Russian gingerbread history. Russian gingerbread: a true story

Everyone remembers the lines from the favorite fairy tale of our childhood - "Tales of the Fisherman and the Fish" by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin:
She sits at the table like a queen,
Boyars and nobles serve her.
They pour her overseas wines;
She eats a printed gingerbread ...

WHAT IS THE OUTDOOR DISH AND HOW IS IT "PRINTED"?

The first gingerbread in Rus' was called "honey bread", their recipe was brought to us by the Varangians around the 9th century. It was a mixture of rye flour with honey and berry juice, with honey accounting for almost half of the ingredients. Later, forest herbs and roots were added to "honey bread", and in the 12th-13th centuries, with the advent of various overseas "dry spirits", the gingerbread finally acquired the form of sweetness well known to us.

Printed gingerbread is the most common (carved and stucco gingerbreads are also known). It was made using a gingerbread board. Masters-signers carved it from hardwood - maple, walnut, pear, birch. A board about 5 cm thick was dried for 5 to 20 years at a natural temperature in the shade, then the artist-carver applied a pattern to it in a mirror image. Such a gingerbread form can serve for a very long time, up to 70 years. Especially if you periodically boil it in oil to remove stuck dough residues. There is a very special case in the history of gingerbread forms when the board was used only once: in 1896, on the day of the coronation of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II (1868-1918), a unique gingerbread with the profile of the monarch was baked.

Gingerbread in Russia becomes a widespread folk craft in the 17th - 19th centuries. Arkhangelsk, Gorodets, Vologda, Moscow, Tula, Tver, Vyazma were especially famous in this field. Moreover, the secrets of the recipes were kept in the strictest confidence, passed down from father to son. Since the end of the 19th century, Grechikhins have become the most famous Tula dynasty of gingerbread. In 1887, at a culinary exhibition in France, their two-pound gingerbread was awarded a gold medal. And Vasily Romanovich Grechikhin was granted the title of honorary citizen of Tula.

Gingerbread virtuosos, so that their recipe would not be revealed by culinary spies, never used weights. And the ingredients were weighed with the help of pebbles and pieces of iron, which were certainly hidden in a secluded place under lock and key. Therefore, after the end of the First World War and the Civil War, when it was decided to resume the production of gingerbread, it turned out that most of the recipes were taken to the grave by their authors who died on the battlefields. And if it were not for Stepan Sevostyanov, who in his youth worked as an apprentice for the Grechikhins themselves and tricked out the exact recipe, who knows, the gingerbread would have made its way through the culinary thorns of the twentieth century ...

TULA GINGERBREAD

The most popular Russian printed gingerbread, known since the 17th century. The traditional rectangular shape and minimalist design make the products of the Staraya Tula and Yasnaya Polyana plants incredibly recognizable on grocery store shelves. And everyone already chooses the filling (mainly jam or condensed milk) to their taste.

VYAZEMSKY gingerbread

Appeared at about the same time as the Tula. This is a custard gingerbread of a small size, so small (about 4x2.5 cm) that it often did not fit the full name of the city, but only the first three letters - VYAZ. At the same time, he was more expensive than his Tula, Gorodets and Moscow counterparts: 1 ruble 50 kopecks per pound, when other gingerbread cost 4 kopecks per pound. Perhaps this is how much a real royal gingerbread should cost, because it is known for certain that on the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, Vyazma merchants presented Nicholas II with a gingerbread weighing a whole pood (about 16 kg). In the 19th century, eight gingerbread factories worked in the city, and after the October Revolution, production was discontinued. As a result, the old recipe for gingerbread, which, according to legend, the English queen herself loved, was irretrievably lost.

ARKHANGELSK "KOZULES"

Kozulya means "curl", "snake" from Pomeranian. These colorfully glazed dough figures in the form of various animals were originally baked only at Christmas. Today, this kind of silhouette gingerbread - the symbol of Pomorie - is baked in the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions for any home holidays: housewarming, wedding, at the birth of a child. People believe that the "goes" in the house protect from evil spirits, so it is not customary to eat them right away and even more so to throw them away. It is better to decorate the Christmas tree with them.

GORODETSKY gingerbread

At the end of the 19th century, there were 15 gingerbread establishments in Gorodets, where hereditary craftsmen, mostly Old Believers, worked. They created gingerbread, unlike the Vyazma ones, of impressive weight and size. Fish and birds, coats of arms with double-headed eagles, steamships and trains with smoking chimneys, various company inscriptions and wishes were carved on gingerbread forms - not a gingerbread, but a real work of art. Up to 30 varieties of Gorodets gingerbread are known, including those with various fillings: syrup, fruit, almond, lemon. This sweet survived both the revolution and the wars and is still produced by the leading enterprises of the city.

AND FINALLY 3D gingerbread

Today, online stores offer gingerbread cookies of all shapes, sizes, colors, for any solemn and not very occasion. A wide range also includes children's gingerbread in the form of modern cartoon characters or the latest trend in gingerbread fashion - 3D gingerbread. And there are also gingerbread ships, gingerbread trains - it seems that nothing is impossible for modern confectioners.

It would be great if not a virtual, but a very real gingerbread house appeared in Moscow, where, along with real delicious gingerbread from different cities of Russia, one could buy a little happiness and a bit of a dream.

DO IT YOURSELF

"And sweet gingerbread is always not enough for everyone..."

Over the past centuries, the basic principle of making gingerbread has not changed - most of the process is still done by hand. And it is available to anyone. It is enough to take one and a half glasses of flour, 50 grams of butter, 1/2 cup of honey, one egg, 1/4 teaspoon of soda, a pinch of spices (optional: cardamom, coriander, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, roasted nuts, vanillin) and two tablespoons of water.

Put honey in a saucepan with a thick bottom and pour water, bring to a boil, remove from heat. Add softened butter, egg and stir. Add flour mixed with soda and knead, adding spices. The dough should not be too hard. Properly prepared dough resembles plasticine and is well formed.

