 150 g of wheat flour and knead the dough.
Divide the dough into 2 parts. Distribute each piece into 2 circles along the bottom of the pan. Send to bake in the oven at 230°C.
10 minutes is enough. When the cakes have cooled, place one of them on the bottom of the pan.
For the soufflé, beat 180 g of butter and 100 g of condensed milk. Fill the gelatin with water. Leave it like this for about half an hour.
Pour sugar with 130 ml of water. Bring ingredients to a boil. Boil like this for about 5 minutes. It is important to stir the mixture constantly.
Beat the egg whites, citric acid and vanillin. Pour the hot sugar syrup into the egg white mixture and continue mixing. Pour the protein mixture into the condensed milk and butter mixture. Add the bloomed gelatin there. Beat the entire mixture at low speed until the ingredients become homogeneous.
Fill the cake pan with half of this soufflé. Place the second cake layer on top and pour the remaining soufflé over it. Place the dessert in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
Prepare the frosting by melting the chocolate and mixing it with the cream. Spread the glaze over the cake and put it in the refrigerator.

Nut

Ingredients

325 g butter
2 eggs
5 g salt
250 g powdered sugar
575 g wheat flour
3 pecans
450 g condensed milk

Preparation

Beat the eggs with powdered sugar in one bowl, and the flour and butter in another. Mix both masses and add salt.
Combine everything until smooth in a mixer. Place the finished dough in the refrigerator for about 60 minutes.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll it out into a layer 3 mm thick. Place all the dough in the pan and bake for 15 minutes. Oven temperature - 180 °C.
Fill each dough nut half with condensed milk. Add pecans. Then glue the halves together.

Chocolate sausage

Ingredients

170 g butter
130 g powdered sugar
40 g cocoa
90 g condensed milk
100 g wheat flour
70 g almonds
130 g shortbread cookies

Preparation

Grind almonds in a blender. Send cookies there too. Grind and combine both ingredients. Add flour to ingredients.
Separately, mix butter, condensed milk, powdered sugar and cocoa. Mix everything until smooth. Now combine the cream and dry products. Mix well.
Divide the entire mass into two parts. Place each on cling film and roll into a sausage. Place in the freezer for 2 hours.

Napoleon

Ingredients

600 g puff pastry without yeast
140 g sugar
400 ml milk
5 g vanillin
5 egg yolks
50 g wheat flour
300 ml cream

Preparation

Roll out the dough into a very thin layer. Then simply divide it into 5 squares. Place each piece on a baking sheet. Poke holes with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes. The oven temperature should be 190 °C.
Bake the remaining dough scraps and crumble them.
Mix 70 g of sugar, milk, and vanillin. Boil the whole mass.
Pour the remaining sugar into the yolks. Mix. Add flour. Mix again.
Pour the egg mixture into the still hot milk. Whisk.
Using a mixer, whip the cream and add it to the custard. Mix.
Assemble a cake of 5 layers. Lubricate it with cream and sprinkle with crumbs from the scraps.

Wafer rolls

Ingredients

8 eggs
280 g sugar
810 g butter
560 g wheat flour
860 g condensed milk
1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil

Preparation

Mix eggs with sugar. Add 560 g of melted butter to the products, as well as flour and vegetable oil. Mix all ingredients.
Preheat the electric waffle iron. Pour 2 tbsp into it. l. test. Close and press it. Once the batter is spread, bake the waffles for another 4 minutes.
Mix condensed milk with 250 g of butter. Fill the tubes with cream.

"Potato"

Ingredients

300 g cookies
270 g condensed milk
100 g butter
3 tbsp. l. cocoa
1 tbsp. l. cognac (optional)
Walnuts for decoration

Preparation

Grind the cookies in a blender.
Mix condensed milk, half the cocoa and butter. Add cognac. Mix again.
Add all the cookies to the resulting mixture. Use your hands to knead the dough so that the cookie crumbs don't stick out.
Divide the resulting mass into 10 parts. Form each part into a potato.
Dip the potatoes in cocoa. Chop the walnuts and decorate the potatoes by making eyes.

