Synopses & Reviews
"Joyce Toomre... has accomplished an enormous task, fully on a par with the original author's slave labor. Her extensive preface and her detailed and entertaining notes are marvelous." --Tatyana Tolstaya, New York Review of Books
"Classic Russian Cooking is a book that I highly recommend. Joyce Toomre has done a marvelous job of translating this valuable and fascinating source book. It's the Fanny Farmer and Isabella Beeton of Russia's 19th century." --Julia Child, Food Arts
"This is a delicious book, and Indiana University Press has served it up beautifully." --Russian Review
"... should become as much of a classic as the Russian original... dazzling and admirable expedition into Russia's kitchens and cuisine."--Slavic Review
"It gives a delightful and fascinating picture of the foods of pre-Communist Russia." --The Christian Science Monitor
First published in 1861, this "bible" of Russian homemakers offered not only a compendium of recipes, but also instructions about such matters as setting up a kitchen, managing servants, shopping, and proper winter storage. Joyce Toomre has superbly translated and annotated over one thousand of the recipes and has written a thorough and fascinating introduction which discusses the history of Russian cuisine and summarizes Molokhovets' advice on household management. A treasure trove for culinary historians, serious cooks and cookbook readers, and scholars of Russian history and culture.
Synopsis
Classic Russian Cooking is a book that I highly recommend. Joyce Toomre has done a marvelous job of translating this valuable and fascinating source book. It's the Fanny Farmer and Isabella Beeton of Russia's 19th century." --Julia Child, Food Arts
Joyce Toomre... has accomplished an enormous task, fully on a part with the original author's slave labor. Her extensive preface and her detailed and entertaining notes are marvelous." --Tatyana Tolstaya, New York Review of Books
... should become as much of a classic as the Russian original... dazzling and admirable expedition into Russia's kitchens and cuisine." --Slavic Review
What a delightful discovery this is ... an astonishing and immensely appealing work that will serve adventurous readers and curious cooks." --Nahum Waxman, Owner, Kitchen Arts & Letters
What a joy to be introduced to Russia's Joy of Cooking by way of a scholar as knowledgeable as Joyce Toomre, who tells us what it was like to be a young housewife in the days of Chekhov and Tolstoy, feasting in Butter Week before the Great Fast, making pirogs and kvass, hazel grouse souffle acute accent over e] and 'Drunken' plums, gathering berries, pickling mushrooms. A rediscovery of pre-Bolshevik times." --Betty H. Fussell, author of I Hear America Cooking
First published in 1861, this "bible" of Russian homemakers offered not only a compendium of recipes, but also instructions about such matters as setting up a kitchen, managing servants, shopping, and proper winter storage. Joyce Toomre has superbly translated and annotated over one thousand of the recipes and has written a thorough and fascinating introduction that discusses the history of Russian cuisine and summarizes Elena Molokhovets' advice on household management. A treasure trove for culinary historians, serous cooks and cookbook readers, and scholars of Russian history and culture.
Indiana-Michigan Series in Russian and East European Studies
Alexander Rabinowitc
Synopsis
Joyce Toomre has translated over 1,000 of Molokhovets' recipes. A thorough and fascinating introduction by Toomre discusses the history of Russian cuisine and summarizes Molokhovets' advice on meals and menus, table settings and service, stoves and ovens, cold storage techniques, containers and utensils, servants, health, markets and ingredients, and cooking techniques.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [633]-648) and index.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Joyce Toomre
Development of Cookbooks in Russia
Biography of Elena Ivanova Molokhovets
Influence of the Russian Orthodox Church
Eastern Influence on Russian Cuisine
French Influence on Russian Cuisine
Mealtimes and Menus
Table Service and Settings
Image of a Russian Household
Water
Stoves and Ovens
Food Preservation and Storage
Containers and Utensils
Servants
Health
Markets
Ingredients
Cooking Techniques
Comparison between First and Twentieth Editions
Issues of Translation
Measurements and Conversions
Advice to Modern Cooks
Notes
Appendix A Ingredient by Category
Appendix B Weights and Measures
Appendix C Glossary
Elena Molokhovets' A Gift to Young Housewives
Author's Introduction to the Twentieth Edition
Evening Tea
Arrangement of the Kitchen
1. Soups
2. Soup Accompaniments
3. Sauces
4. Vegetables, Greens, and Garnishes
5. Beef, Veal, Mutton, and Pork
6. Domestic and Wild Birds and Salad Accompaniments
7. Fish and Crayfish
8. Pirogs and Pates
9. Aspics and Other Cold Dishes
10. Puddings
11. Crepes, Pancakes for Butter Week, Sippets, and Eggs
12. Filled Dumplings, Macaroni, and Kasha
13. Waffles, Wafers, Doughnuts, and Fritters
14. Ice Creams, Mousses, Kissels, and Compotes
15. Tortes
16. Mazurkas and Other Small Pastries
17. Babas, Buns, Rusks, and Small Baked Goods
etc. through chapter 42.
Complete List of Recipes in the Twentieth Edition
Bibliography
Index