Descriptions of the feast. Food in literature - LiveJournal. Try the fried cutlets

Fisunova Vera

A person can do without a lot in his life: without a phone, clothes, the Internet, a car. But he simply needs food and drink. The topic of cooking has always been a hot topic in literature.

The relevance of the chosen topic is due to the fact that modern people have a very vague idea of what Russian cuisine is, and when reading literary works and seeing the names of dishes in them, they rarely want to get to know the traditions of native Russian cuisine.

The purpose of our research is to analyze the use of the theme of cooking in literary works of the 19th century, to identify the relationship between literature and cooking.

To achieve the goal, the following tasks were set:

Object of study: students of grades 9-11 and school teachers. Subject of study:

Research methods

The main advantage of Russian cuisine is the ability to absorb and creatively refine and improve the best dishes of all the peoples with whom the Russian people had to communicate on a long historical path.

How many delicious dishes prepared for us by such masters of Russian prose as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Andrei Melnikov-Pechersky, Ivan Goncharov and many, many other “great chefs” of Russian literature. Derzhavin's food is perceived with the eyes, Gogol's food is perceived by the soul, Goncharov's food is perceived only by the stomach, and Chekhov's food is perceived by the tongue.

I would like to hope that we will revive Russian cuisine, and that our favorite dishes will not be hamburger and sushi, but jam from pine cones or dandelions, real “Pushkin Varenets” and veal cheek soup, porcini mushroom jelly, lamb side with porridge, pike perch and red pancakes.

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XIX Regional scientific and practical conference for youth and schoolchildren “Step into the future, Siberia!”

CULINARY REPERTOIRE
IN LITERARY WORKS OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Bratsk, Irkutsk region

2012

INTRODUCTION 3 pages

THEORETICAL PART 4 pages

PRACTICAL PART 9 pages

CONCLUSION page 11

BIBLIOGRAPHY 13 pp.

APPENDIX I 14 pages
APPENDIX II 18 pages.

APPENDIX III 21 pages.

APPENDIX IV 22 pages.

APPENDIX V 23 pages

APPENDIX VI 24 pages

APPENDIX VII 25 pages

APPENDIX VIII 26pp.

INTRODUCTION

A person can do without a lot in his life: without a phone, clothes, the Internet, a car. But he simply needs food and drink. The topic of cooking has always been a hot topic in literature. How often, when reading this or that work, do you imagine with delight and tenderness how delicious it is: “pies with poppy seeds, saffron milk caps, a glass of vodka, dried fish, sauce with mushrooms, thin uzvar with dried pears, mushrooms with thyme, pies with urda, shortbread with lard..."

What do you think the symbolic image of the Russian table looks like around the world? Most likely, this picturesque picture looks like this: vodka in a sweaty pot, herring with a rainbow sheen on the cut, oozing shiny fat, cabbage soup in a pot with a wooden spoon next to it. So why do we allow people to speak so disparagingly about Russian gastronomic traditions, carefully collected by our ancestors over many centuries, combining benefit and pleasure? The answer is extremely simple - many recipes and traditions have been lost and simply “sunk into oblivion.” But many modern “masterpieces” are nothing more than a repetition of a well-forgotten old recipe and originate precisely from Russian literature! Botvinya, repnitsa, kurnik, glazukha, nanny…. Behind these tasty and familiar names from fiction are hidden easy-to-prepare dishes. Yes, yes, our ancestors were not gourmets in the modern sense.

The relevance of the chosen topic is due to the fact thatmodern people have a very vague idea of what Russian cuisine is, and when reading literary works and seeing the names of dishes in them, they rarely want to get to know the traditions of native Russian cuisine.

Many authors of literature of the 19th century gave us masterpieces of Russian cooking: how many delicious dishes can be prepared by looking into the works of L.N. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, A.P. Chekhov and many others. One of the essential components of writing is the ability to believably, vividly and expressively describe all sorts of edible things. Sometimes such details play an important role in the overall impression of the book. Has this ever happened to you? Reading a book and coming across a description of the process of cooking or eating a particularly tasty dish by the characters, did you have an urgent desire to repeat the culinary experiment?

Purpose Our research is to analyze the use of the theme of cooking in literary works of the 19th century, identifying the relationship between literature and cooking.To achieve the goalThe following tasks were set:

1. Explore culinary preferences writers of the 19th century century (study the works of Russian classics, where there are descriptions of Russian cuisine and learn how to cook dishes).

2. Trace the history of Russian cuisine and modern restaurants, find modern analogues to ancient recipes.

3. Determine what our ancestors who lived in the 19th century ate and study gastronomic preferences modern man.

4. Find out if students are familiar with dishes from literary works.

Object of study: students of grades 9-11 and school teachers.Subject of study:culinary preferences of writers of the 19th century. The study is devoted to two areas of human activity: Russian literature and Russian cuisine.

Research methods: literature study, questioning.

Hypothesis: if I conduct research, I will find out that in the age of progress and general employment, life itself pushes us to forget not only about the traditions of the original Russian cuisine, but also about spiritual food. Accepting all the culinary innovations, we forget about our native Russian cuisine, about what we have learned from experience and passed on from fathers to children.

Theoretical part

1. EXCURSION TO THE 19TH CENTURY.

Each nation has its own way of life, customs, its own unique songs, dances, and fairy tales. Each country has its favorite dishes, special traditions in table decoration and cooking. Old Russian cuisine, which developed from the 9th-10th centuries. and reached its greatest prosperity in the XV-XVI centuries. characterized by common features that have largely survived to this day. At the beginning of this period, Russian bread from yeast rye dough appeared, and all other important types of Russian flour products also appeared: saiki, bagels, sochni, pyshki, pancakes, pancakes, pies, etc.

Various gruels and porridges, which were originally considered ritual, ceremonial food, also occupied a large place on the menu. The number of dishes by name was huge, but in content they differed little from one another. In the initial period of the development of Russian cuisine, there also developed a tendency to consume liquid hot dishes, which then received the general name “bread”, these include cabbage soup, stews based on vegetable raw materials, as well as various rubs, brews, and chatterboxes. At the same time, all the main types of Russian soups finally took shape, while hangovers, solyanka, and rassolniki, unknown in medieval Rus', appeared.

On the cookery of the 17th century. Tatar cuisine is strongly influenced by historical events. During this period, dishes made from unleavened dough (noodles, dumplings), as well as raisins, apricots, figs (figs), lemons and tea, which became traditional in Rus', entered Russian cuisine.

The boyar table is characterized by a large abundance of dishes - up to 50, and at the royal table their number grows to 150-200. The size of these dishes is also huge. Court dinners turn into a pompous, magnificent ritual, lasting 6-8 hours in a row, and include almost a dozen changes, each of which consists of a whole series of dishes of the same name.

The order of serving dishes for the rich festive table, consisting of 6-8 changes, finally took shape in the second half of the 18th century. It was preserved until the 60-70s of the 19th century: hot dishes (cabbage soup, stew, fish soup); cold (okroshka, botvinya, jelly, jellied fish, corned beef); roast (meat, poultry); vegetable (boiled or fried) hot fish); pies (unsweetened), kulebyaka; porridge (sometimes served with cabbage soup); cake (sweet pies, pies); snacks.

Since the time of Peter the Great, the Russian nobility has borrowed and introduced Western European culinary traditions. And only in the second half of the 19th century. The restoration of the Russian national menu begins, but with French adjustments.

By the last third of the 19th century. Russian cuisine of the ruling classes began to occupy, along with French cuisine, one of the leading places in Europe. The main features of Russian cuisine can be defined as follows: the abundance of dishes, the variety of the snack table, the love of eating bread, pancakes, pies, cereals, the originality of the first liquid cold and hot dishes, the variety of fish and mushroom table, the widespread use of pickles from vegetables and mushrooms, abundance festive and sweet table with its jams, cookies, gingerbreads, Easter cakes, etc.(Appendix I).

