Medieval cuisine of modern-day Ukrainian lands (modern-day
Bilohorodka), depicted in a
miniature from the
Radziwiłł Chronicle Slavic tribes, which settled the territory of modern Ukraine during the early
Middle Ages, cultivated cereals such as
rye,
wheat and
barley. The main food of the inhabitants of
Kyivan Rus' was bread, most commonly made from rye. The Ukrainian word for rye () itself derives from the
Slavic verb "to live", which demonstrates the importance of that culture for the historical population of Ukraine. Wheat bread during that era was predominantly consumed by the upper classes. Both leavened and unleavened bread was known in Rus', with the former produced with the addition of
hops. Cereal dishes such as
kasha, usually made from
millet, were common among all groups of the population, and also played a ritual role (
koliva).
Buckwheat, as well as
flax,
hemp,
melons,
watermelons,
beets,
poppies,
oats and
peas were also cultivated in Rus' territories. Another important part of the popular diet during the Rus' period consisted of vegetables, especially
cabbage and
turnips. A significant portion of harvested vegetables would be salted or
pickled to extend their storage period. Other vegetables widespread in Rus' territories were
carrots,
dill,
garlic and
lentils. In the 13th century
onions were introduced in the territory of modern Ukraine. Desserts such as sweetened bread,
prianyky and berries with honey were also known in Ukrainian lands from Rus' times.
Early modern Ukrainian cuisine According to Ukrainian historian Oleksii Sokyrko, during the era of Polish–Lithuanian rule in the
late medieval and
early modern times the Ukrainian culinary tradition was developing as part of the general food culture of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In that period cereals and bread continued to form the base of the diet for most people in Ukraine, but
legumes including peas and beans were also widely consumed, particularly in western regions such as
Galicia. One of the first documented mentions of borshch, the symbol of modern Ukrainian cuisine, also comes from the times of Polish rule: travelling through Kyiv in 1584,
Danzig merchant Martin Gruneweg mentioned the widespread consumption of borshch by the local population; according to him, the dish was cooked in almost every household and consumed daily as both food and drink. Another early mention of borshch in Ukrainian lands comes from Orthodox polemicist
Ivan Vyshenskyi from Galicia, who described the dish as a typical peasant food. In the 18th century, after the incorporation of parts of Ukraine into the
Russian Empire, borshch became popular at the imperial court in
Saint Petersburg. It was also mentioned in
Ivan Kotliarevsky's
Eneida, the pioneering work of modern
Ukrainian literature, on par with
halushky, another popular traditional Ukrainian dish. Ukrainian cuisine was also strongly influenced by
Cossack traditions, especially after the establishment of the
Cossack Hetmanate in 1648, when
Cossack starshyna replaced the old
nobility as the new elite in a significant part of Ukrainian lands. Typical food consumed by
Zaporozhian Cossacks consisted of milled grains and flour and included traditional Ukrainian dishes such as
kasha, , and . The diet of the Hetmanate's Cossack elite was much more luxurious in comparison: campaigning in the Caucasus in 1726,
Lubny colonel Yakiv Markovych ordered his wife in Ukraine to send him foods such as
olives,
butter,
ham, dried
beef tongue,
chicken and
turkeys, as well as
olive oil and various
appetizers. During the Cossack era
beef and
game in Ukraine were consumed mostly by the upper classes; the most commonly eaten meat among the lower classes was
mutton.
Dewberry, fried berries and
honey, as well as drinks such as
juice,
tea,
coffee,
wine,
horilka and
prune brandy were mentioned by Zaporozhian Cossack colonel Yakiv Markovych in the early 18th century. Consumption of coffee was a traditional attribute of Ukrainian
Cossack starshina.
18th and 19th centuries In the 18th century the standard diet of an inhabitant of
left-bank Ukraine consisted mostly of dishes made of flour and groats (rye, buckwheat, millet and wheat), as well as borshch and other soups. Common dishes included different types of
gruel (
solomakha, ,
kulish, , ,
teteria), halushky,
varenyky, and
noodles. The most important vegetables in the diet of a commoner were beets and
onions. Beef and mutton were the most popular meats, followed by pork. A universal product valued for its long storage time was salo (salted
lard).
Hemp oil was also commonly used in preparation of food.
