Russian Cookbooks

Our Cookbook page will be featuring cookbooks with recipes for foods from what is now the Czech and Slovak Republics and surrounding areas of Poland, Hungary, Russia, and the Ukraine.

Russian Cookbooks

Title: Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook

Author: Anya Von Bremzen, John Welchman
Publisher: Workman Pu
Date Published: November 1990
Format: Trade Paper

Discover the entire continent in this classic collection of 400 recipes. Please to the Table is the first book to interpret the joyous cacophony of Russian flavors, techniques, ingredients--even rituals. Winner of the 1990 James Beard Food and Beverage Book Award. Illustrations throughout.

From Publisher's Weekly:
Soviet cuisine has as many sides as the numerous nationalities and ethnic groups that comprise it in this fascinating compilation of regional recipes.

The authors, a Soviet emigre pianist from Moscow and her British art historian husband, offer essays on the history of Russian, Baltic, Georgian, Central Asian, Ukrainian and Armenian foods, including the influences of climate, geography and conquest on the development of distinctive flavors.

Classically Russian wild mushrooms and basic Ukrainian peasant borscht contrast with exotic Azerbaijani quail and pomegranate sauce and Uzbeki steamed lamb dumplings.

Suggested menus also highlight the impact of other cultures on the vast U.S.S.R.: a Russian vodka party features French-inspired pate; an Armenian meze (appetizer) buffet with spiced feta and halvah is closer to the Middle East than the West; and a Passover dinner includes chicken pilaf with apples, raisins and quince, created by Jews of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, who now live in New York.

Despite the chronic food shortages in Moscow that create a cuisine based more on processed food, vodka and frugality than on quality, the authors suggest that hospitality is the hallmark of the Soviet culinary scene. BOMC Home Style and Better Homes & Gardens Book Club selection. (Jan.) —Publisher's Weekly

From Library Journal:
Although this is probably the first of a wave of Russian cookbooks, until now there have been relatively few decent books in this area.

The authors, a Muscovite who emigrated to the United States and a British writer, traveled all over the Soviet Union and throughout Russian communities in the United States to collect these 400 recipes.

The dishes are amazingly diverse; in addition to the recipes, this ambitious work includes historical background, notes on special ingredients, and sections on specific cuisines.

An essential purchase. BOMC HomeStyle and Better Homes & Gardens selections. —Library Journal

From School Library Journal:
YA-- This creative cookbook has a wide variety of recipes covering many aspects of Soviet cooking.

All are easy to read and follow, and are accompanied by a short history of the area or region in which the food originated as well as descriptions of feasts from literary works and sample menus for all occasions.

Pages are peppered with short quotes from Russian and foreign authors extolling the virtue of the food.

There are proverbs and folk sayings, as well as a helpful list of sources for some of the exotic herbs and spices used in the recipes. A perfect opportunity to absorb some history and culture while cooking -- Catherine Bryan, Jefferson Sci-Tech, Alexandria, VA —School Library Journal

Title: The Art of Russian Cuisine
Author: Anne Volokh, Mavis Manus
Publisher: Macmillan Publishing Company, Incorporated
Date Published: September 1989
URL: Format: Trade Paper

Authentic Russian cuisine is skillfully adapted for the modern kitchen in this encyclopedia cookbook of over 500 dishes.

From pirogi to baking powder and buckwheat blini. The standard work, comprehensive and exciting.

Title: Recipes from the Russians of San Francisco
Author: Margaret H. Koehler,Rudolf Czufin (Illustrator)
Publisher: Chatham Press, Incorporated
Date Published: January 1974
Format: Trade Cloth

Title: Mennonite Foods & Folkways from South Russia
Volume I
Author: Norma Jost Voth
Publisher: Good Bks P
Date Published: September 1990
Format: Trade Cloth

There are more folkways than food in this meticulously researched chronicle of the Russian Mennonites. The Protestant sect, known for austerity of vision and practice, got started in the Netherlands, then spread to Russia in the 19th century and later to Canada, Paraguay and the U.S.

A descendant of Ukrainian Mennonites, Voth chooses to include only 100 recipes here, but they give the reader a good sampling of the sturdy stuff that seemed to travel so well across continents: zwieback, stewed chicken with anise, pfefferminzsic cookies.

She also provides details about Mennonite homes, music, education and even stove design, while surveying contemporary members of the clan about their lives, meals and customs.....

"If there was good weather before Easter, it was customary to do a spring cleaning before the holiday"; "Raising flowers and vegetables has always been important in the lives of Mennonite women."

The recipes, none of which are especially complicated, are grouped with descriptions of typical celebrations. -- (July) Publisher's Weekly

Title: Byelorussian Cuisine
Author: V. Bolotnikova
Publisher: Firebird Publications, Incorporated
Date Published: February 1979
Format: Trade Cloth

Title: Lithuanian Cookbook
Author: Maria De Gorgey
Publisher: Hippocrene
Date Published: April 1998
Format: Trade Cloth

Title: Lithuanian Cookery
Author: I. Sinkeviciute
Publisher: i. b. d., Limited
Date Published: January 1976
Format: Trade Paper

Title: Estonian Cuisine
Author: S. Kalvik
Publisher: Firebird Publications, Incorporated
Date Published: February 1987
Format: Trade Cloth

Title: The Best of Russian Cooking
Author: Alexandra Kropotkin
Publisher: Hippocrene
Date Published: May 1993
Format: Trade Paper

Title: Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovet's a Gift to Young Housewives

Author: Joyce Toomre

Publisher: Indiana University Press
Date Published: October 1992
Format: Trade Cloth

Title: Azerbaijan Cookery
Author: Akhmed-Djabir Akhmedov
Publisher: Firebird Publications, Incorporated
Date Published: May 1986
Format: Trade Cloth

Title: A Little Russian Cookbook
Author: Tania Alexander, Vera Konnova-Stone, Anne Farrall
Publisher: Chronicle
Date Published: April 1997
Format: Trade Cloth

From borscht and stuffed cabbage leaves to salmon pie and traditional Easter sweets, here is a sampling of Russian favorites both temptingly familiar and refreshingly new. Recipes include Veal a la Romanov, Blinchiatiy Pirog (pancake meat pie), and Siberian Pelmeni (ravoli). Full-color illustrations.

