Under New Year I decided to remember the past and restore what was served on the festive table average family in the USSR in the late 70s - early 80s, that is, a time that I remember quite well.
So, when guests approached the table, as a rule, there were already dishes, cutlery, wine glasses, glasses and glasses.
In the USSR it was not customary to place on the table large number cutlery and were therefore usually limited to a set of 2 forks, a knife and a spoon. The presence of a starched linen napkin, which was often intricately folded, was mandatory. Glasses for drinks were usually limited to the following set: a large glass for shamanism, a smaller glass for wine, a large glass for vodka and a smaller glass for cognac. As for alcohol, a bottle of champagne (more symbolically), 1-2 bottles of wine, usually white and red, a bottle of vodka and a bottle of cognac were usually placed on the table. But it should be noted that cognac was considered a more worthy drink for the holiday, although there were always those who did not like it. Vodka for the holidays was bought exclusively of the Sibirskaya brand; cognacs, most often Armenian or Georgian, Dagestan and Moldavian, were quoted much lower. In this way, the tastes of all guests regarding alcohol had to be satisfied. There was also a separate glass for non-alcoholic drinks; in our family, only berry fruit drinks were used as drinks, and lemonades were considered not a very suitable drink for the holiday table. There were no special developments in this area. Plates were usually placed quite simply: a sub-plate, a plate for dishes and a small plate for bread and pies. The dishes had to be a service. Non-uniform tableware was rated very low in the USSR. At our house we used the GDR Madonna service, which I considered very beautiful as a child, but now I recognize as a symbol of vulgarity. The cutlery was of very high quality and was stored in a green leather suitcase lined with silk inside. Unfortunately. I have lost it now. 
In addition to the dishes, cold appetizers were already placed on the table; at that time, their set was quite canonical and changed little throughout the day. different families. With us, I have always observed the following: Olivier salad (where would we be without it), herring under a fur coat or sliced herring with onions and lemon, salad with chicken, sliced raw smoked sausage and smoked meat, sliced cheese, aspic (usually meat, rarely fish), pickled mushrooms (usually buttered mushrooms) or the so-called mushroom caviar (the same pickled mushrooms chopped with butter and spices), pickled gherkins, tomatoes, peppers (in summer and autumn instead fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, either in the form of salad or chopped, and also peppers were served with marinades). Pies stuffed with eggs and fried onions were also required. For example, I generally believed that it was unworthy to eat bread on holidays and that pies should be used instead. For a snack we usually poured and drank a couple of toasts. That is, as we see, the range of snacks was quite modest, and there were no hot snacks, except for pies.
Then it was time for the hot dish. In our family, several variations of meat were usually served in this capacity, either fillet baked in the oven, cut into portions with boiled potatoes with meat sauce, onions and mushrooms, or separately fried entrecotes with a side dish of fried potatoes and various sauces (most often, as far as I I remember these were different variations of bechamel), another option for a hot dish was meat baked with vegetables - zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and spices in sour cream sauce, but such a dish was prepared less often. Before serving a hot dish, snacks were removed from the table, leaving only bread and pies. Along with the hot meal, they usually drank alcohol and had table conversations. Serving two hot dishes was completely unacceptable, but the presence of only one hot dish on the menu was compensated by its quantity and portions. This part of the dinner was the longest, and after it they started dessert.
Fruits were always served as sweets (this was highly dependent on seasonality in Soviet trade); for the New Year there were usually: tangerines, plums, pears, sometimes bananas and less often pineapples (both of the latter fruits were considered scarce). Apples were not much liked, considering them common. Also a mandatory part of the table was a birthday cake. It was either ordered from the restaurant’s pastry shop (the cakes that could be bought in the store were a rare poison in the USSR with an abundance of tasteless cream and I didn’t eat them at all), or it was made at home (these were the most delicious). If the cake was custom-made, most often it was a sponge cake soaked in rum and cognac in chocolate glaze and with a small amount of cream (not enough cream - this was my very strict condition) and chocolate decorations (as I understand it, it was some kind of version of the "Prague" cake ). Homemade cake - most often "Napoleon" with butter cream, which, unlike store-bought and restaurant ones, was exceptionally tasty. They also served sweet pies filled with homemade jams and preserves (strawberry, raspberry, apple), but I didn’t really like these pies. Sweets were an obligatory part of dessert. For the holiday, it was considered worthy to serve two types of sweets: either assorted sweets in gift boxes (I didn’t like them) or truffle sweets in wafer or chocolate chips (I really liked these). Tea (necessarily Indian or Ceylon) was served as a drink, accompanied by lemon and sugar. Coffee was never served; people in the USSR did not like it and did not know how to cook it. The tea was served in a bone china tea set, which fortunately I still have today.
