If you are planning to celebrate the New Year in the comfort of home, gathering guests at a large festive table, then this article will help you prepare for the celebration and prepare treats that will not leave your guests indifferent. Considering that the coming year is the year of the horse according to the eastern calendar, let us remember the magnificent tradition of preparing dishes that this symbol likes. A horse is not a picky animal, a herbivore, but treating guests to light salads and vegetables and fruits is not enough. Let's keep in mind that the presence of such treats must be present on the table in order for the year to be successful. Let's see what is traditionally served on the New Year's table in different countries of the world. With a variety of traditional dishes, you are sure to find something to your liking.

England

Not a single traditional New Year's holiday in England is complete without plumpudding, which consists of lard, bread crumbs, flour, raisins, eggs and spices. Before serving, the pudding is poured with rum and set on fire, which makes the holiday even brighter. It is also traditional to serve stuffed turkey with vegetables and gooseberry sauce. Turkey with vegetables is considered a traditional dish and delights guests at any holiday.

America

The idea is also considered a traditional American dish, but unlike the English one, American turkey is prepared differently. In very simple terms, the turkey is stuffed with all the products that are “lying around” in the refrigerator. Usually these are cheese, garlic, prunes, apples, cabbage, beans, mushrooms, and spices.

Austria, Hungary

In these countries, serving poultry at the holiday table is a bad sign. Superstitious residents of these countries believe that if you serve a bird at the festive table, then happiness can fly away. Traditional Austrian cuisine is rich in its delights. So, you can serve schnitzel, strudel at the holiday table, and you can also prepare traditional fish salad in Austrian style. In Hungary, it is customary to serve traditional bagels at the holiday table - poppy seed and nut rolls, which migrated from Jewish cuisine.

Denmark, Sweden

Cod is considered the main New Year's holiday dish for the Danes. This dish symbolizes happiness and wealth. Lutefiks, a fish dish made from dried cod, is always served on the Swedish holiday table.

Germany

Herring is considered an integral and symbolic dish of the German holiday table. It is believed that herring will definitely bring happiness in the coming year. Traditional and no less important dishes on the holiday table are Sauerkraut - stewed sauerkraut with sausages, Eisbein - boiled pork knuckle and, of course, many types of German sausages. (each region has its own varieties).

Israel

It is important to note that in Israel the New Year is celebrated in September. The New Year's holiday table of Israeli residents has a number of its own rules. The main rule is that bitter, sour and salty dishes are kept away. The table is set with sweet dishes. Also on the table are usually honey, dates, pomegranates and apples. Challah - a holiday pastry - is dipped in honey. This tradition is followed by many people. In this way, the Israelis “sweeten” the coming year. Boiled fish, baked apples, cabbage, and beets are also served on the festive table.

Holland, France

On the Dutch holiday table you will definitely find deep-fried donuts and salted beans - one of the main national dishes - especially for the New Year. In France, a traditional New Year's table is not complete without roasted chestnuts, oysters, beautifully decorated sandwiches with goose pate, cheeses and, of course, French wine.

Poland

The traditional Polish New Year's table has 12 dishes. An old Polish tradition is to eat a piece of herring while the chimes are ringing. It is believed that the spicier the herring. The more successful the year will be. Fish is considered an obligatory dish, especially carp - a symbol of family happiness.

Romania, Australia, Bulgaria

Among the many traditional dishes presented on New Year's tables, you will definitely try a special pie. Its peculiarity is that one of the guests will definitely find a coin, or a nut, or a peppercorn in a piece of pie. The lucky owner of the find will start a family next year.

Japan

On December 30, the pre-holiday table always includes mochi - small cakes made from boiled rice, which are made with fruit and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Long noodles must be present on the New Year's holiday table. The longer it is, the longer the life of the participants in the feast will be. Tables often contain seaweed, fried chestnuts, peas, beans, and boiled fish; these ingredients are the key to happiness, success in business, health, and tranquility.

Any country can boast of its own festive national cuisine. And yet there is one general trend: on New Year's Eve or Christmas, symbolic dishes should appear on the table in strict order.

Now let’s get acquainted with what goodies decorate holiday tables in different countries of the world.

Italy

Italy, like most of Europe, celebrates Catholic Christmas. It is customary here to celebrate New Year and Christmas with approximately the same menu. The only difference is that the Christmas menu does not contain meat products; Italians cook fish as a main course.

Well, after Christmas, Italian housewives personally make cotechino pork sausage, serving it with lentils. The latter has long symbolized long years, health and all the benefits in the family.