Put the finished dough on a board sprinkled with flour, roll out into a layer 5-6 mm thick. Cut into squares, cut out animals with a knife or make circles with a glass. Brush with egg, sprinkle with nuts and bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.

FOLKLORE

Cheerful gingerbread and crawl under the arm

Russian gingerbread is a nationwide phenomenon, closely connected with folk life. What other dish can boast such a long list of proverbs and sayings dedicated to it: “you can’t lure a gingerbread”, “it breaks like a gingerbread”, “you can’t buy gingerbread without work”, “with a stick and a gingerbread”, “like a gingerbread in your ear”, “it will roll under beer and gingerbread”, “a cheerful gingerbread will crawl under your arm”, “sweeter than honey gingerbread”, “buy yourself a gingerbread” ...

And the Vyazma gingerbread found a place in the work (the poem "Not a mother, but a Tula peasant woman ...") of the famous Russian poet, Pushkinist Vladislav Khodasevich (1886-1939):

She did not know fairy tales and did not sing,
But always kept for me
In the cherished chest, upholstered in white tin,
Either Vyazemsky gingerbread, or a mint horse.

History of Russian gingerbread

The transition from ritual baking to gingerbread took place over several centuries. In Rus', the first gingerbread, then called "honey bread", appeared around the 9th century, they were a mixture of rye flour with honey and berry juice, and honey in them accounted for almost half of all other ingredients. Later, local herbs and roots were added to “honey bread”, and in the XII-XIII centuries, when exotic spices brought from India and the Middle East began to appear in Rus', the gingerbread got its name and almost completely took shape in the delicacy that we know .

In the 17th - 19th centuries, gingerbread was a widespread folk craft. Each locality baked its own gingerbread according to traditional recipes, and the secrets of making were passed down from generation to generation. The masters who were engaged in gingerbread production were called gingerbread men (hence the well-known surname Pryanishnikov). By the end of the 19th century, gingerbread shops in Russia offered about twenty varieties of gingerbread. Among them were the so-called "Torun", from the Polish city of Torun. They were made from rye flour, spices were added, smeared with beer and decorated with candied fruit. In Poland, they depicted knights, kings, historical and everyday scenes.

In Russia, gingerbread made from rye sieve flour was prepared with honey, cloves, anise, ginger, orange peel, alcohol and water. The figurines made were placed overnight in a warm oven, after the bread was taken out, and in the morning, sheets with gingerbread were again placed in the lightly heated oven two or three times so that they were dry.

Yolks, and often colored dye, were added to gingerbread dough made from wheat flour to get a non-white dough. Such gingerbread was sprinkled with crushed almonds, candied fruits, and then kept in the oven after the bread. Chocolate gingerbread was smeared on top and bottom with a mass of grated chocolate and sugar. In Siberia, gingerbread made from pink dough, small gingerbread made with dry raspberries, etc. are known.

There were also gingerbread, which modern researchers call combined. They combined a flat silhouette made of dark dough and a figurine of colored sugar fashioned on it. Such gingerbread, usually baked in Kolomna and Kaluga, were small in size and were intended to decorate the New Year tree. They depicted tigers, camels, horses, parrots, clowns.

Gingerbread made for the poor and the rich, for gifts and name days. Presented to relatives and loved ones, baked for a complex wedding ceremony, for festive meals, for distribution to the poor, for memorial services. They were even credited with medicinal properties, and therefore the gingerbread intended for the sick was prepared and decorated with special care, and letters corresponding to the initials of the guardian angel were cut on the reverse side. And small gingerbread cookies were used for the game. The winner of the competition was not only the one whose gingerbread flew farthest from the others, but also the one whose gingerbread remained unharmed, falling to the ground.

Letters of the alphabet were imprinted on some gingerbread cookies, with their help children could learn to read. Poorer buyers preferred cheap small gingerbread “kanfarkas” and mint “zhamki” (another name is “zhomki” or “zhomki”) - hand-made round puffed cakes with an indefinite pattern.

It was customary to give gingerbread on Forgiveness Sunday, which fell on the last day of Maslenitsa before the start of Lent. On this day, according to the Christian tradition, the younger ones went to the elders, the children to their parents, and the subordinates to the bosses to “say goodbye” (to ask each other for forgiveness for all offenses caused). The visits were accompanied by an offering of cakes and very large gingerbread (from two to five kilograms).

Gingerbread in Russia in the 19th century was sold at fairs and township markets, at the famous Nizhny Novgorod fair, where there were gingerbread rows in the Main Pavilion, in Moscow - in bakeries, during festivities on Novinsky Boulevard, near the Novodevichy Convent, on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, on Palm Sunday on Red Square, in the mushroom market, near the baths; in St. Petersburg - in bakeries and shops, on the days of Christmas, oil and Easter festivities - on Admiralteyskaya Square and on Tsaritsyn Meadow (Field of Mars).

The well-known Vladimir local historian and ethnographer I. Golyshev, who in 1870 compiled the Atlas of Drawings from Ancient Gingerbread Boards, noted that in his time large patterned gingerbread cookies were no longer baked, gingerbread establishments began to gradually disappear, and many rituals and customs of Russian life were lost. its meaning.

In our time, the gingerbread business, unfortunately, no longer has such a wide scope as before, and the appearance and taste of gingerbread are mostly far from those that were familiar to our not so distant ancestors. And yet, we should not forget that the famous Tula, Vyazma, Gorodets, Rzhev, Arkhangelsk gingerbreads still exist, which means that there is hope that the skill of making gingerbread, which came to us from time immemorial, will continue to live. and to please everyone, from young to old.

