Belarusian cuisine
It shares many similarities with cuisines of other Eastern, Central and Northeastern European countries, based predominantly on meat and various vegetables typical for the region.
Prior to World War II, salads or other snacks were not very common, and recipes based on Russian models tended to appear in modern Belarusian postwar cookbooks.
Like other Slavic peoples, Belarusians could boast of a huge variety of bliny (pancakes) of various thickness, plain and filled, made mostly of wheat or buckwheat flour, but also using oatmeal (tsadaviki).
Belarus was the likely centre of Europe's buckwheat culture, and dishes made with this healthy grain used to be very popular: various kinds of buns, cakes and dumplings which, except for the well-known "kasha", no longer exist today.
The main vegetables were cabbage (often made into sauerkraut) and beets, while turnips, swedes, parsnip and carrots both stewed and boiled (with the addition of a small amount of milk) were somewhat less popular.
Like the Ukrainians, Russians and Poles, Belarusians are fond of borscht, a thick and rich beet and cabbage soup made with grains, potato and meat.
Most common was raw pork sausage – a pig intestine stuffed with minced or chopped meat seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic.
Its common name – "finger-stuffed sausage" (Belarusian: каўбаса, «пальцам пханая» or in short пальцоўка) – provided a graphic description of the primitive production technology.
Also popular are zrazy, chopped pieces of beef rolled into a sausage shape and filled with vegetable, mushroom, eggs, potato etc.
Kalduny, small boiled dumplings related to Russian pelmeni and Italian ravioli, were produced in endless combinations of dough, filling and sauce.
In the late 19th century kalduny began to be made with grated potato rather than with a flour-based dough and the former huge variety of fillings shrank considerably.
Only in the mid-19th century was fermented cheese (Belarusian: сыр) borrowed from the Netherlands and Switzerland, and the local version of Edam was very popular for decades in the Russian Empire.
Mead and similar alcoholic drinks made of honey and spices were very common up until the 19th century and then more or less disappeared until the latest revival of the national cuisine.
A notable example in this group is krambambula (Belarusian: крамбамбуля), vodka diluted with water, mixed with honey, and flavored with spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, red and black pepper).
Тraditional liquid desserts that accompany a meal include saladucha (Belarusian: саладуха), a thick liquid made of rye flour and honey that was popular in the 18th century, and kissel, the traditional jelly drink of Eastern Europe made from the pulp of forest berries or cooked fruits, originally thickened with oatmeal (now replaced by potato starch flour or cornstarch).
This was a two-way gastronomic street, for the famous bulbe latkes, the potato pancakes of the East European Jews, may have been borrowed from the Belarusian draniki.
