Recipes

Using alcohol in cooking is a well-known practice. Countless recipes call for wine or beer, while rum and liqueur are used in desserts. Use of vodka for preparing various meals, however, is recommended, because it shortens the cooking time, extends the shelf life (especially for preserved food) and is considered a digestion aid.

Shmakovka, which essentially is the same booze, in cooking is used the same as vodka. In cooking Latgalian housewives usually used only the products and ingredients that they had collected or produced themselves, and they readily included a few drops of shmakovka in their recipes. It was used to make meat more tender and juicy, to make marinade stronger (taking 15-20 ml of shmakovka on 1 kg meat) and to disinfect canning jars. Housewives in the countryside even now practice the old tradition of cuting circles out of parchment paper and diping them in shmakovka to cover the jam before sealing the jar.

If you intend to get acquainted with the culinary traditions of Latgale, be assured that you have never tasted such a delicacy yet. It is possible that the secret of some of the excellently tasting meals lies in the shmakovka.