It's impossible to imagine authentic Ukrainian cuisine without homemade sausage. This is an absolutely natural and unique product. Meat (often pork, sometimes beef) and salo (pork fat) are used in order to cook homemade sausage. Pig's gut is stuffed with meat and salo, boiled, and then fried on pan or baked in oven Homemade sausage is traditional Ukrainian dish cooked all around the country. Its recipe is basically the same in all regions, but housewives often add something special to it. For instance, some add cognac to homemade sausage, others never fry it, but leave boiled. Homemade sausage is mostly served as appetizer with piece of brown bread.

The pumpkin dishes are very common in traditional Ukrainian cuisine. In general, the pumpkin came from America, however the Ukrainians had caught the fancy of it therefore as of today it is one of the protagonists of Ukrainian fare. The national dishes of pumpkin are multifaceted. It can be used to make thin pancakes, pies, cookies, porridge and paste. Moreover, the pumpkin might be cooked in its own juice with raisins, dried pears and prunes. The pumpkin paste is an individual page of Ukrainian cuisine. It can be made over fire, in oven with milk, honey, and other ingredients. The pumpkin pie might also feature compliments, as nuts, raisins, honey, prunes, etc. It also differs in culinary technique. Of course, as of now, the pumpkin pie is baked in microwave or in oven; nevertheless, there are some age-old recipes about cooking it in firewood stove. The pumpkin pies can be closed or opened. The stuffing of the first one is enclosed inside by the thin layer of dough. This pie contains fewer amounts of calories, and doesn’t boast strong pumpkin flavor. The filling of the opened one is laid on the shortcake, and once baked is dusted with powdered sugar.

Ukha is thin hot fish dish, somewhat reminiscent of fish soup. Zaporizhian Cossacks used to cook it during their campaigns, since they could catch fish in the river, and vegetables were always at hand. Different fish - mostly crucian, perch, redeye, carp - is used for making ukha. At the same time it is not recommended to make ukha from herrings, bream, roach, Caspian roach and sea roach. Firstly, the broth is made out of fish: it is boiled at low heat, without bringing to vigorous boil. Boiling time depends not so much on fish kind as on fish size: the larger the fish is, the longer it is cooked. The dish's specific is its totally transparent broth. Then vegetables and different spices - from black pepper to saffron - are added to the broth and attach rich aroma to it. You can also give unusual taste to ukha by adding 50-100 g of vodka. Ukha is the first course that may be served to festive or everyday table. The same as kulish, it is better to cook ukha outdoors.

This original and mouth-watering meat appetizer can be a good rival to meat jelly. As a rule, it is served with rye bread, mustard and horseradish.