The Art of Russian Cuisine [Paperback]

Anne Volokh (Author), Mavis Manus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 1989

The Art of Russian Cuisine brings 500 authentic russian recipes into your home, along with historical and cultural background that will capture your imagination.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Art of Russian Cuisine is almost as immense as the vast expanses of Mother Russia. Filled with 500 recipes for classic Russian dishes, it also provides a history of Russian food and culinary life. Anne Volokh, a Russian food writer who eventually emigrated to the U.S., enlivens her work by including passages from Russian literature and historical works. She concentrates on authentic cooking, often drawing recipes from A Gift to Young Housewives written by Ellena Molokhovets in the 1870s. The result brings to life how Russians ate when their rivers ran thick with fish and aristocrats had French chefs invent elaborate dishes like Veal Orloff, made with two creamy sauces.

Naturally, Volokh starts with zakuski, the antipasto-like ceremony that can constitute a meal in itself; including herring, caviar, salads, even suckling pig in aspic. For soups, there are peasant-hearty borschts--which are actually Ukrainian, not Russian--and spicy Selianka, an example of upper-class cooking. In Russia, each soup has a proper garnish or accompaniment; Volokh provides them all, from sliced eggs in cold borscht to yeasty garlic rolls with the hot kind. Dishes such as Beef Stroganoff, Stuffed Cabbage, proper Bliny and Pashka (the sweetened cheese dessert), require culinary expertise, great patience, or both to make. But dishes such as Roasted Chicken with Raisin-Studded Stuffing and Baked Trout with Walnut-Based Satsivi Sauce are simple but rich.

If Russian food interests you, The Art of Russian Cuisine is worth having for its traditional recipes and the enlightening exploration of their origins. --Dana Jacobi

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (October 17, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0020381026
• ISBN-13: 978-0020381020
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Russian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An INCREDIBLY Conscise and Detailed Russian Cookbook, June 30, 2000

By 

D. Leybman "Dima" (Fort Wayne, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Russian Cuisine (Paperback)

First allow me to say that I am a person who grew up in Russia so I have to say that I am speaking with some authority. I came here when I was young and I have tried many of the foods in this book and I must say that this is the best and most conscise cookbook on Russian Cooking.

The book is very fat and thick but that is exactly why it is so good for its wealth of differnt varities of food for different occasions, from weddings to Easter(Kulichi). The book is 632 pages long including the index. The book is constrcuted in different chapters depending on what you want to cook. It also gives the americanized phonetic saying of how to say these foods in Russian which in my opinion would be very useful for both cultural and traveling reasons if you want to order the food there. The book has many chapters as I said earlier among them are "Fish" "Soups" and "Meat."

Among the most convenient things is the details told in teh making of the cookings. The details are so detailed stricken that it is impossible to go wrong.

There are many foods here that Americans remember as being Russian among them "borshcit" which are told here to make.

Plus some of the best thigns about this endeavor is the fact taht the recipe is written by a Russian Women which means that she knows how to cook this. This isnt' simply a book written by a visitor the country, this is written by a woman who grew up in the Soviet Union, having been a food critic for a very high circulating gazzette. The recipes are sometimes simple and sometimes a little bit more hard just like in any cookbook. Plus one of the other enticing features of the books contents is the fact that the book includes recipes from different Russian cultures, such as the Georgians and Ukranians and Belorussians. That is an incredible brush of stroke since many great "Russian Foods" are not russian at all but come from different Russian cultures.

In the end, in my opinion this is the most detailed and conscise book on Russian cooking I have looked over yet. The thickness of the book says it all. The book includes a americanized way of pronouncing the cooking in Russian and is very detailed in its description of the food. Buy the book if you want a sort of "almanac" of Russian Cusisine.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Would not call it the art, but the best Russian cookbook ..., April 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Russian Cuisine (Paperback)

It took me a long time to find a good Russian cookbook. This is the best one I discovered so far.
I was born in Russia, however, never learned how to cook Russian food. I missed my grandmother's cooking from my childhood. So, I started looking... "Taste of Russia" & "Please to the Table" are wonderful cookbooks with great recipies. However, they are not the recipies I remember my grandmother cooking. "The Art of Russian Cuisine" includes almost all the recipies I could think of.
I definitely recommend this book to those of you who wants to taste the real Russian food, the one that Russians cook daily or for holidays.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest!, August 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Russian Cuisine (Paperback)

This is *the definitive* book on Russian cooking. I've never been much of a cook, but now I cook with it all the time and it always comes out right -- exactly the way my mother and grandmother used to make it! Plus, all the recipes are framed with tidbits of Russian history and culture, and the context these dishes were eaten in.