BELARUSIAN CUISINE

Source: Belarusian cuisine. Miensk, Uradžaj, 1994. ¿ Compilation. L.Dzierbičava, 1977. ¿ Translation into English. A.Weise, V.Cichanovič, 1994.

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Cold and Hot Appetizers
First Courses
    hot dishes
    cold soups
Meats, Chicken, Fish, etc.
Potatoes
Vegetables and Mushrooms
Eggs and Dairy Dishes
Cereals and Flour Dishes
Dishes from Dough
Desserts and Beverages
Ritual Dishes



Modern Belarusian cookery is based on old national traditions which have  undergone a long historical evolution.  But the main methods of traditional Belarusian cuisine are carefully kept by the people.
Common in Belarusian cuisine were dishes from potato which is called among people 'the second bread'.   Belarusians bring fame to their beloved potato in their verses, songs, dances.  There are special potato cafes in the republic where you can try various potato dishes. Potato is included into many salads, it is served together with mushrooms, meat different pirozhki (patties) and baked puddings are made from it.  The most popular among the Belarusians are traditional draniki, thick pancakes, prepared from shredded potatoes.  A wide spread of potato dishes in Belarusian cuisine can be explained by natural climatic conditions of Belarus which are proportios for growing highly starched and tasty sorts of potatoes.
A lot of place in the diet of Belarusans belongs to meat and meat products, especially to the pork and salted pork fat.  One of the people's proverbs says "There's no fish more tasty than tench, as well as there's no meat better than pork".     Salted pork fat is used slightly smoked and seasoned with onions and garlic.  Pyachisto is one of the traditional holiday dishes.  This is boiled, stewed or roasted sucking pig, fowl or large chunks of pork or beef.  Dishes prepared from meat are usually served together with potatoes or vegetables such as carrot, cabbage, black radish, peas, etc.  It is characteristic that many vegetable and meat dishes are prepared in special stoneware pots.
Among dishes from fish Belarusans prefer yushka, galki and also baked or boiled river fish without special seasonings.  In general, what concerns the most common seasonings such as onions, garlic, parsley, dill, caraway seeds, pepper, they are used very moderately in Belarusan cookery.
The coice Belarusan food are fresh, dried, salted and pickled mushrooms, and also berries such as bilberry, wild strawberries, red whortlberry, rasberries, cranberry and some others.
Of flour dishes the most popular is zatirka.  Pieces of specially prepared dough are boiled in water and then poured over with milk or garnished with salted pork fat.
Belarusans prefer to use whole milk which affected some methods of making yogurt and the so called klinkovy cottage cheese.  in Belarusan cuisine milk is widely used for mixing in vegetable and flour dishes.
Medukha, berezovik, kvass, beer are traditional Belarusan drinks.
Recepies introduced in this book do not expose all the dishes of national cuisine.  The methods of cooking of the most popular dishes  of old and modern cuisines are presented here.  All the recepies are intended for four servings; the quantity of products is given in volume and in mass.
Information and recepies for the 'Cuisine' was taken from Belarusian Cuisine, compiled by L.D.Derbicheva, and translated into English by A. Wise and V. Tikhonovich,  Minsk, Uradzhai, 1994.
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