April 1, 1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
789 
The great vegetable staple of the country, however, is 
the cabbage, which grows in great perfection, fine, large, 
.solid, white and crisp. It supplies a chief portion of the 
subsistence of the people all the year round. At the 
beginning of winter every family lays in a store. At 
that time the plants are cut down, and chopped up or 
shred into thin slices. These being packed in barrels 
with vinegar and salt, a kind of fermentation takes place, 
"the cabbage becoming a kind of sour crout. This is 
made with meat into a cabbage broth called “shtshi,” 
which is the most characteristic national dish in Russia, 
and forms the daily food of the mass of the people. 
Meat is about half the price in St. Petersburg that 
it is in England, and much more freely used. For 40 
kopecks (about Is.) Mr. Murray bad a plate of shtshi, 
with three large pieces of meat in it, sufficient for any 
average Englishman to have made a copious dinner 
from. The shtshi is of various degrees of excellence. 
When the fermentation goes too far, it becomes rather 
“high;” this, however, is considered a blemish. It 
also is made to assume various shapes, such as green 
pea and similar soups, but the subacid flavour is always 
more or less pronounced. As the shtshi is generally 
composed of very strong rich bouillon, with only a mode¬ 
rate amount of cabbage, the effect is agreeable. A small 
•dish of sour cream, beautifully white and thick, is placed 
on the table, in order that the guest may suit the acidity 
to his taste. Another little dish is sometimes placed 
alongside the sour cream, and used as a substitute for 
bread. It consists of a small plateful of fried or roasted 
•groats, which are eaten with a spoon alternately with 
the shtshi. Garlic is used, if at all, in moderation, and 
its flavour is not allowed to obtrude itself. 
Fungi constitute another food-product which figures 
largely in the consumption of the upper classes of St. 
Petersburg. All the chief species used in this country 
•also occur in greater abundance in Russia, and are 
greatly prized there. The true mushroom (Agaricus cam- 
pcstris ), the morel and the Agaricus deliciosus , are the most 
generally used, but a great many others are freely eaten. 
Leaving the vegetables, and turning to the products 
which vegetarians look upon as a transition between 
them and flesh, milk and its phases, it appears that the 
preparations of milk and curd are more various than in 
this country. In cheese Russia is making great progress. 
A kind is now made so like gruyere that it is impossible 
to distinguish it from it, and it is sold as gruyere. A 
second variety in the same direction, called mesch- 
tschersky, is not unfrequently passed off under the same 
name. Sour cream is a favourite accessory to many 
dishes. Its use with shtshi has already been alluded to. 
It is used with pork as we use apple sauce, and the Ger¬ 
mans sour crout. 
Mr. Murray found the pork to be very free from 
trichina3, a result which he attributes to the precautions 
taken by the Government to prevent the spread or in¬ 
troduction of diseased meat. The mutton in Russia is 
much inferior to our own, as it is in all the plains of the 
North of Europe. The beef and veal appear to be of 
medium quality. 
We can but hurriedly notice the fishes used as food in 
Russia. The principal of these is the sterlet, a small 
species of sturgeon, tasting something like an eel, and 
esteemed a great delicacy. It is taken in immense num¬ 
bers near the mouth of the Volga at certain seasons of 
'the year. There is also the sturgeon, from which is 
prepared caviare, pronounced by experts to be the 
greatest delicacy in existence. This only applies to it 
in its fresh state, when its green pellets of roe, as large 
as swan shot, are seen floating in a rich gelatinous men¬ 
struum, which disappears in the dried or preserved state. 
Another fish, called the “ sclmepel,” is cured and smoked, 
and tastes something between a fresh salmon trout and 
a kippered herring. Mr. Murray discusses at some 
length the possibility of naturalizing these and other 
•fishes in the British waters. 
Lastly, the drinks of Russia are treated of. The water 
of St. Petersburg is said not to be altogether whole¬ 
some, at least to those unaccustomed to it. New-comers 
who use it freely usually suffer from diarrhoea. It does 
not always affect strangers immediately, six months 
elapsing sometimes before the effects show themselves; 
these gradually wear off' as the stranger becomes accli¬ 
matized. 
Coffee is generally prepared by the ladies of the house¬ 
hold and not trusted to the servants. The material 
is the same as elsewhere and the product is of good 
quality. 
The tea is very different from that used in England. 
The strong black high-flavoured Congou, from the south 
of China, which is most generally drunk here, is almost 
unknown in Russia. When by accident a Russian has 
it, such as by present from an English friend, he does 
not know how to use it; so that the Englishman who 
wants what he would call a good cup of tea in Russia, 
must take his tea with him and make it himself. The 
kind used is the light delicate-flavoured tea from the 
north of China. However strong the infusion might be 
made, it would be impossible to make from it one as dark 
and black as ours. At the strongest theirs never seems 
to get beyond a light amber colour. A cup of tea of the 
colour of senna or coffee would revolt them. Hence, when 
they have English Congou they regulate the strength 
of the infusion by the colour they are accustomed to see 
in their own, a standard which, to speak mildly, does 
not produce strong tea. But their tea has merits not 
possessed by ours. Coming from the colder districts and 
more mountainous regions of northern China, it has not 
the strong aroma of that from the less elevated and 
hotter slopes of the south, but it has in its place a pecu¬ 
liar delicacy and refinement of flavour. Mr. Murray is 
inclined to think that this tea must differ also in chemi¬ 
cal properties and physiological effects, as the last meal 
of the Russian is generally a cup of tea, a custom that 
could hardly be carried out with impunity if our variety 
were used. 
Of the native fermented drinks, there is first a poor 
beer called “ guass,” manufactured from the remains of 
rye used in making bread; it has a muddy appearance 
and very much the taste and strength of what is known, 
to housewives as “treacle beer.” Hydromel is a fer¬ 
mented mixture of honey and water. It is an undecided 
suppose flat and ungingered ginger beer might be. 
beverage of a mild character, not unlike what one might 
Vodka is a kind of whisky or spirit of wine distilled 
from rye and usually much diluted. The word is also 
employed in a general sense. To take a vodka means also 
to take a dram, and is applied to all kinds of liqueurs. 
The practice of the Russian is to take a vodka before 
dinner, and by way of a whet a mouthful or two of 
caviare and bread, or sardines, or something of that sort. 
These materials are provided for the guests to avail 
themselves of before sitting down to dinner; a custom 
not without its ludicrous side, as we are told that before 
now strangers have mistaken the “whet” for the dinner 
and acted accordingly. 
With regard to the wines, it is well known that the 
Crimea, Bessarabia and the Caucasus are becoming great 
wine countries. Great care has been taken to procure 
the best vinos from France and Germany, and skilled 
labour has been introduced to instruct the natives in the 
manufacture. But the result at first was not encou¬ 
raging. The vines lost their special qualities by the 
transfer; the grapes had not the same taste, and, as 
might be expected, the wine was not the same either. 
By perseverance and continued experiment, a process of 
selection and elimination being adopted, it was found 
that, although they could not obtain the old well-known 
wines, they could produce some well worth drinking, 
and the wines of these countries are gradually acquiring 
a character of their own. 
