The every day Soviet life was far from luxurious, however, the government had its ways of making people believe that life was good and constantly getting better. An interesting means of achieving it was a notable culinary book published in the USSR – The Book On Tasty and Healthy Foods. This book, a few inches thick, turned out to be more than a collection of recipes – it is considered to be an encyclopaedia of the Soviet epoch, an insight into the ordinary life of the Soviets.
The most famous image behind the Russian food, caviar was literally impossible to buy (let alone exorbitantly expensive!)
Originally it was created as a way to deliver information on the culture of dining, the values of home cooked meals and good eating habits. Written by prominent chefs and dieticians of the time, the book was approved by the minister of health and then by Stalin himself (the first edition dating 1939). Everything that went into it was carefully chosen and selected. Apart from the recipes, it contained information on how to plan a weekly menu for a family, what is healthy eating, how to serve the tables nicely, as well as basic principles of food handling and kitchen hygiene.
Dairy products: most likely, this is the whole range of dairy foods available in the USSR. Milk, cream, plain youghurt, eggs, cheese, canned coffee cream and skim milk. That was it.
Nowadays this style of cuisine would be called fusion, as it contained recipes from all over the Union: borscht was followed by lamb pilaf with the Soviet style black forest gateau for the dessert. Usually the recipes were simple and would not demand fancy ingredients or time/labour investments. The food shortages were still on and the book could only stretch as far. A few easy meat recipes, a sauce or two, simple salads – surprisingly, “meat and three veggies” recipes were universal across the globe.
Meat and three veggies Soviet Style. Yum.
The images in the book were not considered to be an advertising material – they were merely a way to form the demand for the foods produced by the food factories – as everything, it was planned in the Soviet economy.
Unappetisingly looking preserves: green capsicums, meat in cabbage parcels, eggplant chutney.
Interestingly, in some later edition, fish was a recommended dietary element at least once a week – that was dictated by the shortages of meat: the protein levels had to stay up in order to keep the nation nourished and thus maintain the medical costs at bay.
Dinner on the stove: tinned beef garnished with green peas. No, it was not called spam.
Cooking was not considered to be art or indulgence; rather, it had a technological focus — typical for the Soviet era of industrialisation. Here a very important point was made about who would do the cooking: the traditional, western-style family, where the man is the breadwinner and the woman is the pretty homemaker would go against the Soviet ideology, in which women were equal partners and comrades. Therefore the image of a wife was being shifted from a stove towards the factory production line, and a husband would eat something simple, something cooked for the entire family in the weekend, for instance.
Extended family hand-making meat dumplings — later to be frozen.
Noteworthy, until the 1980s, the book contained no actual photographs — only drawings. However, it does not justify the sad-looking foods pictured in it. Some of it looks just inedible.
Green peas soup with croutons, wheat porrige well-buttered and jelly for dessert, anyone?
Desserts are always nice, though. Timeless, too.
Chocolate cake, served with tea.
Because restaurants were scarce and the whole concept of dining out was simply non-existent, dinner parties played a very important part in every person’s life. Labour Day on the May, 1st; Victory Day on May, 9th; November 7th (the Revolution Day) and New Year’s Eve were to be celebrated in style and in abundance — regardless of the food supplies.
Soviet alcohol selection: sparkling wine, white wine from Georgia, white port, Georgian port.
Such dinners required a lot of leg work as hunting for the necessary ingredients was required and queuing for as long as hours was unavoidable. However, the outcomes were remembered for long and treasured with all hearts. Family time together, what could be nicer, really.
Circa 1970s. At a table.
The most favourite book of my childhood!
same here. Green peas soup with croutons.. uhmm
Mine, too!
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what’s the title of the book?
Literally: “The Book on Tasty and Healthy Foods”.
More on that: http://www.fakeproject.com/Soviet_Book_Tasty_and_Healthy_Eating/
famous top-rated “Soviet exotic” articles for western world.
why author didn’t include images of bears on the Red square, fur-caps, accordions and so on?
threadbare plot
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У меня реально эта книга есть. “О вкусной и здоровой пище” 1953-й год
I find interesting the critique of Soviet Union here. But I think it is threated from the capitalism view of it.
Foods were not very plentiful. At least, most of people had food. In capitalism, most of the world population have not access to food.
In the article I do not talk about the rest of the world — I only talk about the USSR, where the food was not plentiful for 97% of its citizens. Which is a shame because unlike the rest of the world, the USSR did have resources to feed properly every single one of its citizens — they just decided not to.
Yes, that’s true. However, soviet economy was so far from european and north-american until Piatiletka success. In the tsar’s times, people hadn’t even bread to eat. Nowadays, Russia has a lot of social problems and there are thousands of people starving. So food in soviet times, after all, was not so bad. Don’t you think?
I’m not commie, I’m anarchist, but I’d rather prefer it than capitalism or fascism.
Excuse my bad english, corrections are welcome.
You English is good enough to actually write such articles!
As for the rest — I do not think communism is any better that capitalism or fascism either. I am very socialistic at heart, and I believe this is the only way to make the society function well. Sadly, they did not make it to socialist in the USSR.
As for the foods — the food was not bad per se, the food was not plentiful for most people. I was born in 1982, and I remember times when butter, sausages etc were distributed according to food vouchers.
You could argue those were the last days of the USSR and things were much better in 1960s or 1970s — but no, they were not. You could only eat well (or dress well, or holiday well etc) if you belonged to the upper echelon of power — or were high enough in the food distribution chain. Otherwise — fried potatoes with potatoes with a side of mashed potatoes under potato sauce.
Thanks!
Well, I think you know better than me how the USSR was, anyway you’re russian and I’m not. But I hate when western mass media twists the info telling lies about commie countries. I’ve ot a friend from Cuba and he says that is better the socialist system than the capitalist, but they’ve got no lots of things doubt to the USA embargo against Cuba.
Im not trying to argue, but i’m wondering; did you live in the city or the country in the ussr?
Yes, Natasha, I did — I am from the city called Ufa, which is in the Urals. I was about 10 years old when the USSR collapsed, and I remember the great deal of things before and after the date.
I do not live in Russia any more, but I was born in the USSR, which makes me a witness to many topics in this blog.
Im not trying to argue, but i’m wondering; did you live in the city or the country in the ussr?
Foods were not plentiful, but people were creative with what little they did have. Definitely healthier too.
Hemp is is far more than a psychoactive drug. And indeed the perfect food, and when learned. Go to http://www.hempproteinguide.net/ for great information.
Anything in excess is unhealthy…let it be healthy food or unhealthy.….
Heart disease
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I must say this book would not have been much appreciated without this much a good review.….cheers!!!!
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