Smetannik

Ingredients

200 g wheat flour
6 eggs
200 g sugar
8 g baking powder
3 g vanillin
180 g powdered sugar
1 200 g sour cream
70 g strawberries

Preparation

Mix sugar and eggs until thick foam.
Mix flour, vanillin, and baking powder. Add the entire dry mixture to the egg mixture and mix well.
Pour the mixture into the mold and bake in oven preheated to 180 °C within 40 minutes.
Beat sour cream with powdered sugar.
Cut the sour cream into cakes. Lubricate each of them with cream. Garnish with strawberries.

Honey cake

Ingredients

3 eggs
50 g butter
600 g sugar
150 ml liquid honey
1 tsp. soda
500 g wheat flour
500 g sour cream

Preparation

Place a large pot of water on the fire.
Mix eggs and 300 g sugar in a small saucepan. Beat the ingredients until foamy. Add butter, soda, and honey to the mixture.
Place the pan with these ingredients in a water bath for 15 minutes. All this time, stir the mixture until its volume doubles.
Add 1 tbsp. l. wheat flour. Stir the ingredients until no lumps remain. Remove the mixture from the heat.
Add the remaining flour. Knead soft dough. Divide it into 8 parts. Wrap each one in film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough into thin cakes. Bake each cake on a separate baking sheet for 3 minutes. Temperature - 180 °C. Trim the edges of the cakes and set aside to cool.
Mix sour cream and remaining sugar to make cream.
Assemble the cake, brushing each layer with cream. Grind the trimmings into crumbs and sprinkle the honey cake with it. Leave the cake at room temperature for 2 hours. Then put it in the refrigerator for another 8 hours.

Baba

Ingredients

30 g yeast
360 g wheat flour
120 g butter
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp. l. Roma
100 g raisins
5 tbsp. l. milk
500 g sugar
6 eggs
310 ml water
2 tsp. lemon juice

Preparation

Prepare the dough: dissolve fresh yeast in heated milk, add 1 pinch of sugar and 1/3 of all the flour. Mix the ingredients and simply cover them. The dough will approximately double in size.
Add 40 g of sugar, butter, and salt to the prepared dough. Knead the dough until it completely absorbs the oil.
Add all the eggs one at a time, without stopping kneading.
Add all the flour and steamed raisins to the dough. Now knead the dough. Cover it and leave it to rise for about 60 minutes.
Place the risen dough into the molds. Brush each babka with butter. Leave for another 20 minutes.
Expose temperature by 180 °C. Place the molds with the dough in the oven for 15 minutes.
Mix 100 g sugar with 160 ml water. Place the mixture on the fire and cook the syrup. Once it has cooled, add the rum. Dip each baba into the syrup.
Pour 250 g of sugar into 150 ml of hot water. Cook over high heat for 3 minutes after baking. Add lemon juice. Cool the syrup to 70°C and beat until it starts to turn white. Place the saucepan with the fudge on the fire and bring it to the consistency of liquid sour cream.
Brush each babka with fudge.

Dessert "Kyiv"

Ingredients

310 g hazelnuts
3 egg whites
185 g sugar
1 pinch vanillin
20 g wheat flour
250 g cream
75 g powdered sugar
20 g cocoa powder

