Sunday, September 23, 2018

Russian Food Preservation

A couple of posts back I mentioned that I had a new home health care nurse, Tatiana, who was born in Russia, immigrated here and became an American citizen.  On her first visit she noticed my shelves full of home canned food and remarked that many in Russia did home canning.  When she was here last Friday, I asked her more about the subject.

Tatiana told me that back in the old USSR, everybody canned everything they could find.  It was a matter of survival.  She said the grocery stores had very little in the way of food, canned or otherwise.  She remembers standing in line for over an hour to buy one loaf of bread.

Her mother used the old fashioned canning jars that had glass lids held down by stiff wire.


I asked if her mother used a pressure canner to process food.  Tatiana wasn't sure what a pressure canner was, so I showed her one of mine.  She said she hadn't ever seen one in Russia and that her mother used large kettles similar to my stock pot.  Food was boiled and ladled into the jars and the glass lids tightened down with the wire.  She  said much of the vegetables were preserved in a vinegar brine and they made lots of sauerkraut because it required only cabbage and salt, both of which could be had fairly easily.

I asked if her mother had ever canned meat and she said she had not heard of anyone doing that.  She was amazed at the variety of meats that may be canned.

Tatiana says that things are much better in Russia now.  The stores carry a large variety of foods and people don't spend nearly so much time standing in line.  Like here in the USA, home canning isn't done as much as it was years ago.  And like here, the Russians, especially in the cities, don't bother preserving food, but just get what they want at the stores.

I found it fascinating to compare how things are done in one part of the world to another.  If we kick the politics into a corner and just concentrate on the people, we may find we aren't so different after all.

16 comments:

  1. Dad knew some guys during the war who'd been stationed around Russians. They said that they were more like us than any other Europeans. However, Rudyard Kipling said they looked like Europeans, but thought like Orientals! - lol

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    1. Gorges...I think I might accept your Dad's reasoning before that of Kipling. I have always thought Kipling to be just a degree or two off kilter. :)

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  2. This post was really interesting. Are those old style glass canning jars the ones with the rubber gaskets? Or is it just the glass and wire handle?
    You're right on the money about how we are probably more alike then different. So are you getting her interested in canning?
    I didn't have the energy to do any more canning then my refrigerator pickles. And that's ok. My freezers are jammed full and my little fall garden hasn't died yet. That will give me some salad greens for the next little bit.
    SJ

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    1. SJ...I'm thinking there had to be rubber gaskets used with the glass lids. Glass on glass just wouldn't produce a seal. But who knows. I remember using paraffin wax to seal all my jams and jellies. Expect that would be frowned upon by those who know better than we mere mortals. :)
      I doubt Tatiana has any interest in canning other than the novelty of seeing my full shelves. She is a really good nurse and I expect that keeps her busy enough. I was sort of amazed at her story of standing in line for an hour to buy a loaf of bread. We haven't seen anything like that here since the Great Depression of the 30's.
      My 'get up and go' has sort of 'got up and went,' too. After cooking apples I gave Duane a bowl, dished up another for myself and froze the rest. The height of my ambition today was to roast two whole chickens in the roaster. Duane will take one home and I will nibble on the other this week. I think it must be the change in weather that throws me off kilter. Hot one day and in the 50's the next. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

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    2. I read in the comments below that Tatiana will be leaving after this week. I'm sorry. I know it's hard for me when my doctors retire.
      Or, on a lighter note, when bloggers shut down their blogs it just unglues me for a bit.
      Yea, my get up and go went last week. I had an appointment on Thursday and am just now feeling sort of normal on MOnday. Whine.
      My Dad grew up in the Depression and would tell some stories. His biggest memory that he'd share was having milk toast for dinner.
      Take good care. Snuggle under that green blankie and have a cuppa for me.
      SJ

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    3. SJ...My regular nurse was here this morning and told me that Tatiana was offered a job that was just too good to pass up, so good for her. I enjoyed talking with her, but am happy for her, too.

      I hate to see bloggers pull the plug, too. Especially those that I really enjoy reading. I can understand it, though. It was much easier for me to find something to write about when I was still more mobile. But I think I will continue on anyway. I'll just have to use my brain a bit more. :)

      Go ahead. Whine. Contrary to popular belief, it helps. I've been whining to anyone who will listen about being so dragged out this past week. Better today, but I still have the green fuzzy blanket at the ready. And some fruit flavored tea to try - maybe raspberry today.:)

      I think my Dad's family fared better than some because they had a farm with a garden and milk cows and chickens and pigs. But he talked about milk toast, too. And another dish he had was bread torn into small pieces and put into a mug, coffee poured over the bread and then sprinkled with sugar. He called it 'Poor Man's Pie.' I remember him fixing that for himself now and then.

