Viscous porridge from legume seeds in Rus'. Russian national cuisine
The project "How they lived in Rus'" was held in my daughter's garden, and my task as a mother was to prepare a project with my daughter on the topic "How food was cooked in Rus'."
I read a lot of material and together with my daughter we selected those facts that were of particular interest to her, picked up pictures.
Of course, I designed it myself in the form of a report, but I increased the font so that a six-year-old child could read the text himself.
Photos printed separately, each photo on one A4 sheet. When the daughter read the report in the kindergarten group, these photographs were posted on the board, which ensured the visibility of the material told by the daughter.
The Russian people were very hardworking, worked in the fields, grew various cereals, vegetables, berries and fruits.
From cereals(barley, buckwheat, millet, oats) prepared porridge, kissels, made flour, pies, buns, bread from flour. Grains are very nutritious, healthy, they have a lot of vitamins. The housewives prepared certain portions - as in fairy tales, the little ones had a small cup, the adults had a big one.
The most important thing for a Russian person was bread. They didn’t sit at the table without bread, they treated it very reverently with respect, it was with bread that they met guests. After all, the people made a great effort to get bread on the table, there is a Russian folk proverb “Bread is the head of everything”, and they also said “Porridge is our mother, and bread is our father”, that's how respectful they were to food.
drinking in Rus' milk, loved tea, infusions and decoctions of fragrant herbs, drank berry fruit drinks, brewed kvass, compotes and drink from the bark of trees. For a beautiful color, dried carrots and beets were added to such decoctions, which were previously fried. Berries and fruits contain many useful vitamins.
Mostly they cooked food in a Russian oven:
There is a large space in the middle of the stove, which is closed with a special shutter lid, and where a fire is made. A cast-iron with food to be cooked is placed directly to the fire.
They boiled potatoes in the oven, and baked pies. Since a fire is burning in the oven, it is impossible to put a cast iron into the oven with your hands or pull out a hot cast iron from there. To do this, there is a grip - a long stick with a metal slingshot at the end. For each size of the cast-iron there was a grip.
This is how they put it in the oven:
For example, how cabbage soup was cooked.
They took green cabbage leaves, chopped them finely, salted them and put them under oppression for a week - under something heavy, for fermentation.
A week later, pearl barley, meat, onions, carrots were placed in a pot with cabbage leaves. The pot was placed in the oven for several hours. By the evening, a very hearty and thick dish will be ready.
Cottage cheese
Previously, cottage cheese was called cheese, and it was cooked like this: yogurt was poured into a cast iron pot and the pot was placed in a cooling oven. After a few hours, they took it out of the oven, decanted the whey and pressed down the remaining mass. This is how curd was made.
Oil
They also drank milk in Rus', cream was separated from it. Various dairy products were made from milk - sour cream, cheese, butter, kefir.
Butter was made in two ways:
1. Pour sour cream or cream into a pot and leave it in a cooling oven. Turned out melted butter.
2. They churned manually in churns - it was very difficult, because the churns were very high, and it took a long time to churn.
Kvass
To prepare it, it took only 5-7 handfuls of millet to grind in a mortar, pour warm water, take it out in a couple of days, strain through gauze - and you're done. They didn’t even add sugar, the peasants didn’t have it.
In order to preserve vegetables and mushrooms for a long winter, they were canned. They salted, fermented and soaked almost all the gifts of nature - beets, carrots, peas, pears, garlic, zucchini, eggplant ... Special oak tubs were made from wood, in which they put vegetables or fruits prepared for salting, and covered with a lid, on which they put something heavy, to create a load, heaviness on vegetables so that they "roam" and canned.
Food in Rus' was simple but healthy, and children grew up strong, healthy and strong.
Girls from a very early age were brought up as future housewives: usually the mother, in the process of household or field chores, showed and explained to her daughter how and what she was doing, then trusted her to do the simpler part of the work.
At 5-6 years old, the girl's duties included:
1. Look after the chickens
2. Cleaning the house - sweeping the floor, washing benches, shaking rugs, making beds, cleaning lamps or changing candles
3. Taking care of younger brothers and sisters - this was called "nurturing"
4. Learn to spin and weave, because the peasants made all the fabric for clothes, towels, tablecloths themselves, which is why it was called homespun. Already at the age of 5-7, the girl mastered primary skills, and her father made her a personal spinning wheel or spindle - smaller than that of adults.
5. Help cook
Women in the house had a special place near the stove - "baby kut". Usually it was separated from the rest of the hut by a curtain, and men tried not to go there unless absolutely necessary. Here the hostess spent most of her time: she cooked food, kept order in the “cupboard” (the cabinet where kitchen utensils were stored), on the shelves along the walls, where there were pots for milk, clay and wooden bowls, salt shakers, cast iron, in wooden supplies with lids and in birch bark boxes where bulk products were stored. The girls actively helped their mother in all these chores: they washed the dishes, cleaned up, and could cook simple but healthy food themselves.
Porridge is one of the oldest dishes of mankind. There is an opinion that bread came from porridge - thick, overcooked porridge was the prototype of unleavened cakes. Gradually, the cereals for such a cake began to be crushed and flour appeared, and with it - unleavened bread. In Rus', porridge was one of the most important dishes. "You can't feed a Russian peasant without porridge," they said among the people. However, porridge in Ancient Rus' was called not only cereal dishes, but in general all dishes cooked from crushed products. Ancient sources mention bread porridge made from crackers, fish porridge, etc. Even now thick soup is called gruel.
Porridge formed the basis of the meal of both poor and rich people on weekdays and holidays. Not a single significant event in the life of a Russian family could do without porridge: christening, wedding, funeral.
Baptisms and weddings were sometimes called "porridge". Accordingly, "to call for porridge" meant to invite to participate in a family celebration. The Novgorod chronicle of 1239, reporting on the marriage of Alexander Nevsky, says that the prince "married in the Trinity, they repaired that (there) mess, and another in Novgorod." At a wedding, porridge was served, as a rule, on the second day in the house of the young on a new farm, so that there would be prosperity in the house. The guests paid for this porridge with a coin, and with an iota the empty pot was merrily smashed for the happiness of the young. Hence the first dinner after the wedding was called "porridge".
At funerals and on the days of commemoration of the dead, a special porridge was served - kutia.
Porridge was treated to common village work - help. V. Dahl gives such a meaning of the word "porridge" - "to help with the harvest", "reapers (the beginning of the harvest), they feast, a crowd of porridge walks with songs."
