Hallo, everyone! I’m Alexander. I live in Austria but I go on business trips to Moscow every once in a while. Last time I went to a supermarket looking for some snack and ran into something very curious. It was sausage - all pink, round and oblong shaped. First I took it for some kinda ham. I had a wish to try it but decided not to take risks Can you consult me on what this type of sausage is like?

Well this type of sausage has existed in Russia since the Soviet times. There’s a wide range of brands such as Doktorskaya, Ostankinskaya, Kalmiusskaya, Detskaya, Rusanovskaya… As for the taste… best of all it resembles a giant uncooked hot dog, I guess.

I love this sausage. It reminds me of my childhood

Me too! I prefer Doktorskaya to salami-like sausage. It has a really unforgettable taste. However, it certainly depends on the company producing it. My advice to you is to try different brands and choose for yourself which one is the tastiest.

Thank you, guys. I’m thrilled I guess I’ll try it next time I’m in Moscow!

That’s how it looks like. Isn’t it fabolous?...

Doktorskaya sausage (translated as “Doctor’s sausage”) has been produced since 1936 when it first appeared in the Soviet stores. It is called so because it is a diet sort of sausage with low fats.

Колбаса предназначалась в качестве диетического (лечебного) питания больным с соматическими признаками последствий перенесенного длительного голодания или, как тогда написали, «... больным, имеющим подорванное здоровье в результате Гражданской войны и царского деспотизма»

  http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Докторская_колбаса

(The sausage was intended to be diet (treatment) food for sick people with somatic signs of consequences after long starvation or, as was written in those times, “...sick people who have ruined health as a result of the Civil war and tsar’s despotism”.)  That was a pretty cynical formulation of the Soviet authorities. Nevertheless people liked the sausage very much and still love it as it reminds them of the POSITIVE things of their Soviet past.

Man, you must try it fried with smashed potatoes and pickles or green peas… It’s incredibly yummyyyy!!!!

Where does this word (колбаса) actually come from?

Erika - 17 March 2011 01:20 AM

Where does this word (колбаса) actually come from?

from the hebrew words “kol’ basar” (= all meat, all flesh)

Колбаса и политика: если хотите наслаждаться ими — не смотрите, как они делаются. (Отто фон Бисмарк)
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Law and sausage are two things you do not want to see being made (Otto von Bismarck)

Alexander - 25 April 2010 12:08 AM

Hallo, everyone! I’m Alexander. I live in Austria but I go on business trips to Moscow every once in a while. Last time I went to a supermarket looking for some snack and ran into something very curious. It was sausage - all pink, round and oblong shaped. First I took it for some kinda ham. I had a wish to try it but decided not to take risks Can you consult me on what this type of sausage is like?

Anyways you must never ever buy CHEAP sausage cuz you might get a food intoxication. There is no or very little meat in such sausages, there’s mosly soy, fat, starch and other stuff that is made look like old good sausage. In the Soviet times, the quality control was very strict so the food was good and it was very hard to fake it. Today, to our great disappointment, you have to watch out for product copycats cuz there’s fraud everywhere.