Russian Cuisine: Why the Potato?
When a person says the word “Russia,” plenty of things may come to mind. People think of the cold, people think of the Soviet Union. And of course people think of the vodka. But one thing that tends to go relatively unnoticed is the food.
And looking at the food, let’s not forget the almighty Russian crop: the potato. It’s so ubiquitous in Russian cuisine that it in fact becomes more difficult to name a dish without it than with it. It finds itself in everything, from soups to salads to entrees to desserts alike.
There is a phrase commonly used in Russian. Many families living in the cities have a getaway for the early spring and summer months called a dacha. A dacha is a seasonal home for many people in Russia outside of the city. Many dachas have farms as the people who live there grow their own vegetables and food for the summer there directly.
When people say they’re going to their dacha, they say they are going на картошку: to the potatoes.
Before we talk about the potato specifically, we should first discuss how it has found such a unique spot in the Russian language. According to the Weak Whorfian Hypothesis, language can influence thoughts and actions, but does not fully constrain an individual. One interesting way of looking at this is through the dacha.
Potatoes to an American and a Russian mean very different things, primarily as a function of the languages themselves. To most American, the word potato is associated with something quotidian, average, and uninteresting. Potatoes are used to describe laziness and dullness in many American phrases. “I am a potato” yields a very specific connotation. On the other hand, potatoes in Russian elicit senses of summer dachas and of strength. The potato is valued as a word, in addition to as a food.
But beyond just language, how exactly did the potato end up so popular in the cuisine? Just one main characteristic: its hardiness.
See for yourself the sheer quantity of potatoes that Russia produces: almost 500 pounds per person per year. Potatoes have become integral to the economy, as well as the people, and they continue to have an influence on the food and culture. The fact is, the potato simply dominates all things Russia. And the reason that it was able to do this was because of Russia’s temperature and how potatoes grow.
Looking at the chart of Russian mean yearly temperature, we can see not only the sheer scale of Russia itself, but also how inhospitable most of it really is. It is nearly impossible to grow crops in below 0 degree weather, which leaves most of the northern parts of the country barren. But there is one very resilient crop that the Russians love that can grow in these freezing temperatures. The potato provides a lifeline for so many people in central Russia, as they lay mostly isolated during the winters and rely on their own harvests to make it out alive.
Perhaps it is this hardiness that has also allowed the potato to “take root” in the Russian language so much. Resilience and sturdiness are traditional Russian values. Given the hardships that have faced the people in the past, these traits have been deemed to be very important to many different populations in Russia. Perhaps it is the fact that the potato to Russians is a symbol of this hardiness that it has been able to take up such a “hardy” position in the language. Far from the American laziness and dullness interpretation, the potato is a Russian steadfast and strong symbol. The qualities that a potato possesses has transferred themselves to the Russian word itself, further building on the Weak Whorfian Hypothesis. Similar to the study on the Spanish and German words for bridge, the potato shows similar linguistic qualities.
The fact that the potato is one of the hardiest and resilient edible things that humans grow has allowed it to develop its cult status in Russia. According to the International Potato Center, certain strains of potatoes have now been shown to be able to grow on Mars. The fact that the International Potato Center exists should be enough of a hint as to the importance of the crop.
So perhaps the Martians will also end up quite fond of the crop that the Russians just can’t get enough of. Cultural and linguistic phenomenon in Russia, essential survival tool on Mars?
Sources:
http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/maplinks/Russia_files/image018.jpg (Russian mean temperature chart)