Porridge was cooked from millet, oats, barley, buckwheat and other cereals. The most revered porridge in Russia was buckwheat: "Our mother, buckwheat porridge: not like pepper, it will not break through the stomach." From boiled, dried and crushed oats, oatmeal was obtained, which was an excellent product and from which oatmeal porridge was cooked everywhere. They said about oatmeal: "Oatmeal was boasted that it was born with cow's butter." Of course, oil is necessary for any porridge - "brewed porridge, so do not spare the oil."
Cooked porridge from a mixture of different cereals. Each cereal, depending on the type of processing, is divided into types. From buckwheat they make a core and prodel, from barley - pearl barley (cereal grain), Dutch (smaller grains) and barley (very small grains). Millet porridge was cooked from millet, semolina from hard wheat groats, oatmeal from whole crushed oats.
Porridge is one of the nutritious foods. Cooking porridge is not difficult. The main thing is to correctly determine the ratio of cereals and water. To cook crumbly porridge, you need to take 1.5 cups of water for 1 cup of buckwheat; for 1 cup of millet - 1.75 cups of water; for 1 cup of rice - 2.5 cups of water.
To cook viscous porridge, you need to take 3 cups of water for 1 cup of buckwheat; for 1 cup of millet - 3.5 cups of water; for 1 cup of rice - 4 cups of water.
To cook liquid porridge, you need to take 1.5 cups of water for 1 cup of millet; for 1 cup of rice - 5.5 cups of water. From buckwheat, liquid porridge is usually not boiled.
All cereals, except for semolina, must be washed before cooking, and barley and legumes must be soaked. The sorted and washed cereals are dipped in hot salted water. Milk porridges are less salty than porridges boiled in water. If you want to cook friable rice, you need to sort it out, rinse it, changing the water several times, then pour cold water over the rice so that it covers the rice by 2.5-3 cm. You can close the lid and put on the smallest fire. The rice is ready when all the water has boiled away and holes appear on the surface of the rice.
The most delicious porridge is obtained when it is cooked in a clay pot in the oven, and even better - in a Russian oven. You can put a saucepan with freshly cooked porridge in a warm place, covering it with a pillow for 30 minutes (or more), after adding 1-2 tablespoons of butter to the porridge.
Buckwheat porridge a la merchant
Ingredients:
For fasting people:
2 cups buckwheat
500 g champignons or other mushrooms
2 onions
vegetable oil
sugar, salt, pepper
mushroom broth
green onion
For non-fasters:
Pork 500 g
meat broth
sour cream
green onion
Cooking method: And in the first and second cases, we take the mushrooms, wash them, cut them into 4 parts and boil until soft, about an hour. Then we take out the mushrooms, and leave the broth - we will use it further in the lean version. If you are preparing a dish with meat, we do not need mushroom broth. Now fill the cereal with broth (3 cups of broth for 2 cups of cereal): in the first case, we use mushroom, in the second, meat. Boil the cereal until cooked, not forgetting to salt to taste. Cut the pork into pieces, season and fry until tender. Chop onion, fry in vegetable oil, add mushrooms. Now we take portioned pots. For the usual recipe, we combine meat with buckwheat porridge and sour cream, mix and put in pots greased with butter. In the lean version, we spread the porridge in pots greased with vegetable oil, on top in both cases we spread the mushrooms with onions. Close the lid and put in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. Serve to the table, sprinkled with chopped green onions.
Kostroma gruel (fried egg)
Ingredients:
1.5 cups barley groats
2 liters of water
0.5 cup peas
1 bulb
2 tbsp. tablespoons thyme or savory
3 art. tablespoons butter or sunflower oil
1 teaspoon salt
Cooking method: Rinse barley groats in several waters and boil in salted water for 15-20 minutes (from the moment of boiling) over moderate heat, be sure to remove the foam that forms on top. Then drain the excess, freely separating water, add peas and finely chopped onions soaked and boiled in water in advance and continue to cook over low heat until the gruel is completely softened. Season with oil, thyme, stir, boil for 5 minutes.
Porridge "Smolenskaya"
Ingredients:
1.5 cups fine buckwheat
1 liter of water
1 bulb
2 parsnip roots
2-3 tbsp. spoons of parsley
black pepper
2 tbsp. butter spoons
salt
Cooking method: In salted boiling water, put a whole onion, finely chopped parsnip roots, boil for 5 minutes, add grits and cook over low heat, stirring, until the grits are completely boiled. Then remove the onion, remove the porridge from the heat, season with pepper, parsley, oil, add salt and let stand under the lid for 15 minutes to steam.
Ingredients:
1 cup wheat grains
100 g poppy
100 g walnut kernels
1-3 art. spoons of honey
sugar
Cooking method: Wheat grains are crushed in a wooden mortar with a wooden pestle, periodically adding a little warm water so that the wheat shell comes off. The kernel is then separated from the husk by sieving and washing. On water from pure grains, ordinary friable lean liquid porridge is boiled, cooled, sweetened to taste. Separately, poppy seeds are ground until poppy milk is obtained, honey is added, everything is mixed and added to the wheat. If the porridge is thick, it can be diluted with chilled boiled water. At the end crushed walnut kernels are added.
Rakhmanovsky buckwheat porridge
Ingredients:
1/2 cup buckwheat
1 bottle of cream
1/2 hazel grouse or chicken
2 tbsp. butter spoons
1/2 cup grated cheese
1 1/2 cups beef broth
salt
Cooking method: Cook buckwheat porridge on cream. Fry the prepared hazel grouse or chicken in oil "dry", separate the flesh from the bones and rub through a sieve, stir into the porridge, add butter, cheese, broth, salt and stump in a hot oven (30 minutes). Separately serve meat broth or butter.
Ingredients:
2 cups barley groats
3 liters of water
1 glass of milk
3/4-1 cup poppy seeds
2-3 tbsp. l. honey
2 tbsp. l. cranberry or currant jam
Cooking method: Rinse the grits, boil in water over moderate heat, removing the foam all the time. As soon as the cereal begins to secrete mucus, drain the excess water, transfer the porridge to another bowl, add milk and cook until the cereal is soft and thick, stirring all the time. Separately prepare the poppy: pour boiling water over it, let it steam, drain the water after 5 minutes, rinse the poppy seeds, pour boiling water again, immediately drain it as soon as droplets of fat begin to appear on the surface of the water. Then grind the steamed poppy in a mortar (porcelain), adding 1/2 teaspoon of boiling water to each tablespoon of poppy. Mix prepared poppy seeds with thickened, softened barley porridge, add honey, heat over low heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring continuously, remove from heat, season with jam.
