Historical recipes, food preparations, and household instructions from the Domostroy tradition.
This material is preserved in later editions of the Domostroy tradition and is presented here as a separate collection of historical recipes and food instructions.
Source: V. I. Yakovlev, Domostroy, 1867
English translation: Piece of Humanity
Read it in its historical context. Listen to what it says. Then go to Church.
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Table of Contents
- Chapter 65 — A Book for the Whole Year: How Foods Are to Be Served at Table
- Instruction Concerning Honey and Kvas
- Instruction Concerning White Honey
- Concerning Molasses Honey
- Concerning Plain Honey
- Concerning Boyar’s Honey
- Concerning Honey Made with Herbs
- Instruction for Making Berry Honeys
- Concerning Berry Mors
- Concerning Kvass: How to Make Plain Honey Kvass
- Concerning Adulterated Beer
- Instruction Concerning Various Vegetables, How to Prepare and Make Them
- Concerning Watermelons
- Concerning Melons
- Concerning Kuzmin Apples
- Concerning Nalyvnye Apples
- Concerning Cherries
- Concerning Mozhaisk white fruit
- Concerning Levashi of Various Berries
- Concerning Apple Pastila
- Concerning Vinegar
- Concerning Sbiten
- The Procedure for Brewing Beer
Chapter 65 — A Book for the Whole Year: How Foods Are to Be Served at Table
From Great Day, during the meat-eating season, the following foods are served at table: swans, swan giblets, cranes, herons, ducks, black grouse, hazel grouse, roasted hare kidneys, salted chickens, chicken gizzards, chicken necks, chicken livers, salted mutton, baked mutton, chicken soups, rich kashas, salted meat, salted goose sides, tongues, salmon, hares in frying pans, salted hares with milk, roasted chickens, tripe, chicken gizzards, chicken livers, larks, mutton giblets, sandrik, pork, ham, crucian carp, morels, kundumy, and two kinds of shchi.
At supper they serve: aspics, hazel grouse, baked hares, ducks, roasted hazel grouse, black grouse, mutton, salted goose sides, salted hares, roasted chickens, pork, and ham.
During the meat-eating season after Great Day, fish foods are served at table on fast days: steamed herrings, steamed pike, steamed bream, dried salmon, dried whitefish, dried sturgeon, sterlet backs, dried beluga, beluga backs, whitefish, steamed whitefish backs, saffron fish soups, perch soups, roach soups, bream soups, and crucian carp soups; and among the salted foods they serve: fresh whitefish, fresh sterlet, fresh sturgeon, live-salted sterlet, pike heads with garlic, goltsy, Shekhon-style sturgeon, and sturgeon in bundles.
During the Peter’s Fast, they serve at table: steamed herrings, steamed pike, and steamed bream.
Dried fish: salmon, whitefish, sturgeon, sterlet backs, whitefish dried on rods, steamed whitefish backs, pike soup with saffron, roach soup, bream soup, crucian carp soup, and tavranchuk of sturgeon, and tavranchuk of sterlet; and among the salted foods: fresh whitefish, fresh sterlet, live-salted sterlet, fresh sturgeon, salted sturgeon, live-salted pike, pike heads with garlic, goltsy, dried sterlet, Shekhon-style sturgeon, sturgeon in bundles, boiled mushrooms, baked and dried mushrooms, shchi, and crucian carp.
And from Peter’s Day until the meat-eating season, the following are served at table: swan, swan giblets, cranes, herons, ducks, hare kidneys, roasted portions, roasted mutton breasts, salted chickens, chicken gizzards, chicken necks, baked mutton, chicken soups, salted beef, yurmy, salted meat with garlic, goose sides, dried duck sides, old salted meat, dried beef tongues, elk tongues, salmon; hares in frying pans, hares in noodles, hares in brine, hare kidneys with milk, kurniki, layered pies, salniki, beef on a pole, beef milk, wild boar meat, ham with pork milk, tripe, kasha, two kinds of shchi, noodles, crucian carp, kundumy, kashny shchi, cheese pancakes, pies, blinnye, kissel, kasha, cream, cheese, milk with horseradish; raised loaves, pancake loaves, and stryadnye loaves.
