‘Kozuli’ are figurines (of a deer, a horse, a calf, a kid, a bird, a cow) made of specifically cooked dough. As a rule, ‘kozuli’ were made on the eve of the New Year. Maskers would get together and sing congratulatory songs and carols –‘kolyadki’. They greeted the masters of the house, wished them good crop and health. Instead the maskers demanded a reward but of special kind, ‘kozuli’ to be sure.

Dough figurine served as a talisman (a guardian) against evil forces. The hostess usually left one or two ‘kozuli’ in the house for the year to come so that happiness would not leave it.

Fish cuisine was abundant in the Pomorye Land, the ‘national’ dish was by right ‘ukha’ (fish soup). Even in a far away places, such as Krasnoborsk area, fish was often served. The reason was the great number of rivers and lakes. Here, like in other places, fish, mainly grayling, was salted (in the Pomor language ‘kharyuz’). Grayling has few bones, so it was eaten like salted herring. Another ‘herring like’ fish was roach, it was salted, fried, cooked in a soup. Ten cm long gudgeon were very good for ‘ukha’: the fish was cooked in a cloth bag, the latter was then wrung out, and a bigger fish was added into the broth.

‘Shti’ (shchi) were prepared in clay bowls-‘shtinnik’. A piece of meat, water, some salt went to the bowl and into the oven. When meat was ready, it was cut into small pieces on the ‘kara’ (a round or oval wooden board), then it went into a common dish called ‘yendova’, some broth was added and the family ate it together. They could bite some onion followed by shti spoonful, there might be a plate of cooked potatoes to accompany the soup. Some liked it with bread crums or dry crusts (put into the ‘yendova’).

In the majority of peasants’ families meat ‘shti’ were on big holidays, more often they cooked ‘lent’ shti. Potatoes were not added to it before the beginning of the 19th century; turnip, swede, stinging nettle, orache, sorrel were cooked together, onion and garlic were added. «The poor as we are, but there is a small onion in our shti». A common dish on the poor table was ‘goroshnicha’ – a very thick soup of peas and water.

Pike, bream, ide were placed in a low clay dish, added a bit of water, some salt, butter and onions and stewed them in an oven. Frying fish started when refined oils and stoves appeared. For a holiday table more expensive fish was bought (cod, catfish, halibut, salmon, starlet), sometimes the well-being of the family was evaluated by their ability to buy sea fish.

‘Borvina’, the hunting trophy (hazel hen, ‘kopaly’- female hazel hen, black grouse, capercailzie, hare) of the master of the house were a great help in northern cuisine. It was obvious that where game was abundant people had their fill. ‘Borvina’, a favourite dish in the Kholmogory area, was cooked of several birds, hazel hens for example. Hazel hens are usually not bigger than a fist, several of them were placed tightly into the clay bowl. Salt was added, the bowl was closed with a lid so that the juice did not evaporate. Actually two dished were made – a broth in a cup and ‘borvina’ on a plate.