Lithuanian cuisine

Lithuanian cuisine consists mostly of the traditional Lithuanian dishes . Because of a rather common climate and agriculture, many similar staples are grown and consumed in all Eastern Europe, thus Lithuanian cuisine belongs to a big family of Eastern European cuisines. Nevertheless, it has its own peculiarities, which were formed during the country's difficult history and by many different influences.

Because of long common history with Poland, Lithuanians share many similar dishes and beverages. Thus they have their own versions of pierogi (koldūnai), pączki (spurgos), blini (blynai). German traditions also influenced Lithuanian cuisine during ages, while introducing a lot of pork and potato dishes, such as potato pudding kugelis, potato sausages vėdarai. The most exotic part of all the influences is Eastern (Karaite cuisine and other) influence, and such dishes as kibinai, čeburekai are popular in Lithuania.

Soviet occupation badly damaged Lithuanian cuisine because of the continual lack of products and the constraints of traditional culture. But after restoring its independence in 1990, traditional cuisine becomes one of the ways to recreate Lithuanian identity.

Details

Traditionally, the main product of Lithuanian cusine is dark rye bread (duona) which is used substantially more often than light wheat bread. Rye has grown well on farms in the northerly climate of Lithuania. Bread is often eaten buttered.

The most used vegetable in Lithuanian recipes which often is a substitute for bread is the potato, most commonly boiled and sometimes garnished with dill. Potatoes also grow well in such northerly climates as Lithuania's.

Cucumbers and dill pickles are rather popular. Beets (burokai) are grown more commonly than other areas of the world and are often used for making borscht. Cabbage is used more commonly than in the Western world as a side vegetable, as a main ingredient in soup, or in making cabbage rolls called balandeliai.

Many Lithuanian foods tend to be relatively blander than spicy foods in other parts of the world. Dill (krapai) is a rather commonly grown herb for flavoring as a spice, and caraway seed (kmynai) is used more commonly as a flavoring additive than in the West.

One of the characteristics of Lithuanian cuisine is quite wide use of wild berries and mushrooms. Traditionally, certain edible mushrooms such as boletus (baravykas) have grown and been picked and used for food in Lithuania. Various wild berries such as cranberries (spanguolės), bilberries (mėlynės), red bilberries (bruknės), great bilberries (vaivorai), wild strawberries (žemuogės) etc. are gathered in the forest, eaten or made into jams, thus compensating the lack of vitamins in the cold season.

Apples, plums, and pears, which grow in the local climate, are commonly used fruits. <-- Because of the cold climate, tropical fruits such as citrus fruits, bananas, and pineapples don't grow outside and were traditionally used less often. --> Fruit compote is sometimes made. Gooseberries (agrastai) and currants (serbentai) are cultivated and eaten more commonly than in the U. S.

The most used meat is pork, which can be fried, brined, smoked and jerked. There are plenty kinds of smoked pork products such as ham and a certain kind of softer sausage with a larger-grained fill are common, often as main courses rather than thin-sliced for sandwiches. Pig's feet have traditionally been chopped up and jellied as košelena, sometimes with horseradish as a condiment. Fish obtained from local areas, such as pike or perch, is often prepared with the rib bones still in the fish, and must be removed by the eater. Another important part in the Lithuanian cuisine is the cottage cheeses, of which many sorts are made: sour, sweet, filled with caraway, hard and soft.

Lithuanian style cakes are often baked in a rectangular pan and sometimes have apple or plum slices baked in, or use apricot or other filling, and use icing less often than typical round cakes in the West. These cakes are cut into squares for serving. Poppy seed is sometimes used as a swirl filling in dessert bread and as a flavoring in other pastries. In the past, pies were not common in Lithuania. Traditional Lithuanian candy was more a chocolate bar or box of chocolates style, sometimes with fruit or berry flavors, than a Western candy bar type with caramel, fudge, or nougat.

There also are many specific dishes for traditional festivals. For example, Lithuanians have their own version of the 12-dishes Christmas Eve Supper called Kučios.

Soups

Barščiai - hot borscht (the beetroot soup); can be served uncreamed or blended with some sour cream; sometimes chopped Boletus mushroom is added
Bulvinių kukulių sriuba - minced potatoes rolled to small balls, and boiled in milk. Usually made of potatoes prepared for cepelinai.
Chopped cabbage soup flavored with carrot extract.
Juka - blood soup from the southern region of Lithuania.
Sour Cabbage soup with pork.
Šaltibarščiai (it means "cold borscht") - cold soup of soured milk that has impresive pink color. It is filled with shredded (boiled and/or marinated) beetroot and various other chopped vegetables (cucumber and dill) usually some sourcream is added and often served with hard-boiled egg or a boiled potato on the side.

Meals

Balandeliai - cabbage rolls
Blynai - Although blynai is often translated as pancakes, they are somewhat more similar to crepes, although usually thicker and/or smaller. They are more solidly-filled than the spongy pancakes usually eaten in North America. They are made from fried batter, often filled with grated apple or potato.

Žemaičių blynai - potato pancakes
Kėdainių blynai similar to Žemaičių blynai, only biggr and filled with not fully minced meat.
Lietiniai sometimes called Nalesnikai- larger, often square-shaped blintzes made from thin crepes and filled with minced meat, curd with cinnamon or sometimes minced mushroom
- Didžkukuliai or Cepelinai (zeppelins) - potatoes dumplings stuffed with meat, mushrooms or cheese, sometimes garnished with cracklings (spirgučiai - fried bacon bits, sometimes with fried minced onion or cream)
Čeburekai
Šaltiena
Kastinys - sour cream butter
Kibinai - pastry with mutton and onions, a karaite dish
Koldūnai, Virtiniai, Auselės - various kinds of dumplings, filled with minced meet, sausage, cottage cheese or mushrooms, usually garnished with fried bacon (spirgučiai). A Lithuanian type of pierogi.

Šaltnosiukai - similar to virtiniai, only filled with whortleberries. Not found anywhere outside Lithuania.
- Kotletai - thick, soft, ground meat patties, cultets
Kugelis - potato pudding
Skilandis or Kindziukas - pig stomache stuffed with meat and garlic, cold smoked.
Švilpikai - oven baked potato roll.
Vėdarai - potato sausages

Cakes and sweets

Spurgos - a Lithuanian variant of doughnuts
Šakotis or raguotis - a Lithuanian variant of German baumkuchen, distinctive by its shape.
Žagarėliai or Krustai (Chrustai) - lightweight pastry like crullers

Beverages

Beer - extremely popular in all the country, especially after regaining of independence. Lithuanians have several famous beer brands, which often win international awards, as well as plenty of kinds of local beer.
Gira - Lithuanian version of Russian kvass. Especially those from rye bread and from caraway seed are popular. There is also a similar soft-drink distributed in plastic bottles in Lithuania, that is called the same, even if it does not share neither taste nor the production technology with the original gira.
Degtinė - Lithuanian version of vodka, usually made from rye or wheat. It is often produced domesticaly even though it is illegal in Lithuania.
Midus - It is said that the most ancient Lithuanian alcoholic beverage was a mead, but now it is not very popular in Lithuania. Only some companies produce it.
Starka (aged vodka), as well as Krupnikas (honey liqueur) are traditional drinks from the times of Lithuanian-Polish Republic (16-18 centuries). Today Starka is only produced in Poland.
Trauktinė - there are many kinds of these strong herbal vodkas, used also as traditional medicine, and Trejos devynerios (the famous "999") made of 27 different herbs is one of the most known.

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