The Pomor Cuisine

Will you read:
cuisine a turnip
stove festive (holiday)
stew hospitality
a ritual cloudberries
a copper pot cowberries
steam cranberries
pickle bilberries

Give it a name.

The Pomor Cuisine
In olden times meals in Pomorye were special, that’s why we speak of a Northern Russian cuisine.

Russian stove was the centre of Pomor house.

Pomors had 4 meals a day: breakfast, dinner, midday meal and supper.
Every meal was a sort of а ritual.

Each member of the family sat on his place around a table with wooden bowls and spoons and a copper pot with soup.

The mother cut a round loaf of bread. She did it standing, so she showed respect for the bread.

Pomor cuisine was not rich, it was simple. Little meat, the normal diet was bread, fish, vegetables and kvass. Then came mushrooms and berries.

Fish was the Pomor’s chief food. Ukha – a fish soup – was the most popular soup in Pomorye.

Vegetables, especially turnip, were popular too. Pomors cooked turnip soup, stewed, dried the turnip and ate it as a sweet. Other vegetables were cabbage, carrots, onions and garlic.

Potatoes appeared in the Russian North in the 19th century.

Porridge was favourite too.

Most people ate brown bread, only rich families ate white bread.
Different pies were festive meal.

Tea came to Pomorye in the 19th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century samovar became the symbol of Russian hospitality.

Mushrooming was popular with women and children in summer.

Pomors picked up northern berries (cloudberries, cowberries, cranberries, bilberries) and made berry juice (mors) or berry jam.