07.09.2016

Soup for headaches and cloudy mood. Don't believe me? There is one. An original recipe from a very worthy person, proven by experience. William Vasilievich Pokhlebkin. A true representative of the Russian intelligentsia.

Listen to his interviews, they can still be found on the Internet. The atmosphere of pre-perestroika kitchens will immediately come to life, where a glass of hot tea and a conversation until the morning was ready for everyone, because before it was impossible to tear yourself away. There, without looking back, in an emotional frenzy, brilliant thoughts were given away left and right. It was then that they began to calculate how much each such word was worth.

There were those who turned them into quite impressive fees. But this did not add happiness to them. The original Russian mind, tested by the tradition of conscience, is difficult to spoil with education or infect with self-interest. Just as grass breaks through asphalt, so it will make itself felt through the most callous sediment of an alien culture. Pokhlebkin, a Russian thinker, is so Russian that you are amazed, as if he came out of fairy tales.

At the age of 17, he volunteered for the front. Served in intelligence. I went through almost the entire war. Due to a serious injury, he could no longer serve. While still at the front, he mastered German and three other languages ​​perfectly. In 1949 he graduated from MGIMO University of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His foreign-sounding name, however, does not have foreign roots at all. In fact, his name is Vil, which means Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Full name - Wil-August.

His father, the Russian underground revolutionary Mikhailov, named his son in honor of Vladimir Lenin and August Bebel. However, “Pitchfork” was re-voiced as “William,” perhaps influenced by profession. Pokhlebkin is one of the best experts on foreign policy in Central and Northern Europe. He defended his dissertation on the latest diplomacy of Norway. Worked at the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

He taught at MGIMO, the Higher Diplomatic School of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and at Moscow State University. The President of Finland, Kekkonen, awarded William Vasilyevich a prize for the best work about Finland. Pokhlebkin gave this prize, $50,000, to the Soviet government. He himself preferred poverty. In everyday life - an ascetic, in thought - an ascetic, in honor - a flint. Devoted to the Fatherland when others nearby lose their way. Kind and, in Russian, deep and trusting.

Cooking has been his hobby since childhood. And this is a great gift to us, because a man who speaks 6 languages, is experienced in diplomatic etiquette, and has a subtle aristocratic taste, which is unattainable without a nobility of soul, took up cooking.

Recipe V.V. Pokhlebkina No. 1

The promised soup. In order for even a very severe headache to disappear, with a 100% guarantee, you need to boil one and a half liters of water, add 20 white peppercorns and a teaspoon of salt (without top). If sellers tell you that such pepper does not exist, do not believe them. Peppercorns should be cooked for 20 minutes. Only then will the soup work. Next, you need carp and mushrooms. While the pepper is cooking, the carp must be cleaned, washed and placed in cold water acidified with lemon. Let it stand for now.

Carefully place 2-3 porcini mushrooms into boiling water. Before doing this, finely chop them if they are fresh. Crush into powder if dry. All you need is porcini mushrooms! It is strictly forbidden to replace them with others. The Russian taste will go away, and the soup will not work, the headache will not go away. Dip one or two potatoes, 1 carrot, 1 turnip, 2 onions and two tomatoes into the soup. Cut them first too.

After 10 minutes, add the fish cut into four pieces into the soup, and then add the spices: celery, dill, parsley and bay leaf. After 15 minutes, turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid. Note that before this the soup was cooked without a lid! Let it sit for 2-3 minutes and you are ready to serve. There is no need to wait for a headache, especially a severe one, to try the soup.

Recipe V.V. Pokhlebkina No. 2

Especially relevant in winter. Medicinal milk, which can be used as a medicine for diseases of the ear, nose and throat, is a tasty medicine. Pour a liter of milk into a saucepan, add half a glass of cool water, half a teaspoon of star anise, a pinch of mint and 3-4 crushed black peppercorns. Place the saucepan in the oven. Be guided by your oven. But, usually, half an hour is enough for the milk to become melted. Try not to let it boil. After 20 minutes, turn down the heat and simmer for another 5-7 minutes. If you cook for pleasure and not because of illness, you can drink it with sugar. It's great to mix it with strong tea.

Recipe V.V. Pokhlebkina No. 3

If you are feeling low or feel numb, cook some fried fruit. You need to take dry fruits and fry them only in butter or ghee. Therefore, they need to be eaten hot. You can add a little water to the fried fruits and cover the frying pan with a lid and keep it on the fire until the water evaporates. The fruits will steam and become similar in shape to fresh ones, but not in taste. This dish will help if one of your loved ones is recovering from a serious illness. Well, and if it’s sad.

If you want something like this, feel free to experiment. After reading the books by V.V. Pokhlebkina, you will simply be irresistibly drawn to experiments. And experimentation is incompatible with depression. And Pokhlebkin’s books too.

Maybe there is a book by Pokhlebkin in your library? About tea, vodka, porridge, pancakes, entertaining cooking? Then this is not surprising: the circulation of his books approaches one hundred million, and he is published and republished all over the world. “A funny pseudonym,” you probably thought, “William Pokhlebkin is somehow exquisitely culinary.” The way it is. When a highly educated person has a hobby, he becomes a professional at it. This was the case when doctor V.V. Dahl compiled the “Living Dictionary of the Russian Language”, doctor A.P. Chekhov became a classic of Russian literature. And Candidate of Historical Sciences V.V. Pokhlebkin became a historian of Russian cuisine.

Pokhlebkin William Vasilievich

His full name is William August. Born into the family of the revolutionary leader Mikhailov, the child received a revolutionary name: Wil-August. It is composed of the initials of the leader and the name of Bebel, a German revolutionary.

Pokhlebkin William Vasilyevich is from the generation that in 1941, immediately after the graduation party, went to the front. He was a scout and went through the entire war. He knew Serbo-Croatian, German, Italian and Swedish. In his last year he served as an orderly in a soldier’s kitchen, where his talents began to be discovered.

After the war, he graduated from MGIMO and worked at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences. Not finding common ground with his superiors, he quits and conducts research privately. His royalties from translations support the Scandinavian Collection magazine.

For a long time he lived on 38 kopecks a day, eating only tea and black bread. His recipes were published in the Ogonyok magazine. The culinary column in the Nedelya newspaper was so valued that people bought the newspaper only because of it. “Science and Life” published two of his books in parts on its pages.

He was married twice, but family life did not work out. The children, daughter Gudrun and son August, now live abroad.

The scientist ended his life tragically - his body with traces of numerous wounds was found in the apartment on April 13, 2000. He was buried at the Golovinsky cemetery.

"The History of Vodka"

This is the name of one of William Vasilyevich’s books. And he himself is called “who took Russian vodka from the Poles.” In international trade in the twentieth century, a situation arose when it was necessary to confirm the beginning of distillation in Rus'.

Strange, but neither the Institute of History nor the Institute of Fermentation Products could document the authenticity of the recipe for Russian vodka. Then Pokhlebkin got down to business and proved that its production began in Russia a hundred years earlier than Poland.

