Finish the sentences with porridge in ancient Rus'. What did they eat in ancient Rus'

14.05.2015

Porridge has been known since ancient times to all agricultural peoples. In Russian written monuments, this word is found in documents of the late 12th century, however, archaeological excavations find pots with the remains of kasha in layers of the 9th - 10th centuries. Word "porridge" comes, according to linguists, from the Sanskrit "porridge" , which means "crush, rub".

Porridge is very healthy, nutritious, tasty and, importantly, inexpensive product. Without traditional Russian porridge on the table, it was impossible to imagine any celebration or holiday. Moreover, a certain ritual porridge was necessarily prepared for various significant events. This is reflected in the proverbs:

"Porridge is our breadwinner"

"You can't feed a Russian peasant without porridge"

"Without porridge, lunch is not at lunch"

"Schi and porridge are our food"

"Borscht without porridge is a widower, porridge without borscht is a widow"

Among some peoples of our country, porridge, which was called "grandmother's" welcomed the newborn. At the wedding, the bride and groom certainly cooked porridge, which was an obligatory part of the wedding ceremony - "The hostess is red - and the porridge is delicious". Kasha was cooked for christenings and name days, porridge (kutya) was used to commemorate a person, seeing him off on his last journey to a funeral or commemoration.

Without porridge of their own original preparation, it was impossible to receive guests. Moreover, each hostess had her own own recipe which was kept secret.

Porridge was always prepared before big battles, and even at victorious feasts without "victorious" porridge was not enough. Porridge served as a symbol of a truce: to make peace, it was necessary to cook "peaceful" porridge.

In the ancient Russian chronicles, the feasts themselves were often called "porridge": for example, at the wedding of Alexander Nevsky "they made porridge" twice - one at the wedding in the Trinity, the other during the national festivities in Novgorod.

Porridge was necessarily prepared on the occasion of the beginning of a big business. Hence the expression "make porridge".

Porridge in Rus' "determined" even the relationship between people. About a man unreliable and intractable they said: "you can't cook porridge with him". When they worked as an artel, they cooked porridge for the whole artel, so for a long time the word "porridge" was synonymous with the word "artel". They said: "We are in the same mess", which meant in one artel, in one brigade. On the Don even today you can hear the word "porridge" in this sense.

Choose your porridge!

buckwheat: rich in iron and calcium, B vitamins, contains a lot of easily digestible proteins (therefore, in China it is considered an equivalent substitute for meat). Useful for prevention cardiovascular diseases, helps with hypertension, liver diseases, edema. Normalizes digestion and bowel function. In addition, buckwheat contains 8% quercetin, which is considered one of the most powerful natural substances for the prevention and treatment of cancer.

Calorie content: 329 kcal / 100 gr.

CORN: promotes intestinal health, contains silicon, which has a positive effect on the condition of the teeth. Another plus is that from corn it turns out low-calorie porridge, which is also able to remove fat from the body.

Calorie content: 325 kcal / 100 gr.

MANNA: contrary to the prevailing stereotype, far not the most healthy porridge . Firstly, it contains a very allergenic vegetable protein gluten, and secondly, it leaches calcium from the body.

Calorie content: 326 kcal / 100 gr.

OAT: quite high-calorie, gives a "enveloping" effect. Useful for diseases gastrointestinal tract(gastritis, stomach ulcer, etc.)

Calorie content: 345 kcal / 100 gr.

BARLEY: normalizes metabolism (for example, in the initial stages of obesity), rich in microelements, B vitamins. Good for allergies recommended for the prevention of anemia.

MILLET: removes excess mineral salts from the body, binds and removes fats from the body. Millet is rich in vitamin A, which helps retain moisture in the skin cells and promotes skin regeneration. In addition, porridge contains calcium and magnesium salts, which are necessary for the normal functioning of the heart and blood vessels. One thing is bad - millet is not stored for long (an indicator of freshness is a rich yellow color). If the cereal has turned pale, it means that it has lost the vast majority of its beneficial properties.

Calorie content: 334 kcal / 100 gr.

RICE: most low-calorie porridge. Contains lots of vegetable proteins and starch, easily digestible.

Calorie content: 323 kcal / 100 gr.

BARLEY: Barley groats are crushed barley. This cereal is a source of the most useful vitamins and minerals for our body. It contains vitamins of group B, vitamins A, E, PP and trace elements - silicon, phosphorus, fluorine, chromium, zinc, boron. The cereal is enriched with potassium, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, nickel, iodine and other useful minerals.

Barley grain consists of 5-6% fiber, which is so necessary for our stomach and intestines. It helps to normalize digestion and remove all harmful products decay. In its own way nutritional value the protein in barley is superior to wheat and, unlike animal protein, is absorbed in the human body by almost 100%.

Calorie content: 324 kcal / 100 gr.

What porridges were cooked in Rus'

In Rus', spelled porridge was popular, which was cooked from small grains made fromspelled. Spelled- This is a semi-wild variety of wheat, which was grown in large quantities in Rus' back in the 18th century. Or rather, spelled grew by itself, was not whimsical and did not require any care. She was not afraid of pests or weeds. Spelled itself destroyed any weed. Spelled porridge was coarse, but very healthy and nutritious. Gradually, "cultivated" varieties of wheat replaced spelt, because. she didn't peel well. Spelled grain fuses with the flower shell, creating an almost integral whole with it. In addition, the yield of spelt was much lower than that of cultivars of wheat.

Spelled, or two-grain, is the oldest type of cultivated wheat (Triticum diciccon). Now it has almost been replaced by more productive varieties of soft and durum wheat, but there is a revival in the production of spelt, because spelt has a huge advantage over other varieties of wheat - drought tolerance. There is a lot of protein in spelled, from 27% to 37%, and there is little gluten, so people who are allergic to gluten can safely eat this porridge. Spelled is richer in iron and B vitamins than regular wheat and has a pleasant nutty flavor. Grown in the Caucasus: its crops have been resumed in Dagestan and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. Here it is called "zanduri". Sold today in Russia and American spelled. It's called "spelt". Sometimes you can find spelled grown in Europe. All this introduces some confusion, but "spelt", And "zanduri", And "spelt", And "kamut", the names of the same plant, the old Russian spelt. Moreover, it came to America and Europe from Russia.

