Cucumbers fermented in a brine with dill, garlic, and blackcurrant leaves: crunchy, tangy, sharply salty, with the lactic tang of true lacto-fermentation. Nothing like vinegar pickles — here it's salt and time that do the work.

Why this dish? Pickling is the Russian art of surviving winter. On every table, even the humblest, a jar of salted cucumbers accompanies bread, soup, or is eaten alone. It is the queen of zakuski, present in every Moscow apartment kitchen like Anna's.

We throw nothing away, we prepare everything for winter — it's in the bones of this country. In autumn, we fill jars with cucumbers, with dill in flower, garlic, a blackcurrant leaf for crunch, and brine. Then we wait, let the salt and the cold of the window do their work. Open a jar in February, when outside everything is white and silent, and you hold a bit of summer in reserve — acidic, alive, stubborn.

How it was made : Lacto-fermentation (not vinegar) is the traditional Russian method, predating industrial sterilization. Barrels of cucumbers, cabbage (Slavic sauerkraut), and apples fermented in cellars; salt and lactic acid bacteria ensured preservation all winter and provided vitamins and probiotics precious in a climate without fresh vegetables.

The contemporary twist : Pour a splash of their brine into a glass of cold summer soup, or — with a wink to Russian tradition — as a hangover remedy: "rassol" is drunk in one gulp.

Sources : William Pokhliobkin, National History of Russian Cuisine · Darra Goldstein, Beyond the North Wind: Russia in Recipes and Lore

Anna Politkovskaya · Charactorium