The arbitration court confirmed this, and now real vodka can only be advertised in our country.

Bread

William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin collected Russian recipes with love. He describes in detail the chemical processes that occur as the dough matures and the bread bakes. Explains the difference between a metal sheet and a baking sheet, comparing baking results.

It turns out that all nations produce bread differently, and this largely depends on the hearth. Hearth bread was baked in a Russian oven, the baking sheet was used for sweet pastries, and the sheet was used for cookies.

He begins his story about bread with a simple recipe, which he advises to immediately cook in a gas oven. It takes 15-30 minutes and the result is a delicious flatbread.

Here is the recipe: fifty grams of yeast (this is half a pack) is dissolved in 125 ml of water (half a glass), adding two tablespoons of flour. Set them aside and prepare the filling - finely chop the onion.

Then turn on the oven and continue preparing the dough. Add half a glass of milk and a third of a glass of vegetable oil, onion, two pinches of salt to the dough and begin to add flour, stirring constantly. The dough should be soft and easily come off your hands.

Flatbreads are made from this mass, the sheet is placed on the top shelf of the oven and baked for ten minutes over moderate heat. Then they are laid out on a wooden board and covered with a towel. You can try it after 25 minutes - then the bread will finally ripen.

Kitchen

Pokhlebkin William Vasilyevich collected recipes for Russian cuisine bit by bit. It turns out that at the beginning of the twentieth century it was so vast and rich that it was compared to the French one. The author notes several stages of its formation, each of which left a significant mark.

Russian cuisine is divided into two tables: lenten and fast. They, in turn, are divided into noble and simple. The regional division of the country also influences culinary traditions.

Pokhlebkin tries all the options, all the examples of dishes himself, and only then recommends them to his readers. This was used in the editorial office of Ogonyok, where he brought the next recipe. Usually it has already been prepared and tasted.

William Vasilyevich derived five laws of bread baking. Having mastered them, it is easy to cook with any number of products, even with some missing ingredients. I compiled 15 tips for the cook and 10 reminders for the kitchen. Explained the difference between frying and baking. It turns out that the kebab is baked! He taught me how to choose a pan for dumplings and a frying pan for stewing and frying.

For a young housewife, his books contain enough experience to learn how to cook.

Historical information about Russian food

What did our ancestors eat when there were no potatoes? It turns out there are a lot of delicious dishes. Turnips steamed in a Russian oven became sweet; oatmeal was added to it and eaten with pleasure. They also made jelly from turnips.

They used a lot of river fish, distinguishing it by taste and suitability for certain dishes. Mushrooms were also prepared differently and in different ways. They made kvass, honey, and urine.

Pancakes used to be called “mliny”, from the word “mlet”. They were a ritual dish, baked red and served as a symbol of the sun.

For all names, William Pokhlebkin gives descriptions of recipes and a detailed method of preparation. He believed that if there is a lack of food, you cannot cook poorly, you need to do it even more nutritiously and usefully.

He writes a lot about pickling, compared to which pickling deprives foods of vitamins. Teaches how to prepare vegetables and fruits correctly. Modern dietetics has only now begun to promote healthy food processing, but Pokhlebkin covered its biochemistry in detail a long time ago.

National dishes

Pokhlebkin William Vasilyevich compares recipes of Russian cuisine with recipes of the peoples of the USSR, Scandinavian, Finnish cooking methods. He is also a connoisseur of European cuisine. Reading his books greatly broadens your horizons.

Pokhlebkin talks about sour milk in great detail, talking about the fermentation process and its types. Ayran, yogurt, Varenets are from the cuisine of neighboring peoples. And in Russia there was cheese milk. This is what yogurt was called before.

In general, milk was not processed in any way until the nineteenth century. They drank it raw and made cottage cheese. Butter appeared on the table quite recently by historical standards.

French chefs enriched Russian cuisine - they began to make salads, casseroles, minced meat, finely chop fillings into pies, make sauces, and mix foods. Before this, there was a tendency to cook the whole carcass or plant, even vegetables were boiled separately.

Okroshka

William Pokhlebkin collected several recipes for various okroshkas. All of them are real folk dishes. There was a time in the summer in peasant farming when, in order to avoid fire, it was forbidden to light stoves. A royal decree was issued on this in 1571. Although this dish has been known as “radish with kvass” for more than a thousand years.

Okroshka is included in cold soups, including tyuri and botvinya. It turns out that the okroshka recipe that is now made in our country has nothing in common with the real dish.

First of all, no sausage. Since okroshka, as an everyday dish, was prepared from various leftovers, three types of meat were put in: pig, poultry and game. Not all fish were suitable, only tench, perch or pike perch for their sweetish taste.

Secondly, it was not bread kvass that was added to it, but more sour white kvass. It was flavored with spices and sometimes a little mochen or pickles were added.

The basis was boiled vegetables. Greens and fresh cucumbers made up half of the vegetable volume. Hard-boiled eggs and sour cream were added before eating.

William Pokhlebkin: books

Having started with collaboration in compiling the famous “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food,” William Pokhlebkin continued this topic in his monographs dedicated to national cuisines.

He reveals “The Secrets of Good Cuisine”, writes a study “Tea and Vodka in Russia”. Raising the layer of times, he systematized the history of Russian culinary culture and the most important food products.

William Pokhlebkin's cookbooks are written easily, with digressions and short stories on the topic. It’s a pleasure to read them, the style is elegant. In addition, they provide valuable knowledge. The author reveals the principles of cooking, not content with giving a dry recipe.

He also has serious scientific works: “Tatars and Rus'”, a series on the foreign policy of our country, a detailed description of international symbols and recent history.

All that William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin left behind were books. They can be read online or ordered by mail. His books are a wonderful gift. Treat yourself to them.

You are holding a unique book in your hands. She will become an indispensable advisor for anyone who wants to enrich their table with the most popular dishes, as well as learn to cook not only according to familiar and boring recipes, but with knowledge of the chef and even creatively.

The author of this wonderful book, William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin, is no longer with us - he died tragically in March 2000. The murder of the writer was a real shock for all of Russia - after all, it is difficult to find a person who would not have heard about Pokhlebkin’s wonderful culinary recipes or did not use his wise advice. Now gourmets only have his cookbooks. This publication is the Master’s priceless gift to fans of his talent, for it contains all of his theoretical and practical culinary works.

Not everyone knows that V.V. Pokhlebkin is an international historian by profession and education, a specialist in the foreign policy of Central and Northern European countries. In 1949, he graduated from MGIMO University of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1956–1961 he was editor-in-chief of the international periodical “Scandinavian Collection” (Tartu, Estonia), since 1962 he collaborated with the magazine “Scandinavica” (London, Norwich), and in 1957–1967 years worked as a senior lecturer at MGIMO and the Higher Diplomatic School of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, history and philology faculties of Moscow State University.

It would seem that history and cooking are incompatible things. However, a talented person is always talented in many ways; in any case, Pokhlebkin’s colossal experience as an international affairs specialist formed the basis for his famous books about the national cuisines of the world.