Russian gingerbread is a nationwide phenomenon, hardly anywhere else to such an extent connected with folk life and life. They were distributed everywhere. They were produced in Perm and Kerch, in Arkhangelsk and Putivl, in Kharkov and Ryazan, in Kaluga and Tver, in Vyazma and Voronezh, in Novgorod and Belgorod and in many other cities. In Nizhny Novgorod, for example, there were 6 gingerbread establishments that baked 7,550 poods of this product per year, in Vyazma also 6 bakeries produced 3,170 poods, in Yaroslavl and Poshekhonia 2 gingerbread factories produced 4,850 poods of gingerbread. And the quality of these products was excellent, otherwise why would the Tver gingerbread man Ivan Baranov open his stores in Berlin, Paris, London and Vienna. They also liked Russian gingerbread in distant America, where in 1876 at an exhibition held in Philadelphia, the hereditary gingerbread man Utkin, a fellow countryman of Ivan Baranov, received a bronze medal "for the variety of varieties of gingerbread and the originality of its style." Russian gingerbread was an invariable accessory of all social strata - from the royal table to a poor peasant hut. He also existed in the landlord, bureaucratic, merchant environment.

The taste variety of Russian gingerbreads depended on flour (as a rule, sieve rye or coarse wheat was used) and on dough (simple unleavened was used to make cheap varieties, expensive “gingerbread” was made from sour, there was also choux pastry, dough aged in the cold), from the basis on which the dough was kneaded (on honey - the so-called "one-copper", on molasses, on malt, on wort, on sugar syrup, on rose water, on berries), and, of course, from spices and additives, called in the old days "dry perfumes", among which the most popular were black pepper, Italian dill, orange peel (bitter orange), lemon, mint, vanilla, ginger, anise, cumin, nutmeg, cloves. In Russia, there were three types of gingerbread, which got their name from the technology of their production. These are molded gingerbread (they are molded from dough, just like clay toys), printed gingerbread (they are made using a gingerbread board, or “gingerbread”, in the form of a relief print on the dough) and silhouette (cut or cut) gingerbread (for them manufacturing, either a cardboard template or a stamp from a tin strip is used, with the help of which the silhouette of the future gingerbread is cut out of the rolled out dough).

A wide variety of rituals of Russian life corresponded to the variety of gingerbread products. So, for example, small gingerbread cookies were baked for children in the form of pets, birds, animals, with traditional New Year's plots, as a gift to the bride and a young lady they gave a gingerbread in the form of a basket of flowers, a heart, kissing doves, swans, peacocks with inscriptions appropriate for the occasion: " Sign of love”, “Sign of fidelity”, “Sign of memory”, “Sign of friendship”, “Whom I love, I give”, “On the day of an angel”. On the occasion of big celebrations, special gingerbreads were baked, which were called "tray" or "healthy".

They not only amazed with their size (from 50 cm to 1 m or more) and weight (from 5 to 15 pounds, and in some cases up to 1 pood), but also stood out for their particular sophistication and complexity of the pattern, as well as for the high style of dedicatory inscriptions. , as, for example, “From all my conscience I give your mercy” or “Rejoice, Russian double-headed eagle, for now you are glorious all over the world.” A double-headed eagle, tent towers, figures of lions, unicorns, sturgeons, Sirin birds - these are the most popular plots of "tray" gingerbread. Considering the weight and size of the "ordered" gingerbread, they were delivered on horseback with extreme care, since it was not an easy task to carry such a gingerbread without breaking it along the way.

Stucco gingerbread

Stucco gingerbread is a special type of gingerbread production, they came to us from pagan Rus'. Their appearance in the form of ritual bread is associated with the pagan ideas of the ancient Slavs, who were aware of their dependence on natural phenomena (rain, snow, hail, drought), giving or destroying crops, which determined for them a respectful attitude towards nature, and towards numerous gods, personifying her strength.

To earn the mercy of the gods and their protection, sacrificial gifts were brought to each of them - bulls, rams, deer, roosters. With the adoption of Christianity, pagan worldviews were adapted to new religious requirements. The sacrifices were also transformed, the bloody sacrifices of animals were replaced by their sculptural images made of clay, wood and dough. It was these ritual figurines made of dough that were the pictorial beginning, which, centuries later, will switch to what we call “gingerbread”.

Today molded gingerbread is a great ethnographic rarity, preserved in the territory of the Russian North under the name "kozuly". Their traditional characters - a horse, a deer, a cow, a goat, a duck, a black hen with chicks - are the surviving images of ancient Russian pagan mythology. The archaism of the form, the conditionality of the image, the absence of minor details, the limited plot line and its stability over the centuries, as well as the originality of the technology of dressing (the baked products are dipped into boiling water several times, which makes the “goat” become smoother, lighter and stronger) and the ascetic nature of the source material (coarse rye flour, salt and water) are all hallmarks of molded gingerbread.

Gingerbread "teteri"

No less ancient history than the stucco "roes" have the so-called "teters", or "vitushki", which are still made on the Mezen and in Kargopol. These gingerbreads, unique in their modeling technique and shape, are baked from rye dough, rolled out in the form of thin flagella, turning into figures of animals or spiral geometric figures, close to solar signs and ornaments of relic cultural monuments.

printed gingerbread

A printed gingerbread is made using a gingerbread board, or "gingerbread", as an embossed impression on the dough. Its beauty and quality largely depended on the craftsman who made the gingerbread board. In the old days, such craftsmen were called "signmen". Here is what I. Golyshev, the first researcher of gingerbread, wrote about these boards: cut out and for free sale; they had their own fashion: gingerbread bakers interrupted each other with new manners of drawing, and carvers invented their inventions on boards to attract buyers. Carvers sometimes, in addition to various inscriptions, carved their surname. A newly invented drawing was valued dearly in those days, and the first one to acquire a board competed ahead of others.

The most popular motifs for boards for "tray" gingerbread were a double-headed eagle with attributes of royal distinction, fairy-tale towers with tented roofs topped with double-headed eagles or flags ("mansion" or "teremated"), complex decorative compositions saturated with floral ornaments, birds of paradise, flowers , as well as images of lions, leopards, birds Sirin and Alkonost. The cost of "tray" boards and gingerbread was very high, since their "exclusivity" and targeted dedication did not allow them to be replicated. Gingerbreads from typesetting boards were small with a simple, unpretentious pattern and cheap, for which they received the name - "penny".