England

The British traditionally prepare a stuffed turkey for the Christmas holidays, serving it with a vegetable side dish. For dessert, it's 100% pudding. The preparation of this sweet is special, since bread crumbs, flour, lard with raisins, eggs and various spices are involved. Before serving, the dessert is sprinkled with rum and set on fire. This burning pudding symbolizes an active life position.

France

The Christmas menu in France varies greatly depending on the region. For example, in the northeast of the country they prefer to cook goose, in Burgundy they love turkey, in Provence the obligatory treat is bûche de Noël - a traditional dessert that has become popular outside of France.

Parisians celebrate the main holidays of the year with oysters. This is a must-have attribute of the Christmas table. Housewives also make sandwiches with foie gras and cheese. All this exoticism is washed down with French wine.

Among the typical dishes for all French people are smoked ham, salads, and sausage.

Germany

Traditional German Christmas treats include fondue and raclette. The tradition of serving carp at the New Year's table is gradually becoming a thing of the past.

When it comes to drinks, Germans prefer champagne, punch or traditional cruchon.

Czech

Czech apple strudel is an indispensable dish on the New Year's table. This very delicate roll with apples on puff pastry will not leave any of your relatives and guests indifferent. Strudel is eaten with ice cream, cream or jam. Czechs usually prepare a simple festive table for the New Year with quite hearty dishes. Be sure to fry the carp and eat it with potato salad. Dessert dishes are gingerbread and cookies.

Portugal

The Portuguese love to eat grapes on New Year's Eve. They believe that wine berries are a symbol of prosperity and happiness in the family. As soon as the clock starts chiming 12 times, the Portuguese try to contrive to eat 12 grapes. So many grapes, so many wishes. The same custom exists in Italy.

Among the traditional dishes of Portuguese cuisine on the Christmas table you can often find octopus in rice, roast lamb or goat meat. The Portuguese pay special attention to baking. Christmas cake Bolorey - every guest of this beautiful country who finds himself here during the Christmas holidays should try this dessert.

Denmark

A classic Danish dish is roast goose stuffed with dried fruits. This dish is placed on the table with a golden brown crust. An alternative would be roasted pork. It is served with potatoes and red cabbage salad.

A traditional Danish dessert, Grütze, is a rice porridge flavored with toasted almonds and a very thick berry jelly. Danes usually drink mulled wine or beer.

Iceland

Traditionally, Icelanders fry venison and ferment herring. The latter is mainly consumed in a restaurant or ordered already prepared at home, since the room may smell bad during cooking.

You can also often find baked turkey, leg of lamb or pork on the Icelandic Christmas table.

Poland

Polish housewives prepare exactly 12 different treats for the New Year's table. The main condition of the dishes is the absence of meat. The queen of the table is fish, prepared in different ways: baked, aspic, fried. Among the Poles, fish symbolizes family well-being. And fish is one of the symbols of the Christian faith. Fish is served with soups, porridges, potatoes, kutya, dumplings, apples, nuts and various pastries.

Netherlands

The Dutch consider donuts, which are deep-fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar, to be the main New Year's dish. In addition, all main main courses contain salted beans, which are considered a traditional Dutch food.

But dishes of traditional European cuisine are also a must on the Dutch holiday table. This includes fried beef, pheasant, and glazed ham. American culture also made its own adjustments to the Christmas menu, adding roast turkey.

One interesting New Year's custom came to the country from the former Dutch colony of Indonesia. Each guest, coming to the house for the holidays, brings with him a small frying pan with some kind of festive dish, which is laid out on the common table.

Nepali New Year takes place in April. This festival has a unique name - Bisket Jatra. Nepalese pay less attention to a rich table than to spectacles. Noisy musical theater shows are popular. When Nepalese get to the table, they usually present dishes from Indian and Tibetan cuisines. The most common lentil dish is dal baht.

Mexico

Residents of Mexico prefer spicy dishes. That is why Romeritos are an obligatory attribute on the Mexican holiday table. This exotic dish is prepared from dried shrimp, potatoes and a plant similar to rosemary. In addition, according to tradition, stuffed turkey, a lot of corn with beans and sweet bunuelos pancakes are eaten. Mexicans love to drink tequila, punch or light wine.

Vietnam

The Vietnamese call the New Year Tet and they celebrate this holiday according to the lunar calendar. Each year, New Year's Day falls on a different date ranging from January 20th to February 20th. The ingredients of holiday dishes are rice and meat. Vietnamese delicacies include pork in coconut milk and banh trung cake. The technology for preparing banh chung is as follows: mixed rice and pork are wrapped in bamboo leaves, after which it is all fried.