Five-grain porridge with fruits
Ingredients:
6 glasses of water
3/2 cup brown rice
1/2 cup pearl barley (barley) groats
1/3 cup wheat grains
1/3 cup rye grains
1/3 cup millet
1/2 cup orange or pineapple juice
1/4 cup honey
2 cups chopped strawberries
1 banana
1 pinch of salt
Cooking method: Bring water to a boil in a saucepan, put in rice, barley, wheat, rye, millet and salt. Bring to a boil again. Reduce the heat and cook the cereals under the lid until the grains become soft. Stir occasionally. Before serving, mix orange (pineapple) juice with honey. Divide the hot porridge into bowls, top with a mixture of juice and honey and sprinkle with sliced strawberries and bananas.
Rice porridge "Homemade"
Ingredients:
Rice 2 cups
milk 1 l
sugar 3 tbsp. l.
butter
vanilla sugar
dried apricots 100 g
rice 100 g
dried apples 100 g
cognac
Cooking method: First, let's prepare the fruit. Cut dried apricots and apples into slices, combine with raisins. Pour the mixture with cognac and let it stand for a while. Pour rice into a large saucepan, rinse it. Pour water into a saucepan, bring to a boil, put the rice and cook for 5-6 minutes, then put the rice in a colander. Now put fruits on the bottom of the pan, rice on them and carefully pour in hot milk, add sugar, vanilla and salt. Bring to a boil, cook for 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat and leave for 20 minutes, after which you can serve. Before use, add a piece of butter to the porridge and mix well.
Russian creamy semolina porridge
Ingredients:
350 g semolina
1 l cream
35 g sugar
200 g butter
salt
Cooking method: Pour fresh cream into a saucepan and put it on the stove, when the cream rises, remove the foam and put it on a saucer, and so on several times. Pour semolina into the remaining cream in a thin stream, then sugar, add whipped butter and foam removed from the cream. Mix well, boil, transfer to a baking sheet, greased with oil, and place for 5 minutes in a preheated oven. Thickly boiled semolina porridge in milk, if cut into slices, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried in butter, goes well with any jam, mashed berries with sugar, lemon or cherry syrup. In this form, children love it very much.
Guryev porridge
Ingredients:
1 st. semolina
3 art. cream
0.5 st. Sahara
200 gr. shelled nuts
0.5 st. raisins
100 gr. marmalade or candied fruit
3 art. spoons of jam
1 teaspoon butter
eggs 2 pcs.
Cooking method: Cook thick semolina porridge in milk or cream. Fry chopped walnuts in butter and mix with porridge. In the cooled porridge, pour the egg yolks beaten white with sugar, and then the whipped whites. Place milk or cream in a tray in a hot oven until foam forms, remove it and collect in a separate bowl. Repeat several times.
Layer the porridge, foam and filling of marmalade, candied fruits or chopped fruit in a ceramic cup so that the top layer is porridge. Sprinkle with sugar. Place in the oven until a brown caramel crust forms. Garnish with jam or fruit.
Many experts involved in the study of life in Old Rus', its features and culinary dishes, speak out negatively against the forcible introduction of the custom of tea drinking into the Russian national cuisine, instead of hearty and tasty food. Because it is unlikely that a simple tea party can replace a hearty lunch. Because the Russian people, by virtue of their customs, the Orthodox faith, constantly have to fast. And regular "tea drinking" is unlikely to bring special benefits to the body.
In addition, there is an opinion that in order for food to bring as much benefit to the body as possible, a person needs to eat what grows in the climatic zone of his residence. It would also not be superfluous to add how the reforms of Peter the Great influenced the original Russian cuisine. Because Russian cuisine not so much gained after that as lost after many borrowings from Western European cuisine.
But, of course, this issue is controversial, so here we can cite the stories of some well-known experts in the field of Russian culture. After a digression into history, many readers will remain unconvinced, but on the whole they will be enriched with data on the lost values of our people, especially in the field of nutrition, especially since culinary science is dwindling.
For example, the writer Chivilikhin writes in his notes that in ancient times the Vyatichi, Drevlyans, Radimichi, Northerners and other Proto-Russian peoples ate almost the same food as we do now - meat, poultry and fish, vegetables, fruits and berries, eggs , cottage cheese and porridge. Then oil was added to this food, seasoned with anise, dill, vinegar. Bread was consumed in the form of carpets, rolls, loaves, pies. They didn’t know tea and vodka then, but they brewed intoxicated honey, beer and kvass.
Of course, the writer Chivilikhin is right about something. They drank honey, and it flowed down their mustaches. But at the same time, one should not forget that in our country the Christian Orthodox Church calls for keeping, if not strict, then semi-strict fasting almost all year round. And not all products from the above list could be eaten.
If we talk about the original Russian cuisine, then its first mention dates back to the 11th century. Later records can be found in various chronicles, lives. And it is here that a complete picture of what was included in the daily diet of a simple Russian peasant is given. And since the 15th century, we can already talk about Russian cuisine, with established traditions and original dishes.
Let us recall such well-known sayings as: "Eat half full, but drink half drunk - you will live a full century" or "Shti and porridge - our food ...".
That is, even church dogmas did not in the least harm either the conscience or the Russian stomach. Therefore, it must be said that since ancient times, Rus' has been grain, fish, mushroom, berry ...
From generation to generation, our people ate porridge, grain dishes. “Porridge is our mother, and rye bread is our father!” Grain formed the basis of Russian cuisine. In each family, they put in large quantities rye, unleavened and sour dough. From it they prepared carols, juicy, kneaded noodles, bread. And when wheat flour appeared in the 10th century, there was already just expanse - kalachi, pancakes, pies, loaves, pancakes ...
In addition, various rye, oat and wheat kissels were cooked from grain crops. Who today can boast of knowing the recipe for oatmeal jelly?
A good help to the table were various vegetables from the garden, for example, turnips. It was eaten in any form - even raw, even steamed, even baked. The same can be said about peas. Carrots were not grown then, but radish, especially black radish, was widely used. Cabbage was consumed both fresh and sauerkraut.
Initially, the brew or bread was always fish. It was later that dishes such as mash, talkers, cabbage soup, borscht and botvini appeared. And in the 19th century, such a thing as soup already appeared. But even without this, there was something to choose from food at the table. In general, in Rus' they valued a good eater, because as a person eats, such is he at work.