Over the past three decades, V.V. Pokhlebkin remained an unrivaled specialist in the theory, history and practice of culinary art.

The book “Secrets of Good Kitchen”, which opens our publication, was first published in 1979, in the “Eureka” series. This is a popular presentation of the main issues of culinary practice, where the technologies of all existing culinary processes, their significance and role in cooking are described in accessible language for non-professionals. She introduces the reader to the world of culinary art, popularly talking about the meaning and features of the culinary craft.

The book immediately became an unusual phenomenon, since readers had already become disillusioned with cookbooks that included descriptions of standard boring techniques and recipes. “The Secrets of a Good Kitchen” overturned the hackneyed idea of ​​cooking as an ordinary, exclusively female activity that does not require precise knowledge of theory. The book opens up the prospect for any literate person to learn how to work professionally, naturally with an interested and conscientious attitude towards the work of a cook.

The book still enjoys unprecedented popularity, and not only in Russia. It has been translated into the national languages ​​of the republics, where traditionally they attached great importance to preparing delicious food and its quality. In 1982 it was published in Riga in Latvian, twice (1982 and 1987) it was published in Vilnius in Lithuanian, and in 1990 in Moldavian in Chisinau. In total, this work went through thirteen editions over twenty years.

“Entertaining Cooking,” a continuation of “Secrets of a Good Kitchen,” was published a little later, in 1983. Here, special attention is paid to the more prosaic, but extremely important craft side of cooking. The book talks about the types of fireplaces (stoves, heating devices), the impact of different types of fire on the taste of food, kitchen utensils and tools. “Entertaining Cooking” was also translated into Lithuanian and went through six editions in total.

The books “Spices, Flavorings and Food Colorings” and “All about Spices and Seasonings,” as the author believed, would help make our culinary world bright and colorful, full of taste and aroma. Note that the work of V.V. Pokhlebkin's book about spices gained international fame and was published five times in Leipzig in German.

The book “National Cuisines of Our Peoples” has become equally popular, which includes recipes for national dishes of the peoples of Russia and the Near Abroad, indicating the original, historically established technologies for their preparation. It gives a fairly complete picture of the culinary skills of nations and ethnic groups that have their own distinct national cuisine.

This research work was carried out over ten years, both in archives and in the field, in various regions. This is probably why it aroused such serious interest among professional cooks in many foreign countries and was highly appreciated by them as a practical cookbook. At the initiative of the author's foreign colleagues, the book was translated into Finnish, English, German, Croatian, Portuguese and Hungarian.

The continuation is the book “On Foreign Cuisines”, which includes basic recipes for Chinese, Scottish and Finnish cuisine. The ethnographic approach taken by the author to the culinary heritage of nations helped to restore and restore the overall picture of culinary creativity, freeing it from unnecessary layers, and individual dishes from restaurant distortions made due to ignorance or lack of knowledge.

No less interesting is the continuation of “My Kitchen” - “My Menu”. Here V.V. Pokhlebkin shares his own chef secrets. The book consists of a commented list of those dishes of world cuisine that the author especially loved and prepared for himself personally only on special, solemn moments.

The collection ends with the famous “Culinary Dictionary” by Pokhlebkin, written in the late 80s. This book is designed to answer all the pressing questions of both professionals and amateurs, including the range of international (French, Latin, Greek, German, Chinese and others) terms, concepts, dishes and methods of their preparation that have developed over the entire rich thousand-year history of world culinary practice. The dictionary creates a complete picture of the world culinary art, where familiar Russian, Ukrainian, Tatar and other national dishes occupy a worthy place. The “Dictionary” gives a brief description of all the terms and products mentioned (and not mentioned) in the book and significantly facilitates the use of the publication.

Collection of works by V.V. Pokhlebkin on culinary skills combines both purely practical material for studying cooking and various information on the history of culinary work in Russia and other countries (Finland, Scotland, Scandinavian countries, China), so the publication is of interest to the widest range of readers - from experienced cooks to young housewives.

William Vasilyevich himself said that the purpose of his books is to help “acquire the skills of creating such food, such food, without which our life would be boring, joyless, uninspired and at the same time devoid of something of our own, individual.” Good luck to you!

Current page: 1 (book has 157 pages in total)

BIG ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CULINARY ARTS.
ALL RECIPES V.V. POKHLEBKINA

FROM THE PUBLISHER ABOUT THE AUTHOR

You are holding a unique book in your hands. She will become an indispensable advisor for anyone who wants to enrich their table with the most popular dishes, as well as learn to cook not only according to familiar and boring recipes, but with knowledge of the chef and even creatively.

The author of this wonderful book, William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin, is no longer with us - he died tragically in March 2000. The murder of the writer was a real shock for all of Russia - after all, it is difficult to find a person who would not have heard about Pokhlebkin’s wonderful culinary recipes or did not use his wise advice. Now gourmets only have his cookbooks. This publication is the Master’s priceless gift to fans of his talent, for it contains all of his theoretical and practical culinary works.

Not everyone knows that V.V. Pokhlebkin is an international historian by profession and education, a specialist in the foreign policy of Central and Northern European countries. In 1949, he graduated from MGIMO University of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1956–1961 he was editor-in-chief of the international periodical “Scandinavian Collection” (Tartu, Estonia), since 1962 he collaborated with the magazine “Scandinavica” (London, Norwich), and in 1957–1967 years worked as a senior lecturer at MGIMO and the Higher Diplomatic School of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, history and philology faculties of Moscow State University.

It would seem that history and cooking are incompatible things. However, a talented person is always talented in many ways; in any case, Pokhlebkin’s colossal experience as an international affairs specialist formed the basis for his famous books about the national cuisines of the world.

Over the past three decades, V.V. Pokhlebkin remained an unrivaled specialist in the theory, history and practice of culinary art.

The book “Secrets of Good Kitchen”, which opens our publication, was first published in 1979, in the “Eureka” series. This is a popular presentation of the main issues of culinary practice, where the technologies of all existing culinary processes, their significance and role in cooking are described in accessible language for non-professionals. She introduces the reader to the world of culinary art, popularly talking about the meaning and features of the culinary craft.

The book immediately became an unusual phenomenon, since readers had already become disillusioned with cookbooks that included descriptions of standard boring techniques and recipes. “The Secrets of a Good Kitchen” overturned the hackneyed idea of ​​cooking as an ordinary, exclusively female activity that does not require precise knowledge of theory. The book opens up the prospect for any literate person to learn how to work professionally, naturally with an interested and conscientious attitude towards the work of a cook.

The book still enjoys unprecedented popularity, and not only in Russia. It has been translated into the national languages ​​of the republics, where traditionally they attached great importance to preparing delicious food and its quality. In 1982 it was published in Riga in Latvian, twice (1982 and 1987) it was published in Vilnius in Lithuanian, and in 1990 in Moldavian in Chisinau. In total, this work went through thirteen editions over twenty years.