Japan

Unlike European countries and America, where Christmas is considered the main winter holiday, here the New Year is such.

The Japanese New Year's table here is noticeably different from the rest of the world. The Japanese call their New Year's dishes in one word - osechi-ryori. These are usually boiled seaweed, fish cake, sweet potato puree with chestnuts, and sweet soybeans.

It's hard to imagine New Year's celebrations without traditional Japanese mochi cakes made from sticky rice. There are many varieties of mochi; the Japanese love to give them as gifts to family and friends.

The symbolic food of the Japanese is chestnuts. In Japan, they believe that eating chestnuts will bring success in all your endeavors. For this reason, chestnuts are added to many New Year's dishes: side dishes and desserts. Chestnuts are also used as an ingredient in mochi cakes made from boiled rice. A Japanese New Year's table would be incomplete without seaweed, beans and herring caviar.

America

In the USA, as in many other countries, they prefer to cook a turkey stuffed with vegetables or apples for Christmas. The cooking method is special. The festive bird is stuffed with everything in the refrigerator.

Some Americans prepare a drink called eggnog for the holiday, which consists of eggs, powdered sugar, brandy and milk.

Canada

Canadians celebrate New Year's Eve just like the British or Americans: with stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, vegetables and raisin pudding for dessert. Sweet dishes on Canadian holiday tables include buttercream cakes and shortbread cookies.

Australia

Here, Christmas is celebrated in the middle of summer (in the Southern Hemisphere of the planet, December and January are the summer months), so traditionally the family goes out into the countryside and has a barbecue. Favorite dessert is strawberry meringue or ice cream.

And you can find out about the most in one of the articles on our website.

Argentina

Argentines also celebrate the New Year with Christmas in the summer. The main dish is veal and tuna, seasoned with sauce or mayonnaise. It’s impossible without capers. Europeans cannot understand such an explosive combination, but Argentines assure that it is very tasty.

Every day the New Year holidays are approaching, when close relatives and friends gather around the festive table. Every country in the world has its own culinary traditions - housewives spare no effort and time to prepare traditional dishes, wanting to please their loved ones and guests. What do they cook for the New Year in overseas countries? I’ll tell you about the culinary New Year traditions of different countries of the world and share some recipes. Maybe from these you will choose the dishes that you want to prepare for the holiday table 2017. And don’t forget

Original dishes for the New Year 2017

Christmas table in an English family It is impossible to imagine without traditional pudding made from pieces of wheat bread, candied fruits, cherries, apples and raisins with the addition of nuts, citrus zest and aromatic spices. It takes a whole month to prepare Christmas pudding - the finished dessert is doused with rum, set on fire and impressively served on the festive table.

A must at New Year's meal in Poland is a fish that symbolizes prosperity and family well-being. Remember? There are always twelve dishes on the New Year's table, among which there is not a single meat dish. On this evening, housewives serve either dumplings, barley porridge with prunes, and for dessert - chocolate cake or puff strudel with apples.

In Bulgaria The main New Year's dish is considered to be moussaka - a huge layered casserole of meat, vegetables and various spices.

The main decoration of the New Year's meal for residents U.S.A- traditional stuffed turkey. Any ingredients can be used as filling - potatoes, apples, oranges, grapes, nuts and anything else you have in the refrigerator.

In Scandinavian countries the first thing on New Year's Eve is served hot salmon soup with cream . The New Year's menu must include fish dishes and stewed meat ribs or baked poultry with mashed potatoes.

Salmon soup with cream

Compound:

• Salmon 500 g
• Potatoes 4-5 pcs.
• One onion or leek
• One carrot
• 3-4 tomatoes
• Cream 500 ml
• Fresh herbs
• Salt and pepper
• Vegetable oil
• Water 1.25 l

1. Cut the fish into small pieces. Potatoes and onions - into cubes, carrots - on a coarse grater or as you wish, scald tomatoes with boiling water, remove the skin and cut into cubes.
2. Pour oil into the pan. Sauté onions and carrots until soft. Add tomatoes, simmer for 3-5 minutes.
3. Pour water, bring to a boil, then add potatoes + salt and pepper, cook until tender for 10 minutes.
4. When the potatoes are almost ready, add the fish and cream, cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add finely chopped herbs.