In ancient times, dishes prepared not only from cereals, but also from other crushed products (fish, peas, bread) were called porridge. The huge variety of Russian cereals was determined, first of all, by the variety of cereals that were produced in Rus'. Several types of cereals were made from each grain crop - from whole to crushed in various ways.

Porridge made from whole or crushed grains barley, was called: barley, barley, rye, crushed rye, thick, glaze, barley . Zhitnoy this porridge was called in the northern and central Russian provinces, where, in a word zhito was designated barley. Zhito crushed, barley - porridge made from finely crushed grain. Word thick in the Novgorod, Pskov, Tver provinces, steep barley porridge made from whole grains was called. She was so popular there that Novgorodians in Rus' were even called "thick-eaters". Term "eye" was used to refer to porridge cooked from barley with peas. The peas in the porridge were not completely boiled soft, and on its surface were visible "eyes"- peas. Pearl barley- this is a porridge cooked from whole grains, the bluish-gray color of which and a slightly oblong shape slightly resembled a "pearl grain" - pearl. Three types of cereals were made from barley: barley- large grains were subjected to weak grinding, dutch- finer grains were ground to white color, And barley- very small groats from unpolished (whole) grains.

Oat porridge ( oatmeal, oatmeal) could be brewed from both whole and crushed grains. She liked her nutritional value and speed of preparation. It could be cooked on a light taganka without melting a Russian oven or stove.

Barley and oatmeal porridge has been cooked since ancient times throughout Rus', both in villages and in cities, and was served mainly on weekdays.

Millet porridge(millet, white - made from millet), was known to Russians as long ago as oatmeal and barley. The word millet was first mentioned in written documents of the 11th century. Millet porridge was consumed both on weekdays and during a festive feast.

Wheat, made into very fine grains, was used to make semolina. Word "manna"- Old Slavonic and goes back to the Greek word "manna" - food. It was served only to children and was usually prepared with milk.

Rice porrige appeared in the 18th century, when rice was brought to Russia, it was used mainly in cities. It entered the diet of peasants very slowly and was called porridge from Sorochinsky millet. In rich houses, it was used as a filling for pies. In addition, over time, they began to cook kutya from it.

Buckwheat although it appeared rather late - in the 15th century, already in the 17th century. was considered a national Russian dish. There is also a proverb about her: "Our grief is buckwheat porridge: I would eat this, but there is no". In addition to whole grains - the core, going for the cool, crumbly cereals, made smaller cereals - "Veligorka" and very small "Smolensk" .

Along with porridges from whole or crushed grains, traditional for Russians were "flour porridge" , i.e. flour porridge. They were usually called mukawashi, mukaveshki, mukovinki, mukovki . Some of these porridges also had special names, which reflected the methods of making porridge, its consistency, the type of flour used for making: bearberry, (bearer, bearberry), straw(salamat, salamata, salamaha), kulaga(malt, kisselica), pea, brew, thicket(goose, goose), etc.

Toloknyakha was prepared from oatmeal, which was a fragrant, fluffy flour made from oats. Oatmeal was made in a peculiar way: oats in a bag were dipped into the river for a day, then languished in the oven, dried, pounded in mortars and sifted through a sieve. When making porridge, oatmeal was poured with water and rubbed with a whorl so that there were no lumps. Toloknyakha has been around since the 15th century. one of the most popular folk dishes.

Solomat- liquid porridge made from roasted rye, barley or wheat flour, brewed with boiling water and steamed in the oven, sometimes with the addition of fat. Solomat is an old food for Russians. It is already mentioned in written sources of the 15th century. the word is "straw" borrowed by the Russians from the Turkic languages. Gorokhovka- porridge made from pea flour. Kulaga- food made from rye malt- germinated and steamed in the oven grain and rye flour. After cooking in the oven, a sweetish porridge was obtained. mess- porridge from any flour, poured into boiling water during cooking with continuous stirring. Gustikha - thick porridge from rye flour.

Kashi was prepared in every house, both for everyday and for a festive meal. They could be consumed with milk, cow or vegetable oil, fat, honey, kvass, berries, fried onions etc. Three porridges were usually put on the festive table: millet, buckwheat and barley.

Recipes for some cereals

Kulaga

Kulaga is an almost forgotten delicacy, once one of the most beloved in Rus'. However, in Belarus and the Pskov region, it is still being prepared, but in a slightly different version. In the wonderful book of the philologist I.S. Lutovinova "The Tale of Russian Food", the story of an old woman from Pskov is given: Saladuha was called a kulaga, rye will grow together, they soar, ana saladeit tada, it becomes sweet and lay the yagat. Bring yagat, fsypish rye muchicki, mix, pavarish and ish kulagu.

Recipe: Sort fresh blueberries, rinse and boil. Add sifted rye flour, diluted in a small amount of water, honey or sugar, mix and cook until tender over low heat, stirring occasionally. Blueberries can be replaced with fresh raspberries, strawberries, wild strawberries, blueberries, etc. Separately serve pancakes, bread, fresh milk or kvass.

But this - after all - is precisely the Pskov-Belarusian kulaga. Originally Russian kulaga was prepared only with viburnum!

Dahl's:

KULAG and. salamata; thick, brew; raw malted dough, sometimes with viburnum; steamed malted dough; knead in a pot in boiling water equally rye flour and malt, until the density of kvass, evaporate in a free spirit, and put in the cold; this is a tasty meal. Kulazhka is not a mash, not drunk, eat plenty.

The most accurate comparison of one and the other kulagi is in Pokhlebkina, here you can’t subtract or add:

KULAG. Russian national sweet dish. It exists in two versions: a real kulaga with viburnum and a Belarusian berry kulaga.

Real kulaga is made from rye malt, rye flour and viburnum, without any sweet additives. food products: sugar, honey. Malt is diluted with boiling water, allowed to brew for 1 hour, then doubled large quantity rye flour, knead the dough and let it cool to warmth fresh milk(28-25 ° C), after which they ferment Rye bread with a crust and after souring the dough, they put it in a heated oven (Russian) for several hours - usually from evening to morning (that is, for 8-10 hours). At the same time, the dishes are tightly closed and smeared with dough for complete sealing. Kulaga is created in the process of restrained fermentation without air access with weak non-heating. As a result, special enzymes are formed that are rich in vitamins of the Bg, Bb, B12 and Bi5f groups, which they create in combination with tocopherls that occur during yeast fermentation, and with active viburnum vitamins (C and P) striking effect"universal" product. Not without reason, kulaga was used for use against any diseases - colds, nervous, heart, kidney, gallstone, liver, invariably giving an excellent effect. At the same time, kulaga had an exceptional, restrained sweetish-sour pleasant taste. But both the taste and the healing effect were the result of a completely special conditions preparation, not the composition of raw materials.

