There are “Kyiv-style cutlets” and “Poltava-style borscht.” But are there any recipes that are truly Kharkiv-style? After all, you have to admit, it would be nice to walk into a restaurant and order, say, “Sloboda Ukraine salad,” and treat guests visiting from another city to “Kharkivets” soup, thereby emphasizing the uniqueness of and pride in your beloved city. Kharkiv cuisine is a complex topic. You could look through dozens of cookbooks from the last century and find absolutely nothing distinctive. However, it would be quite natural to assume that Kharkiv recipes and the women of Kharkiv are connected.
After all, it is thanks to them that the topic of “Kharkiv cuisine” is gradually revealing its most intimate secrets to us.
In December 1913, Issue No. 12 of the then-very-popular magazine *Modny Svet* carried the following advertisement:
Contest No. 2.
Since the first contest yielded brilliant results that exceeded our expectations, we have decided to continue this initiative and are announcing a second recipe contest for apple dishes. This includes not only all kinds of apple dishes, but also various preservation methods, jams, salads, pickles, marmalades, wines, liqueurs, and so on—in short, everything that can be made from these fruits. Ten cash prizes will be awarded for the best recipes.
1) one prize of 10 rubles
2) three prizes of 3 rubles each
3) six prizes of 1 ruble eachA total of 10 prizes worth 25 rubles.
All recipes will be tested by Ms. M. L. Uvarova, author of the book *A Cook for Chefs*, and by Gust. Gust. Brodersen, and three jury members selected by the editorial board. The jury’s decision is final; prizes will be awarded by a majority vote. The names and addresses of the prize winners will be published in the magazine, provided they give their consent. Otherwise, only the initials or subscriber numbers will be published. Each recipe must have the coupon printed at the bottom of this page attached or pinned to it; recipes without it will not be accepted for the contest. Award-winning recipes become the property of the editorial staff of *Modny Svet* magazine and may be published both in our magazine and in separate publications. Recipes that do not win a prize may be purchased by the editorial staff for 1 ruble per recipe. The contest deadline is February 20, 1914.
Recipes received after this deadline will not be accepted for the contest, but may be purchased under the terms mentioned above. Recipes that do not win a prize or do not meet the contest requirements will not be returned, even if postage stamps are included.
The terms of the competition, as set forth in Form No. 2, specifically stated:
The recipe included here is not taken from any cookbook, has never been published, but was created by me or passed on to me by someone else, and I have personally tested it.
As we can see, the contest rules were quite strict.
And finally, the results were published in the February 1914 issue:
Results of Contest No. 2, announced in the December issue.
Unfortunately, the results of our second contest weren’t as successful as those of the first. The reason is obviously that it was published in the Christmas issue, and many of our subscribers, busy with holiday preparations and household chores, did not notice the contest announcement. As a result, the number of recipes we received was significantly lower than the number sent to us for the first contest.
As we can see, the young ladies of the Russian Empire were indeed too busy to participate in the contest, and, as we recall, the requirements for the recipes were quite high.
So who took first and second place? Who managed to find the time amid all the holiday hustle and bustle?
Of course, they were our own restless and hardworking women from Kharkiv!
That’s why it’s absolutely essential to highlight them here and share the award-winning recipes that were previously known to very few people.
The first prize of 10 rubles was awarded to Ms. Ol. Evf. Izotova, a resident of Rogan Station on the Southeast Railway, for the following recipes:
— Farmhouse Cake;
— Grandma’s Charlotte;
— The Neighbor’s Charlotte.
Farmhouse Cake
Ingredients:
- 8 Antonovka apples
- ½ cup sweet almonds
- 1 tablespoon of pitted cherry jam (without juice)
- ½ cup port wine
- 2 tablespoons of milk
- 5 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar.