During the Dormition Fast, the following foods are served at table: sour cabbage with herrings, and all kinds of roe are placed alongside; beluga, dried beluga, salmon served with garlic and cloves; Shekhon-style sturgeon, whitefish, dried salmon, sturgeon backs, sterlet backs; steamed herrings, steamed pike, steamed sterlet, steamed bream, salmon backs, whitefish backs; and the backs of various fish are served.
And after the steaming: winter fish soups with saffron; baked fish soup, black perch soup, chilled aspic; hot ordinary fish soups; pike soup, sterlet soup, crucian carp soup, perch soup, roach soup, tavranchuk of sturgeon. And between the fish soups there is served: a calf loaf, and sterlet, and a kruzhok.
Pies: small pies in walnut oil, fried with peas; little fritters in walnut oil, sour; hearth-baked pies, sour, with peas; pies with poppy seed, fried, large, in hemp oil; large pies with poppy-seed juice, with soshni; large pies with vyaziga; pies with whitefish; pies with tench; pies with herrings; pies with tench, with pancakes between the layers.
And among the salted foods: pike under garlic, perch in brine, live-salted pike, wind-dried beluga in brine; under zvar: sturgeon in brine under zvar, whitefish in brine under zvar, fish loduga in brine under vzvar.
During the Dormition meat-eating season, the following foods are served at table: swans, swan giblets, cranes, herons, ducks, roasted mutton breast with saffron, roasted beef portions, roasted tongues, pork middles, salted chickens; chicken soup, beef, salted pork, yurmy, salmon, with garlic; frying-pan hares, hares in turnips, salted hares, roasted chickens, white mutton livers with pepper and saffron; beef on a pole, sausages, pork on a pole, klinetsy khorobrye, pork kidneys, stomachs, ham, tripe, intestines, chickens on a pole, crucian carp, kundumy, shchi.
And at supper: baked hares, boiled pork, pickled; pig heads and feet, salted goose sides, pork, ham. And after Semyon Day they do not serve yurmy, nor baked [yurmy], nor mutton breasts.
And from the Intercession they give: roasted geese, geese on a pole; and during the Dormition meat-eating season they serve at table, among the fish foods: steamed herrings, steamed pike, steamed bream, and dried fish; salmon, whitefish, sturgeon, sturgeon backs, sterlet backs; saffron fish soups, black baked perch soup, roach soup, bream soup, crucian carp soup, tavranchuk of sterlet.
Among the salted foods, fresh: whitefish, salmon, fresh sterlet, freshly salted sterlet, live-salted sturgeon, pike heads with horseradish and garlic, live-salted pike, goltsy in sour shchi; hanging sterlet, Shekhon-style sturgeon, sturgeon in bundles; baked mushrooms, boiled mushrooms, shchi, crayfish with kasha. And after Semyon Day they do not serve dried fish, and from Semyon Day there come loaves, piglets with veal, and ducks with veal. And from Dmitriev Day there come fish foods, winter fish soups, and various others.
During the Philip Fast, the following foods are served at table: steamed herrings, steamed whitefish, fresh chilled herrings, steamed bream, whitefish backs, salmon backs, nelma backs, semga backs, steamed sterlet, steamed whitefish, steamed loduga; piglets with veal, ducklings with veal, saffron fish soup, black fish soup, tench fish soup; livers, milk; perch soup, roach soup, bream soup, crucian carp soup, tavranchyuk of beluga, tavranchyuk of sturgeon, tavranchyuk of sevruga, tavranchyuk of sterlet, mixed fish soups, pounded fish soups, sterlet soup, pike-perch soup, sterlet-belly fish soup.