From the middle of the 19th century a serious turn of gastronomic interests towards national traditions begins. A completely unique tavern cuisine emerges. It is based on traditional Russian cooking; here they are no longer shy about porridge, cabbage soup, pies, or kulebyak. Dishes are prepared in large tavern ovens, which were no different from Russian home ovens.

2. COOKING IN LITERATURE

The ideas of most of our contemporaries about their own cuisine, unfortunately, are surprisingly primitive. There are several well-worn templates, from which it follows that the main food of the Russian people at all times is cabbage soup, porridge and dumplings, that the “common people” never saw meat, and the propertied class was served swans with feathers on the table, that, finally, the imagination of Russian cooks was limited Russian stove and cast iron.

And stumbling across the works fiction Only in the 19th century, at the mention of now-forgotten dishes, such as nanny, perepecha, salamata, kulaga, kokurka, a contemporary will sigh sadly - they say, there was food before us, but it was forgotten long ago...How many delicious dishes have been prepared for us by such masters of Russian prose as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Andrei Melnikov-Pechersky, Ivan Goncharov and many, many other “great chefs” of Russian literature.

Even the city's intelligentsia openly declares their gastronomic preferences. The liberal poet at the peak of his popularity, successful publisher and player N.A. Nekrasovwrites what exactly he sees as the meaning of life:

In pies, in sterlet ear,
In cabbage soup, in goose giblets,
In the nanny, in the pumpkin patch, in the porridge
And in lamb tripe...

This is how I had lunch main character Russian literature Evgeny Onegin:

Entered: and there was a cork in the ceiling,

The current flowed from the comet's fault,

Before him roast-beef is bloody,

And truffles, the luxury of youth,

French cuisine best color,

And Strasbourg's pie is imperishable

Between live Limburg cheese

And a golden pineapple.

Let us read these lines: it is clear from them that Russian aristocrats did not favor domestic cuisine, as did the entire aristocracy of the world. Be sure to serve them something special, foreign, not the same as what their compatriots eat. I read Russian classics with envy not for the dishes that our ancestors ate, but because these people were so full of life and delight in its wonders. Here, for example, is Derzhavin:

Crimson ham, green cabbage soup with yolk.
Ruddy yellow pie, white cheese, red crayfish,
What pitch, amber - caviar, and with a blue feather
There are motley pike there: beautiful!

Or, for example, Salytkov-Shchedrin’s story “How one man fed two generals”: “Yesterday,” one general read in an excited voice, “at the venerable chief of our ancient capital there was a formal dinner. The table was set for a hundred people with amazing luxury. The gifts of all countries set themselves a kind of rendezvous at this magical holiday. There was also the “Sheksna golden sterlet”, and a pet of the Caucasian forests - pheasant, and, so rare in our north in February, strawberries....."

But Gogol’s “Old World Landowners” has a different meaning: the ability and ability to use various household supplies and the housewife’s passionate desire to please her husband with these benefits. Jam, jelly, and marshmallows were constantly being cooked, made with honey, sugar, and molasses.... We sat down for dinner at 12 o'clock. In addition to dishes and gravy boats, there were many pots with covered lids on the table, so that some appetizing product of the ancient delicious cuisine could not fizzle out.”

Russians live differently during the time of “Oblomov” in Goncharov’s novel. On the pages describing his childhood there is a lot of talk about food. “The whole house discussed dinner... Everyone offered their dish: some soup with giblets, some noodles or stomach, some tripe, some red, some white gravy for the sauce... Caring for food was the first and main concern of life in Oblomovka. »

In Aksakov’s “Family Chronicle” there is almost no detail of the preparations, only a generalized assessment of the dinner: “There were many dishes, one fatter than the other, one heavier than the other: the cook Stepan did not spare cinnamon, cloves, pepper and most of all butter.”

But Chekhov dedicated many works to gluttons. Particularly famous in this sense is the story “Apoplexy,” where the gastric ecstasy of a gourmet who was preparing to swallow a pancake with various snacks was described in detail. The secretary of the world congress talks about food like a poet, his appetite almost makes him hysterical. "The most best snack, if you want to know, herring. We ate a piece of it with onion and mustard sauce, now, my benefactor, while you still feel the sparks in your stomach, eat the caviar on its own, or, if you wish, with a lemon, then a simple radish with salt, then again herring, but that’s all - It’s better, benefactor, salted saffron milk caps if you cut them finely, like caviar, and, you know, with onions, with Provençal butter - delicious! But burbot liver is a tragedy!..”

The descriptions go on for a long time: there is cabbage soup, and borscht, and soup, and a fish dish, and great snipe, and turkey, and casserole... And it all ends with the officials, seduced by these conversations, abandoning their work and going to the restaurant.

Again, here the descriptions of food are not an end in themselves, nor a glorification of Russian cuisine. And the dishes are simple, except that they are prepared with inspiration, which we have almost forgotten today. And all Russian classics leave a cheerful impression in this sense. Heroes of literary works continually sit down at the table, get up from the table, drink tastefully, have a snack, clink cutlery, pass each other dishes with appetizing fillings.

So, Derzhavin’s food is perceived with the eyes, Gogol’s food is perceived with the soul, Goncharov’s food is perceived only with the stomach, and for Chekhov, with the tongue.

3. CULINARY PASSIONS OF MODERN TIME

What are the culinary preferences of modern Russian literature? They are missing. For its characters themselves raise some doubts about their existence. In general, they say that the culinary preferences of a given literature can tell a lot about the state of the people to whom it belongs. If dinner tables, snacks, cold and hot dishes, fresh cucumbers, cooks, and kitchen utensils disappear from its pages, it means that something is wrong with the people themselves, or more precisely, with their creative intelligentsia.

In modern literature, food scenes always reek of the triumph of an upstart who has proudly achieved the same benefits as others.The desire to be no worse than the authorities, to leapfrog from one’s environment to higher positions leads to the fact that food turns out to be a measure of a person’s social value. And it’s time to regret not that there is not enough food, but that curiosity, inquisitiveness, and the desire to cook the simplest dish deliciously and with soul have disappeared. After all, so many amazing works of art can be made from bread, onions, cheese, apples, cereals, potatoes, milk, eggs! And we feed each other hard-boiled eggs until the desire to crow appears, and sandwiches, primitive and monotonous, from which only unhealthy heaviness and fullness are acquired.

The science of cooking does not stand still, and we take advantage of the benefits of the 21st century, mercilessly poking our fingers at microwave ovens, food processors and assessing the freshness of products by the date stamped on the packaging. In our age of progress and universal employment, life itself pushes us to the fact that more and more often we buy ready-made factory-produced dishes and less and less often prepare food from fresh products. In my opinion, it is cooking that brings a touch of order and peace to the everyday chaos of our modern life. Most people eat to live. But you can eat and enjoy the food.

The “culinary” topic has been practically unstudied in modern literature, yet there is so much scope for research and imagination. We forget how magnificent, simple and rational Russian cuisine is. Nowadays, foreign cuisine appears on our table more and more often. This is not bad, but we forget about our native Russian cuisine, what we are used to, what we have become accustomed to, what is learned from experience, passed on from fathers to children and is determined by the area of our existence, climate and way of life. Time flows inexorably, changing morals, customs, traditions, and only one thing remains unchanged - the hospitality of the Russian home, despite the social class. Despite the dominance of restaurants serving European and Asian cuisine, it is gratifying to see that native Russian cuisine occupies not the least place among the gastronomic preferences of people from other countries.Russian restaurants are common all over the world. There are them in Paris, they are in Vienna, London, Boston and Sydney. INIstanbul has 6 high-class Russian restaurants. Famous Russian restaurateurs and public figures began to open their own restaurants. For example, in Moscow, some of the most famous Russian restaurants are “Ilya Muromets”, “Sudar”, “Gogol” and others ( Appendix II).