“Entertaining Cooking,” a continuation of “Secrets of a Good Kitchen,” was published a little later, in 1983. Here, special attention is paid to the more prosaic, but extremely important craft side of cooking. The book talks about the types of fireplaces (stoves, heating devices), the impact of different types of fire on the taste of food, kitchen utensils and tools. “Entertaining Cooking” was also translated into Lithuanian and went through six editions in total.

The books “Spices, Flavorings and Food Colorings” and “All about Spices and Seasonings,” as the author believed, would help make our culinary world bright and colorful, full of taste and aroma. Note that the work of V.V. Pokhlebkin's book about spices gained international fame and was published five times in Leipzig in German.

The book “National Cuisines of Our Peoples” has become equally popular, which includes recipes for national dishes of the peoples of Russia and the Near Abroad, indicating the original, historically established technologies for their preparation. It gives a fairly complete picture of the culinary skills of nations and ethnic groups that have their own distinct national cuisine.

This research work was carried out over ten years, both in archives and in the field, in various regions. This is probably why it aroused such serious interest among professional cooks in many foreign countries and was highly appreciated by them as a practical cookbook. At the initiative of the author's foreign colleagues, the book was translated into Finnish, English, German, Croatian, Portuguese and Hungarian.

The continuation is the book “On Foreign Cuisines”, which includes basic recipes for Chinese, Scottish and Finnish cuisine. The ethnographic approach taken by the author to the culinary heritage of nations helped to restore and restore the overall picture of culinary creativity, freeing it from unnecessary layers, and individual dishes from restaurant distortions made due to ignorance or lack of knowledge.

No less interesting is the continuation of “My Kitchen” – “My Menu”. Here V.V. Pokhlebkin shares his own chef secrets. The book consists of a commented list of those dishes of world cuisine that the author especially loved and prepared for himself personally only on special, solemn moments.

The collection ends with the famous “Culinary Dictionary” by Pokhlebkin, written in the late 80s. This book is designed to answer all the pressing questions of both professionals and amateurs, including the range of international (French, Latin, Greek, German, Chinese and others) terms, concepts, dishes and methods of their preparation that have developed over the entire rich thousand-year history of world culinary practice. The dictionary creates a complete picture of the world culinary art, where familiar Russian, Ukrainian, Tatar and other national dishes occupy a worthy place. The “Dictionary” gives a brief description of all the terms and products mentioned (and not mentioned) in the book and significantly facilitates the use of the publication.

Collection of works by V.V. Pokhlebkin on culinary skills combines both purely practical material for studying cooking and various information on the history of culinary work in Russia and other countries (Finland, Scotland, Scandinavian countries, China), so the publication is of interest to the widest range of readers - from experienced cooks to young housewives.

William Vasilyevich himself said that the purpose of his books is to help “acquire the skills of creating such food, such food, without which our life would be boring, joyless, uninspired and at the same time devoid of something of our own, individual.” Good luck to you!

SECRETS OF GOOD KITCHEN

Chapter 1. SERIOUS, EXPLAINING: WHO IS THE DOOR TO THE COOKING CRAFT OPEN AND WHY THIS CRAFT IS A COMPLEX, DIFFICULT ART

Why do so many young people do not feel the slightest desire to cook food: neither at work (to be a cook), nor at home, for themselves? There are different reasons put forward, but they all essentially boil down to one thing - the reluctance to do something about which, in fact, you have no idea. For one, cooking is a very unprestigious activity, for another it is too prosaic, for a third it is tedious and difficult, for a fourth it is a useless waste of time, for a fifth it is trivial and has nothing to learn. But none of these five really knows what the art and mystery of cooking is, what laws govern cooking and what a real cook should be.

When recruiting for a geographical expedition, young people were asked the question: can you cook for yourself? Many answered in the affirmative. And when they were asked to clarify what they could do, it turned out: boil water, boil noodles, fry sausages, heat canned food, cook soup from concentrates. And the most amazing thing is that none of them were joking. They sincerely believed that this was the skill of cooking. In support, they referred to the fact that at home, in ordinary, non-camping conditions, they cook exclusively from... ready-made semi-finished products. What else? For this, of course, you don’t need any knowledge, much less talent. But the results of such preparation are mediocre and tasteless.

Meanwhile, to practice truly high cooking, as for any real business, and even more so for real art, you need a calling, talent and, at a minimum, talent.

True, our everyday experience seems to dissuade us from this. Some people will even grin when they read that to be a cook you must be talented. Quite often we see how cooks of ordinary canteens and cafes quite deftly “sculpt” certain dishes on duty, without experiencing any “pangs of creativity” at all. The fact is that the profession of a cook has now become so widespread that people sometimes enter this field without hesitation. What can you do? I poured in the cereal, poured in water, and cooked the porridge, just make sure it didn’t burn. That's all. And the soup is even easier: just add everything that is indicated in the layout, and you don’t even need to watch it - it won’t burn. With this approach, the canteens end up with those tasteless, routine dishes that have the same smell everywhere - from Brest to Vladivostok.

Of course, there simply aren’t enough culinaryly gifted people to fill all the canteens, just as there can’t be hundreds of thousands of artists and musicians. Talent is still rare. But there is another reason why there are even significantly fewer culinary talents than musical ones. Typically, musical talent manifests itself very early and, most importantly, immediately becomes noticeable to others. And that’s why it almost never goes unnoticed. Only purely unfavorable conditions can lead to the fact that a musically gifted person will not follow his favorite path. In any case, he himself will feel that music is his calling.

Culinary talent is another matter. As a rule, it is difficult for her to come to light, especially in a man. And in women, it even more often goes unnoticed by others, because it is regarded as something taken for granted. Many potentially talented cooks, as a rule, serve as anyone: salesmen, engineers, cashiers, accountants, actors, photographers, scientists, and they do cooking in their free time, not suspecting that this is not a casual inclination, but a serious calling, and sometimes deliberately hiding this secret passion out of a sense of false modesty or false shame.

It is quite clear that those around him know even less about such potential culinary talents, and if they do, it will be several decades later, when it is too late for such a person to study to become a cook, because by this time he has already become either an agronomist, or a machinist, or a writer and his talent is perceived at best as a quirk, and sometimes as inappropriate eccentricity.

Why does this happen? One of the main reasons is the lack of prestige of the chef profession over the past, say, 80-100 years. If in the 17th–18th centuries and the beginning of the 19th century this profession in most European countries was associated with a high social position, if at that time the names of the best cooks were known throughout the country and they were recorded, for example in France, in the annals of history, then over the last century it became mass, ordinary. That is why bright talents in this area do not strive to express themselves, and those around them often even deliberately suppress such a desire.

Another reason - the lack of early culinary training - also prevents young talent from understanding what they are drawn to.

