Russian cuisine is based on its traditional and essential components: Potato Bread, Eggs, Meat, Butter.
They provide carbohydrates and fat which help survive long and cold winters as Russia is mainly a northern country. But it is also influenced by vast and multicultural expanse of Russia which brought refined foods and culinary techniques like chocolate, ice cream, wines , diferent sauces and salads.

    A traditional 1st course is usually soup that has always played important role in the Russian meal. The variety of soups offer a shchi, borshch, ukha, rassolnik, solyanka, okroshka (cold summer soup)
The 2nd course is usually meat (kotlety (meetballs), golubtsy studen (or kholodets)) pelmeni, Beef Stroganoff or fish.
Bliny (thin pancakes with or without different fillings), Bliny (thin pancakes with or without different fillings), syrniki (fried curd fritters), vatrushka (a kind of cake with a ring of dough and tvorog (cottage cheese) in the middle) are also served as a main dish and have lots of variations in recipies.

    As for tradtional Russian drinks, most of them are original and unique, like kwas, mors, uzvar, medovukha. Tea and coffee are very popular introuduced drinks as well.

    From the distant past Russians have grown cereals: rye, wheat, oats, and millet and mastered the technique of making flower much earlier then many European and Asian peoples. They even invented yeast dough. This explains a great number of different pies, buns, and rolls in Russian cuisine. Kulebyaka (a pie stuffed with fish or vegetable), kalatch (small padlock-shaped white loaf) Rasstegai (a pie with filling), karavay (round loaf), plyshka (bun), bliny and oladiy (thick pancakes) are still very popular among Russians.

    As for vegetables, most popular was cabbage used not only for cold appetizer (sauerkraut) but for soups and various pies. Besides, Russians grew turnip, black radish, cucumbers, later potatoes and tomatoes. Pickles still accompany any feast and are a component of different meals like rassolnik (soup with pickles) and vinaigrette.

Dairy products were not a dominating meal in Russia in those days. Russians drank fresh or sour milk (prostokvasha), prepared sour cream and curds (tvorog). Until 16 century BC, they did not know ofbutter or cream at all.

    It's important to mention some essential principles of Russian cuisine like preference to boiled or sour meals, which did not involve using oil they did not know of.
Up to 17 century BC there was a strict rule of not combining the products or chopping, cutting or grinding the food, especially meat. This was explained by the fear to mix good food with poor quality one. This is why ancient Russian food was characterized by meals cooked from the whole animal (game, poultry) or a plant. All meals were cooked in the Russian stove, which added a unique taste and smell.

    Nowadays Russian cuisine is famous for its delicatessen: smoked sturgeon, stellate sturgeon dressed with horse-radish sauce, freshly-salted salmon, red and black caviar and finally pickled mushrooms that make up not only a nice still life with but also add to the taste of Russian vodka.

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