I would like to hope that we will revive Russian cuisine, and our favorite dishes will not be hamburger and sushi, but jam made from pine cones or dandelions, real “Pushkin’s Varenets” and veal cheek soup, porcini mushroom jelly, lamb flank with porridge, pike perch and red pancakes….

Practical part

Having studied the history of Russian cuisine and analyzed the culinary preferences of the authors of literature of the 19th century, I decided to try to cook dishes of Russian cuisine, the names of which I came across in works of literature. I was interested in the question: are my peers and people of the older generation familiar with Russian cuisine? Do they like Russian cuisine or prefer fast food? To do this, I conducted a study, which was carried out on the basis of the Municipal Educational Institution “Secondary School No. 32” in Bratsk. It was attended by 20 students of grade 9 “A”, 20 students of grade 11 “A”, as well as 20 school teachers.

Research procedure: development of a questionnaire with the names of dishes, preparation of forms for recording the results, implementation of the study, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, conclusions on the study.

The material for the questionnaire was several names of Russian cuisine dishes from the works ofGogol, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Goncharov, Saltykov-Shchedrin.The questionnaire contained 10 types of dishes, and survey participants were asked to answer questions.(Appendix III). After conducting the survey, its results were processed.

Survey results

The first question of the survey: “What cuisine do you prefer?” - revealed preferences in cuisine. Having analyzed the results obtained, the following conclusions can be drawn: Appendix IV. Summarizing the results we can conclude:(Appendix V).

Survey results

In the next part of the questionnaire, respondents were asked to read the names of the dishes, answer what kind of dishes they are, and what products they are prepared from. These questions caused certain difficulties for respondents:(Appendix VI)

Summarizing the results, we can conclude that a largeSome respondents are indifferent to Russian cuisine. The problem is that most of the respondents have a very vague idea of what Russian cuisine is, and when reading literary works and seeing the names of dishes in them, children do not have the desire to get to know the traditions of native Russian cuisine.

Survey results

The last question of the survey: “In which literary work did you come across the names of these dishes” - showed how much the respondents like to read and how attentive they are(Appendix VII)

Summarizing the results obtained, it should be noted that there is a certain relationship between age and knowledge and preferences. Young respondents prefer dishes Japanese cuisine, are almost unfamiliar with the dishes of ancient Russian cuisine and read little; The most read ones are teachers, and they also give preference to Russian cuisine.

During the survey, respondents were very interested in the variety and unusualness of these dishes. After conducting a survey, we proposed holding a culinary tournament. Each participant in the tournament was asked to prepare a dish from a work by Gogol, Chekhov, Pushkin, tell the recipe for its preparation, and, most importantly, not forgetting about literature, present the dish (with an excerpt from the work). The next part of the tournament was a quiz with questions(Appendix VIII).

So, we all have a common weakness: we love to eat delicious food! But for some reason, most of us do not suffer from culinary selectivity. “Foreigners” have long been a part of our diet. And even babies know what hamburgers, sushi and pizza are. But the names of such dishes as perepecha, nanny or botvinya – on the contrary, sound foreign to us. But these are original Russian dishes! All this once again speaks of the deep internal chasm that separates us and our great ancestors. But there are traditions that can not only organically enter into daily life every family. We must respect our culinary traditions. And for this, first of all, it is necessary to study these very traditions.

Gastronomic art, like theatrical art, is fleeting: it leaves traces only in our memory. It is these memories of exciting and joyful events experienced at the table that make up the plots of culinary prose. It’s not for nothing that the descriptions of food in classical literature, including Russian.

Conclusion

This study was an attempt to combine two of my long-time hobbies - good literature and delicious food. The hypothesis I put forward at the beginning of the research was confirmed: in the age of progress and general employment, life itself pushes us to forget not only about the traditions of the original Russian cuisine, but also about spiritual food. The pursuit of exotic food has become another fun thing for modern people, capable of distracting them from the daily stress that always haunts them. everyday problems. By accepting these culinary innovations, we forget about our native Russian cuisine, about what is learned from experience, passed on from fathers to children and is determined by the area of our existence, climate and way of life.

The traditions of modern Russian cuisine have evolved over many centuries; their formation was significantly influenced by both religion and various historical factors, and therefore it acquired a multinational and regional character.

Having studied the question of the relationship between literature and cooking, we can conclude that recipes, as well as descriptions of the meals themselves and traditions in culinary culture, footnotes explaining the composition and meaning of the dish contained in works of fiction, act not only as material witnesses to the culture of life of peoples, different social groups, but also reveal the diversity of people’s aesthetic ideas about the beauty of the world around them and their tastes.

Judging by the culinary preferences in literary works, one can say a lot about the state of the people to whom it belongs.How many delicious dishes have been prepared for us by such masters of Russian prose as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Andrei Melnikov-Pechersky, Ivan Goncharov and many, many other “great chefs” of Russian literature. How much pleasure you can get not only from re-reading wonderful passages known from childhood, but also enrich your culinary experience by preparing your favorite dishes of literary heroes.

Everyone loves to eat. Russians too. But among some peoples this process has been brought to gastronomic perfection, while others drink a glass of cane vodka, snack on it with a good piece of dog meat and consider the problem solved. The former call the latter barbarians, the latter call the former rotten aristocrats. And both sides are right in their own way. Because a national gastronomic tradition can only arise among a developed people - and precisely in its cultural layer.

A reasonable person must have innate intuition and a sense of proportion. And there is no need for anyone else to cook cabbage soup. In cooking he will get by with a hamburger, in art with TV, in sports with poker.

So, before preparing dinner, do not forget to look at the pages of fiction, because who, no matter how talented writers, creates national culinary myths.

Bibliography

Pushkin A.S. "Eugene Onegin", Eksmo. 2008
Pokhlebkin V.V. “From the history of Russian culinary culture”, Publisher: Tsentrpoligraf, Series: Classics of Culinary Art, 2009
Gogol N.V. Stories. "Inspector". “Dead Souls”, publishing house: AST, 2008
Goncharov I. “Oblomov”, World of Books Publishing House, 2008.
Dostoevsky F. “The Brothers Karamazov” Publisher: Series: Russian Classics, Eksmo Publishing House, 2008
Literary newspaper No. 43 (6247) (2009-10-21) “Literary cooking, or the Metaphysics of food” Sergey Mnatsakanyan
Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. “Gentlemen Golovlevs” Publisher: Siberian University Publishing House, 2009
Chekhov A.P. Stories and stories - from Vlados, 2009
http://restaurant-gogol.ru - Restaurant Gogol
http://sudar.ru - Restaurant of exclusive Russian signature cuisine "Sudar"
http://www.restoran-muromec.ru - Restaurant Ilya Muromec

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APPENDIX I

Culinary repertoire of the Russian people

Tyuri - leaven, bread, milk. Stews - cereals, peas, turnips, cabbage, onions, meat, fish, mushrooms, with game, with crayfish. Okroshka - meat, fish. Botvini - leavened, steamed. Cabbage soup - from fresh cabbage, from sauerkraut, turnip, green. Borscht - made from pickled beets, from hogweed. Heated oil. Kalya - fish, chicken. Rassolnik. Pigus. Hangover. Solyanka - fish, meat. Ukha - simple, saffron, chicken, double, triple, baked, with pounders, with cherevets. Salted fish - layered, barreled, hung, dry. Caviar - grainy lightly salted, roached, pressed, whitefish, boiled in vinegar or poppy milk. Seldyanka. Picklings - cabbage, beets, hogweed, turnips. Pickles - cucumbers, black mushrooms, saffron milk caps, milk mushrooms.

