CCCP Cook Book

As the Soviet Union struggled along the path to Communism, food supplies were often sporadic and shortages commonplace. Day to day living was hard, and both the authorities and citizens had to apply every ounce of ingenuity to maximize often inadequate resources. Illustrated using images sourced from original Soviet recipe books collected by the author, this book contains over sixty recipes from the Soviet era, spanning such delicacies as aspic, borscht, caviar and herring, by way of bird's milk cake and pelmeni. The stories and recipes contained here reflect turbulent times. They range from basic subsistence meals consumed by the average citizen (okroshka), to extravagant banquets held by the political elite (suckling pig with buckwheat), with a smattering of classics (beef stroganoff) in between. Many of these sometimes extraordinary-looking pictures depict dishes whose recipes used unobtainable ingredients, placing them firmly in the realm of 'aspirational' fantasy for the average Soviet household; they act as a window into cuisine of the day, in turn revealing the unique political and social attitudes of the era.