Book of Days Tales

Today is the birthday (1809) of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (Никола́й Васи́льевич Го́голь), [O.S. 19 March], a Russian writer of Ukrainian origin. Gogol was born in the Ukrainian Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire, present-day Ukraine. His mother descended from Leonty Kosyarovsky, an officer of the Lubny Regiment in 1710. His father Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, a descendant of Ukrainian Cossacks (see Lyzohub family) and who died when Gogol was 15 years old, belonged to the ‘petty gentry’, wrote poetry in Ukrainian and Russian, and was an amateur Ukrainian-language playwright. As was typical of the avant-garde Ukrainian gentry of the early 19^th century, the family spoke Ukrainian as well as Russian. As a child, Gogol helped stage Ukrainian-language plays in his uncle’s home theater.

Gogol is relatively easy to celebrate with specific dishes because his writings are filled with lush descriptions of food. He was also a joyous gourmet, despite the fact that he had habitual stomach ailments. In Italy, for example, he learned how to make Italian pasta dishes, which he often prepared for his friends. Pogodin recalls how Gogol’s spirits would rise whenever he had a chance to serve macaroni:

…right at dinner he would make the macaroni, not trusting anyone else to do it. He demanded a large bowl, and with the artistry of a true gastronome began to sort through the individual pieces of macaroni; he put into the steaming bowl some butter and grated cheese and mixed them together. Opening the lid, with an especially bright smile for everyone at the table he’d exclaim: “Now fight over this, people!”

When traveling, Gogol would sometimes buy fresh milk at the coach stops, skim off the cream, and churn his own butter. One of his favorite dishes was boiled goat’s milk mixed with rum, which he jokingly called gogol-mogol. Kogel mogel, gogl-mogl, gogel-mogel, gogol-mogol (Гоголь-моголь), gogli-mogli, or gogle-mogle is an egg-based homemade dessert popular in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in Caucasus. The dish consists of raw egg yolks and sugar, beaten and ground until they form a creamy texture, with no discernible grains of sugar. In modern kitchens, it is often mixed in a blender until it changes color and becomes thick. A classic single Gogl-Mogl portion is made from two egg yolks and three teaspoons of sugar beaten into a cream-like dish. Variations can be made by adding chocolate, vodka, rum, honey, vanilla, lemon juice, orange juice, raisins, whipped cream, or a number of other ingredients based on taste preferences.

Then there is kulebiaka (kулебяка), or four-cornered pie. Here’s an excerpt from Gogol:

And bake us a four-cornered fish pie,” he said, sucking the air through his teeth and inhaling deeply. “In one corner I want you to put the sturgeon cheeks and the gristle cooked soft, in another throw in some buckwheat, and then some mushrooms and onions, and some sweet milt, and the brains, and whatever else, you know the sort of thing. And make sure that on the one side it’s, you know, a nice golden brown, but not so much on the other side. And the pastry, make sure it’s baked through, till it just crumbles away, so that the juices soak right through, do you see, so that you don’t even feel it in your mouth, so it just melts like snow.

Kulebiaka is a pie with four distinct fillings, distributed in such a way that a slice contains all four. Making it is a rigmarole, and I have never done it. Instead I give you this website which has complete instructions with some photos showing the steps . . .

Salmon Coulibiac – Kulebyaka

. . . or there is this video:

Neither site gives quite the variety that Gogol suggests – but close.