Once again I came across the most instructive and brilliant - I'm not afraid of such a word! - publication.
Mr. Artemy Bondarenko, its author and, I think, everyone should know him who is interested in the history of culinary and the development of Russian cuisine - from the times of the Russian Empire to the USSR and today.
Why is that?
Well, Mr. Bondarenko makes very interesting discoveries regarding our culinary history and, most importantly, shares these discoveries with readers.
For example, I did not know that dumplings with vinegar began to be used in the Soviet Union and exclusively from poverty - after all, mayonnaise and other sauces were served exclusively on holidays, in tiny portions.
I, being naive, have always believed that vinegar is a traditional Russian seasoning for many dishes. First of all, fish and dumplings.
This confidence in me was supported by Gilyarovsky's description of the dishes (remember - cheek and catfish were always served with horseradish and vinegar in common taverns?).
And also old, pre-revolutionary publications that often come across on the net - thanks to the enthusiasts who post them.
For example, the note "Vinegar from Russian peasants" by Zelenin, published in "Ethnographic Review" number three, 1907. This note was written as a response to the publication in the almanac "Living Starina" in 1906, Vol. III, dept. V, p. 57, where it was argued that Russian peasants are very unaccustomed to vinegar and pepper. As you can see, the Hollywars were boiling over food even then.
And what is interesting - dumplings were also mentioned in it! And it is in the context of eating them with vinegar.
I will quote:
The use of vinegar is very varied. This is a common seasoning for foods, especially lean ones. Onezhans prepare a lot of vinegar as a seasoning for salted fish, which is the main food here (Ibid., P. 24). In the Ural provinces and in Siberia, vinegar is primarily and most of all used with dumplings. From what sources g. N. Vinogradov learned that “both in Western Siberia and in many places of European Russia, dumplings are served together with the water in which they were cooked "(and, therefore, they are consumed without vinegar¹), - we resolutely perplexed. From Western Siberia (Tyumen district of Tobolsk province) there is evidence just on the pages of the same "Living Starina" that there "dumplings are eaten with forks, hot, with vinegar" ("Alive. Old. " 1898, pp. 138: the cited article by F. Zobnin). True, Russians sometimes laugh at the Votyaks and Perm, as if they were eating dumplings without vinegar; but, according to V. M. Yanovich, this statement is not true for the Permians: “dumplings are always and at everyone's place with homemade vinegar made from beer; in more prosperous families, pepper is poured into vinegar, to taste ”(“ Living Starina ”, 1903, no. I – II, pp. 102: Yanovich's article "Permians").
As you can see, Zelenin gave many examples that dumplings were eaten with vinegar much earlier than the idea of the Soviet Union appeared at all.
I suspect that this habit of serving vinegar as a seasoning appeared due to the fact that vinegar levels the fat content of the dish. That is why both fat catfish and cheek in taverns were served with him, and lard in Siberia (the natives of this region I was prompted) in the middle of the twentieth century they put on the table sprinkled with vinegar and sprinkled with chopped onions onion
Therefore, dear friends, the next time you see notes about how badly Soviet citizens ate, since they had to with vinegar, not mayonnaise or ketchup, there are dumplings - remember the culinary traditions that have been formed by more than a dozen or even one a hundred years.
It is very interesting to study these traditions. Which is what I advise you to do - both to fans of publications about terrible Soviet cuisine and to their authors!