To roughly imagine what we are talking about, we read Domostroy: “... at home and flour and all kinds of pies, and all kinds of pancakes, and sotsni, and pipes, and all sorts of cereals and pea noodles, and squash peas, and zobonets, and kundumtsy, and boiled and juice food: pies with pancakes and mushrooms, and with saffron milk mushrooms, and with mushrooms, and with poppy seeds, and with porridge, and with turnips, and with cabbage, and with what God sent; or nuts in juice, and Korowai people…”. In addition, lingonberry water and cherries in molasses, raspberry juice and other sweets were always on the table. Apples, pears, boiled kvass and molasses, prepared marshmallows and levoshniks. We would like to take a look at such a meal, at least once to try!
The main secret of our cuisine was the Russian stove. It was in it that all cooked dishes acquired a unique taste and aroma. This was also facilitated by cast-iron pots with thick walls. After all, what is cooking in a Russian oven? This is not boiling or frying, but the gradual languishing of a brew or bread. When there is a uniform heating of the dishes from all sides. And this primarily contributed to the preservation of all taste, nutritional and aromatic properties.
Yes, and the bread in the Russian oven was distinguished by a crispy crust and uniform baking, good dough rise. Is it possible to compare bread baked in a Russian oven with what we find on the shelves of our stores? After all, this can hardly be called Bread!
In general, the Russian stove was a kind of symbol of our country. On it, children were conceived, and gave birth, and slept, and were also treated. They ate on the stove and died on it. The whole life of a Russian person, the whole meaning revolved around the Russian stove.
Well, in the end, let's face the truth: a simple person did not eat chic in Rus', they never ate their fill in the village. But this is not because the traditional Russian cuisine was poor, but because it was hard for a peasant to live in Rus'. Big family, many mouths - how to feed everyone? Therefore, not out of greed, they ate poorly, but because of poverty. The farmer had nothing, he saved on everything, saving an extra penny.
However, all the same, we can safely say that there is nothing better than real Russian food - simple, but satisfying, tasty and nutritious.
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Potatoes appeared in Russia only during the time of Peter I and gained their popularity among the population for a long time. And what did Russians eat before the 18th century? What did they prefer and what dishes did they have on the table on weekdays and holidays?
Cereal products
Judging by archaeological finds, kitchen ceramics and the remains of various organic substances in them, starting from the 9th century, sour, rye black bread was already prepared in Rus'. And all the most ancient flour products in Russian settlements until the 15th century were created exclusively on the basis of sour rye dough, under the influence of fungal cultures. These were kissels - rye, oatmeal and peas, as well as cereals, which were cooked again from soured, soaked grain - buckwheat, oats, spelled, barley.
Depending on the ratio of grain and water, porridges were steep or semi-liquid, there was another option and it was called "slurry". Starting from the 11th century, porridge in Rus' acquired the significance of a mass ritual dish, with which any event began and ended; weddings, funerals, christenings, church building and, in general, any Christian holidays that were celebrated by the whole community, village or princely court.
One of the famous monuments of Russian literature of the 16th century, Domostroy, in addition to instructions in all areas of the life of a Russian person and family, brought to the present a list of the most popular dishes of that time. And they again turned out to be products made from rye and wheat flour, as well as options for their various combinations. Even then, the housewives fried pancakes, shangi, donuts, twisted bagels and bagels, and also baked kalachi - now the national Russian white bread.
The festive dishes included pies - dough products with a wide variety of fillings. It could be offal or poultry meat, game, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries.
Vegetables
Since its inception, central Rus' has always been a sedentary, peasant land and its population willingly cultivated the land. In addition to grain crops, Rusichi have grown turnips, cabbage, horseradish, onions, and carrots since at least the 11th century. In any case, these vegetables are mentioned on the pages of the same Domostroy, and then they were recommended to be baked in the oven, boiled in water, in the form of stews, cabbage soup, put as a filling in pies, and also simply eaten raw on the road or during field works.
These vegetables, as well as grain jelly and porridge, were the main dishes of the common man until the 19th century. After all, all Russians were Orthodox Christians, and out of 365 days of one year, 200 were fasting, when meat, fish, milk and eggs were not allowed to be eaten. And even in fast weeks, people of the lower class did not eat animal products. This was customary to eat only on Sundays and holidays. But vegetables, fresh, salted, dried, baked, and dried, as well as mushrooms, were the main diet of Russians.
partridges
Everyone in Rus' ate meat products, but not always and often they were by no means domestic animals. Due to constant military conflicts, civil strife, beef, pork and lamb dishes were very rare and expensive. In any case, some scrolls of the 11th-13th centuries say that the craftsmen and icon painters hired by the communities to build the church asked for coins or other valuables equivalent to the cost of one ram for the day of their work.
Art and construction artels were not so rare in Rus', but their work was valued above average - like the cost of a domestic ram. Beef was considered the most expensive meat for a long time, veal was forbidden to be consumed until the 18th century. At princely feasts, warriors often ate swans or chickens. But fried partridges and pigeons were sold on Sundays from stalls at all Russian fairs, and such an appetizer was considered the cheapest.
For a long time in Russian taverns it was easier to taste the meat of a wild boar than a domestic pig, and there were also elk, deer and bear tenderloins. At home, an ordinary peasant family enjoyed hare much more often on holidays than, for example, chicken or goat meat. Horse meat was rarely eaten, but much more often than the Russian people consume it now. Still, there were horses in every wealthy household. But the periods when the peasant family lived well were much shorter than those when the same people had to starve.
Quinoa
In times of crop failures, hostilities, raids, when food supplies and livestock were forcibly confiscated from peasant families by enemies, and houses perished in fires, the Russians who miraculously escaped were forced to somehow survive. If disasters and famine overtook the peasants in winter, then this promised an unambiguous death. But in the summer in central Russia, the quinoa still grows. In order to somehow alleviate hunger, people ate the stems of this plant, its seeds were used for baking surrogate bread, making kvass.
Quinoa does contain fat, some proteins, starch and fiber. But the bread from it turned out bitter, crumbling. It was difficult to digest and caused severe irritation of the digestive tract, and often vomiting. Kvass from quinoa completely drove people crazy, after it, and on an empty stomach, hallucinations often occurred, ending in a severe hangover.
However, the quinoa performed the main function - it saved the peasants from starvation, made it possible to survive a terrible time, so that they could then restore the economy and, finally, start their usual life anew.
Porridges were cooked from collapsed whole and crushed grains of rye, wheat, barley, oats, millet (millet). In Rus', until the 18th century, an ancient type of wheat was cultivated - spelt, using it for cooking porridge.
