Specialists claim that Perm cuisine cannot be considered national since there is no Permian nationality. Nevertheless, this term is widely used among culinary experts, and lots of gourmets know the book Perm Cuisine, which was published in 1979 and won gold prize at the ENEA contest back then. It includes recipes typical of 125 nationalities inhabiting the Perm Territory and the Komi Republic.
What are the peculiarities of Perm cuisine?
First of all, this is a wide use of nature’s gifts, such as berries, mushrooms, and herbs. A variety of game dishes were traditionally cooked for festive dinners. Rabbits and wild game (capercaillie, black grouse, and hazel grouse) were trapped and cooked as well. After the local population got hunting weapons, eating the meat of bear, wild boar, deer, and moose became quite common among them.

The rivers provided a rich variety of fish, which was dried, cooked, jerked, steamed and even soured. Burbot, pike, grayling, salmon, sterlet, and whitefish served both as the basis for nourishing soups, and pie stuffing.
For garnish, pearl barley and oatmeal cereals were most often used. Carrots, radishes and small radishes, rutabaga, and turnips were the most common vegetables. They were served raw, steamed and stewed, flavored with local spicy herbs. Potatoes became known in the Komi Republic not before the Soviet power; till date, it has not become widely spread in their national dishes. At the same time, blur and field horsetail were widely used in cooking soups and second courses in the past. Nowadays these ingredients are almost forgotten.
Traditional Drinks
Among the traditional drinks, there were herbal decoctions, kvass, mors (berry drinks), and kissel (jelly fruit drinks). Compotes were cooked with turnips and rutabaga even. Lingonberry and currant leaves, as well as wild rose petals and berries, were in use.

Vitamin rich taiga berries, including cranberries and strawberries, cloudberries and cranberries, blueberries and blackberries ka, honeysuckle and currant, bones and prince, raspberry and bird cherry were picked and harvested in various ways. The most delicious desserts were cooked from them, enriched with milk, cream, and sour cream. Winery was not developed, but for holidays and festivals they made oatmeal or berry home brew and hop beer with the addition of various berries. 
Bread was baked mainly from rye or barley flour and barley cereal. Crushed saltbush, fir bark and fir needles, and ground dried berries were added to the flour. On Russian holidays, they fried pancakes and baked pancakes with a variety of fillings, including meat, fish, vegetables, and berries.

A characteristic feature of Perm baking style is a lot of filling and thin dough layer, since meat or berries were much easier to get than flour.
It was the Komi people who invented to wrap minced meat, mushrooms or radish into a thin layer of dough. Nowadays, a few centuries later, very few people know that the all-favourite Russian dumplings (pelmeni) come from the Perm cuisine.
Shanga Pies
Another traditional Russian dish that was born in the Perm Territory is shanga pie. These are soft flat pies baked of sour or yeast dough, coated with stuffing and topped with sour cream or butter. Nowadays shanga pies are baked in the oven instead of the traditional Russian stove but they are just as beloved as many centuries ago.
Taste original dishes of the Perm cuisine when travelling in Perm and the Perm Territory.

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