Select large, clean apples, wash them thoroughly, cut off the top, and remove the center—that is, remove the core and seeds—but do not cut all the way through; leave the bottom intact. Then fill these hollows with a mixture made from jam, finely chopped almonds, and chopped apple. Place the apples in a baking dish and put them in the oven to bake. Meanwhile, prepare the sabayon sauce: whisk the egg yolks with sugar, thin with milk, and place on the edge of the stove to cook, whisking constantly; when it turns white, pour in the wine and continue whisking, making sure it doesn’t boil, until ready to serve. When the apples are baked, arrange them on a platter in a pretty mound, pour the sabayon over them, sprinkle with chopped toasted almonds, and serve.
Grandma’s Charlotte
- 5 Antonovka apples
- 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
- 3 proteins
- 2 sheets of white gelatin for the sponge cake
- 5 eggs
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup coarse flour for the sauce
- ¼ of granulated sugar
- ½ cup of maraskin wine.
Bake the apples, pass them through a sieve, and let them cool. Mix with the egg whites and sugar, then beat in a cool place until the mixture thickens and turns white. Soak the gelatin in cold water, squeeze out the excess water, and dissolve it in ½ cup of boiling water; pour it warm into the apple mixture and stir thoroughly.
Bake a sponge cake: Beat the egg yolks with sugar until pale and fluffy, add the flour and stir, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites, pour the batter into a greased and floured pan, and bake in a moderate oven. When the sponge cake is ready—that is, when it pulls away from the sides of the pan—remove it from the pan, let it cool, and cut it into long, thin slices.
Next, take a baking pan, layer it with a layer of apple cream, a layer of sponge cake pieces, another layer of cream, and so on until the pan is full, then chill it. Meanwhile, make the sauce: place granulated sugar in a small saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Pour the wine into the syrup, bring to a boil three times, and let cool. Before serving, dip the pan lightly in hot water, turn it over onto a serving plate, pour the sauce over the charlotte, and serve.
My Neighbor’s Charlotte Cake
Cream ½ pound of salted, washed butter with ¼ pound of granulated sugar; beat in 2 egg yolks and 1 egg white; pour in 3 tablespoons of cream; and add enough flour to make the dough fairly runny.
Prepare the apple filling: peel and chop the apples, add ½ cup of sugar and 1 shot of rum, and boil over heat until tender. Take a baking dish or small saucepan, grease it with butter, dust it with flour, and line the bottom and sides with the prepared dough. Fill with the apple mixture, cover the top with more dough, and place in a hot oven to brown and bake.
Olga Evf. Izotova
The second prize of 5 rubles was awarded to subscriber No. 28842 from Kharkiv for the following recipes:
― Stuffed apples—
Apple cream.
Moreover, the magazine’s editorial staff wrote: “Please send us your last name and exact address, which you likely omitted from the recipes by mistake.”
Stuffed Apples
Take fresh apples, remove the cores using a corer, peel them, fill the holes in the center of the apples generously with sugar, and bake them. Remove them from the oven and let them cool. Before serving, fill the apples with a walnut filling prepared as follows: shell the walnuts, grind them with sugar, and lightly brown them. The filling should be placed in the apples just before dinner, but not in advance, so that it does not become soggy. The stuffed apples are served with the following sauce in a gravy boat: beat 3 egg yolks with a glass of sugar until pale, add a little vanilla, pour in ½ glass of hot milk, and, stirring constantly, cook over heat until steam appears (but do not let it boil!).
Apple Cream
Pass 10 baked sour apples through a sieve, mix with one glass—or a little more—of sugar (depending on how sour the apples are), add two egg whites, vanilla, and cinnamon for flavor, and mash with a spoon. Dissolve 8 sheets of gelatin in ¼ glass of boiling water, then pour it into the prepared mixture drop by drop, stirring with a spoon. Mix all of this with the beaten whites from 8 egg yolks, pour into a mold, and chill.
Subscriber 28842, Kharkiv
That’s what they were like—those remarkable women from Kharkiv who lived 100 years ago and brought fame to our city across the vast expanses of the empire.
So, Kharkiv cuisine is very much a reality, and as long as fresh apples are still available, we can confidently set out to prepare some amazing and distinctly local dishes.
Enjoy your meal, everyone!
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