Chronicles testify to the use of four cereals in ancient Rus': wheat, barley, millet and rye. The first three date back to the Paleolithic era. Of course, they were also used for making cereals - the simplest cereal dishes.
. So, Theodosius of the Caves wrote: "Yes, Having cooked Wheat and Mixed with Honey, Presenting the Brothers at the Meal." And the Byzantine writer and politician pseudo-Mauritius (VI century) reported that millet was once the main food of the ancient Slavs.
In the table of rich people already in the XVI century. rice began to appear - Saracen millet. In addition to this name, it is found in the sources of the 16th - 17th centuries. The word "Brynets" ("smoking under the brynets with saffron", "hearth pies with brynets and with brushwood" - "serve books all year round at the table". The word "Brynets" is from the Persian "byuringj comes". Obviously, there was two names for rice depending on where it comes from.
For cooking cereals, not only cereals from whole and crushed cereals were used, but also flour from them. A very long time ago, hydrothermal treatment (according to modern terminology) of oats was also used. Oatmeal was made from it, dishes from which are considered the oldest Slavic dishes. To obtain oatmeal, oats were steamed, dried and crushed. After such treatment, the content of soluble easily digestible substances in the cereal increases and it can be eaten without additional heat treatment, diluted with water or milk. Oatmeal contains more sugar than oatmeal, it has a sweetish taste and is used to prepare sweet dishes (oatmeal with berries.
Green groats were made from unripe grain. Green porridge was cooked in times of famine, when supplies ran out in the house, and vegetables and rye were not yet ripe. Unripe grains of rye were dried, ground and boiled porridge from the resulting flour. Of course, green porridge appeared in peasant life due to a lack of food, but, obviously, it fell in love with its delicate and peculiar taste, and then entered the arsenal of professional culinary dishes. Already in. lvvgiin writes that such porridge was served with melted cow butter, and includes it in the list of common Russian dishes. Green porridge was cooked in rich houses, even in the 19th century.
Cereals were used to prepare cereals, soups, fillings for pies and pies, sausages with porridge, loaves, pancakes and other culinary products (krupeniks, casseroles. Along with cereals from cereals, cereals were prepared from legumes (in the whole form and from pea flour. Clear There was no distinction between cereals and flour: porridge was cooked from both cereals and cereal flour.
Buckwheat appeared in Russia much earlier than in other countries, and cereals from it surprised foreigners who visited our country.
This passage needs some explanation. Indeed, mash (golden beans, sheep peas), so popular in the East, the Russians did not know. As for the lentils, there was a clear mistake. The fact is that lentils were widely used in Rus' as early as the 13th - 14th centuries. It was widely used by the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (Theodosius of the Caves), but the companions of Macarius, obviously, knew fine-grained lentils, and our plate-shaped (coarse-grained) was probably unusual for them.
Eastern guests, of course, knew well "Tsargradskie Horns" - beans with sweet juicy fruits. In Rus', they were known and simply called "Horns", but they were an exquisite delicacy. Therefore, the attention of the guests was attracted by the so-called "Russian Beans" with large black (purple) and white fruits. Subsequently, in Russia they were pushed aside by beans, dishes from which taste similar to dishes from ancient beans, so they quickly entered our everyday life.
Why cereals are useful for the body.
Bags and bruises under the eyes, an unhealthy complexion, extra pounds, dull hair, rashes on the face, constant fatigue and drowsiness ... these symptoms mean that our body is filled with various unnecessary substances. Traditional medicine has discovered a way to solve the problem since ancient times. Ordinary cereals will help us get rid of toxic substances.
Groats are originally fiber, and with a high content of various organic substances necessary for the human body for normal life. Pesticides, heavy metals and other substances that are bad for our body attract organic substances. Therefore, cereals are especially useful for those who work for a long time in harmful conditions, the elderly, and are also indispensable in the diet of expectant mothers.
To one degree or another, any type of cereal is useful to the body. Except for rare medical contraindications. Each type of cereal affects our body in different ways. The impact of a particular porridge on our body depends on the composition of the acids contained in the porridge. As well as their ability to bind and remove harmful substances.
The benefits of buckwheat porridge cannot be overestimated. Buckwheat improves digestion well because it contains pectins. It is very useful for the pancreas and liver, as it contains a lot of iron. Buckwheat porridge is quickly digested and contains a small amount of calories, so it is ideal for dinner. It is best not to boil buckwheat, but to steam it. To do this, the cereal must be poured with boiling water, wrapped and put in a warm place. With this method of cooking, the porridge will be crumbly and will provide greater usefulness of buckwheat in cleansing the body of heavy metals.
The most useful type of rice is considered to be brown, wild, long Central Asian rice. People whose work is associated with the risk of lead or arsenic poisoning are especially recommended to eat rice porridge. By the way, the rice diet is very effective for weight loss. Before cooking rice, thoroughly rinse the cereal under running water, as water washes out the starch and speeds up the cooking process.
Oatmeal is the absolute champion in terms of usefulness for the female body. It reduces the risk of cancer, helps the gastrointestinal tract, prevents the occurrence of stomach ulcers and gastritis. Oatmeal with vegetable proteins and fats is useful. It contains: magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron, sodium, phosphorus, zinc, vitamins B 1, B 2, E, PP. Such a wealth of useful substances increases the body's defenses, helps to overcome depression. Oatmeal helps to strengthen bones and maintain normal blood pressure, which is especially important for the elderly. This porridge is recommended for those prone to dermatitis, this porridge has a very beneficial effect on the skin condition.
Millet porridge gives additional strength and energy to the body. It contains elements that can strengthen tissues. For example, copper, which gives tissues additional elasticity, silicon, which helps the formation of bones and teeth. For a healthy complexion and normal blood circulation, millet supplies the body with iron. It also contains fluorine, which is responsible for dental health, magnesium, necessary for workaholics, manganese, which contributes to normal metabolism.
Least of all vitamins contains semolina porridge. It is recommended for people with a diseased intestine or stomach, as it is digested quite easily due to the lack of fiber in it. Semolina itself is made from shelled wheat grains. The shell contains the most vitamins, so semolina is not very rich in them. But the remaining vitamins are perfectly preserved after cooking, because they do not have time to collapse due to quick cooking.
Barley porridge is almost twice as high as other cereals in terms of phosphorus content. Phosphorus helps to increase the speed and power of muscle contractions, so it is essential for athletes and people engaged in physical labor. Therefore, visiting a fitness club, be sure to include it in your diet. Barley porridge is necessary for normal brain function and a balanced metabolism. It takes a lot of time to cook barley porridge, up to an hour and a half. Attention! Only if you soak it for 2-3 hours, then the cooking time can be somewhat reduced. Barley should be eaten immediately after cooking, because after cooling it becomes hard and tasteless.