And among the salted foods: whitefish, salmon, nelma, sterlet, sturgeon, sterlet heads, pike heads with garlic and horseradish, a calf kruzhok, fried sterlet, boiled pike, tench, perch, roach, salted bream, live-salted pike, beluga tubes of skhaby, fried herrings, long sturgeon, two kinds of shchi with fresh fish soup and with sturgeon fish soup.
During the Great Meat-Eating Season, from the Nativity of Christ, the following foods are served at table: swans, swan giblets, roasted geese, black grouse, partridges, hazel grouse, roasted piglets, baked mutton, salted mutton, salted piglets, piglet giblets, chicken soups, salted meat with garlic and herbs, salmon, elk heart in brine, chopped elk heart, elk lip, baked elk, elk brain, frying-pan hares, salted hares, roasted chickens, goose giblets, beef on a pole, pork on a pole, ham, sausages, stomachs, geese on a pole; crooked minty, tukmachi, noodles, crucian carp, kundumy, shchi.
During the Great Meat-Eating Season after the Nativity of Christ, fish foods are served at table: steamed herrings, fresh chilled herrings, steamed bream, whitefish backs, salmon backs, nelma backs, steamed semga backs, steamed sterlet, steamed whitefish, steamed loduga, winter fish soups; loaves, piglets, ducks with veal, saffron fish soups, black fish soups, tench fish soups, pike soups, fish soups with pepper, perch soups, roach soups, bream soups, crucian carp soups, tavranchyuk of beluga, tavranchyuk of sterlet, fish soups with mesh, pounded fish soup, sterlet soup, pike-perch soup, sterlet-belly fish soup.
Among the salted foods they serve: whitefish, salmon, nelma, sterlet, sturgeon, sterlet heads, pike heads with garlic, a kruzhok, sterlet, boiled pike, perch, salted roach, bream, live-salted pike, beluga skhaby, fried herrings, Shekhon-style sturgeon, sturgeon in bundles, long sturgeon, shchi.
And during Butter Week they serve at table: fasting breads, pressed roe, autumn sturgeon roe, fresh sturgeon roe, sterlet roe, pike kseny with saffron, whitefish kashka, salmon kseny, black pike kseny; pike-perch kashka, sterlet kashka, fresh sevruga kashka, fresh sturgeon kseny, salted beluga kseny, dried sturgeon kseny, dried beluga kseny, dried small fish, crucian carp plates, asp roe, boiled roe, fried roe; dried sturgeon gizzards, salted gizzards, vyaziga in vinegar, sterlet in little barrels, wet tongues, hanging sterlet, sturgeon tegli, beluga tegli, beluga tongues, Shekhon-style sturgeon, pea noodles, yagly, smockvi, grated peas, beaten peas, two kinds of shchi, bliny, onion pies, levashniki, hearth-baked pies with poppy seed, sweet kissels, small presnechiki.
Instructions concerning honey and kvas
To make obarno honey in this manner: take everything by measure, raw honey with warm water, and dilute it; strain the honey through a sieve cleanly, without wax; put into that honey var, for every pud, according to measure, hops; and while boiling that honey, skim the foam with a sieve, so that the kettle is clean; boil down half of that honey, and from the kettle strain it while only warm; put the honey into a clean measuring vessel without wax; grate a piece of bread with yeast and with molasses, bake it a little in the oven, put it into that honey and into the measuring vessel; let it ferment; and when the honey begins to ferment strongly, then immediately pour it into barrels, so that it does not sour further.
Concerning white honey
To make white honey: choose white, clean molasses; beat the molasses thoroughly with a whisk, so that there are no small pieces of honey; and take the honey, dilute it with water fourfold, warm; put var, for every pud according to measure, hops; ferment it with yeast; and when the honey ferments, remove the yeast from the honey with a sieve until clean; and when it is ready, pour it into barrels.
