Why do Russians eat potatoes without the skin?

[Melissa Smith]

I've heard it said in this country that lower-income people tend to 
throw out more edible food in their garbage.  Similarly, I had a 
Russian friend here who had a really hard time taking doggie-bags home 
from a restaurant. I think it's a form of personal dignity when the 
situation affords very little of it!

It's similar to dressing up in public when you can only afford one such 
outfit.

Melissa Smith 

On 2/7/10 1:00 PM, Laura Kline wrote:
> What I find surprising is that in a country which has known so much 
hunger,
> a food product is being wasted.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Alina Israeli
> Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:20 PM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Why do Russians eat potatoes without the skin?
> 
> Since the peels are called картофельные очистки (kartofel'nye  
> ochistki), the name carries the idea of being discarded. So if the  
> soup is made of them (суп из картофельных очистков) it simply means  
> that there are no potatoes there, just the peels, someone else got  
> the potatoes and you are having объедки.
> 
> On Feb 6, 2010, at 9:26 PM, Laura Kline wrote:
> 
> > Dear All,
> > As I understand it, Russians almost never eat potatoes with the  
> > skin on.
> > There even the account of a female prisoner who complained of  
> > potato skins
> > in the prison soup. Does anyone know why this is?
> > Thanks,
> > Laura
> >
> 
> Alina Israeli
> Associate Professor of Russian
> LFS, American University
> 4400 Massachusetts Ave.
> Washington DC 20016
> (202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
> aisrael at american.edu
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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------------------------------------

Melissa T. Smith, Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and 
Literatures  
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555
Tel: (330)941-3462

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