An excellent solution for cleansing the body of toxic compounds of fluorine and chlorine is corn porridge. This porridge contains vitamins of groups a, b, E, PP, silicon and iron. Corn porridge is also a low-allergenic food product. It is recommended for intestinal and cardiovascular diseases. Corn porridge helps to get rid of organic mercury, which is present in the substance that is used to process grain.
There are no hard limits for cereal-based diets. Any porridge goes well with mushrooms, nuts, sauerkraut, olives, eggplant. Perfectly perceived with soft and sheep cheese, cheese, milk. Products such as dried apricots, raisins, dried fruits, apples, honey perfectly complement any porridge. As you can see, the benefits of cereals for the body are obvious. Therefore, you should not refuse them just because you are on a diet, or you do not like their taste, or eating porridge has become out of fashion.
Blush in ancient Egypt was made from ocher, a mineral consisting of iron oxide hydrate mixed with clay. The mineral was available and literally lay underfoot. Ocher was used as a dye for fabrics, cosmetics, and insect control. To obtain a product of the desired consistency, fats and wax were added to the crushed ocher. Simple bright spots on the apples of the cheeks made Egyptian women fresh and hid their age.
From Egypt, the fashion for rosy cheeks passed to Greece. Ancient Greek women managed with affordable natural cosmetics. Here, the blush was obtained using the paederia plant and seaweed. In ancient Rome, they also began to brown, although here makeup was condemned by society.
Since ancient times, various cereals have occupied an honorable and important place in the daily diet of the Russian people. They, in fact, were the main and main dish on the table, not a single holiday or feast could do without them, they ate them, pouring milk or honey full, adding vegetable and cow butter, fat, kvass, fried onions and other ingredients. One of the most popular cereals in Rus' was buckwheat porridge, which in the 17th century was already rightfully considered the national dish of the Russian people, although it appeared in the expanses of our Motherland not so long ago. Brought to us from distant Asia, this culture quickly fell in love with our people, who even called it "mother". And this love is not surprising and quite understandable, because buckwheat was inexpensive, grown everywhere, buckwheat porridge is wonderful in taste and nutritional qualities, eating a bowl of such porridge for breakfast can feel full for a very long time. The people considered buckwheat not only delicious food, but also very healthy, it was used in case of loss of strength and even with symptoms of a cold.
The history of the origin of buckwheat
It will seem surprising to many that buckwheat, from which such an ordinary and traditional side dish for the Russian people as buckwheat porridge is brewed, did not originally grow on the territory of Rus' and was brought there from Byzantium.
Some researchers argue that buckwheat as a grain crop appeared about 4,000 thousand years ago in the Himalayas (where dishes from it are still called “black porridge”), other historians believe that this type of grain crop appeared in Altai (it was there that archaeologists fossilized remains of buckwheat grains were found in burial places and at the sites of ancient tribes), from there it spread throughout Siberia and the Urals. In those days, it grew as a wild herbaceous plant with small white inflorescences. Its seeds, similar to small pyramids, people tried and realized that they were edible, began to make flour from them for making cakes, and also cook delicious and nutritious buckwheat porridge from them. Neighboring countries unanimously borrowed this useful culture and began to grow and eat it everywhere, as, for example, did the Bulgarian peoples who lived on the Volga, who later passed the baton to the Slavic tribes. There are also theories about Ancient Greece as the homeland of buckwheat.
How a foreigner became native
According to various historians, buckwheat in Rus' began to be grown around the 7th century, it got its name during the time of Kievan Rus, when Greek monks from local monasteries were mainly engaged in its breeding. The Slavs really liked the hearty and tasty porridge cooked from buckwheat grains, which was previously called buckwheat, buckwheat, Greek wheat, buckwheat, and also “Tatarka” after the name of the Tatar buckwheat species with greenish inflorescences. On this occasion, there is an old legend about the royal daughter Krupenichka, who was captured by the Tatars and forced to marry the khan. The children born to them were so small and fractional that over time they turned into small dark grains. A wanderer passing by took them with her to her native Russian lands and planted them there, so, according to legend, buckwheat began to grow in Holy Rus'.
Buckwheat came to Europeans much later, in the Middle Ages, at a time when there were wars with the Arabs, who were called Saracens. Hence the French name for buckwheat - Saracen grain, which, by the way, did not receive much popularity there either in those days or today.
As history shows, buckwheat of Himalayan origin turned out to be a rather capricious and fastidious grain crop, very troublesome to cultivate, which, however, did not stop the stubborn Russian farmers who achieved good harvests of buckwheat on fertile and fertile Russian lands.
How buckwheat porridge was cooked in Rus'
The greatest connoisseur of Russian culinary arts, historian William Pokhlebkin, in his writings, said that when preparing crumbly buckwheat porridge, the Slavs used the core - groats from whole grains of buckwheat, for sweet and semi-sweet porridge they took Smolensk groats (crushed peeled kernels). In order to cook viscous buckwheat porridge, popularly called porridge-slurry, they used the so-called parting, chopped grains of large and small sizes. Porridge was prepared on water, milk, with the addition of additional ingredients (mushrooms, vegetables, meat, poultry, fried onions and boiled eggs), served as a main meal or side dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is almost impossible to spoil buckwheat porridge, in order to make it tasty and healthy, you must follow some rules when preparing buckwheat porridge:
- The proportion of buckwheat to liquid is 1:2;
- The lid of the pot must be tightly closed when cooking;
- After boiling, the porridge is boiled over low heat and allowed to brew;
- Until complete cooking, the porridge is not disturbed and the lid is not opened.
Buckwheat porridge was prepared and languished in a Russian oven in a clay pot, served with butter or milk both on holidays and in everyday life, and by the 17th century it had become the national dish of the Russian people, which we still cook and respect, like our distant ancestors.
So affectionately they say about buckwheat in Rus'. Indeed, buckwheat is an indispensable product in the diet of every Russian. We cannot imagine our table without fragrant and tasty buckwheat porridge. In addition, it is also convenient on the farm: buckwheat is stored much better and longer than other cereals.
Buckwheat is highly valued by nutritionists: its low calorie content and rich composition make it an excellent healthy food dish. And pediatricians recommend starting feeding babies with buckwheat porridge, because it is very satisfying and nutritious. In general, buckwheat porridge is useful for children, adults, and the elderly!
