Belarusian cuisine shares the same roots with cuisines of other Eastern and Northern European countries, basing predominantly on meat and various vegetables typical for the region.
The history of gastronomy in Belarus reveals a highly exotic cuisine. In the early 15th century whole fried aurochs, the ancestor of domestic cattle, from the primeval Belaviezha forest that is now a national preserve, were sent as a gift to the German emperor.[citation needed] The records of exports of the candied roots of Sweet Flag (Acorus calamus) to Western Europe date back to the 16th century. First mentioned in an early 17th century political pamphlet, baked goose with green peppers was still a popular dish for November feasts – All Saints and St Martin’s – in the mid-19th century.[citation needed]
Aside from its predominantly Ruthenian roots, Belarusian cuisine is very close to Lithuanian and Polish, because of the intermingling of these three peoples first within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (11th-15th centuries) and later within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (16th-17th centuries). Though the Belarusian nobility, like the Polish elite, borrowed much from Italian, German, and French cuisines, this influence hardly made itself felt in the diet of the peasant majority.[citation needed] Still, some of the borrowed dishes spread throughout the society, such as lazanki (a mixture of flour dumplings and stewed meat, related to Italian lasagna) and, above all, various dishes made of grated potatoes, typical for German cuisine.