Preparation

Roast the hazelnuts. Cool it down. Set 30 g of nuts aside. They will be needed for decoration. Clean the remaining nuts. Grind them in a blender.
Set the temperature to 140 °C. Beat the whites with a mixer, add 100 g of sugar. Beat again until foamy. Add vanilla.
Mix the remaining sugar with 70 g of chopped hazelnuts and flour. Pour this mixture into the protein mixture. Do this gradually so that it remains fluffy.
Fill a piping bag with this mixture. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Place the mixture on the parchment in separate coin-sized portions.
Place the pan in the oven for half an hour. Then reduce the temperature to 90 °C and bake for another 25 minutes..
Boil sugar syrup (sugar and water - 1:1). When it starts to thicken, add 200 g of hazelnuts. Bring the mixture to a caramel consistency. Transfer the mixture to a baking sheet lined with parchment. Wait until it cools down. Break into pieces.
Whip the cream and powdered sugar. Mix 1/3 of the cream with cocoa.
Now place a layer of meringue on the bottom of the glass. The second layer will be buttercream without cocoa. Alternate layers until you run out of ingredients. The top layer will be cream with cocoa, followed by broken croccant. Sprinkle it with nuts.

We enjoyed some desserts quite often, others only on holidays. Nowadays the ingredients are more accessible, so you can forget about total savings and prepare these amazing childhood desserts more often.

These are childhood favorite dishes prepared on holidays and weekdays. These are trips with parents or friends to the cafeteria: the legendary Soviet ice cream with Buratino lemonade or a milkshake sprinkled with grated chocolate. And scarce products obtained for a family celebration or New Year seemed twice as tasty to us.

Childhood is long behind us, and gastronomic progress does not stand still. But still, nostalgia often takes us back to the old days. And even though there is an abundance of exotic fruits around, every person born in the USSR will certainly celebrate the New Year with tangerines. The same ones so adored by all Soviet children. And from the rich assortment of champagne wines, of course, he will choose “Soviet”.

Times change, and so does fashion. Not only in clothing, but also in cooking. Nowadays, pizzerias and sushi bars are in trend. A kaleidoscope of different world cuisines is widely represented in restaurants: Japanese cuisine, Italian, French, Chinese and many others. But a piece of the soul remains forever in the past. Where the inventive minds of technologists and resourceful housewives prepared interesting dishes that absorbed elements of the cuisines of the republics that were part of the Union.

Let's remember the legendary dishes of Soviet cuisine, plunging together into delicious and unforgettable memories. Delicious cakes and homemade pastries, first and second courses, unique salads and meat dishes, favorite snacks and the best sweets in the world. And compliance with GOSTs guaranteed customers high quality and natural products. And, of course, without any GMOs...

Snacks

As usual, let's start with appetizers. For it is they who precede the meal, whetting the appetite of those gathered at the table.

Jellied fish

This cold appetizer is still popular today. Boiled fish in a fragrant broth, cooked according to all the rules. Pouring the fish pieces with broth with gelatin diluted in it, add beautifully chopped boiled carrots and eggs. Don't forget about the sprigs of greenery. Only Nadyusha from “The Irony of Fate” failed to prepare this dish. We prepare it masterfully, don’t we?

Aspic

The cousin of jellied fish is everyone’s favorite jellied meat. He is timeless and beyond competition! At least now run to the store for pork legs, meat and take out a bucket pan from the bins! Hot potatoes and a cold appetizer are the perfect combination.

Salads

The menu of Soviet canteens offered us salads for every taste: light vegetable and hearty meat or fish. With a light dressing and flavored with sour cream or mayonnaise.

Olivie

Without a doubt, Olivier was salad No. 1 on the holiday table of any Soviet person. And even now he is not giving up his positions. The beautiful name and availability of ingredients ensured its popularity for many years. Meat salad is the second name of Lucien Olivier’s creation. The recipe, created by him back in 1860, has many interpretations, radically different from each other. On the menu of European restaurants it is presented under the name “Russian salad”.

Our recipe: try to deviate from the canons and cook it - it’s very tasty.