Belarusian kulaga is prepared much faster and easier, without malt, as a result of mixing 100 g of rye flour with wild berries(any, and in a mixture - strawberries, blueberries, lingonberries) and a small amount sugar or honey (a glass of sugar or 1-2 tablespoons of honey). Then the mixture is aged in an oven or simply heated, after which it cools. Belarusian kulaga is very tasty due to its berry composition, but it does not have the effect of a real kulaga and is far from its taste.

I have prepared both types of kulagi. Berries of forest raspberries and viburnum frozen in summer and autumn were used. For the Belarusian kulaga, raspberries in a small amount of water were brought to a boil, added brewed rye flour and steamed for a short time in a water bath. And he fermented the Russian with rye bread, taking for her rye malt, flour, honey and excellent forest viburnum. And he kept it all night under a dough cover at T ~ 35 C. In spring beriberi, such a kulaga is really very useful.

Amaranth seed porridge

Healing properties of amaranth known from ancient times. Amaranth porridge should be eaten to strengthen the immune system, cleanse the body of toxins, toxins, radionuclides and salts of heavy metals, as well as for:

• Diseases of the digestive system (gastritis, gastroduodenitis, constipation, dysbacteriosis, gastric and duodenal ulcers, colitis, enterocolitis, fatty liver, hepatitis, cirrhosis).
• Diseases of the cardiovascular system (atherosclerosis, arterial hypertension, heart failure, coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, thrombophlebitis, varicose veins, heart attack, stroke).
• Obesity and diabetes.
• Oncological diseases
• Diseases of the female and male reproductive organs.
• Diseases and traumatic injuries of the skin (psoriasis, eczema, herpes, neurodermatitis, atopic dermatitis, fungal skin diseases, trophic ulcers, bedsores, burns, frostbite, radiation skin lesions).

Important: Amaranth seed porridge is gluten-free and can be eaten by people on a gluten-free diet. And also to all comers - people who care about their health.

Option 1

Ingredients: 1 cup amaranth seeds, 1 small garlic clove, peeled and chopped, 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped, 3 cups water or vegetable broth, sea salt or tamari soy sauce to taste, hot sauce to taste (optimal); garnish: 2 plum tomatoes and 1 large fleshy tomato.

Cooking method: Combine amaranth seeds, garlic, onion and broth in a 2.5 liter saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 20-25 minutes until most of liquid will not be absorbed. Mix well. If the resulting mixture is too runny or the amaranth has not fully softened (it should be crunchy but not too hard), bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 30 seconds. Add salt or tamari to taste. Serve with a little hot sauce if you like, and garnish with chopped tomatoes.

Option 2

Ingredients: 1 cup amaranth seeds, 2 cups water, salt, sugar, vegetable or butter.

Cooking method: Rinse amaranth seeds in water. Preferably through a sieve, because. Seeds do not completely sink in water. Place in container, add water. The number of seeds and water is not important, the main thing is to keep the ratio 2:1. Boil. Cook over low heat for 25-30 minutes. Add salt and sugar to taste. IN ready porridge you can add vegetable or butter to taste.

Oatmeal with elecampane root, seasoned with linseed oil

Prepared with water and without sugar. Elecampane root is bought at a pharmacy and ground in a coffee grinder, after which it is sifted through a fine sieve (for tea), a powder in the form of flour should be obtained, added to porridge (to taste) 15 minutes before the end of readiness.

In the finished porridge to taste and optionally added:

Blueberry
- raisins (pre-fill clean water and let the berries draw water to increase in size to the size of a grape);
- ground in a coffee grinder to choose from: flax seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds(or all together);
When ready, add a little melted butter (melt it yourself in a water bath, at a temperature of no more than 35-40 degrees) and a little unrefined linseed oil.

Porridge without cooking

People striving for a natural lifestyle often switch to a raw food diet. Its main essence is to eat foods that have not been subjected to heat treatment (frying, boiling, stewing, freezing). However, in such a case, eating porridge seems impossible at first glance. But only at first glance.

Porridge can be cooked without cooking! Just soaking cereals. Thus, the grains retain all their strength and nutritional value.

How long does it take to soak various cereals?

For soaking cereals cold water the minimum time is:

• for rye, oat or wheat flakes - 5-10 minutes;
• for buckwheat - 1 hour;
• for barley - 2 hours;
• oats (cereals, not flakes) - 4 hours;
• for rye - 12 hours;
• for wheat - 30 hours;
• for rice - 70 hours.

Let's stop for a bit buckwheat. Ta buckwheat that you buy in the store (brown) is FRIED! For normal seeds buckwheat remove the outer (black) shell mechanically, after which the cleaned buckwheat has a greenish color and taste has nothing to do with the store. Now imagine you are buying fried buckwheat, then boil it (and, most likely, more than once, because after a while it is also heated up), as a result, you use it twice killed buckwheat!

soaked cereals remain alive (they can be germinated), they will give you everything useful material without loss, and welded ones cannot boast of this - heat treatment kills them and significantly reduces the content of nutrients.

The above plate is correct only at an air temperature not lower than +1°C, because in natural winter conditions at the time of soaking, the water simply freezes - this is another reason to think about food on the estate, whether to eat cereals in winter… But that's another story.

Live cereal recipes

Live porridge from germinated wheat "Morning"

Put the sprouted wheat in a blender.

Add any fruits or berries to your taste (I like blackcurrant, as in the picture; sweeter - with raspberries or ripe bananas) and a little water. You can not add anything, but already put a couple of tablespoons of honey on a plate.

Mix at high speed until smooth.

We put it on a plate ... and you can enjoy a healthy morning dish.

Live porridge from germinated naked oats "Energy"

A little theory first...

Naked oats are a special variety of oats, on the grains of which there is no membranous shell. Such oats are not subjected to mechanical peeling, therefore, they retain high germination.