Boards

Linden was considered the favorite material of woodcarvers, but in the manufacture of gingerbread boards, preference was still given to harder woods: maple, walnut, pear, and most often birch. Boards made of these species were durable, the edges of the carving did not “fall over”, respectively, and the pattern of gingerbread remained clear for a long time. In order for it to serve as long as possible, the board intended for cutting was dried for a long time and thoroughly, and the finished form was boiled in boiling vegetable oil or placed in a wax bath. The dough did not stick to the boards treated in this way and easily came off. The peculiarity of cutting a gingerbread board was also connected with this, the carved edges of which had to have an open slope, which also allowed the dough to easily come off without deforming the pattern on the print.

The size and shape of the gingerbread boards were dictated by the purpose of the gingerbread. The largest boards were used for making gift, wedding or healthy gingerbread, they, according to I. Golyshev, reached 1 arshin (about 71 cm) in length and 12 inches (about 54 cm) in width. The solemnity of such gingerbread was given not only by their size, but also by plots and inscriptions appropriate to the occasion, which went along the perimeter of the gingerbread like a beautiful decorative frame. There were two types of gingerbread boards - "piece", allowing you to make an impression of only one gingerbread, and "typesetting", when 2, 4, 8, 16 or more "checkers" with one or different plots were placed on the board. There are typesetting boards with 120 "checkers".

Silhouette gingerbread

Silhouette gingerbread appeared relatively recently. The first mention of them dates back to 1850, but by the beginning of the 20th century, silhouette gingerbread, due to its decorative qualities, became the most massive and popular. Their wide distribution, especially in Central Russia, predetermined the variety of artistic solutions: a soft, linear pattern that fills the plane of the gingerbread, and is not associated with its shape - on "cut" gingerbread from Voronezh, bright red colors with sugar icing and glued pieces of gold leaf on a light background - on the gingerbread from Putivl, the original use of fluff and dyed bird feathers - on the painted gingerbread of Novokhopersk.

But, perhaps, the most wonderful silhouette gingerbreads called "kozuli" were baked and are still being baked in Arkhangelsk. The tradition of their manufacture is associated with the celebration of Christmas.

During holy weeks, “roes” were put up on the windows of huts, they were presented to relatives and carers, especially children, to ensure well-being in the house, they were attached to the gates of the barnyard so that the cattle would multiply and not get lost in the forest in summer. The characters of these goats, timed to coincide with the New Year holidays, were traditionally Ded Moroz, Snegurochka, the Christmas Star, as well as the Nenets who came to the city, reflected in such subjects as a reindeer team or Nenets in national clothes.

Today, the Russian North is perhaps the only place in Russia where the artistic value of gingerbread is preserved in the manufacture of gingerbread.

And this happens not as a result of the conservatism of the thinking of the northerners, but as a hereditary respect for the ancestors and their traditions.

Gingerbread and stucco figurines made of dough cannot literally be called toys. But since in our time these products are intended mainly for children, and the design of such “edible toys” is sometimes not inferior in beauty to the most successful works of folk decorative plastic made of clay or wood, we will talk here about skillful bakers.

Extremely interesting in their archaism are the stucco baker's figurines of the “roe”, which were baked in the Arkhangelsk province and are still baked in the village of Varzuga (southern coast of the Kola Peninsula). In Siberia, in the central regions of Russia, similar products were baked under the name "cows". They were given to children or, soaked in water, fed to livestock. Some researchers saw in this action the echoes of sacrificial rites. However, the baking of figurines of animals and birds was not a replacement of the sacrificial animal with its image. The production of "goats" and "cows" had the significance of a producing rite for our forefathers. After all, our ancestors imagined that if they sprinkled the earth with water, it would rain, and if they baked a whole herd of animals from dough, the number of livestock in their yards would increase, there would be more game in the forest. The baking of bread molded figures on the coast of the White Sea, as well as in the more southern regions of the Arkhangelsk and Olonets provinces, was timed to coincide with the celebration of the New Year, when the ancient ritual holiday “koleda” (“grapes”) was celebrated, which had the meaning of a spell for a good harvest in the coming year.

The biggest gingerbread we have in the city - it has two sterlets and a ring - about three kilograms. There used to be birthday parties, so they didn’t go through the door - they had to take pictures. “I give to someone who is dear to my heart,” they wrote on such. True, the boards from them have not been preserved, now you can only read about them in books. And then it would be just right to hang on the wall, like a picture. These boards for our bakery were made by the owner himself - Bakharev. He baked gingerbread himself, but along this exit to the Volga there was a lower bazaar - they sold it here. How many different varieties and species - do not count. After all, before the revolution in Gorodets this was a family business - up to thirty families were fed by it. The men cut the shapes, the wives baked the gingerbread. Each has its own drawings, its own culinary secrets. Throughout Rus', peddlers called out at fairs:

Nolinsky gingerbread has long been a favorite delicacy of children and adults throughout the Kirov region and neighboring regions. Gingerbread production in the city of Nolinsk was founded in the middle of the 19th century, and the merchants who produced this sweet product entered the history of the Vyatka land.

Gingerbread has long played a diverse ritual role in the old Russian way of life. Complex wedding ceremonies and feasts, commemoration of the dead, housewarming days, the offering of gingerbread on the so-called "forgiveness Sunday" and name days, festive meals and other distinctive moments of folk life in the old days had the closest ritual connection with decorative gingerbread. The latter were generally, as it were, an indispensable element of almost every extraordinary and festive dining, representing the most accessible and widespread delicacy. Gingerbreads were made, like bread, kvass and braga, in an economic home way. Boards for printing, apparently, existed in the households of old populous families.

Later, the more complex needs and tastes of people's life in this direction began to be served by special gingerbread establishments or "factories" that produced huge quantities of gingerbread of various varieties, sizes, shapes, tastes and values ​​for sale. Such production and trade enterprises had a particularly wide place in the 19th century.