Herring under a fur coat

Another absolute favorite is the “Herring under a Fur Coat” salad. The recipe, which appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century (namely in 1918), was presented in the taverns of the merchant Anastas Bogomilov. And the original name “Sh.U.B.A.” was an abbreviation that meant the following - “Chauvinism and decadence - Boycott and Anathema.” This original method was found by the chefs in order to reconcile visitors who were at war with each other on political grounds. The visitors liked the invention; they began to snack more and brawl less. Over time, this story was forgotten, and the name was transformed into the version we know. This salad appeared on the tables of Soviet citizens in the 60s, and starting from the next decade (and to this day) it has become universally loved.

It would seem so simple, but no less loved by everyone living in the vastness of the post-Soviet space. This recipe appeared in the 19th century and has been popular ever since. This is an excellent dish for dietary nutrition and for people who want to maintain their figure. After all, it does not contain high-calorie foods such as meat and mayonnaise.

First meal

There are traditional soups called hot soups. And there are cold ones, served in spring and summer. But we invariably love both of them and eat them with great pleasure. We fell in love with the soups presented here precisely from those times when a dozen and a half republics were a single fraternal union.

Okroshka

The name of this dish comes from the verb “to crumble”. In accordance with the name, it is a finely chopped mixture of ingredients included in the composition, seasoned with kvass. This version of cold soup was offered back in the 18th century. Over time, both the composition of the products and the dressing itself changed. The meat component could be poultry, game and even fish. And some people prefer sausage. Okroshka is topped with more than just kvass. Some people prefer whey, mineral water or even beer. Add sour cream, chopped herbs and enjoy!

Our recipes:

Rassolnik Leningradsky

Rassolnik "Leningradsky" can be prepared with meat broth or made vegetarian. And some people prefer mushroom broth as a base. Some people use pickled cucumbers, while others like to add salted ones. Cutting them into cubes, strips or grating them on a coarse grater is not important. But the secret of the special pickle is adding cucumbers to the onion and carrot frying. By sautéing cucumbers together with vegetables, we will get a unique result! It is better to cook the pearl barley separately so that the soup turns out transparent and is not slimy.

Cake Prague

The creations of the unsurpassed master, confectioner Vladimir Guralnik, are still in great demand today. He created his masterpieces in the kitchen of the Moscow restaurant "Prague". There a cake with the same name was born. And immediately became one of the favorites. The cake, invented in Moscow, is a variation of the famous Austrian Sachertorte.

Cake pigeon's milk

We are familiar with another cake created by Guralnik -. Thin cake layer under a layer of delicate soufflé and chocolate glaze - simple and concise, but incredibly tasty! Huge queues lined up for this airy delicacy. By the way, it was he who became the first cake in the USSR for which a patent was issued.

Fairy Tale Cake

The fabulously tasty and originally designed cake is called “Fairy Tale”. It is a log covered with cute mushrooms and a scattering of the cutest flowers. The sponge cake, brandy-infused syrup for impregnation, delicious cream, as well as the “fairytale” decor made it everyone’s favorite. The kids are simply delighted with it!

Miner's cake

A real dream for any sweet tooth, especially a chocoholic! After all, it consists of a thick layer of dark chocolate with the addition of nuts. Such a huge chocolate candy! Its recipe was developed at the Lugansk confectionery factory in the 60s. A real chocolate “bomb” that guaranteed delight to anyone who tried it.

Candies

And how can we forget about the delicious Soviet sweets? Of course not! So we couldn’t. We can list them endlessly. All of them are unique, diverse, the very best in the whole world. That’s what we thought in childhood... We think the same way now. “Kara-Kum” and “Red Poppy”, “Squirrel” and “Bears in the North”, “Mask” and “Merry Men”. Chocolate “Alenka” and “Chaika”. And something else completely special and incredible...

Candy Planet

Huge in size and terribly tasty - this is how we remember the candies called “Planet”. You open the box, and there is a parade of these same planets! Incredible gastronomic pleasure and genuine childish delight. Moreover, they caused such a reaction not only in children. Which one did you eat first? Sprinkled with wafer chips or covered in chocolate sprinkles?