Concerning molasses honey
To make molasses honey: take molasses fivefold, dilute it with water, slightly warm; strain it cleanly; put it into a measuring vessel; put var, for two puds, a measure of hops, and ferment with yeast; and when the honey ferments, remove the yeast from the honey until clean; and when it is ready, pour it out quickly.
Concerning plain honey
To make plain honey: take raw honey sixfold and dilute it with water, slightly warm; strain it cleanly; put var, for every pud according to measure, hops; ferment with yeast; and when the honey ferments, remove the yeast from the honey with a sieve until clean; and when it is ready, pour it into barrels.
Concerning boyar’s honey
To make boyar’s honey: remove the wax; take molasses sixfold and dilute it with hot water; put var, for every pud, a quarter-measure of hops; ferment it with yeast, clean, without wax; let it ferment in measuring vessels for a week, then put it into barrels. Let it stand in the barrels for a week; then draw that honey off from the yeast and put it into another barrel without yeast, and feed it with molasses.
Concerning honey made with herbs
Make honey with herbs with nutmeg and cloves: take plain honey into small barrels; feed that honey with molasses; grind the herbs finely, put them into little bags; put the little bags into the honey; and close the openings tightly, so that the spirit does not escape from the barrels.
Instruction for making berry honeys
Make berry honey in this manner: take whatever berries there may be; put the berries into a kettle, and with the berries put into the kettle sour plain honey, so that the berries are covered in the kettle, and so that the berries do not burn in the kettle; boil the berries in the kettle with the honey thoroughly until the berries boil apart; and when the berries have boiled apart, then set it aside for the night. And when the berry honey has settled cleanly away from the pulp, then put that berry honey into barrels, in whatever kind of honey you wish, and as thick as you wish to make the berry honey. And when you begin to put the berry honey into whatever barrels, then let there be no yeast in those barrels or in the honey.
Concerning berry mors
Make plain berry mors from whatever berries: put the berries into a kettle with water, so that the berries are covered and do not burn to the kettle; boil the berries in the kettle thoroughly until the berries boil apart; then set it aside for the night. And when the berry mors has settled cleanly away from the pulp, then put that berry mors into barrels in which there is no yeast.
Concerning kvass: how to make plain honey kvass
To make plain honey kvass: take honey fourfold; strain it cleanly through a sieve; put it into a measuring vessel; ferment it with a plain soft kalach without yeast; and when it has soured, pour it into barrels.
Concerning adulterated beer
To feed plain beer: when the beer has been brewed and has settled in the barrel, draw that beer off from the yeast and put it into another barrel without yeast; then put the beer into a kettle, and put honey into the kettle, for each vedro, as much as there is in that barrel, at half a grivna’s [amount] of molasses; boil the molasses with the beer in the kettle until boiling, so that the molasses mixes with the beer; then cool it thoroughly; put that beer with the molasses into the barrel.
Instruction concerning various vegetables, how to prepare and make them
To make radish: pound the radish or grate it on iron, then coat it, then soak it three times, squeezing it out in three waters; put molasses with herbs into it.
Concerning watermelons
Keep watermelons for oneself in reserve; make lime-water in a grivna sieve and prepare the lye; and when it is ready, boil it so that it becomes thoroughly clean. Then take the watermelon and cut it into slices, cutting out the seeds and flesh, leaving two fingers from the rind, and peel away a little of the green, somewhat thicker than paper; put it into the lye and keep it there until the appointed time; then change that lye and put it into another; and keep it until the same appointed time. Then take molasses and boil it over a low fire, skimming the foam cleanly with a sieve; and when there is no foam, the molasses is ready; then into the hot [molasses] put herbs: pepper, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg flower or nutmeg; boil it further, taking care not to burn the molasses; then put it into a vessel, and put the watermelons into the molasses.
Concerning melons
Cut the melons into strips, and peel them thinly; cut out the flesh in halves and keep them in lye for a day and a night; then put them into molasses, likewise with herbs, into a vessel, and turn them with the inside upward.