Let me give you a real, non-fictional example. One boy from a very early age, from about four to five years old, often, instead of playing with his peers on the street, with great pleasure stayed at home in the kitchen. Here, too, there was a kind of game: give mom a spoon, a ladle, bring salt, collect onion skins - all these little tasks were real and at the same time similar to a game. When a child stayed in the kitchen for too long, they would shout at him that he was getting in the way, and then he would simply sit on a chair in the corner and from there patiently watch the adults. This was also interesting. The actions changed all the time: either peeling potatoes, cutting parsley, washing rice, cutting meat or fish. Everything was different in color, shape, processing and much more entertaining than the monotonous rolling of a wheel or the same games of rounders and hide and seek. But the most interesting thing was how these raw products turned out to be a delicious lunch.

One day the boy went with his dad to a rest home and there he accidentally found himself in a large kitchen, where huge stoves, a mass of shiny pots and stewpans of different sizes, and giant cauldrons gave the impression of a factory. This impression was strengthened by the presence of several chefs in white uniforms and tall chef's hats. They worked over mountains of potatoes, carrots, onions, and whole carcasses of meat, beat whole buckets of eggs and prepared tens of hundreds of cutlets, barrels of jelly, mountains of cream. But the most surprising thing was the presence of children here, dressed, like the cooks, in all white, who had their own caps. They nimbly scurried from the wall cabinets with dishes and kitchen utensils to the stoves where the cooks were working, giving various orders to the cooks. These children, it turns out, were allowed to participate in the adults' game, and this game was called work.

When the boy started going to school, he no longer had time to sit in the kitchen. Over the years, other interests also appeared: school clubs, museums, theaters, and most importantly, books, the reading of which absorbed the lion's share of time and opened one's eyes to the big world, to distant countries, peoples, and to past times.

Interest in the kitchen disappeared, or rather, it seemed to simply disappear along with other interests of early childhood: toys, candy wrappers, sledding. He simply forgot himself in the midst of a host of other, more important activities.

True, already as a teenager, when he had a free minute, the boy went to the kitchen to casually look to see how soon dinner would be, and sometimes, out of old habit, he lingered to look with a more meaningful look at what was being prepared and how. But such visits, if they began to be repeated too often, caused bewilderment, irritation and even condemnation among adults. When a young man appeared in the kitchen, either by chance or on business (he came for salt, a spoon, etc.), ridicule was immediately heard: “Well, you, kitchen commissar, get out of here!” All that remained was the street, the yard, where teenage peers were already starting to smoke secretly. It was a “male occupation.”

But the boy didn’t want to smoke with the guys, and later he never learned to smoke. By the way, a real gastronome, culinary specialist, pastry chef, for whom cooking is truly a calling, will never smoke. This is out of the question. You cannot understand the intricacies of the taste and smell of products, products and dishes without having an excellent sense of smell and a developed, refined taste. Smoking completely discourages both. Therefore, a smoking cook is either a misunderstanding or a mockery of common sense. But in our country, it is not so rare that when hiring a person to work in public catering, they are interested in anything but whether he smokes or drinks, and do not refuse him a place on the grounds that he is a smoker or a drunkard. Although this would be the fairest refusal. A cook or pastry chef must have a sensitive taste and neither temporarily nor chronically be bridish.

What does this international culinary term mean? Bridost, or asperation, comes from the Old Slavonic word “brid’k” - rough, raw, uncouth, or the Latin “asper” - rough, harsh, caustic. This word is ancient and existed for a thousand years - from the 9th to the beginning of the 20th century. Now it has completely disappeared not only from everyday language, but even from dictionaries. It, for example, is not in the modern standard spelling dictionary of the Russian language, but it was widely used in the XI-XVII centuries, when it meant bitterness, spoilage, lack of any taste of food, and was also used in a figurative sense in situations not related to food or cookery. So, in the old days they talked about “breeding of the soul,” i.e. about the callousness, callousness and even cruelty of man.

Currently, as a narrowly professional word in the chef’s language, the term “breediness” has two meanings:

1. A person’s complete lack of culinary taste, equivalent to a musician’s lack of hearing. Such persons should not be allowed to work as cooks.

In order to avoid the penetration into the environment of cooks and pastry chefs of people who have a certain degree of fertility and are actually incapable of this profession, even if they had a personal desire to engage in it, previously, candidates for chef apprentices always underwent a special test for their degree of fertility before training, and only after that was the issue of their admission to other exams in the profession.

2. Temporary loss or distortion of taste in a cook or pastry chef, similar to the temporary loss of voice in a singer. This is the so-called functional fertility.

Such hypersensitivity occurs as a result of overwork, excitement, diseases of the internal secretion organs, or a burn to the oral cavity after tasting too hot food or drinks.

Unfortunately, obesity, which has always been considered one of the most serious occupational diseases of culinary specialists, today often remains beyond the attention of not only administrators, doctors, but sometimes even the chefs themselves.

To prevent bridishness and maintain a fresh taste sensation throughout the chef's working day, various measures have long been taken. Firstly, a system was developed for testing dishes in a certain sequence. Secondly, during the working day, the cook continuously from time to time had to rinse his mouth with various refreshing (mainly fruit or vegetable) compounds or spring water. Thirdly, already in the 18th century, a procedure was established in which the cook had the right to eat only after both breakfast and lunch had been prepared, that is, immediately before serving lunch to the table, no earlier than 12 noon. A reminder of this order is still the opening time of restaurants, scheduled for 11-12 o'clock.

For all these reasons, the cooking profession was considered difficult, difficult, and exhausting, which sharply diverges from our current understanding, which portrays the work of a cook as a kind of rolling cheese in butter.

In confectionery, functional fermentation occurs quite often, but usually does not last long - 2-3 hours. This is the result of high temperatures in confectionery shops (especially where cookies are made) and the saturation of the air with a stupefying sweet smell. Pastry fever usually goes away if you drink strong, hot, unsweetened tea or swallow beaten raw egg whites with ice.

Now we know what brilliance is, and we can continue our story about the boy. He became a young man and was drafted into the army. Here, on the very first day, he became acquainted with soldier's food. He appreciated it by eating the portion without leaving a trace. The food seemed simple but appetizing to him. It was different from home-cooked food, but at the same time it was not like a canteen. It wasn't diverse. But I didn’t get bored. Only many years, even decades later, did he learn that his assessment was correct. Soldiers' cuisine has its own rules and traditions, which sharply distinguish it from civilian canteen food and bring it closer to home cooking, both in menu selection and technology. At the same time, some dishes from soldiers' cuisine receive that classic taste that not always and not everyone manages to get at home. These are, for example, porridge. In the army, they are cooked by a special cook - a cook who, as they say, has become skilled at this. In addition, the porridges there are cooked in thick cast-iron cauldrons set in ovens, and therefore turn out excellent if an experienced eye looks at them.

