The meal of the Russian nobility in Pushkin's time opens with zakuski — an assortment of savory, pickled, and fermented bites (fish, mushrooms, pickles) accompanied by small glasses of vodka, laid on a separate table before moving to the dinner table. Next comes the soup-centerpiece (shchi or borscht), followed by meat or fish dishes and hearty grain kasha. In the countryside, things are simpler: a porridge, baked fruit, kvass. The meal often closes around the samovar, with tea extending the evening.

Two pillars of Russian cuisine: sour cream (smetana) that dresses almost everything, from blini to soup, and roasted buckwheat groats (grechka), a nourishing staple of everyday life in both the fields and the master's kitchen.