Petersburg Cuisine

V. M. Vasnetsov. General Menu of the Lunch for Representatives of Local Governments and Nobles in the Alexander Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow on the Occasion of the Coronation of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna on May 20, 1883.

St. Petersburg : A. Ilyin Cartographic Establishment, 1883.

Chromolithograph. 37,3x26,4 cm.

Dish Recipes

Moscow Crayfish Soup

Ruffe – 25-30 pieces
Crayfish – 30 pieces
Pike perch for quenelles – ½ Russian pound
Vesiga (marrow taken from the spinal cord of the sturgeon fish) – ½ Russian pound
White roots – 5/8 Russian pound
Butter – ¼ Russian pound
Spring onions, bunch
Salt, pepper – to taste
Bay leaves
Cold water – 7 deep plates

Cooking rules

Cook fish broth from ruffe with the addition of bones, skin and head of pike perch, the flesh of which will be used for quenelles. Boil crayfish in salted boiling water with dill, spices (pepper, bay leaves, spring onions) and then peel them, separating the necks and part of the backs, 2 pieces per person, for a side dish; prepare crayfish butter from the rest of the shells. The crushed shells remaining after cooking the butter are added to the fish broth after removing the foam. When the ruffe and bones are well boiled, strain the broth through a sieve, season it with crayfish butter and put the side dishes, such as: quenelles from pike perch tinted with crayfish butter, stuffed crayfish backs, vesiga boiled and cut into small pieces, crayfish necks, dill twigs and now serve without letting it boil.

Crayfish shells are stuffed with pat-ashu choux pastry. When all the shells are stuffed, then boil them in salted water to fix the stuffing.

Prepare the quenelle mass, colour it with crayfish butter, shape quenelles with a teaspoon and steam them in salted boiling water (do not boil).

Pies are served with crayfish soup.

Explanations and Notes

Crayfish. The more crayfish you take for the soup, the tastier the latter will be. For the same purpose, crushed crayfish shells should also be added to the soup after cooking crayfish butter.

Ruffe. If very large ruffe are bought, then you can separate the fish flesh from the bones, boil it in fish broth, as for fish soup, and add to other side dishes; in this case, the broth is cooked only from the bones, heads and skin of the fish.

Crayfish butter. Once the soup is seasoned with crayfish butter, it should not be boiled, otherwise the butter will float to the surface.

When coloring the quenelles with crayfish butter, you need to add the quenelles to the butter, otherwise they will not be smooth, because the butter freezes in grains.

Jellied Fish Slices

Cooking rules

Non-bony fish is taken and the flesh is cut away from the bones and from the skin; from her head, skin and bones, with the addition of ruffe, broth is boiled, which is then strained through a sieve. The fish fillet is cut into slices and boiled in the same fish broth, from which aspic is then prepared, for which gelatin is added to the broth and clarified with egg whites or caviar, like a fish soup.

When the fish flesh is boiled, aspic and side dishes are ready, then take a frame mold, put it in ice, put crayfish necks, parsley and part of the roots on the bottom, then add a little aspic and let it cool. Then put a row of fish fillets interspersed with side dishes, add aspic again, chill and do this until the form is full. Then let it harden for about an hour, then put it on a dish, put some of the side dishes mixed together into the hole in the mold, arrange the rest of the side dishes in heaps around the mold; cut croutons from the rest of the aspic using mold or by hand and put them around the edge of the dish. Provence sauce is served separately in a gravy boat. Similarly, you can cook aspic from game, pig, chicken, calf's head, and so on. For 5 persons, 2 ½ fish, 1 bot. aspic, roots and greens for garnish about 1 Russian pound (409.5 g).