Title: Russian Cookbook

Author: Kyra Petrovskaya

Publisher: Dover Publications, Incorporated

Date Published: December 1992

Format: Trade Paper

Title: The Best of Russian Cooking
Author: Alexandra Kropotkin
Publisher: Hippocrene
Date Published: April 1998
Format: Trade Paper

Title: Cooking the Russian Way
Author: Gregory Plotkin, Rita Plotkin, Diane Wolfe (Illustrator), Robert L. Wolfe (Illustrator)
Publisher: Lerner Pub
Date Published: April 1989
Format: Trade Cloth

Introduces the cooking and food habits of the Soviet Union, including such recipes as borscht, chicken kiev, and beef stroganoff, and provides brief information on the geography and history of the country.

Title: Festive Food of Russia

Author: Lesley Chamberlain

Publisher: Trafalgar Square

Date Published: July 1996

Format: Trade Cloth

Title: Food in Russian History & Culture

Author: Musya Glants, Joyce S. Toomre
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Date Published: July 1997
Format: Trade Paper

From Library Journal: Fourteen scholars have contributed 13 essays, each impeccably documented with endnotes, on the place of food ("foodways") in Russian history and culture. Edited by Glants, a specialist on 19th- and 20th-century Russian painting, and Toomre, a Slavicist and culinary historian, the book spans over ten centuries, from Kievan Rus to the present.

Relying on sources as diverse as personal journals, police records, paintings, poems, and cookbooks, the writers examine changing attitudes about foodmoral, ideological, and spiritualthrough the eyes of peasants as well as tyrants.

Recent works have dealt with the relationship between food and power (Sidney Mintz, Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom, LJ 8/96), but certainly the specificity and breadth of this one makes it unique. Although lively reading, it is particularly recommended for academic collections with a strong focus in Russian history.Wendy Miller, Lexington P.L., Ky.

Title: LUBA Gurdjieff: A Memoir with Recipes
Author: Luba Everitt, Marina Bear

Publisher: Snow Lion

Date Published: September 1997

Format: Trade Paper

Title: The Russian Food & Culture
Author: Ann L. Burckhardt
Publisher: Children's Press
Date Published: January 1998
Format: Trade Cloth

Title: Russianamerican Feasts
Author: Leda Voropaeff

Publisher: Vantage Press, Incorporated

Date Published: June 1996

Format: Trade Cloth

Title: Famous Russian Recipes
Author: Margaret Calvin (Editor), Sandy Griffith (Illustrator), Sasha Kashevaroff (Translator)
Publisher: Old Harbor Press
Date Published: August 1985
Format: Trade Paper

Title: Food in Russia
Author: Andreev Tania
Publisher: Rourke Pub
Date Published: August 1989
Format: Trade Cloth

Surveys food products, customs, and preparation in the Soviet Union, describing regional dishes, cooking techniques, and recipes for a variety of meals.

From School Library Journal: Gr 6-9-- This series surveys the foods and dining customs of Russia, Italy, Mexico, India, Japan, and China. Each volume contains a brief introduction to the country, followed by overviews of its agriculture and types of foods.

There is a more in-depth description of two of the major food products of each country, as well as details about regional cooking and significant national festivals.

The recipe section begins with a banquet menu for a festive occasion, proceeds to a few regional recipes, and concludes with a dish for an everyday meal.

Ingredients are mostly common grocery store items, and the full meals are well balanced. A glossary of cooking terms, a list of special ingredients with suggestions for where they can be obtained, and an index round out each volume. The photographs of the countries are informative, albeit pedestrian, and those of the foods are mildly appealing.

For a slightly older audience than the ``Easy Menu Ethnic Cookbook'' series (Lerner), this series will be useful in schools where social studies and home economics projects involve ethnic foods preparation. --Merilyn S. Burrington, Vergennes Union High School, VT

Title: Fort Ross Cookbook: Recipes of Fort Ross & Russia
Author: Wendy Platt (Editor)
Publisher: Fort Ross Interpretive Assn., Inc.
Date Published: August 1994
Format: Paper Text

Title: Russian Cookbook
Author: Sergey Morkovine (Editor), Dmitriy Koronkevich (Illustrator)
Publisher: Isometry
Date Published: December 1994
Format: Trade Paper

Title: Russian Cooking
Author: Vladimir Usov, Natalya Lozinskaya (Editor), Sergei Tkachenko (Photographer), Irina Avdeyeva (Translator)
Publisher: Firebird
Date Published: March 1992
Format: Trade Paper

Title: Russian Fare
Author: R. Gorina
Publisher: Saphrograp
Format: Trade Paper

Title: Zu GAST in Russland: Eine Kulinarische Reise
Author: Wjatscheslaw M. Kowalew, Nikolaj P. Mogilni, Andrej P. Onischtschuk\ (Illustrator)
Publisher: International Book Import Service, Incorporated
Date Published: January 1988
Format: Trade Cloth

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Last updated on 10 July 2007

Graphics by Lori's Heavenly Creations

Music courtesy of Randall Kopchak
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