The King of Easter Cuisine

At Easter time in Russia, there are three time-honored traditions: to send charity donations to prisoners, to free birds from their cages, and to bake kulich.

According to Russian custom, any holiday table set for an Easter meal had to be laden with dainties and delicacies. And no wonder -- as a rule, such holidays followed strictly-observed periods of fasting (in this case Lent), by the end of which Russians had every  intention of unburdening their hearts and burdening their stomachs.

The list of Easter dishes recommended by old cookbooks is rich indeed: goose with apples, fried leg of mutton, partridges baked with cranberries, salted mushrooms, jellied fish, painted eggs, curd paskha (a sweet dish with butter and raisins) and many others.