Potatoes first appeared in
Dnieper Ukraine in the mid-18th century. Initially grown predominantly by urban inhabitants, they were gradually introduced into rural areas as well: in 1786 potatoes were cultivated in
Chernihiv,
Horodnia,
Hadiach,
Zinkiv and
Romny and several surrounding villages; by mid-19th century they were grown in all
povits of
Kyiv,
Chernihiv and
Poltava Governorates. In Kyiv alone more than 600 tons of potatoes were harvested on suburban land plots in 1845, but this was still not enough, so the city had to import one cart of potatoes per one inhabitant every year on average. Potato cultivation was most popular in less fertile regions of
Northern Ukraine. In the mid-19th century a rich peasant from
Chyhyryn area would consume 150 kg of potatoes per year, which superseded the average annual per capita consumption of this product in modern Ukraine. Initially potatoes would be cooked by boiling or baked;
potato bread also became a popular product. In his 1860 book ethnographer
Mykola Markevych mentioned several traditional dishes including potatoes, which were popular in Left-bank Ukraine, such as fried potatoes with lard, boiled potatoes and mashed potatoes with poppy seeds. In the first half of the 19th century Ukrainians started adding potatoes to soups and
ukha. In 1853 the addition of potatoes to borshch was first mentioned in the area of
Khorol near
Poltava. By the early 20th century varenyky filled with potatoes had become a usual dish in the region of
Lubny. Other parts of Ukrainian ethnic territory also introduced the new culture in their territories. In the 1780s potatoes appeared in the region of
Sumy, and by the early 1830s had become a staple food in
Sloboda Ukraine, getting mentioned in a story by Ukrainian writer
Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko. Around the same time period potato cultivation became widespread in
Transcarpathia. In late-19th century Galicia potatoes were even more popular than in Dnieper Ukraine: in 1888 an average local would consume 310 kg of tubers. Memoirs of Ukrainian publicist
Mykhailo Drahomanov mention some common Galician dishes of that time, which included potato soup and (potato cutlets); the latter could also be consumed with jam as a dessert. In
Southern Ukraine potatoes were less popular, as the region's natural environment allowed for more extensive grain cultivation. Among the local population only urban inhabitants and
German colonists were known for growing the culture. Potatoes also became an important source for
alcohol production in Ukraine. Another new product introduced in Ukrainian lands during the 17-18th centuries was
rice. Initially imported from territories under
Ottoman control, in Ukrainian lands that culture was known at thattime as "
Saracen millet" (). Due to its high price, until the mid-19th century rice would be available only to richer strata of the Ukrainian society. In 1768 Zaporozhian Cossack
otaman Petro Kalnyshevsky mentioned rice in the list of products stolen from his residence. Recipes with rice widespread during that era included other expensive foods and spices such as
almond,
saffron,
cane sugar, raisins and
prunes. Rice served as an ingredient of soups and sweets, as well as a filling for poultry dishes. On Christmas richer families would also use rice for their
kutia instead of the more traditional wheat grains. In Ukraine rice remained a luxury product until the
Soviet era, when mass cultivation of the cereal started in southern parts of the country (
Kherson,
Odesa and
Crimea). Among other important cultures which became widespread in Ukraine during the 18th and 19th centuries, enriching its cuisine, were
cucumbers and
aubergines. The tradition of
pickling cucumbers is attributed to
Greek merchants, who were provided freedom of taxation and self-government by Ukrainian
hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. The most notable centre of cucumber production in Ukraine has been
Nizhyn. After 1787 Nizhyn cucumbers were supplied to the court of Empress
Catherine II of Russia, and by 1897 they were exported to 56 countries around the world. Unlike cucumbers, aubergines enjoyed only a limited degree of popularity, being consumed, among others, in the region of Kharkiv, but remaining practically unknown in Galicia. from the Carpathian region, including banosh In the 19th century Ukrainian lands saw the introduction of
sunflowers and
maize, which form an important part of the popular diet in the country nowadays. Maize cultivation spread to Ukraine from modern-day
Moldova and
Romania and became most popular in the western region, especially in the
Carpathians. Maize porridges such as
banosh,
kulesha and
mamaliga are still characteristic for the cuisine of southwestern Ukraine. Other common cultures which appeared in Ukrainian lands in the 19th and early 20th centuries were
tomatoes and
bell peppers. The recipe of borshch with tomato paste, which is nowadays standard for many Ukrainian households, became common only in the early 20th century: previously the dish had traditionally been made with fermented beets. In the late 19th century Ukraine became a centre of industrial production of