Naked oats contain trace elements necessary for health, it is especially rich in phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and zinc. And also there are B vitamins: B1, B2, B3, B5, B6; vitamin C, vitamins E, K, carotene.

Oat sprouts are especially beneficial, as when sprouting, the content of vitamin C increases from 0.88 mg/100 g to 13.82 mg/100 g, and the number of antioxidants increases from 34 mg/100 g to 334 mg/100 g!

Regular intake of sprouts normalizes the work of the gastrointestinal tract. Oat sprouts increase immunity, restore muscle strength, renew blood.

According to polls, hullless oats are in second place in popularity among adherents of a healthy diet, second only to green buckwheat.

Recipe:

1) We germinate naked oats.

2) Mash a soft banana.

3) Add the desired amount of ripe raspberries.

Sprouted oats with a banana can be twisted in a blender. It is better to add raspberries to the finished porridge with whole berries.

In the absence of raspberries, you can get by just fine with a banana.

However, you can take any berries and fruits that your soul desires ...

Raw oat bran porridge with cranberries and walnuts

1. In the evening we put it on a plate oat bran, cranberries and crushed raw walnuts. Instead of cranberries, you can take your favorite dried fruits: for example, raisins, dried apricots, prunes - a sour note is good here.

2. Fill with warm water and leave to soak and soak until the morning.

3. In the morning, add honey to the swollen mass to taste, decorate with mint leaves ...

Live porridge from sprouted green buckwheat with sweet fruits

1. We germinate green buckwheat. (It can be ground in a blender with the rest of the ingredients).

3. Mix sprouted buckwheat with your favorite sweet fruits. I especially like two flavors: with mashed (or finely chopped) ripe banana and with soaked raisins.

And green buckwheat is good for breakfast with "milk" - for example, from sunflower or pumpkin seeds.

Eat porridge and be healthy!

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Cooking porridge. 10 delicious porridge recipes

Porridge is one of the oldest dishes of mankind. There is an opinion that bread came from porridge - thick, overcooked porridge was a prototype unleavened flatbread. Gradually, the cereal for such a cake began to be crushed and flour appeared, and with it - unleavened bread. In Rus', porridge was one of main courses. "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 cooked from crackers, fish porridge, etc. And even now thick soup called porridge.

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 great 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."

Prepared porridge from a mixture 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, from solid wheat groats- semolina, from whole crushed oats - oatmeal.

Kasha is one of nutritious meals. 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 usually not cooked.

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 the rice cold water 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 clay pot in the oven, and even better - in the 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 portion pots. For conventional prescription combine meat with buckwheat porridge and sour cream, mix and spread in greased butter pots. 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 onion.

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 of 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 cores walnuts
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 pulp from the bones and rub through a sieve, stir into the porridge, add butter, cheese, broth, salt and stump in 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 with thickened, softened barley porridge, add honey, warm 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. IN large saucepan add rice, 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 it is cut into slices, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried in butter, goes well with any jam, pureed 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. Pour white whipped with sugar into the cooled porridge. egg yolks and then whipped egg 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 bowl so that top layer there was porridge. Sprinkle with sugar. Place in oven until brown caramel crust. Garnish with jam or fruit.

What do you have for lunch today? Vegetable salad, borscht, soup, potatoes, chicken? These dishes and products have become so familiar to us that we already consider some of them to be primordially Russian. I agree, several hundred years have passed, and they have firmly entered our diet. And I can’t even believe that once people did without the usual potatoes, tomatoes, sunflower oil, not to mention cheese or pasta.

Food security has always been the most important issue in people's lives. Based on climatic conditions and natural resources, each nation developed hunting, cattle breeding and crop production to a greater or lesser extent.
Kievan Rus as a state was formed in the 9th century AD. By that time, the diet of the Slavs was flour products, cereals, dairy products, meat and fish.

Barley, oats, wheat and buckwheat were grown from cereals, and rye appeared a little later. Of course, the staple food was bread. In the southern regions it was baked from wheat flour, in the northern regions rye flour became more common. In addition to bread, they also baked pancakes, pancakes, cakes, and on holidays - pies (often made from pea flour). Pies could be various fillings: meat, fish, mushrooms and berries.
Pies were made either from unleavened dough, such as is now used for dumplings and dumplings, or from sour dough. It was called so because it was really sour (fermented) in a large special vessel - sourdough. The first time the dough was kneaded from flour and well or river water and put in a warm place. After a few days, the dough began to bubble - it was "working" wild yeast which are always in the air. Now it was possible to bake from it. When preparing bread or pies, they left a little dough in the kneader, which was called sourdough, and the next time they only added it to the sourdough. right amount flour and water. In every family, leaven lived for many years, and the bride, if she went to live in her own house, received a dowry with leaven.

Kissel has long been considered one of the most common sweet dishes in Rus'.In ancient Rus', jelly was prepared on the basis of rye, oatmeal and wheat broths, sour in taste and grayish-brown in color, which was reminiscent of the color of the coastal loam of Russian rivers. Kissels turned out elastic, reminiscent of jelly, jelly. Since there was no sugar in those days, honey, jam or berry syrups were added to taste.

In ancient Rus', porridges were very popular. Mostly it was wheat or oatmeal, from whole grains, which were steamed for a long time in the oven so that they were soft. A great delicacy was rice (Sorochinsky millet) and buckwheat, which appeared in Rus' along with the Greek monks. Porridges were seasoned with butter, linseed or hemp oil.

An interesting situation in Rus' was with vegetable products. What we use now - was not in sight. The most common vegetable was the radish. It was somewhat different from the modern one and was many times larger. Turnip was also massively distributed. These root crops were stewed, fried and used to make filling for pies. Peas have also been known since ancient times in Rus'. It was not only boiled, but also made flour from which pancakes and pies were baked. In the 11th century, onions, cabbage, and a little later, carrots began to appear on the tables. Cucumbers will appear only in the 15th century. And the solanaceous ones familiar to us: potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants came to us only at the beginning of the 18th century.
In addition, in Rus' plant food they used wild sorrel and quinoa. Complemented plant-based diet numerous wild berries and mushrooms.