An indispensable technical accessory for both a gingerbread factory and home-made gingerbread was carved boards that molded - printed - the front side of gingerbread, which from time immemorial acquired the name "printed" on this basis. Gingerbread boards of various sizes and varying complexity of decorative decoration were made from well-seasoned material (birch, pear, willow, linden) by master carvers, in whose artistic craft a long-term succession of folk tastes and techniques was preserved. Being a direct response to the needs of the household and arising in the environment of art and household crafts, gingerbread boards serve as an important and valuable material in the study of a complex complex of monuments of folk household art. Combining both the technical and artistic foundations of a widespread craft, these original boards have acquired distinctive clarity and expression in both carving craftsmanship and decorative motifs. Gingerbread boards from the vast collection of the State Historical Museum should be attributed, in their main part, to the technical inventory of old gingerbread factories of the 18th-19th centuries. According to the totality of formal-technical, artistic-iconographic and everyday features, these boards can be divided into five dominant types. Significantly differing from each other, these associations lend themselves to isolated typological characteristics. Of course, there can be no talk of complete isolation and isolation of one type from another. Crystallizing in everyday life and artistic craft with the usual slowness characteristic of folk art, accumulating and clarifying their formal features in a long-term process, they also retain many common features. This commonality is expressed in transient iconographic motifs that change in interpretation, but are internally stable, and in a uniform stock of carved technique.

The above five types of gingerbread boards can be designated by the following names:

1. curly
2. piece
3. typesetting
4. Honorary
5. Urban.

In Tula, Gingerbread Day is celebrated on September 28. Last year, celebrations were held in the local old Kremlin. An interactive performance, a pyrotechnic show, performances by creative teams and, of course, a gingerbread fair - that's what the organizers presented for the holiday in 2012. It can be assumed that this is a local holiday, dedicated only to the Tula gingerbread. But where the date came from could not be found.

Overview of gingerbread in Europe and Russia, their history and recipes published in the journal "Science and Life" No. 12, 2012.

Nuremberg gingerbread.
Engraving from 1520

The custom of giving each other gingerbread for Christmas was born in Western Europe and came to Russia in the 18th century. Whether Russian Christmas gingerbread originates from the traditional Christmas gingerbread lebkuchen, which appeared in the southeast of Germany, in Franconia, in the 13th century, is still a mystery. Nevertheless, there are certain similarities between them.

Lebkuchens were honey gingerbreads decorated with sugar glaze with citron, almonds and lots of spices. Franconia, whose largest city is Nuremberg, is a very special part of modern Bavaria. The favorable location of the cities of Bavaria at the crossroads of trade routes allowed confectioners and bakers, starting from the 14th century, to use the most diverse and expensive spices, which became the main difference between gingerbread baked there. Bakers from Nuremberg were the most successful, where in 1808 a gingerbread, distinguished by a particularly delicate taste and delicate aroma, was born, called “Elise’s gingerbread” (Elisenlebkuchen) - either in honor of the beautiful Eliza, the daughter of the baker who created this miracle of cooking, or out of fawning to the margrave's wife, whose name was Eliza, or in honor of Saint Eliza, the patroness of all German gingerbread. In 1996, the recipe, technology and name of this gingerbread were protected by a special law, allowing it to be made only in Nuremberg. Old and modern recipes for gingerbread from Franconia include flour, nuts and honey in various proportions, as well as star anise, cloves, ginger, cardamom, coriander, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and various candied fruits. Lebkuchen come in a wide variety of shapes. They can be plain unglazed or covered in chocolate or sugar icing.

And came to life, blushing before us.
Renowned beyond all frontiers
That Tula gingerbread is a miracle of women's hands.

Sergey Galkin

Tula is a city in many respects unlike other Russian provincial cities, first of all, in its self-sufficiency, which is associated with crafts and trades that have achieved success in the hands of Tula craftsmen, which have not been seen anywhere else and have become, in essence, real art.

Samovar and gingerbread are enduring attributes of Tula tea drinking, which is not as fashionable in the world as the Japanese tea ceremony, but still a sign of our Tula identity.

There are legends about the seven wonders of the world. Tula residents say with pride that the famous Tula printed gingerbread is the eighth wonder of the world. And, referring to old legends, experts say that the gingerbread craft originated in Tula much earlier than weapons, samovar or accordion. Perhaps this is a very bold statement, but there is no doubt that the gingerbread is a work of high, truly folk art, coming from the deep depths of the distant past. And, undoubtedly, ancient Tula is the capital of gingerbread production.

A child is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

The table is decorated by guests, and the house is decorated by children.

He does not die who does not leave children.

Be truthful even in relation to a child: keep your promise, otherwise you will teach him to lie.


— L.N. Tolstoy

Children need to be taught to speak, and adults to listen to children.

Let childhood mature in children.

Life must be disturbed more often so that it does not turn sour.

— M. Gorky

Children need to be given not only life, but also the opportunity to live.

Not the father-mother who gave birth, but the one who made him drink, nurtured, and taught good.

23 RECIPES OF REAL RUSSIAN GINGERbread

1) Gingerbread made from rye flour.
Fry 6 cups of pure honey until red, sometimes setting aside the pan to remove scale. Pour 7.5 stacks of well-dried rye flour into a trough, if simple, not very fine rye flour, then 9 stacks, 5 gr each. cloves, ginger and anise, 30 gr. cooked orange peel. Brew all this with boiling honey and at the same minute pour in 3/8 stack. alcohol and pour potash 1/2 teaspoon without top; then beat the dough with a spatula or hands until it starts to lag behind them, then roll up thin, long strips, cut into pieces 4 cm long, fold on an iron sheet sprinkled with flour or smeared with wax, insert into the oven after the bread, watch so as not to burned in this case, open the pipe. Taking it out of the oven, cool it, and then again put it twice in a light oven to dry. The flour should be the driest.