Candy Chicken Ryaba

These candies struck consumers to the heart not only with their taste, but also with the originality of the packaging. Not only are the sweets made in the shape of eggs laid by a fairy hen. Also, the box, made in the shape of an egg, has a nest inside. There, on the hay, the magic eggs were located. And one of them is certainly golden!

There are a great many dishes of Soviet cuisine, recipes for which we continue to use today. Wonderful homemade baked goods using time-tested recipes. These include baked in a special frying pan and homemade waffles. After all, almost every housewife has an electric waffle iron with the “Made in the USSR” sign. And how proud the hostesses were of themselves when they served guests the original “Anthill” cake or cakes they had prepared with their own hands.

The times of the Soviet Union have long since sunk into oblivion, but we continue to love the cuisine of that time. We are preparing and will continue to prepare delicious Soviet dishes and enjoy watching good old films made in the USSR.

The most popular word of the Soviet era was deficit. Everything was in short supply: good clothes, shoes, household items and, of course, food. It was like a game: the whole country did not buy, but “got it.” At the same time, there were shops, but there was nothing on the shelves. Sometimes the goods were “thrown away”, and then kilometer-long queues lined up for them. They stood behind everything, often taking turns in several places at once.

But Soviet cuisine is not only a set of those products that needed to be “obtained”, but also everyday ones, but so familiar and loved by the people. The assortment may have been small, but what a taste! And today we remember with nostalgia ice cream in a glass for 13 kopecks, navy-style pasta with real stew, milk in triangular bags and kefir in glass bottles with a foil cap. And butter, which could be turned into butter cream by whipping - try today's, even expensive, butter.

There was a perpetual shortage of meat products in the USSR. Choosing the right cut of meat in a store was out of the question, so chops are a rarity on the everyday table. If it was possible to “get” frozen meat, then it was used to prepare dishes that did not require a whole piece - goulash, chopped cutlets, etc. Cookery stores also sold ready-made minced meat, as well as ready-made dumplings - a “standard” dish of Soviet times: “Russians” in a cardboard box with a picture of a Khokhloma spoon. In general, the “dumplings-loaf-kefir” combination was almost a national food, sometimes processed cheese was added to them.

The real queen of the Soviet table was chicken. Anyone who, after standing in a long line, finally became the owner of the coveted “blue bird” considered himself lucky. A double benefit was usually obtained from chicken: the broth was boiled first, and the boiled meat was used as a second. But the most coveted product was the “Doctor’s” sausage. Many people remember the taste when it was not yet called “toilet paper sausage.” Initially, “Doctorskaya” had a complex, even refined recipe: pork, premium beef, eggs, milk powder. The only seasoning is nutmeg. But the main secret is its price, which for many years remained stably low and in fact did not even cover the cost.

One of the important ingredients of Soviet dishes were canned food and all kinds of industrially produced sauces - they were carefully stored and waited for their finest hour: pink salmon for soup, stew for pasta, condensed milk for sweets, sprats and canned peas for home celebrations and, of course, a hit - mayonnaise in glass jars. Home canning was widely used - they “rolled up” everything that was grown in their plots, stored mushrooms for the winter, and made jam.

Homemade baking occupied a large place in the diet, perhaps because flour and other ingredients were relatively accessible and inexpensive. They baked a lot and varied - pies and pies, buns and cookies, pastries and cakes. For the holidays, they baked Napoleon, which was prepared the day before so that the puff pastries were properly soaked in cream.

Everyday drinks - jelly, compote or tea. Kissel was made both independently and from briquettes with concentrate, tea was valued from Georgian, Krasnodar, the height of chic - “Vigor”. Often, in order to save money, they mixed low-quality tea, which smelled like a “broom,” with good, scarce tea. A separate culinary masterpiece is dried fruit compote, which tastes like light brown sugared water.