From meat food were known to us beef, pork, chickens, geese and ducks. They ate little horse meat, mostly the military during campaigns. Often on the tables there was meat of wild animals: venison, wild boar and even bear meat. Partridges, hazel grouse and other game were also eaten. Even the Christian Church, which spread its influence, considered it unacceptable to eat wild animals, could not eradicate this tradition. The meat was fried on charcoal, on a spit (stewed), or, like most dishes, stewed large pieces in the oven.
Quite often in Rus' they ate fish. Mostly it was River fish: sturgeon, sterlet, bream, pike perch, ruff, perch. It was boiled, baked, dried and salted.

There were no soups in Rus'. The famous Russian fish soup, borscht and hodgepodge appeared only in the 15th-17th centuries. There was "tyurya" - the predecessor of modern okroshka, kvass with chopped onions and seasoned with bread.
In those days, as in ours, Russian people did not avoid drinking. According to The Tale of Bygone Years, the main reason for Vladimir's rejection of Islam was the sobriety prescribed by that religion. " drinking", - he said, " this is the joy of the Russians. We can't live without this pleasure". Russian booze for the modern reader is invariably associated with vodka, but in the era of Kievan Rus they did not drive alcohol. Three types of drinks were consumed. Kvass, a non-alcoholic or slightly intoxicated drink, was made from rye bread. It was something resembling beer. It was probably traditional drink Slavs, since it is mentioned in the records of the journey of the Byzantine envoy to the leader of the Huns Attila at the beginning of the fifth century, along with honey. Honey was extremely popular in Kievan Rus. It was brewed and drunk by both laymen and monks. According to the chronicle, Prince Vladimir the Red Sun ordered three hundred cauldrons of honey on the occasion of the opening of the church in Vasilevo. In 1146, Prince Izyaslav II discovered five hundred barrels of honey and eighty barrels of wine in the cellars of his rival Svyatoslav. Several varieties of honey were known: sweet, dry, with pepper, and so on. They also drank wine: wines were imported from Greece, and, in addition to the princes, churches and monasteries regularly imported wine for the celebration of the liturgy.

Such was Old Slavonic cuisine. What is Russian cuisine and what is its connection with Old Slavonic? For several centuries, life, customs have changed, trade relations have expanded, the market has been filled with new products. Russian cuisine absorbed a large amount national dishes various peoples. Something has been forgotten or superseded by other products. However, the main trends of Old Slavonic cuisine in one form or another have survived to this day. This is the dominant position of bread on our table, a wide range of pastries, cereals, cold snacks. Therefore, in my opinion, Russian cuisine is not something isolated, but a logical continuation of Old Slavonic cuisine, despite the fact that it has undergone significant changes over the centuries.
What is your opinion?

Not a single celebration in Rus' was complete without traditional Russian porridge. Whole grain cereals are an important source of vegetable proteins and carbohydrates. They contain quite a lot of minerals and essential vitamins, especially B vitamins.

Therefore, cereals made from cereals are widely used in the nutrition of children and the elderly. Another advantage of cereals is their versatility. They go well with any other products: meat and fish, mushrooms and vegetables, fruits and berries.

Over the past years, nutritionists have urged us to make more active use of cereals and leguminous plants. Whole grains contain everything our body needs. It contains a sufficient amount of fiber, namely coarse dietary fiber lacking in the diet of modern man. From the grain of cereals, we get vital amino acids, 18 of which are essential.

Porridge is a cult dish

Kasha is undoubtedly a traditional Russian dish. Moreover, porridge is a cult dish. According to old Russian traditions, during the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom always cooked porridge. Obviously, from this tradition the saying was born: “You can’t cook porridge with him (with her”). The whole history of the Russian state is inextricably linked with porridge. Russian porridge is the most important dish of national Russian cuisine.

Russia, as it happened historically, has always been and, I would like to believe, will be an agrarian country. The main product of Russian agriculture has always been cereals (and, to a lesser extent, legumes) crops. The body of a Russian person, over many centuries (and even millennia), has been formed and evolved on the basis of the structural composition of cereals. Man and cereals, during their joint existence, have created an inseparable community.

Only plants are endowed by nature with the ability to accumulate sunlight (energy) in themselves and extract nutrients from the earth. Only plants have the ability to synthesize and accumulate in themselves necessary for a person nutritional and biologically active substances (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc.). Human body independently capable of producing only a tiny fraction of the substances vital to it for a full existence.

That is why, since time immemorial, man has been growing plants for food. The most valuable and biologically important of them are cereals. Without them, our existence is unthinkable. Cereals are the compressed light of the Sun. They contain everything that our body needs for a full life.

Kasha is a Russian product

And today, finally, such a primordially Russian product as porridge from whole grain cereals is finally returning to our diet. First, the most fashionable and pretentious restaurants in Moscow and St. Petersburg began to introduce dishes from primordially Russian cereals into their menus: rye, barley, oatmeal, wheat (semolina), buckwheat, etc. Following them, almost all "public catering" enterprises, at least for breakfast, began to offer various cereals prepared according to old Russian recipes.

This is a natural process. Porridge is a very healthy, nutritious, tasty and, importantly, inexpensive product. In Rus', cereals have always been treated with reverence.

Porridge for a Russian person has always been not just food, but ritual dish. It was impossible to imagine any celebration or holiday without traditional Russian porridge on the table.

Moreover, a certain ritual porridge was necessarily prepared for various significant events. Porridge was cooked for a wedding, at the birth of a child, for christenings and name days, for commemorations or funerals.

Porridge was cooked for a wedding, at the birth of a child, for christenings and name days, for commemorations or funerals. Without porridge of their own original preparation, it was impossible to receive guests. Moreover, each hostess had her own recipe, which was kept secret. Porridge was always prepared before big battles, and even at victorious feasts, “victorious” porridge was not enough. Porridge served as a symbol of a truce: in order to conclude peace, it was necessary to cook “peaceful” porridge.

In the ancient Russian chronicles, the feasts themselves were often called "porridge": for example, at the wedding of Alexander the Great, "porridge was repaired" twice - one at the wedding in the Trinity, the other during the national festivities in Novgorod. Porridge was necessarily prepared on the occasion of the beginning of a big business. This is where the expression "make porridge" come from. Porridge in Rus' "determined" even the relationship between people. They said about an unreliable and not accommodating person: "You can't cook porridge with him."