2) Gingerbread from grain flour.
3 stack. rub honey until white, pour 400 gr. coarse flour and mix again for 1/2 hour, driving in 9 yolks one at a time, add about 6 gr. cardamom, finely chopped orange peel (3 gr. English pepper, 3 gr. cloves), finally put the foam of 9 proteins, stir gently. Prepare large paper flat forms, pour this mass into them, sprinkle with crushed almonds, put on an iron sheet and in the oven not too hot, that is, after the bread. When they are baked, cut them with a sharp knife and put them back in a warm oven two or three times, so that they are completely dry and crumbly.

3) Chocolate gingerbread.
400 gr. dissolve sugar in a not quite full glass of water, mix with 1.5 cups of honey, cook in a large saucepan, add 12 gr. potash, a little cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, English pepper and 200 gr. almonds, finely chopped with skin. After removing from heat, add 600 gr. flour, stir until smooth, put on a table sprinkled with flour, knead the dough with your hands; if it were a little liquid, add flour, roll it out, cut the gingerbread into different shapes, put it on an iron sheet lightly smeared with unsalted butter, insert it into the summer oven; take out when browned.
600 gr. sugar, boil a little water two times, when the syrup will stretch, pour 200 gr. grated chocolate, stir, spread this mass first on one side of the gingerbread, when dry in the oven, then on the other and again in the oven.

4) Gingerbread on rose water.
1 stack rose water, 400 gr. boil sugar, cool slightly; dissolve a dessert spoon of potash in water, mix with rose water syrup, pour 400 gr. flour, beat well with a spatula, cover tightly, put on the oven. The next day, roll it out in the morning, let it rise and bake in a not too hot oven.

5) Almond gingerbread.
400 gr. sweet, 100 gr. scald bitter almonds, peel, rinse in cold water, select with a colander spoon and immediately chop finely; 200 gr. grind sugar, sift, take 5 gr. unground cloves or cardamom, mix it all, pour into almonds, crush together, without adding a single drop of water. When the mass becomes sticky, put it in small, wooden or tin molds, on wafers, and dry it in a summer oven. Then glaze.

6) Torun gingerbread.
1.5 kg., i.e. 6 cups of honey, brown red, remove scale, set aside, pour in a little 3/4 stack. alcohol, stir so as not to flare up, pour 3/4 stack. boiled, finely chopped, orange peel, 5 gr. cloves, 5 gr. ginger, 5 gr. English pepper, 10 gr. anise and 10 gr. Italian dill, stir and immediately with this hot, almost boiling honey, brew 9 cups of rye flour, sifted through a fine sieve and lightly fried; stir with a spatula strongly and for a long time, until the mass begins to turn white, which will come no earlier than in two hours. Then transfer this dough into flat paper forms, without filling them to the top and each time dipping your hands in beer boiled with honey. Grease the gingerbread with this beer as well. Put paper forms on an iron sheet, let the dough rise a little, stick almonds and pieces of candied fruit on top, insert into the oven after the bread. When they are baked, put them in a cool place so that they do not dry out too much.

7) Gingerbread differently.
Namely: brew rye flour with hot honey and spices, beat with a spatula until the mass begins to turn white, cover with a cloth, take it out to a cold place for three days, then bring it back into a warm room, pour 15 gr. potash and beat with a spatula, as long as possible, then spread out into paper forms and proceed further in everything, as mentioned above; having taken it out of the oven, take it out to a cold place for a whole month.

8) Sugar gingerbread.
8 eggs grind white with 400 gr. sugar, pour then a little 700 gr. coarse flour, 1 spoon of boiled, finely chopped, orange peel, 1 teaspoon without top of cardamom, 1 teaspoon without top of ginger, the same amount of cinnamon, cloves 1/2 teaspoon, i.e. half as much, 2 full tablespoons of chopped sweet and 2 full tablespoons of chopped bitter almonds, mix everything together until the dough begins to lag behind the cup, make small oblong gingerbread cookies without adding any flour, insert into the oven, on an iron sheet, after the bread, so that it does not burn; put then two, three times in the oven to dry.

9) Gingerbread on honey with spices.
Beat well 10 yolks, boil 700 gr. honey, remove the foam, beat the honey until it gets cold, then put 3 whole eggs in it and beat well, then mix with beaten yolks, beat again, pour 2 cups of finely crushed sweet, 1/3 stack. bitter almonds, 5 gr. cardamom, 4-5 tablespoons of cinnamon, you can put candied fruit, heat everything, but do not let it boil, then beat for half an hour; put 600 gr. the best grain flour, pouring it in a little, pour everything into a flat form of sugar paper, put in the oven after the bread, you can decorate the top with whole or chopped almonds, as well as raisins or cinnamon

10) Gingerbread without spices.
Take 1.2 kg. honey, boil it, remove the foam, cool to the warmth of fresh milk and start beating with a wooden spatula: after half an hour of beating, start letting in one at a time, 20 eggs and let each egg in when the previous one is completely mixed with honey, beat all the time until it is heated oven, then pour into honey how much flour will enter, so that the dough is thick; after dividing everything into 20 parts, put each part in paper boxes prepared in advance. Having put the flour, it should not be whipped for a long time, but only stir and put into boxes.

11) Gingerbread on molasses.
Pour a teaspoon of potash with a teacup of boiling water, stir well; then take 1.2 kg. good molasses, 400 gr. Boil sugar, putting during the boil, 5 gr. cardamom, 5 gr. cinnamon, 5 gr. cloves or nutmeg and 100 gr. Chukhonsky unsalted butter, then now remove from heat and start pouring gradually 1.2 kg. coarse flour and beat with a spatula as long as possible; when it cools down to the warmth of fresh milk, pour in the diluted and already cooled potash, beat again for 1/2 hour, then, covered with a napkin, leave for 12 hours; then make any kind of figures or squares, put in the oven, after the bread.