Urines - lingonberries, cranberries, apples, thorns, pears, stone fruits, viburnum, cloudberries, plums, cherries. Corned beef. Buzhenina. Feathered game - fried, brined, baked in sour cream.

Jelly. The intestines are repaired. Nanny. Stuffing box. Telnoye - fish, chicken, meat. Boiled, baked, frying pan. Fish porridge. Meat - boiled, skewered, roasted, frying, baked. Hares - pickled, oven-baked. Brews for meat and game - berries, horseradish, sour cream, cabbage. Crayfish - boiled, crawfish. Baked mushrooms. Cheeses - creamy, sour cream, spongy. Cottage cheese. Broken cottage cheese. Curd cakes. Varenets. Baked milk. Syrniki. The eggs are hot. Drachena.Repnitsa. Bryukovnitsa. Pumpkin. Tebechnik. Steamed turnips. Steamed cabbage. Radishberry. Radish - grated, with kvass, honey, butter, slices. Kissels - pea, wheat, milk, buckwheat, oat, rye. Pancakes - red, milk, millet, pea, cheese. Kundums. Pancakes.Sokovenya. Rebake. Kokurki Leftists. Easter cakes. Varentsy. Gingerbread - honey, mint, beaten, raw. Gingerbreads - honey, Vyazma, sugar. Sochni. Pryazhentsy.

Ladders. Larks. Bagels. Vitushki. Buckwheat. Drying. Yarn pies. Pies. Kulebyaki - meat, fish, mushroom. Pies - hearth, yarn, pancake, layered. Loaves - broken, yak, with cheese, fraternal, mixed, set, pancake-shaped. Kurnik Bend. Shangi. Tolokonnik. Zhitnik Wheat Levasha - strawberry, lingonberry, blackberry, raspberry. Mazyunya Salamata Muchnitsa Gustukha

Porridge

Buckwheat porridge. Egg porridge. Live porridge. Glazukha. Oatmeal. Millet porridge. Bearberry porridge

Dessert

Sweet infusions - honey, kvass, berry. Apples and pears in molasses. Radish in molasses

Poppy milk. Pea sy

Beverages

Fruit drinks. Kvass - white, red, berry, apple, cabbage, pear, juniper, birch. The honey used is white, plain, cranberry, and sugar. Sbiten. Blast.

Water - lingonberry, currant, rowan, cherry, strawberry.

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APPENDIX IV

What cuisine do you prefer?

The theme of gluttony has long been found in literary works. But since gluttony has always been considered a mortal sin, the images of “gluttons” created in them are often presented in a satirical way. True, depending on the literary genre, the tonality in relation to literary characters varies from outright condemnation of the “pleasers of Mammon” to grotesquerie and making fun of the gastronomic weaknesses of the characters. Everyone eats, but not everyone becomes a gourmet. The description of food habits is successfully used by the authors to characterize individual characters, as well as to immerse readers in the culture and life of that time.

NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH GOGOL with his “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, where dumplings with sour cream climb into the mouth themselves, which seems to symbolize gluttony, but then, in the preface, such “desserts” are served:

“But once you’re welcome, we’ll serve you melons the kind you’ve probably never eaten in your life; and I bet you won’t find anything better on the farmsteads. Imagine that as soon as you bring in the honeycomb, a spirit will permeate the whole room, it’s impossible to imagine what kind: pure, like a tear or expensive crystal, which happens in earrings. And what kind of pies will my old woman feed me! What pies, if only you knew: sugar, perfect sugar! And the oil just flows over your lips when you start eating.

Have you, gentlemen, ever drunk pear kvass with sloe berries or varenukha with raisins and plums? Or have you ever eaten putra with milk? My God, what kind of dishes are there in the world! If you start eating, you’ll be full and full.”

"Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka"

And here is an excerpt from the story “Old World Landowners”.

The “old-world landowners” are addressed “not by the damaging power of sarcasm,” but by the “uplifting power of lyricism.” Great faith N.V. Gogol's emphasis on the beautiful in man allowed him to find love in everyday life, in the care of loving people for each other.

The desire of Pulcheria Ivanovna, conveyed by the writer, to treat her husband, to please him with her favorite dishes, and the reverent relations between the old-world landowners make up the lyrical beginning of the story. Thanks to this, the reader’s imagination creates a picture of the peaceful, measured life of a provincial noble estate and its inhabitants.

“Both old men, according to the ancient custom of old-world landowners, loved to eat. As soon as dawn broke (they always got up early) and as soon as the doors began their discordant concert, they were already sitting at the table and drinking coffee...

“What should I have a snack now, Afanasy Ivanovich? Perhaps shortcakes with lard, or pies with poppy seeds, or maybe salted saffron milk caps?

“Perhaps, at least some saffron milk caps or pies,” answered Afanasy Ivanovich, and a tablecloth with pies and saffron milk caps suddenly appeared on the table.

An hour before lunch, Afanasy Ivanovich ate again, drank an old silver glass of vodka, ate mushrooms, various dried fish and other things. They sat down to dinner at twelve o'clock. In addition to dishes and gravy boats, on the table there were many pots with covered lids so that some appetizing product of the ancient delicious cuisine could not run out. At dinner there was usually a conversation about subjects closest to dinner.

“It seems to me as if it’s porridge,” Afanasy Ivanovich used to say, “it’s a little burnt, don’t you think so, Pulcheria Ivanovna? “No, Afanasy Ivanovich, you put more butter then it won’t seem burnt, or take this sauce with mushrooms and add it to it.”

“Perhaps,” said Afanasy Ivanovich and offered his plate: “let’s try how it will be.”

After lunch, Afanasy Ivanovich went to rest for an hour, after which Pulcheria Ivanovna brought a cut watermelon and said: “Try this, Afanasy Ivanovich, what a good watermelon.”

“Don’t believe it, Pulcheria Ivanovna, that it’s red in the middle,” said Afanasy Ivanovich, taking a decent slice, “Sometimes it’s red, but not good.” The watermelon immediately disappeared. After that, Afanasy Ivanovich ate a few more pears and went for a walk in the garden with Pulcheria Ivanovna.

Having arrived home, Pulcheria Ivanovna went about her business, and he sat down under the canopy facing the courtyard, and watched how the pantry constantly showed and closed its interior and the girls, pushing one another, then brought in and then took out a bunch of all sorts of rubbish in wooden boxes and sieves , overnight stays and other fruit storage facilities. A little later he sent for Pulcheria Ivanovna, or he himself went to her and said: “What should I eat, Pulcheria Ivanovna?”

“What would happen?” - said Pulcheria Ivanovna, will I go and tell you to bring you dumplings with berries, which I ordered to be left for you on purpose?

“And that’s good,” answered Afanasy Ivanovich.

“Or maybe you would eat jelly?”

“And that’s good,” answered Afanasy Ivanovich. After which all this was immediately brought and, as usual, was eaten.

Before dinner, Afanasy Ivanovich had something else to eat. At half past nine we sat down to dinner. After dinner they immediately went back to bed, and general silence settled in this active and at the same time calm corner. The room in which Afanasy Petrovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna slept was so hot that a rare person would be able to stay in it for several hours. But Afanasy Ivanovich was even warmer, although the intense heat often forced him to get up several times in the middle of the night and walk around the room. Sometimes Afanasy Ivanovich, walking around the room, moaned.

Then Pulcheria Ivanovna asked: “Why are you moaning, Afanasy Ivanovich?”

“God knows, Pulcheria Ivanovna, because my stomach hurts a little,” said Afanasy Petrovich.

“Perhaps you ate something, Afanasy Petrovich?”

