Meat and Relishes

Russian cuisine has three types of main meat course: first, meat boiled in one large piece in the making of soups or gruels and then served cold as the main course following hors-d’oeuvre; secondly, dishes made from offal combined with groats in a casserole; and thirdly, a whole or part of a fowl or any large piece of meat, such as a leg, roasted in the oven. The various cutlets, meatballs and meat loaves made from minced meat, borrowed and popularized since the nineteenth century, do not belong to classic Russian cuisine and are omitted here.