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.

It is a traditional Ukrainian pastry, which is made during orthodox holiday, Honey Spas (the middle of August). It is a rather simple pastry with poppy-seeds saturated with honey.

It is a national Ukrainian dish, which boasts original flavor. It is more common in Western Ukraine.

Tasty and fragrant borsht is the rich Ukrainian cuisine's trademark, in regard this original dish was described in literary works by Ukrainian and Russian classical writers for a reason. You won't find a housewife in Ukraine, who can't cook borsht, although it's not the simplest dish at all. It has plenty of components and complicated cooking technology. Borsht has many varieties and is cooked differently in different regions of Ukraine. Everything depends on products' combination and they can be very different. However, its main component - beetroot - is used in any kind of borsht without fail. It is beetroot that gives borsht its distinctive red color. Another first course's invariable ingredient is meat: it might be pork, beef or poultry depending on cooker's preferences. There is vegetarian borsht, though, where meat is usually replaced with kidney beans. Containing multitude of ingredients - mainly meat, various vegetables and seasonings, as well as pork fat with garlic in some recipes - borsht definitely helps to strengthen immune system and keeps from catching cold in winter. However, Ukrainian borsht's main advantage is its unbelievable taste! Freshly cooked borsht has an incomparable scent, and there is no substitute for its rich taste in the world. Borsht is regularly served with sour cream and pampushkas with garlic.