sunflower oil, which swiftly replaced traditional plant oils, including olive oil, which historically had been imported from
Greece. Due to the growth of sugar industry, connected with the names of such families as
Tereshchenko,
Symyrenko, ,
Branicki,
Brodsky and
Bobrinsky, during the 19th century Ukraine became one of the major centres of
sugar beet production. During the Holodomor famine of 1932–1933, mass confiscation of food by Soviet authorities forced many Ukrainians to consume
ersatz foods in order to survive. Popular "dishes" of that time included pancakes made of powdered
corn cob and
acacia bloom,
potato starch,
nettle soup, bread baked with the addition of
pomace, beets, potato peels, straw, tree bark, grass and other products which could be gathered in the nature. Many starving peasants would be forced to eat
snowdrop bulbs and
acorns. Even dead animals would be consumed during that time, and in many villages
cats,
dogs,
hedgehogs and even
storks and
cranes would be hunted down by locals and consumed for their meat. Some would even resort to eating
turtles. The break of
taboos as a result of the famine eventually led to cases of
cannibalism. Deficit of goods led to the introduction of new products into the popular diet: for example, during the 1930s the government promoted the consumption of
soy and
rabbit meat, meanwhile during the 1960s citizens were encouraged to eat maize dishes. At the same time, starting from the early 1930s Soviet
food industry was revolutionized by the introduction of Western technology, which allowed to start mass production of
canned products,
mayonnaise,
sausages,
juices,
condensed milk,
ice cream and other goods. Bread, which until that time had been usually baked at home, was for the first time produced industrially. s General standardization of norms led to the introduction of numerous local recipes into the canon of Soviet cuisine, among them
Georgian kharcho,
Caucasian shashlik and
Central Asian
plov. At the same time, many traditional Ukrainian recipes, for example fermented cereal dishes like teteria and putria, urda (powdered
hempseed), lemishka, varenyky with
lard, came out of use under the Soviet rule; since the 1970s,
beetroot kvas has been replaced with canned tomatoes or
tomato paste as a basic ingredient of borshch.
Ukrainian diaspora sold in
Toronto Mass emigration of Ukrainians to the
United States after World War II led to the establishment of Ukrainian cuisine across the ocean. This process saw the fusion between traditional Ukrainian recipes and modern American cooking. Many Ukrainian immigrant families adopted local practices of the new country, organizing
picnics and baking
turkey for
Thanksgiving Day. Nevertheless, typical Ukrainian dishes such as borshch, varenyky,
holubtsi and
pierogi retained their role as signature dishes among emgrants. An important source on Ukrainian diaspora cuisine is the magazine
Nashe Zhyttia ("Our Life"), founded by the
Ukrainian National Women's League of America, which was published between 1944 and 2018.
Independent Ukraine After
Ukraine declared independence, Ukrainian culinary traditions started to be influenced by modern global trends, such as the rise in popularity of
convenience foods and
dehydrated products, for example
instant noodles. A popular Ukrainian brand of instant noodles is Mivina, established by
Vietnamese businessman
Phạm Nhật Vượng in 1995 in
Kharkiv. The product became so popular, that eventually all instant noodles in Ukraine started to be known under the brand name. In 2010 the company which had been producing the noodles was bought by
Nestlé, which also acquired several other popular Ukrianian food producers such as
Svitoch and
Torchyn. Due to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, the production facilities of Mivina had to be moved to
Volyn Oblast. The noodles also appeared in
Germany,
France and
Great Britain under the brand
Maggi. The
fall of the Soviet Union with its lack of competition and directive approach to cooking brought more freedom for cooks, who now have a chance to realize themselves in private business. The development of Ukrainian gastronomy has led to the reemergence of
seasonal products, and the taste and outward appearance of food have once again become an important factor. Another trend in modern Ukrainian cuisine is the increase of consumption of meat products, which have become more available to the general population. At the same time, an opposite process can also be observed with an increase in the number of
vegetarians. In the modern world Ukrainian cuisine is associated with a limited number of recipes, such as chicken Kiev or borshch. Numerous restaurants of Ukrainian cuisine are active among the diaspora in countries such as the United States and
Canada. Nevertheless, in many parts of the world Ukrainian cuisine is seen through a lens of
Russian-imposed narratives, and is represented in a simplified manner with the inclusion of post-Soviet dishes from other nations formerly part of the USSR. In order to form a distinct Ukrainian culinary image in the world, volunteers in cooperation with the
Ukrainian Institute have contributed to the publishing of a book on Ukrainian food and its history, which is available online. ==Dishes of the cultural heritage of Ukraine==