OurColony.net

Excellent book

Customer Rating:
I grew up in Russia.
Very good recipes, an excellent introduction to Russian cooking tradition.
Not the most complete.
The book is excellent at taking into account the availability (or the lack of) certain ingredients in US supermarkets.

great collection of recipes, with a few reservations

Customer Rating:
Love her quotes from Russian literature and summary of food preparation at the beginning of each chapter -- reading these intro sections makes your mouth water. In addition, most of the recipes are Russian or Franco-Russian, in contrast to certain other "Russian" cookbooks which include an overwhelming number of non-Russian ones from Commonwealth or Baltic countries (if I wanted recipes from those regions I wouldn't be shopping for a Russian cookbook, would I?)

I have tried many recipes in this book, and most have turned out quite well (her borshch is excellent). However, i use some as a general guide and improvise, and to jog my memory of the time i used to cook with my grandmother -- they are just not up to her standards. A number of them seem "sovietized" (my opinion, i've never lived there, but i know money was tight and some unusual or expensive ingredients were difficult to find for many years).

Example: my granny's paskha recipe calls for 5 lbs. bakers cheese, 20 yolks, 4 cups sugar, whipping cream, nearly 2 lbs. butter, lots of vanilla beans (among other things); Volokh's recipe is quite frugal in comparison.

I realize that good food takes time, but some recipes are WAY too time consuming, particularly those in the Pirogi section due to the way the chapter is structured, which forces you to flip back and forth between pages to assemble.

Overall, an excellent, comprehensive collection of Russian recipes (with a few from non-Russian Commonwealth regions). The Wild Game chapter is particularly impressive.

Would not call it the art, but the best Russian cookbook ...

Customer Rating:
It took me a long time to find a good Russian cookbook. This is the best one I discovered so far.
I was born in Russia, however, never learned how to cook Russian food. I missed my grandmother's cooking from my childhood. So, I started looking... "Taste of Russia" & "Please to the Table" are wonderful cookbooks with great recipies. However, they are not the recipies I remember my grandmother cooking. "The Art of Russian Cuisine" includes almost all the recipies I could think of.
I definitely recommend this book to those of you who wants to taste the real Russian food, the one that Russians cook daily or for holidays.

Not impressed with the book

Customer Rating:
Knowing Russian cooking I haven't been impressed at all...

Wonderful Complete Guide to Russian Cooking

Customer Rating:
A treasury of over 500 recipes including fish, poultry, appetizers, meat, veggies, soups, dumplings, desserts, breads, etc.

Particulary impressive and grand are the sturgeon recipes, especially Sturgeon with mushroom and crabmeat sauce. Also, particularly fond of the pel'meni!

For dessert, the Tula Spice Cakes are delightful.

Thorough, well presented exploration of Russian cuisine, with ample instructions with ingredients that are easy to acquire.