Before Peter the Great came to power and built St. Petersburg, Russian great princes and tsars lived in the Moscow Kremlin.
The deeply religious Old Russian society followed a large number of fast days. But, for the rest of the year, the tsar feast would begin with a roasted swan.
E.D. Petrova
The following is what an Austrian diplomat Sigismund Herberstein wrote in his ‘Notes on Muscovy’ in the early 16th century: “The servants went out for the meal and brought the vodka they always drink at the beginning of the dinner and then the fried swans, which, on ‘meat’ days, they almost always serve to the guests as the first course. Three of them were placed before the sovereign; he pierced them with a knife to see which was better and preferable to the others, after which he immediately ordered servants to carry them away. Near the door to the dining room, there was a table for cutting food; there, the swan was cut, putting on each dish then four wings, then four legs…”
E.D. Petrova
The best pieces were served to the most honored guests. One Italian ambassador once complained that the ceremony took place so long that, before tasting the dish, the appetite had been played up.
After the swan, other poultry dishes were brought to the table, including cranes, larks, partridges, ducks and chickens.
Hillwood Museum
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