Vegetables, Porridges and Sauces in the 1901 Cookbook
Discover historical recipes for escarole salad, beef Stroganoff, mushroom sauce, buckwheat lemeshka and porridges from Molokhovets' cookbook.
Ordinary household dishes can reveal as much about a historical kitchen as an elaborate banquet. Molokhovets' cookbook places vegetables, cereals, sauces and filling dishes alongside preparations that are still recognizable today.
Familiar names can conceal unfamiliar methods: buckwheat-flour lemeshka, a layered baked macaroni-and-curd dish, and a sauce made with dried porcini all invite close reading of the source.
Recipes from the 1901 edition
No. 1352 — Escarole SaladOlive oil and vinegar. The original source contains an obsolete instruction about washing greens; follow modern food-safety standards.
No. 798 — Beef Stroganoff with MustardBeef in a sauce with mustard, tomato and sour cream.
No. 713 — Dried Porcini Mushroom SauceMushroom stock, sour cream and dill, with pieces of mushroom remaining in the sauce.
No. 1769 — Lemeshka, a Buckwheat-Flour PorridgeAn old dish made from buckwheat flour, milk and butter.
No. 1729 — Baked Macaroni with TvorogLayers of pasta and fresh curd cheese baked in a sauté pan.
No. 1786 — Thin Millet PorridgeA milk-based porridge using the historical “bottle” as a measure.
Read further
The Russian editorial archive also examines Smolensk groats and forgotten porridges and the use of one ingredient in several dishes.