Belarusian cuisine is the traditional cooking of Belarus, built on a rural, agrarian diet of grains, root vegetables, dairy, and foraged mushrooms and berries. Centuries under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian Empire also left it with Polish, Lithuanian, and Russian influences.
Rye bread, potatoes, and pork are dietary mainstays, rounded out with sour cream, cottage cheese, and vegetables like beets, cabbage, carrots, and onions, typically baked, boiled, or fried. The national dish, draniki (potato pancakes), is a fixture at weddings and other celebrations, while machanka, a meat-and-vegetable stew, varies from household to household.