Christmas porridges were prepared, and porridges on the occasion of the end of the harvest. The girls prepared porridge for the day of Agrafena Kupalnitsa from a mixture of various cereals. In addition to grain and pea porridges, they cooked fish and vegetable porridge. And who has not heard about the famous "Suvorov porridge"?

According to legend, in one of the long trips, Suvorov was informed that there were a few different types of cereals left: wheat, rye, barley, oatmeal, peas, etc. Ie. porridge from any of the remaining types of grain would not be enough for half the army. Then the great commander, without further ado, ordered all the remaining cereals to be boiled together. The soldiers really liked the Suvorov porridge, and the great commander contributed to the development of Russian culinary art.

Porridge and modern dietetics

Modern dietetics has confirmed that porridge from several types of cereals is healthier than porridge from one particular cereal. Each cereal has its own chemical composition, co, peculiar only to this cereal, useful qualities, and a mixture of several cereals combines the beneficial properties of each cereal, which increases the nutritional and biological value of such porridge.

Bala "rejuvenating porridge" is popular. Groats were made from rye grains of milky-wax maturity. It turned out very tasty and fragrant porridge, which had a beneficial effect on health and rejuvenated the body.

Three types of groats were made from barley: pearl barley - large grains were subjected to weak polishing, Dutch - smaller grains were polished to white, and barley - very small groats from unpolished (whole) grains.

Barley porridge was Peter the Great's favorite food. He recognized "barley porridge as the most spicy and delicious." Spelled porridge was popular, which was cooked from small grains made from spelled. Spelled is a semi-wild variety of wheat, which was grown in large quantities in Rus' back in the 18th century. Or rather, spelled grew by itself, was not whimsical and did not require any care.

She was not afraid of pests or weeds. Spelled itself destroyed any weed. Spelled porridge was coarse, but very healthy and nutritious. Gradually, "cultivated" varieties of wheat replaced spelled, because. she didn't peel well. Spelled grain fuses with the flower shell, creating an almost integral whole with it. In addition, the yield of spelt was much lower than that of cultivars of wheat.

Today, thanks to her high biological value, there is a revival of spelled production. Spelled is grown in the Caucasus: its crops have been resumed in Dagestan and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. Here it is called "zanduri". Sold today in Russia and American spelled. It is called "spelt", and we sell it under the trade name "kamut". Sometimes you can find spelled grown in Europe. It's called "spelt".

All this introduces some confusion, but also "spelled", and "zanduri", and "spelt", and "kamut", the names of the same plant, the old Russian spelled. Moreover, it came to America and Europe from Russia.

Why, then, in Rus' has always been treated with such reverence for porridge?

It seems to me that the roots of the ritual attitude to such a seemingly simple food lie in our pagan roots. It is known from manuscripts that porridge was sacrificed to the gods of agriculture and fertility in order to ask good harvest next year. The gods, as you know, were offered only the best. And to be able to eat every day what the gods can afford once a year, you see, is nice.

When they worked as an artel, they cooked porridge for the whole artel. Therefore, for a long time the word "porridge" was synonymous with the word "artel".

They said: "We are in the same mess", which meant in the same artel, in the same brigade, something like the modern expression "we are one team." On the Don even today you can hear the word "porridge" in this sense.

The huge variety of Russian cereals was determined, first of all, by the variety of cereals that were produced in Russia. Several types of cereals were made from each grain crop - from whole to crushed in various ways. The most favorite porridge was buckwheat. In addition to whole grains - the core, which goes for steep, crumbly cereals, they also made smaller cereals - "veligorka" and very small - "Smolensk".

For gourmets of that time, the Econom magazine for 1841 provides a recipe for rose porridge: “Tear off a few roses and crush the leaves in a mortar as finely as possible; release egg white into a mortar and add as much potato starch how much does it take to get out thick dough. Then wipe through a sieve on a dry board and dry in the sun. Thus, get excellent grits. Porridge from it is cooked on cream. You can add some sugar to it if it doesn't seem sweet enough."

So, I think that all of the above proves that Russian porridge is not only the most useful of products, but can also satisfy even the most sophisticated tastes. You just need to cook it, like any other dish, with good mood, love and fantasy.

Porridge "Children's joy"

• millet 1 cup
• water 2 cups
• pitted prunes 0.5 cup
• chopped walnuts 3 tbsp. l.
• butter 1 tbsp. l.
• salt and sugar to taste

Wash prunes and finely chop. Put in a saucepan, cover with cold water and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Then add the sorted and washed millet, add sugar, salt and cook the porridge for 15 minutes. 5 minutes before the end of cooking, put the nuts. Sprinkle hot porridge with butter, mix and serve.

Rutabaga-potato porridge

• 0.3 liters of milk
• 400 g swede
• 800 g potatoes
• 150 g onion
• 60 g butter margarine or butter

Mashed potatoes are prepared from boiled swede and potatoes, seasoned with onion and milk fried in butter or margarine.

Guryev porridge with apricots

• 100 g semolina
• 4 glasses of milk
• 0.5 cup chopped walnuts
• 300 g apricots or 200 g dried apricots
• 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar
• 2 tbsp. butter spoons
• 2 eggs
• vanilla sugar
• powdered sugar
• berries, candied fruits for decoration

Cooking method: Bring milk to a boil, season with salt. Then, while stirring, pour semolina in a thin stream. Cook viscous porridge, cool slightly. Grind the yolks with sugar, beat the whites into foam. Add the mashed yolks, proteins, vanilla sugar, nuts in turn to the porridge, gently mixing. Cut apricots in half, remove pits. (Wash dried apricots and cut into large pieces.) Finely chop the butter.

Put a layer of porridge in a buttered form. On it - halves of apricots (or dried apricots), pieces of butter, sprinkle powdered sugar, cover with a layer of porridge. Bake porridge for 15-20 minutes in an oven heated to 200 °. Garnish the finished dish with berries, fruits, candied fruits, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve in the same bowl in which it was cooked.

Barley porridge with potatoes

150 g of barley groats, 1 liter of water, 500 g of potatoes, 0.5 liters of milk, salt Rinse the groats, dip in boiling water and boil. Peel potatoes, cut into small pieces and add to the grits at the end of cooking. Make sure the porridge doesn't burn. Gradually add milk, salt to taste. Serve porridge with cracklings or sour cream sauce with onions.

