They have preserved their cuisine - a wonderful monument to our gastronomic past. There on the Don they became free Cossacks. So how did that recipe survive? Actually, it’s quite simple, In the 15th and 16th centuries people fled to the south, to the Don River, to escape oppression from the tsar in Moscow. “Rooster ukha” is a soup still made in Cossack cuisine. But in the south, in the Rostov region, it has survived. In central Russia no one has heard about this soup for centuries. The two broths were mixed together, and the fish acquired a distinct chicken flavor. In the 16th century there was a soup called yurma. The heavy coin did not sink, so "strong" was Shuvalov's ukha. Once when this soup was served at a palace feast, he stood up, took a gold Imperial coin out of his pocket and carefully lowered it into a bowl of soup. He loved ukha made with an incredible amount of fish, which was cooked for three days. Its historical apotheosis was "Shuvalov's ukha.” Ivan Shuvalov was a favorite of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna and a true gourmet. What each recipe has in common is a rich broth made from several types of fish. As one reader recently wrote to us, “they’ll beat you up for that.” But God forbid you say a word about adding pike-perch when you’re on the Volga. And pike-perch, which, according to the locals, adds sweetness. When you make this kind of ukha, first you put in silver carp. It’s made with tomatoes and apples - sometimes pickled (soused) apples. In the Middle Volga it’s made with sterlet (small sturgeon) and onions, in Arkhangelsk - with cod (even cod liver) and milk, in Baikal - with omul and rice. The paradox is that you can try dozens of kinds of ukha - each Russian province has always had its own recipe. That said, today once you try ukha, you won’t confuse it with any other soup. As Russian-Ukrainian historian Nikolai Kostomarov wrote, in the 16th century "fish soup with cloves was called black ukha, with pepper it was white ukha, and without spices - naked ukha." So, it turns out that without foreign spices our fish soup is "naked"? That isn't very flattering. Russian "yushka" (broth or stock) is a remnant of ancient times, when fish, meat and poultry all went equally well into the stock pot.Įven the old names of ukha do not make you feel patriotic. For this reason, linguists have long suspected that the word comes from the ancient Indian yū́́ṣ. In every Slavic language from Polish to Bulgarian there are words that sound similar and mean a soup or bouillon. We find “chicken ukha” or “duck ukha” in 17th-century texts.Įven the word "ukha" is not specifically Russian. In fact, until the 18th century ukha wasn’t “fish soup” at all. There are no canonical recipes for it and never have been. On the other hand, when you look deeper, it isn’t clear what exactly ukha is. As we all know, "a poet in Russia is more than a poet." So, naturally, we don't have just fish soup, we have ukha. On the one hand, we suffer from excessive national pride. But what about all the places where it’s not made with these ingredients? While some people argue about that, others get into discussions - and sometimes heated arguments that turn into fights - about ukha not being fish soup at all. It seems simple: fish, vegetables, and spices.
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