“I don’t know if it will be good, Pulcheria Ivanovna! However, why would you eat something like that?”

“Sour milk, or thin uzvaru with dried pears.”

“Perhaps, just try,” said Afanasy Ivanovich. The sleepy girl went to rummage through the cabinets, and Afanasy Ivanovich ate the plate, after which he usually said: “Now it seems as if it has become easier.”

Lovingly prepared dishes, hospitality, leisurely conversations make the life of the old people simple and clear, and help them withstand adversity.

Old-world life becomes existence because, because it is permeated by the heroes’ love for each other, for life, even if Gogol calls it “habit.” However, he says, “Such deep, such crushing pity,” about Pulcheria Ivanovna’s feelings for Afanasy Ivanovich. “Such a long, such a hot sadness” - about the feeling of an old man after the death of his wife.

In Dead Souls, food says a lot about the characters. In the chapter devoted to Chichikov’s visit to Sobakevich, the latter emphasizes the features of heroism (albeit with irony) through many portrait details, a listing of dishes served for lunch, and their quantity.

N.V. Gogol “Dead Souls” (lunch at Sobakevich’s)

“The cabbage soup, my soul, is very good today! - said Sobakevich, taking a sip of cabbage soup and helping himself to a huge piece of nyanya, a famous dish that is served with cabbage soup and consists of a lamb stomach stuffed with buckwheat porridge, brains and legs. “Such a nanny,” he continued, turning to Chichikov, “you won’t eat in the city, God knows what they’ll serve you there.” The German and French doctors invented all this, I would hang them for this! They came up with a diet, treat with hunger! Because they have a German liquid nature, they imagine that they can cope with the Russian stomach! Not so for me. I have pork - let's put the whole pig on the table. Lamb - bring the whole ram, goose - the whole goose! I’d rather eat two dishes, but eat in moderation, as my soul requires.” Sobakevich confirmed this with action: he dumped half a side of lamb onto his plate, ate it all, gnawed it, sucked it to the last bone.”

For him, the Russian stomach is equal to the broad Russian soul; it is a source of his pride. Of course, Gogol laughs at his hero: Sobakevich’s gluttony is, of course, gluttony and sin, but the multi-page, hospitable descriptions of the feasts in “Old World Landowners” are rather gourmetism. Which, by the way, the author secretly admitted: “My grandfather (May the Kingdom of Heaven be his! May he eat only loaves of bread and poppy seeds in honey in the next world!) knew how to tell wonderful stories.”

Among the great ANTON PAVLOVICH CHEKHOV, the cult of food could be traced already in his early stories. Just read his story “Siren” before lunch - it’s the best remedy to increase appetite:

“Oh, it’s my fault, Pyotr Nikolaich! “I’ll be quiet,” the secretary said and continued in a half-whisper: “Well, sir, but to eat, my soul Grigory Savvich, you also need to skillfully.” You need to know what to eat. The best appetizer, if you want to know, is herring. If you ate a piece of it with onion and mustard sauce, now, my benefactor, while you still feel the sparks in your stomach, eat the caviar on its own or, if you wish, with a lemon, then a simple radish with salt, then again herring, but best of all, benefactor , salted saffron milk caps, if you cut them finely, like caviar, and, you know, with onions, with Provençal butter... delicious” But burbot liver is a tragedy!

Hmmm... - the honorary peace officer agreed, squinting his eyes. “Also good for appetizers are... sultry porcini mushrooms...” (However, in his youth, Anton Palych showed youthful maximalism, asserting that “Humanity thought and thought, but still didn’t come up with anything better than a pickled cucumber with a glass of vodka”). Even the herring he mentions is one of the most frequently depicted snacks in Russian painting.

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin “Herring”. 1918. State Russian Museum. Saint Petersburg

Zinaida Serebryakova “Herring and Lemon”. 1920-1922

And here’s how A.P. Chekhov in his story “On Mortality” describes his hero’s meal.

“The court councilor Semyon Petrovich Podtykin sat down at the table, covered his chest with a napkin and, burning with impatience, began to wait for the moment when the pancakes would begin to be served. A whole picture spread out before him, like before a commander surveying a battlefield. In the middle of the table, stretched out to the front, stood slender bottles. There were three types of vodka, Kiev liqueur, and Rhine wine. Around the drinks, herring with mustard sauce, sprat, sour cream, grainy caviar (three rubles 40 kopecks per pound), fresh salmon and so on were crowded in artistic disorder. Podtikin looked at all this and greedily swallowed his saliva. But finally the cook appeared with pancakes... Semyon Petrovich, risking burning his fingers, grabbed the top two, hottest pancakes and deliciously plopped them on his plate. The pancakes were crispy, spongy, plump, like the shoulder of a merchant’s daughter... Podtykin smiled pleasantly, hiccupped with delight and doused them with hot butter. Then, as if whetting his appetite and enjoying the anticipation, he slowly, sparingly coated them with caviar. He poured sour cream on the places where the caviar did not fall... now all that was left was to eat, wasn’t it? But no! Podtikin looked at the work of his hands and was not satisfied... After thinking a little, he put the fattest piece of salmon, sprat and sardine on the pancakes, then, melting and gasping for breath, he rolled both pancakes into a tube, drank a glass with feeling, grunted, opened his mouth... But Then he was seized with an apoplexy.” You will inevitably think about the sense of proportion!

It seems, whatever one may say, the great writers Pushkin, Gogol, Chekhov and other virtuosos of gastronomic descriptions of delicious food are gourmets... But what about the poet of the Enlightenment - Gavriil Derzhavin, who even before them knew how to give savory, without unnecessary gloss, definitions: “ Crimson ham, green cabbage soup with yolk, rosy-yellow pie, white cheese, red crayfish”...

Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin

A.S. Pushkin

In the first chapter of the novel “Eugene Onegin” we find a joyful description of a real dandy’s lunch in the fashionable French restaurant Talon on Nevsky Prospekt, where he is in a hurry main character:

“The cork entered the ceiling,

The comet's fault flowed with current;

Before him roast-beef is bloody,

And truffles, the luxury of youth,

French cuisine has the best color.

And Strasbourg's pie is imperishable.

Between live Limburg cheese

And a golden pineapple..."

This lunch can be called luxurious and it is no coincidence. This also applies to truffles - fragrant mushrooms that grow underground and are very expensive for gourmets. On the table is “bloody roast-beef” - a dish of the best beef, which was roasted on a spit and served to the table not quite cooked, with blood. Strasbourg pie is a goose liver pate that was brought to Russia in canned form. Delicious Limburg cheese, soft and with a pungent aroma, was delivered from Belgium. Onegin washes down these luxurious dishes with “Comet Wine” - French champagne from the 1811 vintage. That year, a comet appeared in the sky, which began to be considered the forerunner of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. “Comet Wine” was especially appreciated by connoisseurs. The exquisite meal of Pushkin’s hero ends with a “golden pineapple”.

We see a completely different picture in the same novel “Eugene Onegin”, but already at dinner at the Larins’ estate.

Instead of Comet Wine, Tsimlyansk champagne is on the table. Instead of roast-beef - roast. Instead of Strasbourg pie - “fat pie”. Pushkin, describing these two feasts, was always accurate in describing gastronomic details.

This is how the poet, not without slight irony, depicts the dishes of simple rural landowner Russian cuisine:

“At their Shrovetide

There were Russian pancakes...

And at their table there are guests

They carried dishes according to rank...

Simple Russian family

Great care is taken towards guests.

...The well-known ritual of treats:

They carry jam on saucers,

They put a waxed one on the table

A jug of lingonberry water.”

Sometimes Pushkin gives “gastronomic advice” in small humorous poems. This is what the poet recommends to his friend Sergei Aleksandrovich Sobolevsky:

“They will bring you trout!