Crushed oatmeal porridge

• 4 glasses of milk
• 2 cups cereal
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1-3 tbsp. butter spoons

Pour crushed oatmeal into boiling milk, add salt and cook over low heat, stirring for 20-30 minutes until thickened. Add oil to the porridge.

Semolina porridge with cranberry juice

• 0.4 liters of cream
• 200 g semolina
• 100 g cranberries
• 1.1 liters of water and juice
• 150 g sugar

Cranberries are crushed and the juice is squeezed out. The pomace is poured with water and boiled. The resulting broth is filtered, sugar is added and brought to a boil. Semolina diluted with cranberry juice, poured into boiling syrup and brewed thick semolina. Hot porridge is poured onto baking sheets, allowed to cool, cut into portions and served with cream.

Viscous semolina porridge with carrots

• 0.25 liters of milk
• 200 g semolina
• 0.5 liters of water
• 30 g butter
• 250 g carrots
• 50 g sugar
• 40 g butter

Raw carrots are grated or finely chopped and stewed with butter. Salt, sugar are placed in a bowl of boiling water, heated to a boil, the cereal is poured in and, stirring, cook at a low boil for 15 minutes. Hot milk, carrots are added to the finished porridge, mixed and put the pan in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Serve porridge with a piece of butter.

Enjoy your meal!

peasant meal

The everyday peasant table was not very diverse. Black bread, cabbage soup, porridge and kvass - these are, perhaps, all pickles. Of course, forest gifts were a serious help - mushrooms, berries, nuts, honey. But the basis of everything has always been bread.

"The barn is the head of everything"

What kind of folk sayings, proverbs, sayings are not composed about him: “Bread is the head of everything”, “Bread and water is peasant food”, “Bread on the table - and the table is the throne, but not a piece of bread - and the table is a board”, “Hood dinner if there is no bread."

"Bread and salt" met dear guests, invited to the table, wished well-being, welcomed the newlyweds on their wedding day. No meal was complete without bread. Cutting bread at the table was considered an honorable duty of the head of the family.

Served as bread and ritual food. Prosphora was baked from sour dough, intended for the performance of the Christian sacrament of communion. A special kind of bread - perepecha - participated in the wedding ceremony. On Easter they baked Easter cakes, on Maslenitsa they saw off the winter with pancakes, and met the spring with "larks" - gingerbread, reminiscent of birds in shape.

The peasant could not imagine life without bread. In lean years, famine began, despite the fact that animal food was in abundance.

Bread was usually baked once a week. The matter is complex and laborious. In the evening, the hostess prepared the dough in a special wooden tub. The dough and the tub were called the same - sourdough. The tub was constantly in operation, so it was rarely washed. A lot of sarcastic jokes are connected with this. It was said that one day the cook lost the frying pan in which she usually baked pancakes. whole year could not find it and discovered it only when she started washing the kneader.

Before putting the dough, the walls of the kneader were rubbed with salt, then poured over it. warm water. For sourdough, they threw a piece of dough left over from the previous baking, and poured flour. After mixing everything well, it was left overnight in a warm place. By morning the dough would rise, and the cook would begin to knead it. This hard work continued until the dough began to lag behind the hands and the walls of the tub. The sourdough was again placed for a while in a warm place, and then kneaded again. Finally the dough is ready! It remains to divide it into large smooth bread and put it in the oven on a wooden shovel. After some time, the hut was filled with the incomparable smell of baked bread.

How to check if the loaf is ready? The hostess took it out of the oven and tapped on the bottom. Well-baked bread rang like a tambourine. A woman who knew how to bake delicious bread was especially respected in the family.

The baked bread was stored in special wooden bread bins. They also served it on the table. They took care of these bread bins and even gave them to their daughters as a dowry.

They baked mostly black, rye bread in the village. White, wheat, kalach was a rare guest on the peasant table, it was considered a delicacy that they allowed themselves only on holidays. Therefore, if the guest could not even be "lured with a roll", the offense was serious.

In hungry, lean years, when there was not enough bread, quinoa, tree bark, ground acorns, nettles, and bran were added to flour. The words about the bitter taste of peasant bread had a direct meaning.

Not only bread was baked from flour. Russian cuisine is rich in flour dishes: pies, pancakes, pancakes, gingerbreads were always served on the festive peasant table.

Pancakes are perhaps the most popular Russian dish. Known since pagan times, they symbolized the sun. In the old days, pancakes as a ritual food were an integral part of many ceremonies - from birth (a woman in labor was fed pancake) to death (pancakes with kutya were used to commemorate the deceased). And, of course, what is Maslenitsa without pancakes. However, true Russian pancakes are not the ones that every housewife bakes today from wheat flour. In the old days, pancakes were baked only from buckwheat flour.

They were more loose, lush, with a sour taste.

Not a single peasant holiday in Rus' was complete without pies. The word "pie" itself is believed to have come from the word "feast" and originally meant festive bread. Pies are still considered a decoration of the festive table: "The hut is red in the corners, and dinner - with pies." What kind of pies have not been baked by housewives since ancient times! In the seventeenth century at least 50 types of them were known: yeast, unleavened, puff - from different types of dough; hearth, baked on the hearth of the oven without oil, and spun, baked in oil. Pies were baked different sizes and shapes: small and large, round and square, elongated and triangular, open (pies) and closed. And with what kind of filling there were no pies: meat, fish, cottage cheese, vegetables, eggs, cereals, fruits, berries, mushrooms, raisins, poppy seeds, peas. Each pie was served with a specific dish: a pie with buckwheat porridge served with fresh cabbage soup, and a pie with salted fish served with sour soup. Pie with carrots - to the ear, and with meat - to the noodles.

Gingerbread was also an indispensable decoration of the festive table. Unlike pies, they did not have a filling, but honey and spices were added to the dough - hence their name "gingerbread". Gingerbreads were made curly in shape, in the form of some animal, fish, bird. By the way, Kolobok, the character of the famous Russian fairy tale, is also a gingerbread, only spherical. Its name comes from the ancient word "kola" - a circle. At Russian weddings, when the celebration was coming to an end, small gingerbread cookies were handed out to the guests, transparently hinting that it was time to go home.