The Soviet Union collapsed more than 20 years ago, but its legacy still forms the basis of modern DNA. Russian culture and mentality. New Year is probably the most striking symbol of this connection, if only because on the evening of the 31st, as a rule, those who were born in the USSR, those who studied, and those who lived in it gather around the table most of life.
This material invites you to remember something that you will probably encounter again soon - Soviet New Year's cuisine. It is unknown how useful this material will be, but it is rather needed to create the right New Year's mood, so let's get to the main point.
Olivier
Salad Olivier, aka “Meat”, aka “Capital”. Unofficial King Soviet school salads and food shortages - a minimum of light fresh vegetables, maximum mayonnaise. Soviet version This salad differs from the classic one in that hazel grouse and other relics of the bourgeois past were (and are still being replaced) with what they managed to buy, namely boiled sausage. However, it is precisely this that young people usually carry in buckets from their grandmother’s supplies to a friendly party, where it seems like “no food is needed,” but something needs to be done to snack on liters of alcohol.
Mimosa
If you still never refuse a couple of spoons of Olivier, then mimosa is already at the level of serious gourmets. It is not known who came up with the idea that the crushed egg yolk reminiscent of mimosa petals. But it is known that a salad can simultaneously contain butter, canned fish, eggs and, of course, a sea of mayonnaise.
Sprats
Canned smoked small fish in oil is the number one snack on the good old New Year's table. The sandwiches with them were especially good. A slice of lemon is a must-have addition.
Herring under a fur coat
Another layered masterpiece, generously smeared with you-know-what. Mandatory ingredients are herring, beets and potatoes, optionally supplemented with boiled eggs, apple and carrots. The combination of salted fish and beets alone makes you think of holiday suicide to the tune of “The Irony of Fate.”
Jellied fish
The so-called aspic (in fact, it can be not only fish) is one of the most time-consuming and controversial products on the Soviet New Year's table. Even if we accept the condition that fish jelly can be tasty, it is necessary to do very delicate work so that this jelly is not spoiled - if cooked for too long, the fish subsequently disintegrates almost into molecules (this is not jellied fish, this is some kind of strychnine!).
In my opinion, the ideal fish for aspic is pike perch, but in those days, again, they used what was in the store.
Stuffed chicken
Definitely the menu item closest to international standards. True, we believe that you can eat fried poultry without stuffing it with rice or buckwheat, but these are subtleties.
Soviet champagne
In fact, the history of Soviet champagne is a series of serious technological achievements of the Soviet Union. Consider the fact that in 1975 Moet acquired a license to produce sparkling wine using the Soviet method.
Vodka
It’s like with the monarchy in Great Britain - champagne symbolizes the New Year, but we know that the whole real job performed by vodka. It’s just that without a forty-degree elixir it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to digest all the amount of mayonnaise and canned fish that the traditional one promised. festive table.
Napoleon
What is it - dry, layered, falling on the table and on clothes? - That's right, Napoleon is the main confectionery product on the Soviet New Year's table. Some grandmothers still have a secret recipe for a really cool Napoleon, the taste and consistency of which is not so reminiscent of papier-mâché with cream.
Tangerines
Yes, this is one of several types of fruits that southern republics The Soviet Union supplied the entire country in winter, and it would be strange not to include it in the New Year's top. In addition, they are much more pleasant to snack on vodka than, say, pickled cucumbers.
September 27th, 2015
If you want to know what the people are like, look at how they celebrate their holidays and what exactly they celebrate. In my small selection of photographs you can see how the world of the Russian people's feast has changed. Pre-revolutionary life was perhaps simple in some places, but note that the tables have clean tablecloths, shiny pots and porcelain cups. Picnic in nature. How many of us carry porcelain dishes with us to barbecues now? After modern gatherings, ugly piles of disposable garbage remain, left in the same place where they celebrated. We can say with responsibility that this has never happened before.
We have always loved to drink tea. The shiny samovar, polished and shining, was mandatory detail gatherings. My grandmother, by the way, still has a samovar (which is wood-burning) in the kitchen. I hope we will start using it again for its intended purpose.
Pre-revolutionary life is easily determined by the beautiful details on the ladies’ dresses, elegant things on the table, in the form of crystal damask for vodka and porcelain dishes, even among common people’s groups.
Embroidered tablecloths decorate the festive table of an ordinary peasant family, embroidered towels, vests decorated with braid, multi-tiered beads, embroidery on the sleeves of blouses and coquettishly tied white scarves in peasant families. Everything is neat and sometimes even solemn.
Vases with flowers, white shirts and elegant blouses for the girls.
Transition from Tsarist Russia To Soviet Union is immediately visible in the photo. Although at first glance you can’t even say what exactly has changed so much? Maybe people's faces?