12) 2 kg. molasses, 400 gr. Russian butter and 600 gr. Stir fine sugar, put on fire, boil, stirring, until the sugar disperses. When it boils well, immediately put 15 gr. crushed cinnamon and 5 gr. cloves, pour into a large pot; pour 15-20 gr. potash dissolved in a glass of warm water; pour a little while stirring so that it does not float out, because the potash will rise, do not stop stirring until it settles. Then pour in a little 2 kg. coarse flour, knead well with your hand or beat with a spatula, at least an hour, until the dough turns white; put in a room for 3-4 days, kneading the dough every day. On the fourth day, put it on the table, knead with your hands, roll it out with a rolling pin, cut out gingerbread cookies with molds in the form of stars, horses, cockerels, deer, put them on a sheet sprinkled with flour, at a small distance from each other; put in the oven; when they rise and brown, take them out.
Deer, horses, etc. are cut out on paper, from which these figures must first be carefully cut out. These gingerbread cookies are then covered with white icing, if desired, and gilded if they are intended for the Christmas tree.

13) Raspberry gingerbread.
Take as much dry raspberries as you like, put them in a bowl, pour boiling water over them so that they just cover the raspberries, put them on the stove, boil them well so that they are completely soft, then remove from heat, rub through a sieve; it is necessary that the mashed raspberries be the density of mashed cranberry or lingonberry juice; then measure this fruit drink and put a cup of honey on each cup, boil it. Prepare in advance crackers from white bread dried very dry, but not set on fire, and dry raspberries, crush both, putting in equal parts, mix together and pour into hot juice with honey to make a thick dough, which is cooked well to dry raspberries boiled down. Then spread the cakes on a sheet, dry, then sprinkle with sugar and put in a jar.

14) Gingerbread.
12 yolks and 200 gr. sugar stir until white, pour 800 gr. honey, again beat well until the honey turns white, then put in whipped honey 5 gr. cinnamon, 5 gr. cardamom, 50 gr. candied fruit, finely chopped, 100 gr. chopped almonds, pour 700 gr. coarse flour, stir it all well, and when the oven is ready, put the beaten egg whites, stir and immediately pour into the prepared paper boxes, which are only half filled, because the gingerbread must rise

15) Gingerbread made from rye flour.
Take 3 cups of the thinnest rye dough, put 3 cups of molasses into it, mix well, put 2 tablespoons of good yeast, 12 orange peels (of the same size as dry peels are sold), soak them first in water, carefully cut off the white inside crust, and finely chop the zest, put in the dough and knead everything 800 gr. wheat flour, 2 grades, let rise, roll out a cake and put in the oven after the bread.

16) Gingerbread.
Dry dry, the day before, 2.5 kg. the best grain flour, also put 50 gr. potash in a glass of rose water. The next day, boil 2.5 kg. molasses or honey, remove the foam, strain through a towel, pouring directly into the flour, grind the flour with molasses well with your hands. When the dough gets cold, pour rose water with potash into it, knead the dough again, then put 1 spoonful of cognac or rum, 50 gr. unsalted Chukhon oil, 400 gr. fine sugar, 600 gr. chopped almonds, 15 gr. cinnamon and 15 gr. fresh lemon zest, very finely chopped, mix it all up well, then, after rolling it out, make gingerbread cookies of any shape, put in the oven, which should be as hot as on rolls.

17) Nuts from gingerbread dough.
For 400 gr. sugar, put 8 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom, who likes, the same amount of English pepper, add as much flour as it will go in, so that the dough is so thick that you can make round spools out of it like nuts, put them on a sheet and in bake.

18) Red gingerbread.
1.2 kg. the dryest, flour and 200 gr. Chukhonsky, unsalted butter rub well with your hands, then pour 25 gr. crushed and sifted ginger, pour 600 gr. molasses, stir everything, make pellets the size of a walnut, put in the oven after the bread, for 1/4 hour, which, however, can be seen, depending on the readiness of the gingerbread.

19) Chocolate gingerbread.
Beat 4 egg whites into foam, as best as possible, put 200 gr. in them. sugar and 200 gr. chocolate, make gingerbread in the form of small cakes, put on a sheet and put in a free spirit.

20) Sugar gingerbread.
For 5 proteins put 300 gr. fine, sifted sugar, 200 gr. flour and 100 gr. watermelon or any kind of candied fruit, grind everything together, roll out and make round gingerbread.

21) Honey gingerbread.
800 gr. boil honey, cool and then beat down with a wooden spatula, at least 3/4 hours; then put in it 800 gr. flour, 8 beaten yolks, 10 crushed bitter almonds, finely chopped lemon zest from 1 lemon. When the oven is ready, beat 8 proteins, mix everything together and put in prepared paper boxes, which are first coated with a little unsalted butter. The oven should be as warm as for white bread.

22) Excellent sugar gingerbread.
Take 500 gr. fine sifted sugar, pour 1 and a quarter glass of water into it, put on fire to boil; then take very finely chopped zest from one lemon, chop it very finely, put it in syrup, cook until the juice becomes as thick as for jam; then remove it from the fire, pour it into a stone cup, let it cool down a little, put 5 gr. crushed cinnamon, 5 gr. crushed cardamom, mix well after just put 600 gr. knead the dough with the best grainy flour and beat it with your hands for two hours; prepare sheets of paper, sprinkle them with flour and put on them a piece of this dough, in the form of cakes. When the gingerbread cookies are baked, you can glaze them in the following manner: 2 squirrels, 1.5 stack. rub sugar until it turns white and thickens; put a spoonful or more of lemon juice or brown oil to taste, stir well, grease the gingerbread cookies and put in the oven to dry.

23) Rye gingerbread with berries.
Cook some jam from raspberries or currants. Pour crushed and finely sifted rye crackers into hot syrup, stir, spread on a sheet. When slightly dry, cut into gingerbread, oblique squares, dry, sprinkle with sugar, store in jars.

*Recipes are designed for 6 people (for dinner for 3 people, take 1/2 of the proportion; for 2 people - 1/3; for 9 people, increase the proportion by 1.5 times, etc.)

History of gingerbread. It is believed that gingerbread in Rus' is more than a thousand years old, but spices - very expensive - began to be imported to us only in the 12th century. They came into general use much later. So what did our ancestors make gingerbread dough from then?