They immediately ordered them to cook.

As you will see: they turned blue,

Pour a glass of Chablis into your ear.

So that the ear suits your heart,

It will be possible in boiling water

Put some pepper

A small piece of onion."

As a secular man, Pushkin was experienced in overseas cuisine, but still preferred domestic dishes. Among them, the poet’s special love was “Pozharsky” cutlets:

"Dine at your leisure

At Pozharsky's in Torzhok,

Try the fried cutlets

And go light,” wrote A.S. Pushkin S.A. Sobolevsky. 1828. Mikhailovskoye village.

I.A. Goncharov

I.A. Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov”:

“The whole house discussed dinner... Everyone offered their dish: some soup with giblets, some noodles or stomach, some tripe, some red, some white gravy for the sauce... Taking care of food was the first and main concern in life in Oblomovka. What calves grew fat for the annual holidays! What a bird was raised! Turkeys and chickens assigned to name days and other special days were fattened with nuts, geese were deprived of exercise and forced to hang motionless in a sack several days before the holiday so that they would become fat. What reserves there were of jams, pickles, and urines! What honeys, what kvass were brewed, what pies were baked in Oblomovka!

M.A. Bulgakov

M.A. BULGAKOV knew how to write beautifully and poetically. Even such little things as the description of borscht are described so appetizingly that your mouth waters, but is the “hangover” table Likhodeev’s share? Let us remember how the meal in Professor Preobrazhensky’s apartment is described in “Heart of a Dog”...

... Eh-ho-ho...Yes, it was, it was!..Moscow old-timers remember the famous Griboyedov! What boiled portioned pike perch! Cheap, it's dear Ambrose! What about sterlet, sterlet in a silver saucepan, sterlet in pieces, topped with crayfish tails and fresh caviar?

And cocotte eggs with champignon puree in cups? Didn't you like blackbird fillets? With truffles? Genoese quail? Ten and a half! Yes jazz, yes polite service! And in July, when the whole family is at the dacha, and urgent literary matters keep you in the city, - on the veranda, in the shade of climbing grapes, in a golden spot on a clean tablecloth, a plate of soup-prentanière? Remember, Ambrose? Well, why ask! I see from your lips that you remember. What are your little tits, pike perch! What about great snipes, woodcocks, snipes, woodcocks in season, quails, waders? Narzan hissing in the throat?! But enough, you're getting distracted, reader! Behind me!...

... Styopa, widening his eyes, saw that a tray was served on a small table, on which there was chopped White bread, pressed caviar in a vase, pickled porcini mushrooms on a plate, something in a saucepan and, finally, vodka in a bulky jewelry decanter. Styopa was especially struck by the fact that the decanter was fogging up from the cold. However, this was understandable - he was placed in a gargle filled with ice. It was covered, in a word, cleanly, skillfully...

Five minutes later the chairman was sitting at the table in his small dining room. His wife brought from the kitchen neatly chopped herring, thickly sprinkled with green onions. Nikanor Ivanovich poured a firebrand, drank, poured a second one, drank, picked up three pieces of herring on a fork... and at that time the bell rang, and Pelageya Antonovna brought in a steaming saucepan, at one glance at which one could immediately guess what was in it, in the thick of the fiery borscht , there is something tastier in the world - marrow bone...

... “I like to sit low,” said the artist, “it’s not so dangerous to fall from low.” Yes, so we settled on sturgeon? My darling! Fresh, fresh and fresh, that should be the motto of every bartender. Well, would you like to try...

Then, in the crimson light from the fireplace, a sword flashed in front of the barman, and Azazello laid out a sizzling piece of meat on a golden plate and poured it over lemon juice and handed the barman a golden two-pronged fork.

-Most humbly...I...

- No, no, try it!

The barman, out of politeness, put a piece in his mouth and immediately realized that he was chewing something really very fresh and, most importantly, incredibly tasty...

... The lettuce leaves, washed to a shine, were already sticking out of the vase with fresh caviar... an instant, and a foggy silver bucket appeared on a specially moved separate table. Only after making sure that everything had been done honorably, only when a closed frying pan with something grumbling in it arrived in the hands of the waiters, Archibald Archibaldovich allowed himself to leave the two mysterious visitors, and only then after whispering to them:

- Sorry! For a minute! I’ll personally take care of the fillets...

Food, at first glance, is an everyday, everyday phenomenon, in general, the prose of life, but under the pen of great masters - poets and writers - it turns into poetry, and we, the readers, are immersed in the world of life and culture of our people of different eras.

The opinion that the characters of classical Russian literature are concerned with spiritual issues is fair, but one-sided. If you take a closer look, it turns out that the heroes of the frantic moralist Tolstoy, the depressive melancholic Gogol, and the modest intellectual Chekhov knew a lot about food and did not hide it.

The quotes were prepared at the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate for the project “Ankovo pie or the secrets of the estate kitchen.”

Cold appetizers

Five minutes later the chairman was sitting at the table in his small dining room. His wife brought from the kitchen neatly chopped herring, thickly sprinkled with onions. Nikanor Ivanovich poured a glass of lafitnik, drank, poured a second one, drank, picked up three pieces of herring on his fork... and at that time they rang. Having swallowed saliva, Nikanor Ivanovich growled like a dog: “And damn you! They won't give you anything to eat. Don’t let anyone in, I’m not there, I’m not there.”

We snacked, as the whole of vast Russia snacks in cities and villages, that is, with all sorts of pickles and other stimulating blessings.
N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"

Lebedev. Herring, mother, a snack for all.
Shabelsky. Well, no, a cucumber is better... Scientists have been thinking since the creation of the world and haven’t come up with anything smarter... (To Peter.) Peter, go get some more cucumbers and have them fry four pies with onions in the kitchen. So that they are hot.
A.P. Chekhov "Ivanov"

Noticing that the appetizer was ready, the police chief invited the guests to finish whist after breakfast, and everyone went to the room from where the wafting smell had long since begun to pleasantly tickle the nostrils of the guests and where Sobakevich had long been peering through the door.
N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"

Yes, it would be nice to have something like that now... - agreed the inspector of the religious school Ivan Ivanovich Dvotochiev, wrapping himself from the wind in a red coat. - It’s two o’clock now and the taverns are locked, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some mushrooms or something... or something like that, you know...
A.P. Chekhov "Tears Invisible to the World"

Vegetable and green shops are also not ignored by me; our gardeners are truly worthy of respect, being able to preserve greenery with such skill all year round.

Well, when you enter the house, the table should already be set, and when you sit down, now put a napkin behind your tie and slowly reach for the decanter of vodka. Yes, mommy, you don’t drink it right away, but first you sigh, rub your hands, look indifferently at the ceiling, then, so leisurely, you bring it, vodka, to your lips and - immediately there are sparks from your stomach all over your body... How We just had a drink, we need a snack now. Well, sir, my dear Grigory Savvich, you also need to eat it skillfully. You need to know what to eat.
A.P. Chekhov "Siren"

As soon as you have drunk, now, my benefactor, while you still feel the sparks in your stomach, eat the caviar on its own or, if you wish, with a lemon... delicious!
A.P. Chekhov "Siren"

Would you like some of your cheese?
- Well, yes, parmesan. Or do you love someone else? – asked Stiva.
“No, I don’t care,” Levin said, unable to contain his smile.
L.N. Tolstoy "Anna Karenina"

- No, no joke, whatever you choose is good. I went skating and I’m hungry. And don’t think,” he added, noticing a dissatisfied expression on Oblonsky’s face, “that I don’t appreciate your choice.” I'll be happy to eat well.
- Still would! Whatever you say, this is one of the pleasures of life,” said Stepan Arkadyevich.
L. N. Tolstoy “Anna Karenina”

Hot appetizers

Please note, Ivan Arnoldovich, only landowners who were undercut by the Bolsheviks eat cold appetizers and soup. A more or less self-respecting person handles hot snacks. And of the hot Moscow appetizers, this is the first.