Traditional hot snack Italians for the New Year - Kotekino pork sausage made from pork meat and lard, which is baked with the addition of Mediterranean herbs, juniper berries, shallots and pear pieces. It is customary to serve steamed perch or cod baked in white wine .

Cod baked in white wine

Compound:

• cod fillet 800 g
• butter 50 g
• dry white wine 100 ml
• parsley
• salt pepper

1. Grease the baking dish with oil. Place cod fillets. Salt and pepper.
2. Place pieces of butter on top and pour wine.
3. Finely chop the parsley and sprinkle on the fish.
4. Place in a hot oven t=200 degrees, bake for 25-30 minutes. Keep an eye on the process, as everyone's oven is different.

On New Year's Eve German housewives serve fragrant salmon baked with cream and spinach in puff pastry and fried carp with a side dish of potatoes in mustard sauce. The festive table is decorated with a dish of pies, apples, nuts and raisins, as a symbol of family well-being in the coming year. For dessert, German families usually serve a cake filled with marzipan or a nut pie.

Baked salmon with cream and spinach in puff pastry

Compound:

• Salmon fillet 600 g
• Spinach fresh or frozen 400 g
• Cream 50 ml
• Salt pepper
• Lemon juice
• Puff pastry 450 g
• Egg for brushing dough

1. Season salmon fillet with salt, pepper and lemon juice
2. Pour cream over spinach and simmer until liquid evaporates
3. Roll out the dough, place half of the spinach with cream in the middle, and salmon fillet on this layer. Top with another layer of spinach.
4. Wrap the dough in a tight envelope. Place seam side down on a baking sheet. Brush with beaten egg.
5. Pierce the dough with a fork in several places
6. Place in a preheated oven t=200 degrees for 25-30 minutes

In the Netherlands New Year's celebrations are not complete without a traditional snack - salted beans. For main course, they prepare rabbit stewed in wine sauce, to which lard, chopped shallots, spices and sour cream are added.

New Year's table in France literally bursting with delicious snacks and hot dishes. The festive menu here includes snails, oysters, goose liver pate, and several types of cheese. Also served on the table on New Year's Eve is spicy onion soup and turkey baked in white wine with herbs and vegetables.

Onion soup

Compound:

• 1 kg onion
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt, pepper
• 2 cloves garlic
• 250 ml dry white wine
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 liter chicken broth
• French baguette (loaf)
• 150 g hard cheese

1. Cut the onion into half rings. Melt butter in a frying pan, add olive oil + salt and pepper. Add the onion, stir and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.
2. After 20 minutes, add finely chopped garlic, wine, thyme sprigs, bay leaf. Cover with a lid and simmer for another 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat, remove thyme sprigs and bay leaves.
4. Add hot broth, stir and leave covered for 15-20 minutes.
5. Cut the bread into pieces and toast in a toaster, oven or dry frying pan until golden brown. Cut into cubes.
6. Pour the soup into ceramic pots, add bread and sprinkle with grated cheese.
7. Bake in the oven until the cheese melts.

Spanish New Year's meal can't do without roast lamb or suckling pig. As a snack, you can find shellfish and fish delicacies here. When the clock strikes, it is customary here to eat 12 grapes, making wishes for each month of the new year.

In Bulgaria, Romania and other European countries, it is customary to bake pies with surprises for the New Year - some products hide a coin, a nut or a pepper pod for good luck. Anyone who finds a surprise in their pie will have good luck all year long.

The long New Year holiday season provides an opportunity to escape from the everyday hustle and bustle and pay attention to loved ones and friends. Take your time and prepare one of the dishes of European cuisine for the festive table - surprise your guests with your culinary skills. If you have experience in preparing unusual New Year's dishes, please share in the comments.

We wish everyone a happy New Year holidays and new culinary discoveries!

2016 - 2017, . All rights reserved.

