The 19th-century Russian table unfolds in sequence: you begin with zakuski (small savory and marinated bites), then comes the pervoyé—the 'first,' always a steaming soup like shchi—then the vtoroyé, the 'second' dish of fish or meat, and you close almost every moment of the day around the singing samovar, with its tea and preserves. In a house like Melikhovo, the samovar never lets its embers die: it is the heart of the home from morning to night.

Two techniques define this cuisine: the copper samovar, a kettle-stove that keeps water simmering all day for endless tea, and the lacto-fermentation of cabbage (kvashyonaya kapusta), which gives shchi its sharp acidity and allows one to survive the Russian winter. The sourness of cabbage and the bitterness of tea are the two flavors that punctuate Chekhov's daily life.