An hour before lunch, Afanasy Ivanovich ate again, drank an old silver glass of vodka, ate mushrooms, various fish and other things.
N.V. Gogol "Old World Landowners"

“Dear Stepan Bogdanovich,” the visitor spoke, smiling shrewdly, “no pyramidon will help you. Follow the old wise rule - treat like with like. The only thing that will bring you back to life is two glasses of vodka with a spicy and hot snack.
M.A. Bulgakov "Master Margarita"

Dumplings

All Moscow Siberians were regular visitors to the tavern. The cook, specially sent by Lopashov from Siberia, made dumplings and stroganina. And then one day the largest gold miners came from Siberia and dined in Siberian style at Lopashov’s, and there were only two changes on the menu: the first was an appetizer and the second was “Siberian dumplings.” There were no other dishes, but 2,500 dumplings were prepared for twelve diners: meat, fish, and fruit in pink champagne... And the Siberians slurped them with wooden spoons...

Pancakes

But finally the cook appeared with pancakes... Semyon Petrovich, risking burning his fingers, grabbed the top two, hottest pancakes and deliciously plopped them on his plate. The pancakes were crispy, spongy, plump, like the shoulder of a merchant’s daughter... Podtykin smiled pleasantly, hiccupped with delight and doused them with hot butter. Then, as if whetting his appetite and enjoying the anticipation, he slowly, sparingly coated them with caviar. He poured sour cream on the places where the caviar did not fall... Now all that was left was to eat, wasn’t it? But No! grunted, opened his mouth...
A.P. Chekhov "On Mortality"

Soups

And having extinguished the first hunger and whetted our real appetite, we will turn to the meat hodgepodge, and it will be amber, floating, hiding delicious meats under its surface different types and black shiny olives...
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky “Lame Fate”

Marina. Let's live again as it was, in the old way. In the morning at eight o'clock tea, at one o'clock lunch, in the evening - sit down for dinner; everything is in its own order, like people... in a Christian way. (With a sigh.) I, a sinner, haven’t eaten noodles for a long time.
Telegin. Yes, we haven’t had noodles for a long time.
A.P. Chekhov "Uncle Vanya"

And if you like soup, then the best soup is the one that is topped with roots and herbs: carrots, asparagus and all that other stuff.
“Yes, a magnificent thing...” sighed the chairman, looking up from the paper.
A.P. Chekhov "Siren"

Main dishes

The appetizer was followed by lunch. Here the good-natured owner became a complete robber. As soon as he noticed someone had one piece, he immediately put another one on him, saying: “Without a mate, neither a person nor a bird can live in the world.”
N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"

My brother, no need for your pineapples! By God... Especially if you drink a glass, then another. You eat and you don’t feel it... in some kind of oblivion... you’ll die from the aroma of one thing!..
A.P. Chekhov "Tears Invisible to the World"

After the roast, a person becomes full and falls into a sweet eclipse,” the secretary continued. - At this time, both the body and the soul feel good. To enjoy, you can have three drinks after that.
A.P. Chekhov "Siren"

“It’s damp in the field,” Oblomov concluded, “it’s dark; fog, like an overturned sea, hangs over the rye; the horses shake their shoulders and beat with their hooves: it’s time to go home. The lights were already on in the house; there are five knives knocking in the kitchen; frying pan mushrooms, cutlets.
I.A. Goncharov "Oblomov"

Buckwheat porridge. Grain to grain. How many of them, fragrant, faceted! If you pour them out of cast iron, for example, onto a large sheet of paper, they will rustle and crumble as if they were dry. Oh, not at all, they are soft, hot, overflowing with juice and steam, absorbing the aromas of meadows, the July midday heat, and the evening falling asleep flowers, and the juices of dew. The walnut flavor is felt in these grains. Buckwheat! The black porridge makes faces white and sleek, and compassion awakens in the soul.
Bulat Okudzhava “Date with Bonaparte”

Zina brought in a silver covered dish in which something was grumbling. The smell from the dish was such that the dog’s mouth immediately filled with liquid saliva. "Gardens of Babylon"! - he thought and tapped the parquet with his tail like a stick.
“Here they are,” Philip Philipovich commanded predatorily.
M.A. Bulgakov "Heart of a Dog"

Well, Kuzma Pavlovich, we are treating the famous artist! Make some vodka first...
For a snack, so that there are jars and trays, and not the cat crying.
- I’m listening, sir.
“But salmon would be nice between meat,” suggests V.P. Dalmatov.
- There is salmon. Mana from heaven, not salmon.
V.A. Gilyarovsky “Moscow and Muscovites”

At the end of October or beginning of November, Balaclava begins to live a unique life. In every home, mackerel is fried or marinated. The wide mouths of bakery ovens are lined with clay tiles, on which fish are fried in own juice. This is called: mackerel on a scallop - the most exquisite dish of local gastronomes.
A.I. Kuprin "Listrigons"

Eat, young lady countess,” she said, giving Natasha this and that. Natasha ate everything, and it seemed to her that she had never seen or eaten such flatbreads and such chicken.
L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"

The larger, the thicker and the fattier your cutlets, the better, but it is especially good to stuff average cutlets, which are more often found on the farm.
V.F. Odoevsky "Lectures of Mr. Pouf"

Dessert

Then we went to the shore, which was always completely empty, swam and lay in the sun until breakfast. After breakfast - white wine, nuts and fruit - in the sultry darkness of our hut under the tiled roof, hot, cheerful streaks of light stretched through the through shutters.
I.A. Bunin "Dark Alleys"

The hippopotamus cut off a piece of pineapple, salted it, peppered it, ate it, and then took a second shot of alcohol so recklessly that everyone applauded.
M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"

“You’re a writer,” Bernovich tells him, “so describe what I’m eating today.” And no comments, just facts. In the morning – veal jellied meat, laks, eggs, coffee with milk. For lunch - pickle, cabbage rolls, marshmallows. For dinner - like kulebyaki, vinaigrette, sour cream, apple strudel... In the USSR they will read it and be stunned. Maybe they will give the Lenin Prize for glasnost...
Sergey Dovlatov “Solo on Underwood”

E yes - no matter how absurd it may sound - it has become fashionable. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, almost everyone suddenly turned into culinary specialists. And they began to tell stories about food and cooking. On television, in blogs, in books (and not just cookbooks), a wealth of talent has emerged that connects the art of cooking with broader cultural concerns. Since food is an important part of life, it is not surprising that it is also a part of literature. Writers write about food not only by constructing fictional plots, but also by following the facts in works based on real life. Reading many of them whets the appetite - it all depends on the author’s skill and degree of mastery of words. Others, like Jonathan Safran Foer's 2009 non-fiction book Eating Animals, are likely to take away your appetite.

X Although food is not very often the subject of literary inspiration, there are works in which the theme of food (or lack thereof, as in the case of Knut Hamsun’s “Hunger”) plays an important or even major role. Food, its preparation, descriptions of dinners, breakfasts and holiday feasts are in the center of the author’s attention, since they not only tell about the life and customs of the time, but also allow us to better understand the psychological type of literary characters. Mentions of food are found in numerous literary works from antiquity to the present day, and in different genres. The literary menu can be compiled based on poetic works, novels and stories, short stories, detective stories and biographical books, and even erotic prose.

