I have no Ukrainian heritage. But the horror that is taking place in Eastern Europe has affected me deeply, as it has all of us. Unable to do anything more than support organizations that are providing aid, I’ve felt compelled to at least cook and bake in sympathy.
So I looked for my copy of Olia Hercules’ Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and Eastern Europe and recently prepared two recipes: varenyky (cabbage-stuffed dumplings) and sukharyky (small fruit-nut mini biscotti). While doing so, I thought about the generations of cooks who have served these dishes to their families, and how food can help to reinforce identity and connection to a homeland or ancestral land.
The foods of Ukraine are, in many ways, similar to those of their neighbors. But each country, each region, and even each family makes them uniquely their own.
For example, varenyky are often likened to the Polish potato-, cheese-, and/or cabbage-filled pierogi that we all love. The Ukrainian version can be sweet or savory. And the dough is quite thin, as it is with Russian pelmeni (though these are only made in savory versions).
Polish golabki — stuffed cabbage rolls — differ from Ukrainian holubtsi in that the latter are made with pickled cabbage and are often vegetarian, while the former are traditionally stuffed with pork and/or beef.
And then there’s Hungarian kolbasz, Polish kielbasa, and Ukrainian kovbasa; each term is the generic word for sausage, with a multitude of variants. And each of those variants differs from the others in terms of spicing and smoking, with common versions of kovbasa being a fresh sausage while kielbasa and kolbasz can be smoked or fresh.
Of course, as families have emigrated and immigrated, as borders and territories have shifted, and as ingredients have become more or less accessible, recipes have morphed beyond what were once strict delineations.
My friend Deborah Norin-Kuehn has also been hearing the call of Ukrainian food, the food of her heritage. Her maternal grandfather, Joseph Resnick, was from Priluky (near Kiev), and her father’s parents, Simon and Sadie Norinsky, were from Odessa and Bialystok, she wrote from a recent vacation to visit her in-laws in California.
“I ate LOTS of stuffed cabbage at my maternal grandparents’ house in Cleveland. That is very popular in the Ukraine!”, Ms. Norin-Kuehn continued.
She remembers her father mixing “sour cream into so many foods,” she said, “especially sugared strawberries,” which is a much-loved combination in Ukraine. “And my mom (and grandpa) would occasionally make borscht, but as a kid I really didn’t care for it. I also sometimes make sweet-and-sour cucumber slices, something my dad used to do as well, and I think that was Ukrainian in origin. Once they were made, he would drain them and serve them with sour cream.”
Ms. Norin-Kuehn has also felt the need to connect with the tragic situation through food. “[I] have decided to cook some Ukrainian food once I’m back,” she wrote.
If you want to do so as well, I recommend Mamushka, and also The Practical Encyclopedia of East European Cooking (edited by Lesley Chamberlain), in addition to blogs and other online resources.
First Published March 20, 2022, 3:00 p.m.
