Title:	Leo Tolstoy’s Family Recipe Book
	Author:	Sergey Beltyukov
	Published:	May 21, 2014, Amazon Digital Services
	No. of Pages:	74
	Cover Price:	$3.99 Kindle

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Sometimes cookbook collectors purchase a certain cookbook because it contains interesting historical information rather than showstopper recipes. Leo Tolstoy’s Family Recipe Book is one of those cookbooks that has minimal recipes that modern cooks will actually make, but plenty of fascinating information about the personal life of famous author Leo Tolstoy. The historical information was taken from the diary of Tolstoy’s wife, Sophia, as well as the recipes, which are given as they came from the diary, and updated to include modern methods of cookery.

Of course the original diary was written in Russian, so the book has been translated; Sergey Beltyukov seems to have done an excellent job with the translation. There are recipes for famous Russian dishes such as Vereniki (delicious stuffed dumplings), and Pasca, but most of the recipes are unique and not particularly Russian sounding. The book is organized into chapters, with the desserts first, which is a bit different, but that chapter is the one with the most interesting recipes. These are not recipes one makes often, since some of them call for ingredients such as an entire pound of butter and 12 eggs; the Bers Pirozhki (Apple Pasties recipe), however, had a reasonable amount of ingredients, was doable, although time consuming, and turned out quite delicious.

While there are no pictures of the actual dishes, there are some vintage pictures of the Tolstoys, their estate, and their village. The vignettes from the diary are very interesting and give readers a good idea of what the lives of the Tolstoys was really like.

Fans of Tolstoy’s writing will want to own this book for the historical information alone. It is very inexpensive, and well-worth reading.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

This book may be purchased at Amazon:
Leo Tolstoy's Family Recipe Book