In ancient Rus', housewives bred rye flour with honey. Berry juices were added and a tight dough was kneaded. Thick cakes were sent to the oven. That's how it was cooked in the old days honey bread, which is considered the prototype of the molded gingerbread.

In the XII century, with the appearance in Russian cuisine of spices from India and the Middle East, they began to be added to honey bread. At first, gingerbread was a pastry for the elite. And all because spices or, as they were also called, “dry perfumes” were a very expensive pleasure. For example, merchants even used peas of “English” or allspice for settlement instead of money.

An intermediate, transitional option from honey bread to classic gingerbread is gingerbread. It was a sweet pastry, with a pattern or design on the surface. But the use of spices in it was limited. At the end of the 17th century, on the occasion of the birth of Tsarevich Peter Alekseevich, among one hundred and twenty dishes and sweets, the following is mentioned: “A large sugar dipper, the coat of arms of the Moscow State. The second carpet is sugar and cinnamon.

The current Pokrovsky gingerbread with boiled condensed milk, of course, is not like the old one. But the tradition of depicting the Russian coat of arms is observed

Types of gingerbread. For many centuries, three types of gingerbread were known in Russia:

Stucco when, as if from clay, gingerbread men sculpted their author's figures from dough. Their private species are, for example, Arkhangelsk and Pomeranian roes:

Classic Pomeranian Roe deer (Terskoy coast of the Kola Peninsula)

And this is the work of a modern master and a new reading of old goats

printed Gingerbread was made using a hardwood board, on which craftsmen carved a pattern or inscription. A layer of dough was pressed into the patterned carving, and the original pattern was imprinted on the surface of the gingerbread.

That's what gingerbread boards are for.

Carved or punched Gingerbread cookies were made using stencils prepared from wood or metal in the form of birds, animals, and various figures. And for the manufacture of glaze, they used to use honey, boiled to a very thick state, with which the surface of the gingerbread was smeared. Today, it is not recommended to boil honey, because when heated, very harmful substances are formed in it.

The use of gingerbread in rituals and customs. Gingerbread is such a forgotten thing today that we don’t even know what they were a few centuries ago. Yes, they are being made now. But in fact, gingerbread is a clear indication of how easily a folk tradition can be lost.

Gingerbread is an integral part of our old way of life. They served as a delicacy for children, for gifts to lovers with various inscriptions and drawings. They were table decorations and treats on all holidays. The gingerbread was used as an alms to the poor and brought to church for a requiem for the dead. They were given at marriage feasts. To express feelings of respect for the elders, they were offered on Forgiveness Sunday, the last day of Shrovetide.

We ourselves were surprised by this. But at the culinary festival of small tourist cities in Russia, the main historical dish is gingerbread.

Different figures from the same gingerbread were placed on it, decorated with multi-colored foil, gold and silver. All pastries were a large gingerbread about 9 cm thick, on which various figures made of gingerbread dough were fixed.
At the same time, gingerbreads carried not only ritual and religious traditions, but also served for the usual ritual of receiving guests. For example, serving the so-called “accelerating” gingerbread (pictured below) on the table meant that the meal had come to an end, and guests could gradually gather at home.

Board for "accelerating" gingerbread from our collection (modern work)

prescription differences. Russian gingerbread was distinguished by a huge variety of recipes. Rostov gingerbread was made from honey, spices, wheat and potato flour. Tula - with a sweet raspberry or sour plum layer. Pokrovskys were prepared without eggs.

Pokrovsky gingerbread - elegant and modern

In the Vladimir province, gingerbread was prepared in bakeries of two varieties - sour and unleavened. Those and others were baked on molasses with honey. The first ones are more expensive on fermented dough, thicker than unleavened ones and looked like dark brown gingerbread. The second - thin yellow. The choice depended on the buyer: the rich bought sour gingerbread with more filling in the corresponding places of the pattern with raisins. Those who were poorer were content with unleavened gingerbread.

Appearance and design. Drawings for embossing gingerbread were cut extremely deep on thick, strong wood boards in order to more clearly emboss figures, flowers and ornaments. Among the gingerbread boards with drawings, there is a frame or a border made up of letters and words, sometimes without meaning. This gave the gingerbread, as it were, a mysterious, unknown wish for well-being and happiness, like a talisman that did not have a clue.

One of the most popular gingerbread patternsXVIII century is the board "eagle". It got its name from the composition with a double-headed eagle - the Russian coat of arms. Favorite in this era, but already on small boards, were also birds of paradise - Sirins and Alkonosts, lions - vigilant guards.

Rectangular-shaped gingerbread with one simple composition were called piece. These include a double-sided board with the Tree of Life. This image, widespread in folk art, was considered a symbol of the revival of nature and life.

Most of the boards contain images of various rosettes: vortex, multibeam, concentric. Gingerbreads made with their help were used, of course, for ritual purposes. It is generally accepted that the image of the motif of the sun (rosette) is interpreted as a wish for happiness, good luck, success; possibly associated with the meeting of spring.

The Perm Territory is also not far behind in the gingerbread theme - Kungur products

Gingerbread boards. Boards for printed gingerbread were carved mainly from pear wood and partly from linden wood and were of high value - from 3 to 15 silver rubles. They were carved by special craftsmen on orders or “for free sale”. They also even had their own fashion: bakers interrupted each other with new manners-drawings, and carvers invented their inventions on boards to attract buyers and consumers.

Old boards today are in private and museum collections, among which one of the oldest (the beginning of formation dates back to 1883) is the Rostov Kremlin. The value of this collection (61 boards) lies in the fact that it contains not only typical, but rare and unique samples, whose analogues have not yet been identified; and also in the fact that most of it - gingerbread boards, received from local residents, from the "gingerbread establishments" of the city - as bakeries were called in the 19th century.

A collection of gingerbread boards is also available at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts (Moscow). Boards from many regions of Central Russia are collected there.

Museum "Tula Gingerbread" (Tula) also has a number of valuable historical documents and antique boardsXIXcentury.