Meat is almost always eaten by the Russians (we speak of the great bulk of the people), either boiled, pickled, or salted ; they seldom smoke meat, not even their hams and bacon ; roasting is almost unknown to them. It is incredible how bad the bread is, considering the goodness of the corn ; it is all, more or less sour, and why this is so, is not easy to discover. Another fault is that it is never sufficiently baked, but that is characteristic of a people who choose to eat more unripe than ripe fruit. It were easy to leave their fruit a little longer on the tree, their bread a little longer in the oven, but that is never done. Pasties of all kinds (pirogas) are in great favour with the Russian ; things so little known in Germany that we have not even a word for them. The Russians pack every thing that can be chopped up, into pies ; vegetables, fruit, mushrooms, flesh, and fish ; the paste is generally detestable.
It must be very gratifying to the author of a Russian cookery-book to think that his sphere of influence is so extensive. For example, if he speak of " blinnis," and say it is a kind of pancake eaten with caviare, and portwine, in the " butter-week," as it is called, before the great fast ; he is unquestionably rewarded for his trouble by the reflection that the whole empire is suffering from indigestion at the same time. So great a uniformity in eating must partly cause, and partly presuppose, a great imiformity of moral and physical constitution.
If the inward character, and the mysterious nature of the veiled Psyche of a nation, speaks not less intelligibly in the productions of its kitchen, than in the productions of any other art, it may not be superfluous to mention the great preference the Russians show for all kinds of food that can be grated and mashed up. It is as if food in a solid form were unbearable to the Russian or he too lazy to chew ! Every thing must melt in his mouth, and find its way to the maze within him, without any trouble on his part. An energetic active people like to cnmch and bite ! What were their teeth for else ? The Russians may indeed quote the gods of
Greece as their patterns, for doubtless the ambrosia of Olympus must have been something of the consistence of their much loved " Kissels" and " Pastelas ;" for, if on the one hand we cannot suppose ambrosia to have been a liquid soup, to be conveyed with spoons to the expectant mouths of the immortals ; on the other hand, it cannot have been a hard tooth-exercismg substance, for mastication is something exceedingly un-ideal, and inconsistent with godhke attributes.
The quantity of sweetmeats, wet and dry, consumed at a Russian festival is perfectly astonishing ; for balls they are bought by the pood (36 lbs. EngUsh), and many a merchant's wife, if she be rich enough, consumes half her life in eating sugar, which in one kind of preparation or another, is crunched, sucked, and swallowed all day long.
Of liquids, the most national and most general is kwas, which occupies the same place as a beverage, that shtshee does as a dish. The Russian of the lower class can no more live without kwas, than fish without water. It is not only his constant diink, but the foundation of all his soups and sauces, which are rarely made with simple water, but almost always with kwas. Kwas is the basis of all his food, solid and Hquid ; in kwas all things dissolve .and swim ; even on the tables of the wealthiest, among the wines and liqueurs, instead of decanters of water appear decanters of kwas. Fortunately it is a light and wholesome beverage. It is prepared in the following manner : A pailful of water is put into an earthen vessel, into which are shaken two pounds of barley-meal, half-apound of salt, and a pound-and-a-half of honey. This mixture is put in the evening into a kind of oven, with a moderate fire, and constantly stirred ; in the morning it is left for a time to settle, and then the clear liquid is poured off. The kwas is then ready, and may be drunk in a few days ; in a week it is at its highest perfection. As kwas is thought good only when prepared in small quantities, and in small vessels, every household brews for itself. In great houses, a servant is kept for this purpose, who finds in it wherewithal to occupy him the whole day, and has as many mysterious obsei^vances in the preparation, as if it were a spell, or as if there were as much significance in his labours as in those of Schiller's bell-founder.
Mead is another national and very ancient Slavonian beverage. In former times it was the only spirituous liquor of the Russians ; but wine with the higher, and brandy with the lower classes, had superseded it in a great measure. Of late, however, it seems to be recovering some degree of favour ; perhaps the active research into the annals of Russia, and the reviving spirit of nationality, may be among the causes.