Why do Russians eat potatoes without the skin?

[Alina W. Klin]

I don't think the peels were often wasted. They certainly were not wasted in the villages, where they were fed to animals (pigs).  
----- Original Message -----
From: "Laura Kline" <klinela at COMCAST.NET>
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2010 1:00:03 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Why do Russians eat potatoes without the skin?

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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