During the first outfit for the kitchen, we were able to verify this. True, work in the army kitchen even during that wartime was devoid of any romanticism. At night, when everyone was asleep, the outfit performed hard, exhausting, unattractive work: most manually peeled endless piles of potatoes - hundreds of kilograms, tons. Others were washing and scrubbing the cauldrons: the day before the shift had failed to supervise the cooking of the porridge. A hardening had formed: a half-burnt, half-grubby build-up on the walls of the cauldron, which had to be cleaned off without leaving a trace. But you can’t scrape it: scratches on the walls of the cauldron, breaking the halfway point would lead to the porridge burning again, regardless of whether they watched it this time or not. That is why the cook selected the smartest and most conscientious guys to clean the cauldron, adding for good measure that for every scratch on the cauldron they would receive two outfits out of turn.

The boiler was cleaned like new. The porridge turned out wonderful, although everyone was terribly tired. After all, the cauldron contained two people who climbed into it and, bending over, cleaned centimeter by centimeter, like restorers of a painting.

The cooking of the soup was also unusual. There was one interesting detail here. Each soldier was given one bay leaf, and the battalion received two buckets of dry leaves. If you load them even into a large cauldron, they will turn out to be a hindrance: after all, the leaf does not boil down, but becomes a little larger, in contrast to other products. Two buckets of hard leaves would either stick out like a “head” above the surface of the soup, or they would force us not to add water to the pot or add carrots and potatoes. Therefore, cooks usually violated the layout at this point. They either put just a bag of bay leaf into the soup, that is, 15-20 times less than the norm, or they didn’t put it at all, considering that the lack of bay leaf was a trivial matter, or, finally, they took the bay leaf from the warehouse, but spent it on other needs.

Here the cook turned out to be a man of a different character. When there were only 10 minutes left until the soup was ready and the soup had boiled down sufficiently, he poured the bay leaf into an empty two-bucket pot with boiling water and after 5-7 minutes, after straining out the resulting aromatic broth, he poured it into the soup. But most of all, the cook surprised the newcomers by the fact that when lunch was ripe, he did not eat right away, but only after trying a spoon or two of each dish, he was convinced that everything was cooked deliciously. I boiled some dried fruits without sugar for myself and drank this broth along with tea. Only after the entire battalion had eaten lunch did the cook eat a full meal.

Only many years later, in one of the classic French cookery books, it was possible to read that this should be the behavior of a professional cook of a good school.

Apparently, the battalion cook belonged to this category of cooks. This is also evidenced by the fact that he prepared a variety of dishes, and in the neighboring part there were always two or three special dishes. The layout, type of products and their quantity, standards were the same in both parts and came from the same warehouse.

This means that the variety of ready-made dishes and the differences in the menu depend not so much on the products as on the imagination of the cook, or rather, on his knowledge, skill, creativity and culinary erudition.

For example, both parts received the same vegetables: potatoes, carrots, cabbage, a little dried parsley and onions, not to mention spices: pepper, bay leaf. But the cook from the neighboring part “driven” only two dishes from them: today, having concentrated the cabbage for two or three days, he made cabbage soup, and tomorrow, on the contrary, having selected potatoes from the warehouse that had not been received in the previous days, he prepared potato soup with carrots. Our cook made various soups from the same products, and sometimes main courses, which he called “vegetable confusion” - he apparently came up with this name himself, because it was not listed anywhere in the cookbooks. In winter, such a vegetable stew as a second course was especially desirable and desired. In the summer, when the unit was in the steppe, he sent an outfit to collect wild garlic and spelt; in the forest - berries, mushrooms, saran roots, nuts; near populated areas – nettles and quinoa. No matter how many of these random additions to dinner were collected, he put any little into the common pot. And the familiar dish acquired a new aroma and smell, was perceived as completely unfamiliar and was eaten with greater appetite and therefore with greater benefit.

Our soldier-cook had the opportunity to eat quinoa soup for the first time in his life in the army, and it was a truly wonderful dish that would be remembered for a long time. It greatly shook many people’s idea of ​​quinoa, created by literature, as a classic food for the hungry and disadvantaged.

There were other examples of the humble battalion cook's creative approach to the usual soldier's dinner. One day, already at the end of the war in the spring of 1944, maize (corn) flour arrived, which was sent by the allies. Nobody knew what to do with her. In some places they began to add it to wheat flour when baking bread, which made it brittle, quickly stale and caused complaints from soldiers. But they did not know how to use this essentially very valuable food product in any other way. The soldiers grumbled at the cooks, the cooks scolded the quartermasters, who, in turn, cursed the allies who sold us corn, which the devil himself couldn’t deal with. Only our cook didn’t bother. He immediately took the half-monthly norm instead of daily gram supplements, sent a reinforced outfit to the steppe, asking him to collect almost everything - quinoa, alfalfa, shepherd's purse, sorrel, wild garlic, and prepared delicious-tasting and beautiful-looking corn pies - cakes with herbs, bright , yellow on the outside and burning green on the inside. They were soft, fragrant, fresh, like spring itself, and better than any other means they reminded the soldiers of home, of the imminent end of the war, of peaceful life.

And two weeks later the cook made mamalyga, almost the entire battalion became acquainted with this national Moldavian dish for the first time. The soldiers regretted that they sent too little maize, and would not mind exchanging wheat flour for it.

Our cook tried to make even simple acorn coffee tastier than usual, finding ways to brew it steeper and more aromatic.

Of course, these episodes passed as if unnoticed among the formidable events of the war, but still remained in the memory and emerged especially clearly later, when it became possible to compare the army table with the post-war catering and home, when many years had passed and it became clear that the fighting mood of the soldiers not least of all, it was created by the cook, his skill, his talent, and that food not only in the literal sense, as physiological fuel, but also in a purely emotional sense, influenced the rise of spirit, helped forge victory, and made a significant contribution to the combat training of soldiers.

The emotional impact of food is especially well known to sailors who have a good cook on their crew. Excellent cuisine brightens up many of the shadowy sides of the difficult and homeless life of the sea. Unfortunately, this mystery of the impact of aromatic and taste components of food (and not only and not so much food itself) on the emotional sphere of our psyche has not yet been studied enough by scientists.

Meanwhile, this is by no means a mirage, but reality. Delicious food leaves positive memories and good emotions. Tasteless food, even if there is an excess of it, either leaves nothing in the memory of itself, or contributes to the accumulation of negative associations. From this it is clear that the aromatic and taste quality of food, and not just the sanitary and food quality, which is usually taken into account, is of exceptional importance in human life. And this is exactly what makes it worth becoming a chef, for which it is worth overcoming all the difficulties and unpleasant moments in learning to cook, but for which, undoubtedly, you need talent.

If you now ask that boy, who has become an adult a long time ago and has chosen a specialty far from cooking, what he would like to be and whether he even thought about becoming a cook, then, in all likelihood, he would not be able to definitely answer this question. After all, the whole point is that both real strong interest and fleeting external infatuation manifest themselves in very early childhood equally sincerely, equally instinctively, unconsciously and unconsciously. At this moment, only adults, experienced people can distinguish between a deep manifestation of talent and fleeting curiosity and, in accordance with this, give the necessary push in the right direction, while the child himself can hardly recognize his desires, his aspirations as some kind of special, only inherent in him alone. It seemed to our boy that “playing in the kitchen” and watching adults cook should be interesting for everyone.

