The Best Russian Cooking
- Year
- 1947
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- USA/Russia · Americas
- Language
- English
- Category
- Eastern European
The Best Russian Cooking, compiled by Princess Alexandra Kropotkin, presents the dishes of imperial and regional Russia to a postwar American readership in English. Issued in the United States in 1947, it belongs to the literature of émigré cookery, in which displaced Russian aristocrats preserved culinary memory abroad. Of particular interest for its transmission of zakuski, soups, pirogi and other Slavic traditions to an Anglophone audience.
Cooking from this book
Beef Stroganoff
Signature dishNo dish is more closely tied to Princess Kropotkin's volume than Beef Stroganoff, the tender sauteed strips of beef bound in a sour cream sauce that became shorthand for Russian cookery in mid-century America. Written from emigre memory for an English-speaking audience, the book helped fix this aristocratic Petersburg specialty in the Western imagination, offering homesick exiles and curious American hostesses alike a taste of the vanished Russia the Princess knew in her youth.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
