In the protesters’ arsenal are trays with slices of buttered bread and the central ingredient of the classic Ukrainian sandwich: smoked and salted pork fat, or salo.

More than a few Ukrainians swear that salo makes them strong and beautiful, and some insist that it can treat liver problems. There were many takers for the salo sandwiches making the rounds on the revolutionary square, especially for the “troshechki” variety, with a generous coating of pepper on bits of salted pork fat.

While there are restaurants open nearby, not everybody can afford them. And the goal, of course, is to keep a sea of demonstrators visible at all times to the television cameras that are broadcasting the protest events live virtually around the clock. Outdoor canteens where protesters can line up for bowls of soup and cups of tea, and volunteers who circle through the crowd like waiters and waitresses at some huge, outdoor cocktail party, serve the goals of the protest movement far more than people sneaking off to McDonald’s.

Wherever the eye falls on Independence Square, cooks busy themselves about huge kettles over bonfires in an all but medieval tableau of an army at camp, but for the blinking neon advertisements all about.

One cook, Yuri Dorozhivsky, shared this recipe for buckwheat with salo (feeds thousands):

1) Heat a 50-gallon kettle over an open fire.

2) Brown 20 pounds of salo and 10 pounds of onions.

3) Fill with water and bring to a gentle boil, stir in 60 pounds of buckwheat kernels.