Four Russian Foods that Take the Longest Time to Cook

VIVA – Many Russian foods are actually quite simple to make. Many dishes have to be boiled in the oven at low temperatures or fermented for a long time in a cold place. But the ingredients they use to cook the food are very simple. However, there are some Russian dishes take the longest time to make, as follows, reported by various sources. 

Pastila is one of the must-try Russian dishes, as it is the healthiest dessert imaginable. The main ingredients are apple puree and whipped egg whites. It sounds easy to make.

First, the apple mixture should be dried in the oven at 80-100 degrees, avoiding higher temperatures. Put it in the oven for 4-5 hours first, opening the oven door every 30 minutes. Then put whipped egg whites on top and dry it for another 3-4 hours. The result is simply amazing. Overall, the duration of making Pastila is about 8 hours.

Russian ‘buzhenina’ is a large piece of meat cooked in spices, which is served as a cold appetizer. Usually, this food is made out of pork tenderloin or joint, but you can also use fatty beef, lamb. 

Buzhenina can be baked or boiled, but the result will be equally tasty. For baking, mix pepper, salt, garlic, and olive oil (optional), spread the mix evenly over the piece of meat, then wrap it in foil and put it in the fridge overnight. Take it out in the morning and, without unwrapping the foil, put it in the oven for a couple of hours, depending on how thick the meat is.

Then, cool it for an hour and serve. If you choose the boiling option, first you need to marinate the meat in a brine with spices (see ingredients above) for a night, wrap a string around it (so it doesn’t fall apart later), boil the meat for one or two hours, and then put it in the fridge for 10 more hours to “ripen”. The total duration to make this dish is around 15 hours.

The dish is called ‘kholodets’ (from the Russian word for cold, kholod) because it needs to be kept in the cold for a while to settle. A proper kholodets is made from bone broth, without adding any gelatine. The broth is usually made from pork, but other types of meat or fish are also used.

Kholodets are typically prepared for special, festive meals because it takes a lot of time to cook. First, boil pig knuckle and trotters in a slow cooker for about five hours, skimming the foam off. An hour before the end of cooking time, add bay leaf, pepper, and garlic. Then, the broth needs to cool for an hour, with the lid off.

Next, shred the meat, take out molds and half-fill them with the meat, pour the strained broth on top and leave the molds in the cold for at least 12 hours. Kholodets cooked this way will never melt on a plate.

4. Fermented Cabbage (Two Days)

Fermented cabbage (known elsewhere in the world as sauerkraut) is a favorite dish for many Russians. In the classical recipe, all you need is shredded cabbage and salt, but many people also add sugar to speed up the fermentation process. But we are not in any hurry here.

Salt the cabbage, put something heavy on top of it, and leave it at room temperature for a couple of days, checking it from time to time and releasing excess air. When it is ready, store it in the fridge. At all, to make this food needs two days.

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11 November 2024