We have long considered buckwheat to be “ours”, although its real homeland is Northern India. There, this culture was cultivated 5 thousand years ago and was called "black rice". Buckwheat came to Europe thanks to Turkish and Arab traders. And the Byzantine Greeks brought it to Rus', so our ancestors called it groats - buckwheat.
Let's take a closer look at the unique composition of this product!
So, buckwheat contains:
Dietary fibers, which stimulate intestinal motility, “cleanse” the body of toxins, remove “bad cholesterol”, have a positive effect on the state of normal microflora and are a prophylactic for colon cancer;
B vitamins (including folic and nicotinic acids), as well as vitamin E, carotenoids (provitamins A) and phospholipids, which are responsible for the growth and proper development of the body, support normal metabolism, help maintain beauty and youth (by the way, buckwheat surpasses other cereals in the content of these biologically active compounds);
Rutin (from the group of vitamins P), which strengthens blood vessels, thins thick blood, promotes the absorption of vitamin C, calcium, iron, has a beneficial effect on the thyroid gland and immunity;
Inositol is a vitamin-like substance that contributes to the normalization of blood glucose levels and reduces the risk of diabetes;
Iron, magnesium, calcium, fluorine, zinc, manganese, copper, chromium, sulfur, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and other elements that ensure the full synthesis and operation of all hormonal and enzyme systems of the body;
Organic acids (maleic, citric, oxalic), which contribute to good digestion and the formation of energy in cells;
Proteins, or rather a set of amino acids, which is considered unique in terms of digestibility by the human body (amino acids such as lysine and methionine are especially important, which ensure the normal functioning of the liver and nervous system, and the amino acid tryptophan is involved in the construction of new cells and prevents the development of oncological diseases of the gastrointestinal tract) ;
Complex carbohydrates that have a low glycemic index and therefore are absorbed by the body for a long time (due to this, a person feels full for several hours after eating buckwheat);
The calorie content of buckwheat is just over 300 kilocalories per 100 grams of product. And the ratio of proteins, fats, carbohydrates is almost ideal for providing good nutrition: proteins - 12.6 g (~ 50 kcal); fats - 3.3 g (~ 30 kcal); carbohydrates - 57.1 g (~ 228 kcal).
It is useful to include buckwheat porridge in the diet for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, as well as for diabetes, hemorrhoids, anemia (anemia) and cardiovascular diseases.
Since buckwheat has antitoxic properties, it is useful to use it for people working in hazardous industries or living in adverse environmental conditions.
Buckwheat porridge is an ideal product for obese people and those who watch their weight. Unloading days on buckwheat are well tolerated and quite effective.
Before cooking, buckwheat can be fried, then it will become much more aromatic. To save more useful substances, you can pour boiling water over the cereal in the evening, leave it to brew overnight. In the morning, do not cook, but simply eat - with yogurt or dried fruits. To diversify your diet, buckwheat can be consumed with mushrooms, vegetables, liver, different types of meat, cheese.
And finally, another wonderful quality that indirectly affects our health: buckwheat is a great honey plant. The flowers of this plant produce a lot of nectar, which then turns into honey of a beautiful red-brown color with a spicy aroma and a characteristic pleasant taste. Buckwheat honey is unique in that it contains much more proteins and minerals than light varieties. It is recommended for anemia, hypertension, chronic gastritis, hypovitaminosis, reduced immunity, as well as for restoring strength after serious illnesses and injuries.
Let buckwheat porridge be the most desired dish on your family table!
Bon appetit and stay healthy!
Tatyana Arkadievna Selezneva, nutritionist
From what they drank in Rus'. "Distant relatives" of modern wine glasses and glasses... what did they drink from in Rus'?
"Distant relatives" of modern wine glasses and glasses... what did they drink from in Rus'?
Drinks in the history of the Russian people have always been of considerable importance. As reported in chronicles, many worldly affairs in Rus' certainly began with an honest feast. Our ancestors knew a huge number of different drinks, egg and honey, which they brought from their Aryan homeland. Throughout history, a whole culture of drinking has been developed in Rus'.
Brother.
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Bratina is a drinking vessel, usually metal, in the form of a pot. In ancient Rus', they were used mainly as healthy bowls, from which they drank honey, beer and kvass at communal feasts. In addition to the fact that brothers were a necessary accessory of the banquet table, they could also be used as funeral bowls. It is possible that the origin of the word "brother" itself dates back to the times when blood relatives-brothers met at a solemn feast. Bratina is the most important attribute that characterizes the Russian person.
endova
Endova was a round deep bowl for serving drinks to the festive table. In the upper part of the valley, a hole was made with an inserted groove - a spout, which was called a "stigma". Some valleys had a short handle, with which you could hold a vessel with a drink.
The valleys were of various sizes, from those that could hold a bucket to very small ones.
Buckets
Ladles are wooden boat-shaped, metal vessels in which drinks were served on the table. They drank from small ladles like from a cup, from those that were larger they poured an intoxicating drink into other vessels with scoops. It is known that ladles were hollowed out from a whole piece of wood, its root or burl. At the same time, they used an ax first, and only then a chisel and a knife. There were also birch bark ladles in Rus', which were sewn from birch bast. Metal ladles were made of copper, iron, tin and silver.
Skobkari
Skobkari are boat-shaped, round or oval, large vessels with two handles, in which all kinds of drinks were put on the festive table. The stapler bucket was usually made of wood: birch, alder, aspen, linden or maple. The very name of this vessel ("staple" or "kopkar") came from the material or the method of processing it (cop-dig, dug, dug out)
Bowls and cups
These are wooden, earthenware, less often metal utensils, which served both for drinking and for eating. Wooden bowls were a hemispherical vessel with straight edges, on a small pallet, always without a lid. The bowl was indispensable in ancient rituals, especially in rituals associated with the birth of a child, weddings or funeral farewells. At the end of the festive dinner, it was customary to drink the cup to the bottom for the health of the host and hostess: one who did not do this could be considered an enemy.
With the arrival of the Spaniards on the territory of America and the beginning of the Inquisition, the clergy declared amaranth "a devil's potion." The Spaniards called amaranth "devil's plant". The Spaniards disliked the "mystical Aztec grain" for its direct "involvement" in bloody rituals - after all, amaranth was a ritual culture. And the Catholic Church fully supported the Spanish conquistadors "in the fight" against amaranth.