Christmas is a special holiday for many people around the world. And, perhaps, one of the most important traditions is Christmas dinner. What foods are served on Christmas Eve at the festive table in different parts of our planet? Traditional German treats include mulled wine and candied fruit pie called stollen. Stollen is often baked with humps, in memory of the camels on which the Magi reached the cradle of Jesus. Many Bulgarians go hungry on the eve of Christmas, and for the holiday they treat themselves to stuffed vegetables, soup and pies.
The festive table of Fijians consists of fish wrapped in banana leaves, stuffed chicken and baked pork. It is cooked in an earthen oven “lovo”, lined with heavy stones.
In the United Kingdom, fig pudding serves as table decoration. It should be doused with brandy and set on fire.
Italians call Christmas dinner the “feast of the seven fishes.” The table is served with a variety of seafood dishes - squid, cod, anchovies, as well as pasta with shellfish.
The French also prefer seafood. Lobsters, oysters and foie gras are usually on the table.
The traditional Swedish Christmas dish is rice pudding. Almonds are hidden in one of the portions, promising good luck to the finder until the end of the year.
Residents of Costa Rica enjoy tamales, a pork and corn dish whose recipe has been passed down from generation to generation.
In Ethiopia, they eat doro wat, a chicken roast served on thin flatbread. And forget about knives and forks, this dish should be handled with your hands.
In South Africa, Christmas comes in the summer and locals flock to the braai - an African grill - to roast lamb, turkey or pork.
In Australia, December is also summer, and Australians have a Christmas barbecue. They roast turkey, lamb and large shrimp.
Ghanaians eat corn porridge, okra stew and a puree of various root vegetables called fufu at Christmas.
Most of those who find Christmas in Antarctica celebrate the holiday on board the ship. So they have to make do with meat, canned food and frozen vegetables.
Christians in Egypt observe a strict fast for three days before Christmas. The main dish at this time is “kushari”, it is prepared from pasta, rice and lentils, seasoned with tomato-vinegar sauce.
In India, biryani, or curry, is served for the holiday - a dish of rice and spices with the addition of meat, fish, eggs or vegetables. For dessert there is sweet milk pudding.
Residents of the Philippines prefer a whole roasted suckling pig with a ball of yellow cheese placed in its mouth.
In Iceland, Christmas dinner starts at 6 pm and consists of a wide variety of meat dishes, including venison.
In Argentina they serve “vitel tonne” - veal in tuna sauce, as well as turkey, pork, and bread. Often the holiday dinner is served in the backyard, barbecue style.
Residents of Finland organize a buffet for Christmas, which includes ham, bread, fish, various casseroles and vegetables, as well as heated wine with spices.
In the United States, many people prefer eggnogg, or drunken eggnog, a drink made from beaten eggs with sugar and wine.
Believe it or not, on Christmas night, many Japanese people flock to KFC to eat crispy chicken and sides.

Each dish on the New Year and Christmas table is endowed with its own special meaning and significance in different countries and among different peoples. Let's take a short walk through the traditions of the New Year's table.

New Year's table in France
In France, a holiday is not a holiday if there is no traditional roast turkey at the New Year's table.

What is remarkable about the New Year's table in Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia
But on the holiday tables of Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia there are never birds - geese, ducks, chickens, turkeys. In these countries they believe that you cannot eat poultry this evening, as happiness will fly away.

New Year's pies in Romania, Australia, Bulgaria
In Romania, Australia, and Bulgaria, New Year's pies are baked, and not simple ones, but with surprises: whoever gets the pies will be lucky.

New Year's table in Poland
In Poland, you can count exactly twelve dishes on the New Year's table. And not a single meat one! Mushroom soup or borscht, barley porridge with prunes, dumplings with butter, chocolate cake for dessert. The obligatory dish is fish. In many countries it is considered a symbol of family happiness and prosperity.

New Year's table in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
A similar set of dishes is present on the New Year's tables of housewives in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. True, they prefer pearl barley porridge, and strudel is a must - a puff pastry with apples, the pride of every good housewife.

New Year's table in Germany
In Germany, on New Year's Eve they always serve a brightly colored dish with apples, nuts, raisins and pies. The symbolism here is as follows: the apple is the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, the nuts with their hard shell and tasty core symbolize the mysteries and difficulties of life. In Germany they say: “God gave the nut, and man must crack it.”

New Year's table in Spain, Portugal, Cuba
In many countries, in Spain, Portugal, Cuba, the grapevine has been considered a symbol of abundance and a happy family hearth since ancient times. Therefore, the inhabitants of these countries eat twelve grapes at midnight when the clock strikes - according to the number of strokes of the clock. With each grape they make a wish - twelve cherished wishes for each month of the year.

New Year's table in Italy
In Italy, it is also customary to serve grapes, nuts, and lentils at the New Year's table as a symbol and guarantee of longevity, health and well-being.

New Year's table in England
In England, traditional Christmas food is pudding and stuffed turkey with vegetables. Pudding is made from bread crumbs, flour, lard, raisins, eggs and various spices. Before serving, the pudding is doused with rum, set on fire and placed on the table flaming.

New Year's table in America
In America, stuffed turkey is also considered a traditional dish. The turkey is stuffed with everything that is lying around in the refrigerator: bread, cheese, prunes, garlic, beans, mushrooms, apples, cabbage.

