Solomakha

Solomakha (salamakha) is an old, simple dish of Ukrainian — in particular Cossack — cuisine. It is a thin porridge or a thick soup, quickly made from buckwheat (less often wheat or rye) flour whisked into salted boiling water.

The flour was gradually introduced into the boiling water, stirred continuously, until the mass thickened. The finished solomakha was seasoned with vegetable oil — hemp, poppy, or sunflower — and, on non-fasting days, with fatback or cracklings. This unpretentious yet nourishing dish was a typical campaign food of the Zaporozhians and an everyday dish of poorer families, since it required only flour, water, and salt. Solomakha is mentioned in Ukrainian historical songs alongside kulish and teteria as a symbol of the simple Cossack way of life and of our ancestors' ability to feed themselves well from little.