The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection is pleased to announce the publication of this important new book, Cookbook for Germans from Russia. Our appreciation is extended to Nelly Däs and the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland for permission to translate and publish this valuable work.

Author’s Introduction to the Original Book in German Language
Between 1763 and 1815, people from very different areas, notably Schwabia, Baden and Hesse, left their homelands to emigrate to distant reaches of Russia, but they took their culture along with them. Customs and traditions are certainly part of culture, but so are foodways, too. I would imagine that in those days there were few if any cookbooks, so that most women were, at best, left to collecting a series of handwritten recipes. In the colonist villages, recipes were passed on from mother to daughter. And today the Aussiedler are returning to their original country with recipes that have been handed down for 200 years.

Colonist women in their various settlement areas would of course take a “peek into the pots” of their Ukrainian and Russian neighbors and, in the course of time, adopt certain dishes from them. During the first few years, however, dishes were prepared just the way they had been in the old country.

A few of these recipes can be found in some cookbooks, but not in this complete form. This cookbook is intended, for one, to present recipes from their former homes to the long-established Germans from Russia who arrived in Germany soon after the War, and for another, to furnish the newcomers with recipes from their new home. It was important to me that the gastronomic culture of our people be mirrored in the story of their lives. This means, for example, that from the recipes one can discern the exile locales of the Aussiedler. For this reason, some recipes herein are at times embedded in small stories and not necessarily arranged in cookbook format.

Here I wish to thank all those women who participated in making this cookbook come together. All of the recipes have been tested by various cooks and should be applied under the following motto:

In cooking, you make use of ... whatever you have on hand!

“To all who make use of this book, my best wishes for fun in trying the recipes and for successful outcomes!”
- Nelly Däs