It is impossible not to note the international character of Soviet cuisine, which over the years of its existence has absorbed all the best that could be borrowed from the original culinary traditions of the peoples of the USSR. Ukrainian borscht, Uzbek pilaf, Belarusian potato pancakes, Georgian shish kebab and kharcho have firmly entered into everyday life, albeit in highly simplified versions and often without taking into account traditional food raw materials.

So, home cooking was, by necessity, based on what it could “get.” Constantly empty store shelves and a strictly limited range of delicacies, sometimes included in grocery “orders,” did not encourage culinary delights. Recipes from the “every crumb in the palm of your hand” category, which told how to cook at least something from “nothing,” were a success among women exhausted by everyday life.

And yet, the cuisine of the era of total shortage shaped the development of culinary imagination and ingenuity. Attempts to prepare a variety of dishes from a small set of starting materials have led to the emergence of many recipes that have become traditional and evoke a feeling of nostalgia.

We bring to your attention some interesting recipes for “budget” dishes during times of shortage, from various publications of the 1970-1990s.

Soup

Prepare mushroom broth. Grate stale bread, chop 1 onion and fry in oil, then mix with grated bread and simmer for several minutes. Combine with mushroom broth, add cumin, pepper, boil and season with sour cream. Instead of bread, you can take finely crushed crackers, but not too much so that the stew is not thick. Mushrooms can be replaced with brisket or lard.

Cabbage casserole with noodles

Chop the cabbage, place it in a shallow pan, pour in 1 tbsp. spoon of vegetable oil and simmer over low heat until soft. Sprinkle with pepper. Cook noodles in boiling salted water and drain. Season with 1 tbsp. spoon of vegetable oil, place in a greased form, alternating layers of noodles and cabbage. Place pieces of butter on top and bake in a hot oven until golden brown. 300 g noodles, 1 small head of cabbage, 2 tbsp. spoons of vegetable oil, 2 tbsp. spoons of butter, pepper, salt.

Chicken in a jar

Cut the chicken into medium-sized pieces, add salt and pepper and place in a clean, completely dry liter glass jar. Cover the jar with a tin lid or foil, place in a cold oven and turn on medium heat. In an hour the chicken will be ready.

Potato fingers

Boil the potatoes, mash, add flour, egg, fried onion, butter, salt and mix everything. Roll out the prepared mass into thin flagella, cut into 10 cm pieces, sprinkle with caraway seeds, place on a baking sheet and bake in the oven. Serve with tomato or onion sauce. 12 potatoes, ½ cup. flour, 1 egg, 1 tbsp. spoon of butter, 1 onion, salt, cumin.

Bread casserole with apples

Cut the crust off the bun, cut into slices and soak in a mixture of yolks whipped with milk or cream. Grease a baking dish with butter and place slices of bread on the bottom and edges. Wash, peel, finely chop the apples, mix with sugar and cinnamon and place in the middle of the mold. Place the remaining slices of bread on top, brush with egg and bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle the finished casserole with powdered sugar. 500 g bread, 3 yolks, 1 cup. cream or milk, 8 apples, 1 cup. sugar, cinnamon, 1 egg for brushing.

Condensed milk roll

Beat condensed milk with a mixer with 2 eggs until smooth. Add ½ teaspoon of soda, quenched with vinegar, add flour. Pour the dough onto a baking sheet and bake. Pour sour cream mixed with sugar and nuts on top and carefully wrap the roll. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top. 1 can of condensed milk, 2 eggs, ½ teaspoon of soda. 1 cup flour, 1 cup sour cream, ¼ cup sugar, nuts, powdered sugar.

The recipes given here seem quite acceptable to us today. Prepare and share your impressions with us! Write to us at [email protected] marked "History in Recipes".

Next time we will introduce you to recipe options for traditional New Year's dishes. We hope that they will interest you on the eve of the New Year and Christmas holidays.

The information was prepared by a researcher at the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts of the Central Scientific Library. Yakub Kolas NAS of Belarus Inna Murashova. Materials from culinary websites were used as illustrations.