The poet Alexander Pushkin was known as a gourmet, but he also loved simple dishes from Russian cuisine. Pushkin was introduced to Russian dishes by his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, who, besides being a good storyteller, was also a skillful cook. Alexander Sergeevich had a particular fondness for shchi. Pushkin's close acquaintance, Alexandra Osipovna Rosset, a lady-in-waiting at the Russian imperial court, wrote in her memoirs that when she was a guest in Pushkin's family, she gladly ate shchi and chopped cutlets with a garnish of spinach or sorrel. "I loved dining at Pushkin's, and the meal consisted of shchi or green soup with hard-boiled eggs, large chopped cutlets with spinach or sorrel, and for dessert - white gooseberry jam." The poet gave shchi a special place in his work. He mentions them in many descriptions of various feasts. "Well, it's already noon. In the bright hall, The round table is covered with joy; Bread and salt on a clean cloth, Steaming shchi, wine in a glass, And pike lies on the tablecloth" – Pushkin wrote in 1815 in "Letters to Yudin." "My ideal now - a housewife, My desire - peace, And a pot of shchi, and I myself large..." – wrote the poet in "Fragments from Onegin's Journey." However, at that time, in wealthy homes and restaurants, mainly "double shchi" were cooked, with simple shchi being considered food for the poor. Double shchi were shchi cooked based on simple shchi, strained through a sieve. Pushkin's contemporary, V. F. Odoevsky (a well-known writer and culinary gourmet, who published his culinary recipes under the pseudonym "Doctor Puf"), in an appendix to the "Literary Gazette" gave the following recipe for double shchi: "I recommend double shchi. For this, the day before, cook shchi as usual from fresh or sauerkraut, two carrots, one turnip, and two onions; freeze in a clay pot overnight; in the morning, heat, pass the liquid through a sieve, and the thick part, that is, the vegetables and beef, pass through a fine sieve and cook new shchi with new cabbage, roots, beef as usual. And 5 minutes before readiness, pour the strained thick part into the shchi. The spoon in such shchi should stand."