Our Orthodox faith was preserved in the USSR, and Easter was celebrated by families in the Soviet state! This doesn't even require comment.
Beautiful things in the form of embroidered shirts and porcelain cups very quickly disappeared from pre-war life.
The war united the people. And during the war there was a place for a festive feast. There is clearly no tea in the cups, and the life of an officer is much more complicated than that of a soldier.
Sophistication post-war years- glass cake stands, cake trays. The industry is again producing glass carafes for alcoholic beverages.
Instead of tablecloths on the tables Soviet people Oilcloth, an enamel mug and a faceted glass are firmly prescribed.
Smoking at the table in front of ladies, in an apartment, is no longer considered provocative behavior. The accordion player is increasingly replaced by a player.
Compare a simple peasant gathering before the revolution (or in the first years after it) and a post-war, collective farm gathering. Notice the difference? Negligence and untidiness appeared. To the Soviet man there is no time to do table setting and embroider tablecloths and shirt sleeves. Porcelain cups and crystal decanters are replaced by practical unbreakable bowls and cut glasses, and the tablecloth is oilcloth.
Even in obviously intelligent families, on the tables of educated and non-poor people, an opened tin can was registered. Everyone picks the contents out of it with a fork; this is no longer bad manners. The ordered world of Professor Preobrazhensky is completely destroyed.
Faceted glasses took the place of shot glasses on holiday tables among the scientific intelligentsia and among Soviet engineers.
The good news is that in the 50s they again began to decorate their homes with lace curtains, paintings and framed photos. A certain “bourgeoisie” has appeared again in the festive decorations on the tables and in the interior
Lace women's blouses, collars and gloves are a thing of the distant past, even in families that were quite wealthy, by Soviet standards. Men do not wear expensive cufflinks and rings, but all female part I took my jewelry and watch to Torgsin before the war. All modern jewelry, thick gold chains from pocket watches and ladies' wide gold bracelets with locks were melted down. In churches, all gold and silver frames from icons have long been stripped off, and ancient chalices have been melted into ingots. All gold is now in the safe hands of the state depository, or has been exported. Mass-produced jewelry will appear on Soviet people only in a couple of decades. The people are just beginning to rebuild their way of life, which was destroyed by the war.
Soviet life was very meager and crowded. They sat at the festive table, moving the beds towards the table. The compaction and communal services do not allow the revelry to unfold.
They got rid of the old, large, wooden sideboards with glass in the 60s and 70s. Now, such surviving specimens can be purchased from antique dealers for 40-60 thousand rubles. The restoration of grandma's sideboard will cost the same amount.
Remains of grandmother's life in apartments of the 60s, in the form of an antique clock
In the late 50s and early 60s we again see napkins on the table.
Instead of cut glasses, shot glasses appeared on the tables again.
Dine in the summer dining room and cafe with the whole family? Why not, such cafes were especially popular at resorts in Sochi, Gagra, or Crimea.
A wedding in an apartment is a sign of that time. Few people could afford to celebrate a wedding with the newlyweds and a crowd of their relatives and friends in a restaurant. But here they are in gold, wedding rings The spouses were required to exchange. Before registration, the future husband and wife visited the wedding salon and were given a special coupon to visit it. Czech crystal settled firmly and everywhere in the Soviet family on tables in the form of vases, salad bowls, glasses and wine glasses. The beautiful tablecloth returned to the table, but the oilcloth was left for everyday use in the kitchen. The cut glass became associated only with drunks’ gatherings in courtyards. They weren't even stolen from soda fountains. Bouquets with asters and gladioli, diluted with the floral delight of those years - asparagus, began to be given to each other on special occasions. The usual price of such a bouquet is 3 - 5 rubles.
Around this time, large crystal vases with flowers returned to the tables, and woolen Turkmen and German carpets began to decorate the walls. Women began to wear decorations and jewelry at the festive table. And on a daily basis, Soviet jewelry was in use among all segments of the population, from saleswomen to teachers. People came to visit with bouquets of tulips and daffodils as a gift to the owners, taking a bottle of Soviet champagne. The Brezhnev era can definitely be called the most prosperous and calm years for our people.
And the best diamond in my selection of ceremonial Soviet photos became a wedding photograph of newlyweds from the 70s, which I found in a trash heap. Don’t think that I’m poking around in trash cans, it’s just that the photo was right on the iron beam next to the containers.
I couldn’t leave this touching married couple in the trash heap. I had to take them with me. Now, the photo, varnished on wood, stands on my balcony. Somehow I hope that other descendants of this couple (not the ones who threw the photo of their grandparents in the trash) will come along and take it. Maybe I’m fantasizing in vain, but what if?
