🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic people and the main population of Ukraine. Ukrainians are an East Slavic people and the main population of Ukraine: according to the All-Ukrainian Population Census 2001, they numbered 37.5 million, or 77.8% of the inhabitants of a country where people of more than 130 nationalities live. Their traditions include curd cheese and ryazhenka, Carpathian sheep's brynza, salo, horilka with its infusions, and an old wine culture.

Most Ukrainians live on the plains of the forest-steppe and steppe, while in the Carpathians the pastoral customs of the Hutsuls and Boykos have survived. The main dairy animal is the cow. In 2022 Ukraine produced 7.77 million tonnes of milk, about two thirds of it from households rather than enterprises; the average yield was 5,119 kg per cow. Sheep graze on the high mountain pastures (polonyny), and the Hutsuls make brynza from their milk.

Traditional products are fresh curd cheese (in Ukrainian simply “syr”, cheese), sour cream, cream and butter. Baked milk was slowly heated in the oven, and adding sour cream to it made ryazhenka, in folk speech pryazhanka or parukha; under the Ukrainian standard DSTU 4565:2006 it is a national fermented milk product. Under the same standard, varenets is now made from sterilised milk, while kysliak, according to Klynovetska, is samokysh, milk that has soured on its own. In the Carpathians, hliahanyi cheese was set with lamb's rennet and heavily salted.

Dairy also has its place in customs: ryazhenka often ended a festive meal, and cheese goes into the Easter basket. Hutsul brynza and the culture of Hutsul cheese figurines are inscribed in the National Inventory of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine, and in 2022 the Culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking was inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

The great feast of the table is the Holy Supper, Sviat Vechir. Since the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church moved to the Revised Julian calendar in 2023, most Ukrainians sit down on 24 December at the first star: hay goes under the tablecloth, a didukh sheaf stands in the corner, kutia of wheat, poppy seed and honey comes first, uzvar is the drink, and the other dishes, varenyky, Lenten borshch with pampushky, holubtsi, fish, mushrooms, are meatless. Food researcher Olena Braichenko notes that twelve dishes became the norm only recently; there used to be three, seven or nine. In 2025 the traditions of Holy Eve entered Ukraine's National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Salo is salted pig fat from the back and sides, with or without skin, eaten in thin slices and sometimes smoked. A Ukrainian meat technology textbook describes the salting: slabs at least 2.5 cm thick are rubbed with salt, layered with more salt, pressed under a weight and kept for 14–16 days at 2–4 °C, with garlic and pepper added for flavour. Finished salo is firm, white or pinkish when cut, with 3–4% salt. The back fat itself is 91–93% fat and melts at 30–40 °C. Salo takes up smoke one and a half times faster than pork meat. It has no protected name.

Mead, or khmilnyi med, is counted among the oldest drinks of the Ukrainian lands. Ukrainian horilka has been known since the 15th century; under the 2022 law it is a spirit of at least 37.5% vol. made from potato and/or grain alcohol. Beside it stand Cossack-era infusions: varenukha, horilka with honey, dried fruit or berries and spices, was once even boiled or baked, while sources still disagree whether zapikanka was an infusion or a berry distillate. Spotykach has been known since the 18th century, and ternivka carries on the home tradition of berry drinks.

Ukrainians also have an old wine tradition: grapes have been grown here since the 6th century BC. In 2024 enterprises had 12.9 thousand hectares of wine grapes, mostly in the Odesa, Mykolaiv and Zakarpattia oblasts.

Why it matters to you: look for DSTU 4565:2006 on ryazhenka, the standard under which it is a national fermented milk product, and check the strength of horilka, which by law is at least 37.5% vol. Well-salted salo, according to the textbook, is firm and white or pinkish when cut.