P From literary sources you can trace the history of the development of food culture, the characteristics of cuisines different countries and peoples. Information about food in Ancient Greece draw primarily from the plays of the “father of comedy” Aristophanes. Chronicles and monuments of ancient Russian literature rarely mention cooking. And yet, in The Tale of Bygone Years one can find references to oatmeal and pea jelly. Modern compilers of lists of “books that everyone should definitely read” always put the famous satirical novel by Francois Rabelais “Gargantua and Pantagruel” in first place. In this voluminous work, written in the 16th century, the description of the feasts takes up dozens of pages! It was in this book that the famous proverb “Appetite comes with eating,” erroneously attributed to Rabelais himself, was first mentioned.

IN The impressive list of gourmet writers continues with Alexandre Dumas, the father who not only loved to eat well. He left behind not only a popular series of novels about the fascinating adventures of the royal musketeers, but also the “Great Culinary Dictionary,” which contains almost 800 short stories on culinary topics - recipes, letters, anecdotes, intersecting in one way or another with the topic of food.

T Meanwhile, talented writers continued to create national culinary myths. Here's how Pushkin's Eugene Onegin dined:

Entered: and there was a cork in the ceiling,
The current flowed from the comet's fault,
Before him roast-beef is bloody,
And truffles, the luxury of youth,
French cuisine has the best color,
And Strasbourg's pie is imperishable
Between live Limburg cheese
And a golden pineapple.

D about Alexander Pushkin in Russia, savory, but without an aristocratic connotation, the Enlightenment poet Gabriel Derzhavin described the food: “Crimson ham, green cabbage soup with yolk, ruddy-yellow pie, white cheese, red crayfish”... But Nikolai Gogol, unlike Pushkin , was a “soil” patriot and objected to his great contemporary in the most appetizing book of Russian literature “Dead Souls” through the mouth of Sobakevich: “Even if you put sugar on a frog, I won’t put it in my mouth, and I won’t take an oyster either: I know what an oyster looks like.” .

«… E If fate had not made Gogol a great poet, he would certainly have been an artist-cook!” – said Sergei Aksakov. It’s hard not to agree after reading this menu: “...On the table there were already mushrooms, pies, skorodumki, shanishki, pryaglas, pancakes, flatbreads with all sorts of toppings: topping with onions, topping with poppy seeds, topping with cottage cheese, topping with skimmed eggs, and God knows.” what didn’t happen…” (“Dead Souls”). Glorified by the genius of the writer, the love of the old-world landowners Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna, mixed with the love of abundant food, is a real sublime hymn to “beautiful food!

IN All Russian classics of the 19th century leave a cheerful culinary impression. The amount of what was drunk and eaten on its pages is amazing. One of the most famous characters in Russian literature is Goncharov’s Oblomov, who, apart from eating and sleeping, does nothing. And here’s the paradox: all the main characters of the “golden age” of literature - from Onegin to Chekhov’s summer residents - are the same charming slackers. Anton Chekhov has a story “Siren”, which is literally a guide to gastronomic temptations.

IN Literary works often contain not just descriptions of dishes and feasts, but also culinary recipes. The Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz described in poetry a recipe for making Lithuanian bigos, and the German classic Friedrich Schiller wrote a recipe for punch. Haruki Murakami’s book “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” is replete with descriptions of dishes.

WITH With the advent of the Silver Age, the topic of food was completely eliminated from literature. Vampire women, fatal passions, and potential suicides began to roam the pages of publications. And no temptations for the stomach! During the Soviet era, feasts almost completely disappeared from the pages of books. If you could still read about how people ate in the 1920s from Ilf and Petrov in “The Twelve Chairs,” then later the Stakhanov sandwich became the maximum food in literature. It was difficult to expect literature to describe feasts while the people were starving.

AND The unloving Khrushchev, with his Kremlin “reign,” returned food to literature, but not the kind that was depicted by Gogol and other classics. National dishes were forgotten, and in their place were hamburgers, toast and barbecue. The pioneer of introducing American gastronomy into literature was Vasily Aksenov. The heroes of his novel “Island of Crimea” consume such an amount of whiskey that in the West would be enough for literary heroes to go to another world...

WITH Among the great gourmet writers are such diverse authors as Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges, Mikhail Bulgakov and Marcel Proust. The author of the book “Three Men in a Boat” Jerome K. Jerome is no worse. Three gentlemen - George, Harris and Jay - spend the entire story either thinking about food or talking about it, and the rest of the time they just eat. Moreover, they are just gourmets, not gluttons. Their souls yearn for culinary delights...

TO It is impossible to determine the ulular predilections of modern literature in Russia, since they are practically absent on the pages of books. Dining tables in modern works they are so rare that it seems as if the heroes are deprived of the organs of smell and touch, and of all the temptations they know only one - speaking words. And “talking heads” don’t eat...

IN At this time, culinary detective stories, culinary love novels, and books about sentimental culinary journeys became fashionable abroad. Chefs can now easily solve crimes, and detectives are excellent cooks. After Maigret and Nero Wolfe - not new, but in demand. Particularly popular books are “Goddess in the Kitchen” by Sophie Kinsella, “Julie and Julia: A Recipe for Happiness” by Julie Powell, “Simmering Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel, “Chocolate” by Joan Harris, “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Stop Cafe” by Fanny Flagg. The ominous character in Thomas Harris’s series of novels about Hannibal Lecter is also “not indifferent” to cooking; he also became the hero of a television series, which shows in a frighteningly naturalistic way the cannibal’s process of preparing gourmet dishes.

TO books that describe delicious food “deliciously” will always be in demand. After all, cooking is also an art. As Kazuo Ishiguro aptly puts it, it is simply not appreciated enough because the results disappear too quickly.

Dmitry Volsky,
October 2014

29.01.2016 18:00

Any kitchen is a worthy collection of not only culinary recipes, but also history, traditions and customs, by which one can judge times, morals and life with the same success as by great works of art and literature.
V. Pokhlebkin

What was it like favorite dish N.V. Gogol? What do people eat at Christmas in his works? You can make a real literary game out of questions like these. Anyone who reads a lot and carefully probably pays attention to the fact that it is rare to find literary works in which the characters do not drink or eat anything. And this is natural, because books should describe true life, which - alas! - there is no such thing as food and drink. So it is not surprising that the classics of Russian literature paid considerable attention to the description of various dishes.

Gogol is considered one of the most “culinary” writers

His “The Inspector General” especially stands out in this regard. This is undoubtedly the most culinary of Gogol's dramatic works. If you read it, carefully paying attention to the development of only the culinary theme, it becomes quite obvious that Gogol not only tried to create an expressive psychological image of Khlestakov, but also built the entire dynamics and evolution of his transformations - from the pathetic, cowardly “clicker”, currying favor with his own servant , to a brazen, ambitious liar posing as a St. Petersburg dignitary - largely with the help of culinary entourage. In all the works of Nikolai Vasilyevich, many of his heroes do nothing but drink and eat: these are Sobakevich and Korobochka in “Dead Souls”, there are also Manilov and Nozdryov, these are the old-world landowners in “Mirgorod”, these are the heroes of “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanki"

N.V. Gogol is a well-known master of artistic descriptions. He sees things as if under a microscope. They often change their usual appearance, and are often endowed with independent life. The writer depicts scenes of feasts brightly and colorfully. N.V. Gogol was used to treating food with respect. From the first pages of the poem “Dead Souls” N.V. Gogol devotes considerable space to “images of food.” And this, in turn, is a unique characteristic of both the scene and the characters themselves. Chichikov’s arrival in the provincial town begins with a visit to the tavern, where he is served for lunch “cabbage soup with puff pastry, specially saved for travelers for several weeks, brains with peas, sausages with cabbage, fried poultry, pickled cucumber and an eternally puff pastry.”

The product of a witty literary game is capable of satisfying more than just highly spiritual needs. Cooking recipes can also be used for its intended purpose

Together with Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, we invite you to the table, gentlemen!