But adults, instead of showing basic sensitivity and attention, respect for the child’s extraordinary interest, did everything to eliminate this interest. Firstly, they pointed out to the child that his interest was “girlish”, they kicked him out of the kitchen, did everything possible to put an end to this (in their opinion!) unnecessary inclination.

We can only guess what the child felt while he was going through all this. But, apparently, it is very difficult if there really was talent. Perhaps if adults had supported his aspiration, it would have developed brilliantly.

It is known that human destiny is decided in the early years. We should not forget that the first five years of life are the most crucial stage in the formation of personality. It is at this time that individual traits, character traits and moral and volitional attitudes of a person are largely laid down and determined. Emphasizing this idea, the famous Russian poet Valery Bryusov, who himself wrote plays from the age of three, said, perhaps somewhat grotesquely, hyperbolically: “Whoever hasn’t read a book at five years old will never learn anything.” And Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy wrote quite seriously: “From a five-year-old child to me is one step. And from a newborn to a five-year-old is a terrible distance.” So remember this, young fathers and mothers.

But even for an adult, although not for everyone, understanding a child is not always easy. What is attractive to a child and seems like a fun game, to an adult often seems like a tedious routine, a gray routine. This sometimes applies to everything related to culinary practice.

William Pokhlebkin. Recipes for our life

In March 2000, under mysterious circumstances, the famous scientist William Pokhlebkin was killed at the door of his apartment.
The newspapers were full of scandalous headlines, but Pokhlebkin’s life was no less mysterious than his tragic death.
At thirty-seven years old, William Vasilyevich became a famous historian of the twentieth century. However, it was recognized only abroad. He spoke seven languages, but found himself “restricted from traveling abroad.” At the age of forty, Pokhlebkin was left without a penny of money and was doomed to starvation. At forty-five, a treasure “fell” on his head. At sixty, the whole world started talking about him as a brilliant cook, and at seventy-six, his mutilated body was discovered in his own apartment.
Why was the historian, cook, journalist, who devoted his entire life to his native country, not loved by the authorities?
And who could be behind his death?

The mystery of the death of cook Pokhlebkin

Some thought he was crazy. Others argued that he was a hidden dissident who consciously lived his life outside the state, outside the system. Still others said that he exchanged his unique research talent for some nonsense - writing culinary recipes, books about food and gastronomic tips for housewives.

Those who thought so were wrong. The culinary talent and intelligence of William Pokhlebkin turned out to be in demand. His works became a kind of school of tasty and healthy national food in the USSR. His recipes gave thousands of ordinary Soviet people the opportunity to try themselves in the art of cooking and experience the joy of creativity in their own kitchen.

Director: Vera Kilchevskaya
Scriptwriter: Alexander Krastoshevsky

William Vasilievich Pokhlebkin

Was born: August 20, 1923, Moscow
Died: March 2000, Podolsk, Moscow region

• Shakotis

Biography

Pokhlebkin William Vasilievich(August 20, 1923 - end of March 2000) - Soviet, Russian scientist, historian, geographer, journalist and writer. Author of famous cookery books. Expert in the history of diplomacy and international relations, heraldry and ethnography.

V.V. Pokhlebkin is widely known, in particular, for his cookbooks, which are fascinating and contain a lot of historical and interesting little-known information.
His books on cooking, “Secrets of Good Cuisine” and “National Cuisines of Our Peoples,” contain not strict recipes, but methods for preparing various dishes, including those that have long been forgotten. To some extent, these books are also historical, as they contain information about the history of various dishes and cooking in general. Among professionals, he is known as the first theoretical chef in history, who gave world cuisine a universal classification based on technology.
A book about tea - “Tea: Its types, properties, use” - is revered by many lovers of this drink.
The book “The History of Vodka” was translated into English and is known throughout the world (en: A History of Vodka).

William Pokhlebkin: top recipes of Russian cuisine

William Pokhlebkin became famous not only as a scientist and specialist in international relations, but also as a culinary researcher. William Pokhlebkin became the most famous gastronomic historian in Russia. He wrote more than one cookbook; people still learn to cook Russian cuisine using his recipes. Woman's Day collected the most famous dishes of William Pokhlebkin.

Rich cabbage soup (full): recipe

Ingredients:

750 g beef, 500-750 g or 1 half-liter jar of sauerkraut, 4-5 dry porcini mushrooms, 0.5 cups salted mushrooms, 1 carrot, 1 large potato, 1 turnip, 2 onions, 1 celery root and greens, 1 parsley root and greens, 1 tbsp. spoon of dill, 3 bay leaves, 4-5 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp. l. butter or ghee, 1 tbsp. l. cream, 100 g sour cream, 8 black peppercorns, 1 tsp. marjoram or dry angelica (zori).

Place the beef, along with the onion and half of the roots (carrots, parsley, celery) in cold water and cook for 2 hours. 1-1.5 hours after the start of cooking, add salt, then strain the broth, discard the roots.

Place sauerkraut in a clay pot, pour 0.5 liters of boiling water, add butter, close, place in a moderately heated oven. When the cabbage begins to soften, remove it and combine with the strained broth and beef.

Place the mushrooms and potatoes cut into four pieces in an enamel saucepan, add 2 cups of cold water and put on fire. When the water boils, remove the mushrooms, cut into strips and place in the mushroom broth to finish cooking. After the mushrooms and potatoes are ready, combine with the meat broth.

To the combined broth and cabbage, add finely chopped onion, all other roots, cut into strips, and spices (except garlic and dill), add salt and cook for 20 minutes. Then remove from heat, season with dill and garlic and let it brew for about 15 minutes, wrapped in something warm. Before serving, top with coarsely chopped salted mushrooms and sour cream directly in the plates.

Jelly: recipe

Ingredients:

1 head (veal or pork), 4 legs (veal or pork), 1 carrot, 1 parsley (root), 5 Jamaican peppercorns (allspice), 10 black peppercorns, 5 bay leaves, 1-2 onions, 1 head of garlic , for 1 kg of meat - 1 liter of water.

Scorch the legs and head, clean, cut into equal pieces, add water and cook for 6 to 8 hours over very low heat, without boiling, so that the volume of water is reduced by half. 1-1.5 hours before the end of cooking, add onions, carrots, parsley, 20 minutes. - pepper, bay leaf; add a little salt. Then remove the meat, separate from the bones, cut into small pieces, place in a separate bowl, mix with finely chopped garlic and a small amount of ground black pepper. Boil the broth with the remaining bones for another half hour to an hour (so that its volume does not exceed 1 liter), add salt, strain and pour it over the boiled prepared meat. Let cool for 3-4 hours.

Gelatin is not used, since young meat (veal, pig, pork) contains a sufficient amount of sticky substances.

Serve the jelly with horseradish, mustard, crushed garlic and sour cream.

Roast: recipe

Ingredients:

2-2.5 kg of well-fed beef (thick edge), 1 carrot, 2 onions, 1 parsley or celery, 6-8 grains of black pepper, 3-4 bay leaves, 2 tsp. ginger, 0.5 cups sour cream, 1 tsp. salt, 1-1.5 cups of kvass.