Concerning Kuzmin apples
Put whole Kuzmin apples, not bruised and without wormholes, into barrels one by one, with the stalk upward, trimming the stalks; pour into it [the barrel] molasses honey, and take it threefold.
Concerning Nalyvnye apples
The Nalyvnye apples should be clean and not bruised; put them into barrels, in small vedros, five [apples] at a time, one by one by hand; pour over them with molasses honey, and take it fourfold; and at the barrel, loosen the opening simply, and close it so that the sour spirit may escape.
Some say to boil the watermelons in lime-water, and after cooling, put them into boiled molasses with herbs. Others say that when the molasses in the melons begins to live, then pour that out and put in another, after a week; and when the molasses no longer begins to live and becomes as it should be, then put into the molasses herbs: pepper, ginger, cloves.
Concerning cherries
Sweet cherries keep in re-boiled molasses.
Concerning Mozhaisk white fruit
The Mozhaisk white fruit should be clean, with apples that are not bruised, and pears and dulya in re-boiled molasses without water; put them into earthenware vessels, into resinous [ones].
Concerning levashi of various berries
Make black berry, raspberry, currant, strawberry, lingonberry, and berry levashi of every kind in this manner: boil the berries for a long time, and when they have boiled apart, rub them through a sieve; boil them down thick with molasses, stirring while boiling without stopping, so that they do not burn; and when it becomes sufficiently thick, pour it onto boards, having first smeared the board with molasses. And when it settles, then pour it onto another, and onto a third; and if it does not settle in the sun, then dry it opposite the oven; then turn it in the pipes.
Concerning apple pastila
Apple pastilas are made thus: boil apples in a quarter-syta, so that the apples are covered above the syta, and steam them for a long time; then rub them through a sieve; put in enough molasses; and while steaming, stir and beat and knead without stopping; and when it is thick, put it onto a board smeared with molasses; and so that it may be thoroughly soaked with molasses, when it has taken it in, put it onto bare copper, tinned, that is, molds, having smeared them with molasses; and from the molds turn out what is [like] cheeses onto dishes, and put them on the table.
Concerning vinegar
Take vinegar from the molasses wort; take good [wort] from the wort, ferment it for four weeks or more, on the stove; and put into that vinegar honey, molasses, a grivna or more, and peas, and put in a ladleful of wheat; and cranberries are also put in, and oak and iron.
Concerning sbiten
Make sbiten thus: a glass of wine, a glass of vinegar, a quarter of pepper, a pound of molasses, three grivnas, and of foreign [spice], if one has it, put the same amount there also; and boil it together with honey, so that it does not run over; and when it has been boiled and settles, then pour it into a vessel.
This little book writes: in it there is need for merriment; for whatever man God prospers in life, there is need to look into this, for [the] soul is intertwined with every desire.
The procedure for brewing beer
Take a quarter-measure of barley malt, and half a measure of rye malt, or half a measure of oat flour; mash according to custom; and a quarter of pea flour also, because it removes sickness from the malt and drives away [something unclear]; and if someone will have beer for merriment, then when the wort is poured off they give wine into the wort, half a vedro, according to the amount; and at that time the wine will sour in the wort, and it will not be known in the beer; and when the time comes to boil the beer, then the hops should also be ready, and put the hops into the kattsa [uncertain reading] of hot boiling water, pouring two ladles at a time over the hops, and cover tightly with a bast mat; thus the hops steams; and when the beer [text damaged] cover the beer tightly, so that the spirit does not escape.
And to brew beer, and to make honey drink, and to distill wine, [do so] at the turning of the young moon; it lives very profitably, and [text damaged]. And when the beer is ready, then pour it into barrels; and that beer is more [text damaged] and more palatable which is poured off before it [text uncertain], and it finishes in the barrels; and thus, when strained into a measuring vessel, it is so intoxicating and [text damaged] to drink, and as for the beer that is to be kept longer, then [text damaged].
Updated 9/29/2026