Fighting the pagans, the Spanish conquistadors literally burned the amaranth crops (the Aztecs called amaranth "huatli"). The seeds of this plant were destroyed. If the Aztecs secretly cultivated amaranth, they were brutally executed "for disobedience." As a result of such a "struggle", amaranth, unfortunately, was almost completely eradicated from the territory of Central America. For several centuries, amaranth was a plant banned on pain of death in Europe.
European civilization, considering itself more intellectually highly developed, trampled and oppressed the unfamiliar and alien culture of Native Americans. But even the fear of the colonialists could not make the ancient Indian tribes refuse to grow amaranth. The tribes that inhabited mountainous, hard-to-reach villages were especially successful in this. It was only thanks to these brave tribes that amaranth was preserved.
Such "devotion" to amaranth was explained not only by traditional shamanic rituals in which this plant was actively used. The fact is that the Aztecs baked bread from amaranth. For them, after corn, this plant was the basis of their plant-based diet. Knowing about the nutritional and medicinal properties of amaranth, they deservedly put amaranth above any other food herbs and roots.
Bread made from corn (maize) was not very tasty. Although they satisfied human hunger, they caused stomach pain and intestinal inflammation. When adding amaranth bread to the dough, the peasants effectively solved the above problem. Therefore, it is clear that Mexico, the countries of South and Central America, the United States cultivated and actively cultivated amaranth over vast areas.
Today, thanks to the efforts of the United Nations Food Commission and, in particular, the American scientist David Lenman, amaranth has been recognized as a crop of the twenty-first century for its amazing healing and nutritional properties. David Lenman believes that with the help of amaranth it will be possible to solve the world food problem in the future.
Already in the middle of the 9th century, that black, rye, porous and baked bread made from leavened sourdough appeared, without which the Russian menu is generally unthinkable.
Following him, other types of national bread and flour products were created: dezhni, loaves, juicy, pancakes, pies, pancakes, bagels, baika, donuts. The last three categories are almost a century later, after the introduction of wheat flour. 
Adherence to kvass, sour was also reflected in the creation of kvass proper, the range of which reached two to three dozen types, very different in taste from each other, as well as in the invention of primordial Russian oatmeal, rye, wheat kissels, which appeared almost 900 years earlier than modern berry starch jelly.
At the very beginning of the Old Russian period, all the main drinks were formed, in addition to kvass: all kinds of perevarovs (sbitni), which were a combination of decoctions of various forest herbs with honey and spices, as well as honey and honey, that is, natural honey fermented with berry juice or simply diluted juices and water to different consistency.
Kashi, although they were insipid according to the principles of their manufacture, were sometimes acidified with sour milk. They also differed in diversity, subdivided according to the types of grain (spelt, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, millet, wheat), according to the types of grain crushing or its running (for example, barley gave three cereals: barley, Dutch, barley; buckwheat four: core , Veligorka, Smolensk, I did it; wheat is also three: whole, korkot, semolina, etc.), and, finally, by the type of consistency, for porridges were divided into crumbly, slurry and gruel (quite thin) 
All this made it possible to vary from 6-7 types of grain and three types of legumes (peas, beans, lentils) several dozen different cereals. In addition, a variety of flour products were made from the flour of these crops. All this bread, mainly flour food diversified mainly with fish, mushrooms, forest berries, vegetables, and less often with milk and meat.
Already in the early Middle Ages, a clear, or rather, sharp division of the Russian table into lean (vegetable, fish, mushroom) and stern (milk meat, egg) arose. At the same time, the Lenten table included far from all plant products.
So, beets, carrots and sugar, which were also classified as fast food, were excluded from it. Drawing a sharp line between fast and fast tables, fencing off products of various origins from each other with an impenetrable wall and strictly preventing their mixing, naturally led to the creation of original dishes, for example, various types of fish soup, pancakes, kundyums (mushroom dumplings). 
The fact that most of the days in the year from 192 to 216 in different years were fast, caused a quite natural desire for a variety of Lenten meals. Hence the abundance of mushroom and fish dishes in the Russian national cuisine, the tendency to use various vegetable raw materials from grain (cereals) to forest berries and herbs (snotweed, nettle, sorrel, quinoa, angelica, etc.).
At first, attempts to diversify the Lenten table were expressed in the fact that each type of vegetable, mushroom or fish was cooked separately. So, cabbage, turnip, radish, peas, cucumbers (vegetables known since the 10th century) were cooked and eaten raw, salted (pickled), steamed, boiled or baked separately from one another.
Salads and especially vinaigrettes were not characteristic of Russian cuisine at that time and appeared in Russia only in the middle of the 19th century. But they were also originally made mainly with one vegetable, which is why they were called cucumber salad, beetroot salad, potato salad, etc. 
Mushroom dishes were even more differentiated. Each type of mushrooms, milk mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, ceps, morels and stoves (champignons), etc., was not only salted, but also cooked completely separately. The situation was exactly the same with fish consumed boiled, dried, salted, baked, and less often fried. 
Sigovina, taimenina, pike, halibut, catfish, salmon, sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, beluga and others were considered each individually a special, different dish, and not just fish. Therefore, the ear could be perch, ruff, burbot or sturgeon. 
The taste variety of such homogeneous dishes was achieved in two ways: on the one hand, the difference in heat and cold processing, as well as through the use of various oils, mainly vegetable hemp, walnut, poppy, wood (olive) and much later than sunflower, and on the other hand, the use of spices .
Of the latter, onion and garlic were more often used, and in very large quantities, as well as parsley, mustard, anise, coriander, bay leaf, black pepper and cloves, which appeared in Rus' since the 11th century. Later, in the 11th and early 12th centuries, they were supplemented with ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, calamus (iry root) and saffron. 
In the ancient period of Russian cuisine, liquid hot dishes also appeared, which received the general name Khlebovak. Especially widespread are such types of bread as cabbage soup, stews based on vegetable raw materials, as well as various zatiruhi, zaverihi, talkers, straws and other types of flour soups, which differed from each other only in consistency and consisted of three elements of water, flour and fat. , to which sometimes (but not always) was added, onion, garlic or parsley. 
They also made sour cream and cottage cheese (according to the then terminology, cheese). The production of cream and butter remained unknown until the 14th century, and in the 14th-15th centuries these products were rarely prepared and were of poor quality at first. Due to imperfect methods of churning, cleaning and storage, oil quickly goes rancid. 
The national sweet table consisted of berry-flour and berry-honey or honey-flour products. These are gingerbread and different types of unbaked, raw, but folded in a special way dough (Kaluga dough, malt, kulagi), in which a delicate taste effect was achieved by long, patient and laborious processing. 
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