Wash the beef, remove films and bones, cut off the fat, cut it into small pieces, put it on a preheated frying pan or baking sheet, melt it, heat it, fry the beef in a whole piece until it becomes crusty, sprinkling it with finely chopped carrots, onions, parsley and crushed spices, then place in the oven, baste every 10 minutes. little by little with kvass, turning all the time. Fry for about 1-1.5 hours. For 5-7 minutes. Before the end of frying, collect all the juice in a cup, add 0.25 cups of cold boiled water to it, and put it in the refrigerator. When the juice has cooled, remove the layer of fat from the surface, heat the juice, strain, add sour cream. Serve as a sauce for roasts. Remove the finished beef from the oven, add salt, let it cool slightly (15 minutes), then cut across the grain into pieces, pour over hot meat juice and serve.

Roasts are not served cold or heated. The side dish can be fried potatoes, boiled or stewed carrots, turnips, rutabaga, fried or stewed mushrooms.

Pike in sour cream: recipe

Ingredients:

1-1.5 kg pike, 1-2 tbsp. l. sunflower oil, 300-450 g sour cream, 1-2 tsp. ground black pepper, 1 lemon (juice and zest), 1 pinch of nutmeg.

Fish with a specific odor (for example, pike, some types of sea fish) require special processing and preparation methods.

Clean the pike, rub it with pepper outside and inside, pour it over with oil and place the whole thing in a deep frying pan on a ceramic stand (or a saucer) and place it in the oven uncovered for 7-10 minutes until the fish browns. Then transfer to a smaller bowl, pour in sour cream, half covering the pike with it, close with a lid and place in the oven over low heat for 45-60 minutes. Place the finished fish on a dish, pour over lemon juice, and heat the resulting gravy on the stove until thickened, add salt, season with grated nutmeg and zest and serve separately with the fish in a sauce boat or pour it over the fish.

Fried mushrooms: recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups peeled mushrooms (various), 100-150 g sunflower oil, 2 onions, 1 tbsp. l. dill, 2 tbsp. l. parsley, 0.5 cups sour cream, 0.5 tsp. ground black pepper.

Peel the mushrooms, rinse, cut into strips, place in a heated dry frying pan, cover with a lid and fry over medium heat until the juice released by the mushrooms has boiled away almost completely; then add salt, add finely chopped onion, add oil, stir and continue frying over moderate heat until a brownish color forms, about 20 minutes. After this, add pepper, sprinkle with finely chopped dill and parsley, stir, fry for 2-3 minutes, add sour cream and bring it to a boil.

During the mushroom season, it is important to know how to cook mushrooms for future use.

Oatmeal porridge: recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups of Hercules oatmeal, 0.75 l of water, 0.5 l of milk, 2 tsp. salt, 3 tbsp. l. butter.

Pour water over the cereal and cook over low heat until the water has boiled down and completely thickened, then add hot milk in two additions and, continuing to stir, cook until thickened, adding salt. Season the finished porridge with oil.

Cabbage pie: recipe

Yeast puff pastry

Ingredients:

600 g flour, 1.25-1.5 glasses of milk (1.25 for a sweet pie), 125 g butter, 25-30 g yeast, 1-2 yolks (2 yolks for a sweet pie), 1.5 tsp. l. salt.

When using this dough for sweet pies, add to it: 1 tbsp. l. sugar 1 tsp. lemon zest, star anise, cinnamon or cardamom (depending on the filling: nut, poppy - cardamom, apple - cinnamon, cherry - star anise, currant, strawberry - zest).

Knead flour, milk, yeast, yolks, salt and 25 g of butter into the dough, knead thoroughly and let rise at cool room temperature. Mix the risen dough, roll it out into a layer about 1 cm thick, grease it with a thin layer of oil, fold it in four, and then leave it for 10 minutes. to the cold. Then roll out again and grease with butter, folding the layers and repeating this operation three times, then let the dough rise in a cold place. After this, without kneading, cut the dough into a pie.

Cabbage filling

You can prepare the filling from either fresh or stewed cabbage.

Chop fresh cabbage, add salt, let stand for about 1 hour, lightly squeeze out the juice, add butter and finely chopped hard-boiled eggs and immediately use for filling.

Chop fresh cabbage, put it in a saucepan under a lid, simmer over low heat until it becomes soft, then add sunflower oil, turn up the heat, fry the cabbage lightly so that it remains light, add onion, parsley and ground black pepper, mix with hard-boiled chopped eggs.

Buckwheat-wheat pancakes: recipe

Homemade rusk kvass: recipe

Ingredients:

1 kg of rye crackers (preferably different ones - from Oryol, rye and Borodino bread, but not peeled), 750 g of sugar, 10-15 blackcurrant leaves, 50 g of raisins, 2-3 tbsp. l. liquid brewer's yeast or 25 g baker's yeast, 2 tbsp. l. dry mint (not peppermint).

Dried in the oven until lightly crusted, pour 1 bucket of boiling water over the crackers and leave for 12 hours. Separately brew the mint, separately the currant leaf with a liter of boiling water and leave for 5 hours. Pour the kvass infusion into another container after soaking, add to it the strained infusion of mint and currant leaf , sugar boiled in 0.5 liters of water, and yeast, stir and leave to ferment for 4 hours. Then remove the foam, strain, pour into bottles, adding a few raisins to each, and leave for 2 days to stand in the cold.

You can prepare a basic summer soup using homemade kvass. We recommend a quick okroshka recipe.

Honey gingerbread (homemade)

Ingredients:

400 g wheat flour, 100 g rye flour, 2 yolks, 0.75-1 glass of milk or curdled milk, 125 g sour cream, 500 g honey, 1 tbsp. spoon of burnt sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 2 capsules of cardamom, 4 clove buds, 0.5 tsp. star anise, 1 tsp. lemon zest, 0.5 tsp. soda

Boil the honey in a saucepan over low heat until red-hot, removing the foam, then brew some of it into rye flour and mix with the rest of the honey, cool until lukewarm and beat until white.

Grind the buttermilk with the yolks, add milk and knead the wheat flour into the egg-milk mixture, after mixing it and mixing it with the powdered spices.

Combine the honey-rye mixture with sour cream and the above mixture, whisking them thoroughly. Place the finished dough in a greased form (or baking sheet) in a layer of 1-2 cm and bake over low heat. Cut the finished gingerbread plate into 4x6 cm rectangles.

These gingerbread cookies are not glazed.

Preparing burnt sugar. Make a thick sugar syrup and heat it over moderate heat in a small thick-walled metal bowl, stirring all the time, until it turns yellow, then reduce the heat slightly and continue stirring until it turns beige or light brown. At the same time, the sugar should not burn; the smell should be specifically caramel, not burnt. This is achieved by careful, continuous stirring and adjusting the heat. The resulting light brown candy is used to tint and add a “caramel” aroma to products.