      I read somewhere online that we might get snow before the end of the month. I have been looking for the original article but haven't found it yet. Hope it was just a bad dream!!

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    4. I'm not ready for snow yet either. But it was falling in Alberta, the province east of me last week. Yikes.
      I struggle with my 'new normal' and different abilities some days too. I really work at seeing the positives but there is something about a good whine.

      I had to laugh. I went outside my apartment this morning to just putter a little bit and continue the Fall cleanup. Came in after 30 minutes and had a good laugh --- I had made up a 'To-do' list for today and what I had just been doing wasn't on the list. And now I'm too tired to do anything else. Hahaha.So it goes. I'm back in my cozies with my last cup of coffee. After I finish my blog reading, I'll be reading the next Louise Penny mystery.
      Raspberry tea sounds interesting, hope it's good,
      SJ

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    5. SJ...Your 'to-do' list thing made me laugh - not at you but with you. I often get up in the morning thinking about what I want to accomplish that day. Sometimes it works out. Other times - not so much. :)

      Me...warm cuddly robe - crochet hook and yarn - good movie if I can find one. The raspberry tea was good. Blueberry next.

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  3. We are going to be having long talks when our newly found family from Norway visit next summer. My wife sister works in a grocery store. I want to take her to Lunds, then our local market then Walmart. Comparing notes.

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    1. Rob...It will be interesting to compare the differences. My kids are part Norwegian on their Dad's side, so they learned about lutefisk and lefse and other Scandinavian foods from their Grandma. Love lefse - won't touch lutefisk. :)

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  4. Loved your post! Our country has been blessed in so many ways! The shelves in our stores are generally filled with an abundance of foods. Years ago we had a Ukrainian foreign exchanged student stay in our home for 5 weeks. We took him with us to the grocery store and Walmart, but to our dismay it brought him to tears. He said he had never seen anything even close to what we were accustomed to having available. You are absolutely spot on, Vicki, when you point out what we are able to learn about other cultures when we get to know the people as individuals. I think you will really enjoy Tatiana and she will enjoy you as well!

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    1. Thanks, CW...I can not remember any time in my lifetime where Americans had to stand in line for something as simple as bread. We have had nothing even close to that since the soup kitchens of the Depression. It angers me to see the young protesters screaming hateful obscenities about our America. They should spend some time in the country of your exchange student or in any number of third world countries to see what real oppression is all about. (soapbox - back in corner)

      Funny you should mention Tatiana. Some of the nurses have scheduled visits with clients. As I am flexible, they call here the evening before to set a time for them to arrive. My regular nurse called not a half hour ago and in the course of conversation told me that this will be Tatiana's last week. I don't know if she has found another job or if she is retiring, but I wish her well. I just wish I could have known her for a bit longer.

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  5. When my Ukranian friends moved here, her son had to return to the Ukraine for six weeks. Their house was next to a CVS. He had bought an incredible amount of food. I mentioned that she could get things at CVS. She said she would not need any medicine. Finally, I told her there was milk, eggs, all sorts of stuff at CVS. I took her over and she wandered around in amazement at all she had to choose from. She said that back home they would not believe what was in CVS. Back home, there was only medicine in a pharmacy. I learned as much from her as she did from me.

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    1. It is interesting to find the differences in societies. When I could still get out and about, I would sometimes see a group of old Russian ladies who lived in an apartment building by the river. They wore the typical old world black dresses and sensible shoes. I called them the 'Babushkas' because of the scarves they wore. I can't speak Russian and they couldn't speak English, but when they saw me they delighted in showing me the flowers and vegetables they had planted on an unused strip of ground between the sidewalk and the river. Even with the language barrier, we communicated. I enjoyed their company.

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  6. I have a few jars like that. I don't can with them, but I use them to hold buttons and other items. They are fun to find at thrift stores.

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    1. Kristina...I like the looks of those old jars, too. I wouldn't can with them, either, but they must have worked for that purpose years ago. I expect canning methods were different then. Can't imagine using them in a pressure canner.

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