New Year's table in Holland
In Holland, one of the main national New Year's dishes is salted beans. This is a very difficult food for the stomach, which cannot be lightened with either vodka or red wine.

New Year's table in Cambodia
In Cambodia, the New Year's table is placed near the window and the family's favorite sweets are served.

New Year's custom in Tibet
The people of Tibet have a cute New Year's custom. Housewives bake mountains of pies with a wide variety of fillings and present them to all friends and strangers. The more you give away, the richer you will be!

New Year's table in Japan
In Japan, for the New Year, they prepare dishes from products that, according to legend, bring happiness. Seaweed gives joy, fried chestnuts - success in business, peas and beans - health, boiled fish - peace and good spirits, herring caviar - a happy family and many children. The New Year's meal in Japanese families is quiet and orderly, without noisy conversations and drinking songs. Nothing should distract from thoughts about what awaits everyone in the coming year.

New Year's table in China
In China. After all, it was the Chinese who gave us all these rabbits, dragons and boars that we are trying to “appease” on the night of December 31st to January 1st. Many of the traditional Chinese New Year foods are vegetarian and well seasoned. However, this does not mean at all that the Chinese deny themselves meat on New Year's Day - they eat it and whatnot. But they prepare it in their own way. For example, a chicken is baked or fried only whole, that is, with the head, legs and tail. In China they believe that this way you can strengthen your family. The same applies to fish: it is also cooked whole so that the family is strong and happy.

History of Russian New Year traditions
At first, under Peter the Great, who ordered to celebrate the New Year from December 31 to January 1, the main thing at the holiday was not the table, but the balls. Following the famous line from the song, for lunch, dinner and breakfast, our ancestors had... dancing and drinks to quench their thirst. Almost until the middle of the 19th century, there was no Russian New Year's menu, and what is now considered an invariable part of the New Year's table - all these suckling pigs with buckwheat porridge and geese with sauerkraut or apples - actually came from the Christmas table. At the beginning of the 19th century, cuisine was not complicated. Even in the houses of the nobility, the New Year's table could easily include pickled cucumbers, mushrooms, and radish salad. They also served suckling pig, veal fricassee, fried poultry, boiled trout in wine, and ruff veal. And, by the way, apricots, oranges, grapes and pears - greenhouses were in fashion, fruits were grown in the middle of winter in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The New Year's menu in the second half of the 19th century already included salmon, caviar, smelt and vendace, cheeses - along with the same radishes and pickles. For some reason, they lost interest in mushrooms, but labardan (cod) and watermelons came into fashion. Game competed with suckling pig fried with buckwheat porridge.

Festive roast pigs

It's time for soft drinks, ice cream and cognacs. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, French, Spanish fortified, Italian and German wines were drunk. And in imitation of champagnes, Don sparkling wines were already made. Of course, we drank vodka, liqueurs and liqueurs, Russian homemade and German beer. By the beginning of the twentieth century, anchovies, lobsters, and sardines began to appear on the New Year's table. It was impossible to do without the notorious pig and goose with apples, but hazel grouse and turkeys were already competing with them. During the Christmas days of 1912, 250 thousand piglets, 75 thousand turkeys, 110 thousand geese, 260 thousand chickens and ducks were sold in St. Petersburg. After the revolution, New Year celebrations were cancelled. But they still met him. True, dancing was only possible quietly, so as not to wake up the neighbors. It was then, presumably, that the habit of sitting at the table arose. The food was meager. They tried, of course, to hang nuts in gold and silver foil and apples on the tree banned by the revolution. The New Year tree was rehabilitated in 1936, along with nightly dancing. The Soviet New Year's table did not become elegant - even sausage cut into circles could decorate it. However, Eliseev’s former stores still sold hazel grouse and caviar. In the forties, the New Year was celebrated with vodka, boiled potatoes and herring, decorated with onion rings. Life became more fun in the fifties. Celebrating the New Year was no longer considered reprehensible. And it became possible to gather not only in a narrow circle, but also in a large group. On the tables appeared: jelly, herring under a fur coat, Baltic sprats. The second coming of the Olivier salad has arrived - with doctor's sausage instead of hazel grouse. It was cooked in a large basin and generously seasoned with mayonnaise.

Pig, goose or duck were desirable, but not required. When the chimes struck, it was imperative to open a bottle of “Soviet champagne.” In cramped apartments, the table took up all the space, so you had to choose: dancing or eating. With the advent of televisions, the table finally won.