“Schi and porridge are our food”

That's what people like to say. Porridge was the simplest, most satisfying and affordable meal. A little cereal or grain, water or milk, salt to taste - that's the whole secret.

In the XVI century. at least 20 types of cereals were known - how many cereals, so many cereals. Yes and different types Grinding cereals made it possible to cook a special porridge. In ancient Rus', porridge was any stew cooked from chopped foods, including fish, vegetables, and peas.

As well as without pancakes, not a single rite could do without porridge. They cooked it for a wedding, for christening, for a wake. According to custom, the young were fed porridge after the wedding night. This tradition was followed even by kings. The wedding feast in Rus' was called “porridge”. Preparation for this celebration was very troublesome, that's why they said about the young people: "they made a mess." If the wedding was upset, then the guilty were condemned: "you can’t cook porridge with them."

A variety of porridge is a funeral kutya, mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years. In ancient times, it was prepared from grains of wheat and honey.

Many old peasant porridges - buckwheat, millet, oatmeal - are still on our table to this day. But many people know about spelled only from Pushkin's fairy tale about the worker Balda, whom the greedy priest fed with spelled. That was the name of the cereal plant - something between wheat and barley. Spelled porridge, although nutritious, is coarse in taste, and therefore was the food of the poor. Pushkin gave his priest the nickname "oatmeal forehead." Oatmeal was called oat groats special preparation, from which they also cooked porridge.

Some researchers consider porridge to be the mother of bread. According to legend, an ancient cook, while preparing porridge, shifted grains beyond measure and received a bread cake as a result.

Shchi is another native Russian food. True, in the old days almost all stews were called shchi, and not just modern soup with cabbage. The ability to cook delicious cabbage soup, as well as to bake bread, was an indispensable quality of a good housewife. "Not the hostess who speaks beautifully, but the one who cooks soup well"! In the XVI century. one could taste "shti cabbage", "shti borscht", "shti repyany".

Since then, a lot has changed in the diet. Previously unknown potatoes, tomatoes, firmly settled on our table. Many vegetables, on the contrary, have almost disappeared: for example, turnips. But in ancient times it was as common as cabbage. Turnip stew did not leave the peasant table, and before the advent of potatoes, turnip stew was considered "second bread" in Russia. They even made kvass from turnips.

Traditional Russian cabbage soup was cooked from fresh or sour cabbage on meat broth. In the spring, instead of cabbage, the hostess seasoned cabbage soup with young nettles or sorrel.

The famous French novelist Alexandre Dumas admired Russian cabbage soup. He returned from Russia with their recipe and included it in his cookbook. By the way, cabbage soup itself could have been taken to Paris from Russia. Russian memoirist of the 18th century. Andrey Bolotov tells how in winter travelers took long way a whole tub of frozen cabbage soup. At post stations, they were warmed up and eaten as needed. So, perhaps, Mr. Khlestakov did not lie so much, talking about "soup in a saucepan ... straight from Paris."

Far from always, peasant cabbage soup was with meat. They said about such people: "Chip at least whip with a whip." But the presence of meat in cabbage soup was determined not only by the wealth of the family. Religious traditions mattered a lot. All days of the year were divided into modest, when you could eat everything, and lean - without meat and dairy products. Lean whole year were Wednesdays and Fridays. In addition, long, from two to eight weeks, fasts were observed: Veliky, Petrov, Uspensky, and others. There were about two hundred fast days in a year.

Talking about peasant food, one cannot help but recall once again the Russian stove. Anyone who has tried bread, porridge or cabbage soup cooked in it at least once in their life will not forget their amazing taste and aroma. The secret is that the heat in the oven is evenly distributed, and the temperature remains constant for a long time. Dishes with food do not come into contact with fire. In round pot-bellied pots, the contents warm up from all sides without burning.

Casanova drink

The favorite drink in Rus' was kvass. But its value was not limited to taste. Kvass and sauerkraut were the only remedies for scurvy during the long Russian winters, when food was extremely scarce. Even in ancient times, kvass was credited with medicinal properties.

Each housewife had her own recipe for making various kvass: honey, pear, cherry, cranberry, apple - you can’t list them all. Other good kvass competed with some "drunk" drinks - beer, for example. Famous adventurer of the 18th century. Casanova, who traveled half the world, visited Russia and spoke enthusiastically about palatability kvass.

"Eat cabbage soup with meat, but not - so bread with kvass," advised a Russian proverb. Kvass was available to anyone. Many dishes were prepared on its basis - okroshka, botvinya, beetroot, tyuryu). Botvinya, for example, well known in Pushkin's time, is almost forgotten today. It was made from kvass and boiled tops of some plants - beets, for example, hence the name - "botvinya". Tyurya was considered the food of the poor - pieces of bread in kvass were sometimes their main meal.

Kissel is the same ancient drink as kvass. In the "Tale of Bygone Years" there is an interesting entry about jelly. In 997, the Pechenegs besieged Belgorod. The siege dragged on, and famine began in the city. The besieged were already ready to surrender to the mercy of the enemy, but one wise old man advised them how to escape. The townspeople gathered handfuls of all their remaining oats, wheat, and bran. They made a talker out of them, from which jelly is boiled, poured it into a tub and put it in a well. A tub of honey was placed in another well. The Pecheneg ambassadors were invited to negotiations and were treated to jelly and honey from wells. Then the Pechenegs realized that it was pointless to continue the siege, and removed it.

Beer was also a common drink in Rus'. A detailed recipe for its preparation can be found, for example, in Domostroy. At the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. beer was even part of the feudal requisitions.

Peasant table customs

It is difficult to say exactly how many times a day peasants ate in the 16th or 17th century. The "Domostroy" refers to two obligatory meals - lunch and dinner. They did not always have breakfast: the people believed that the day's food must first be earned. In any case, there was no common breakfast for all family members. We got up in different time and immediately set to work, perhaps intercepting something from the remnants of yesterday's food. The whole family gathered for dining table at noon.

The peasant knew the price of a piece of bread from childhood, so he treated food sacredly. A meal in a peasant family was reminiscent of a sacred ceremony. The first to sit at the table, in the red corner under the images, the father is the head of the family. Other members of the family also had strictly established places depending on age and gender.

Before eating, they always washed their hands, and the meal began with a short prayer of thanksgiving, which was said by the owner of the house. Before each meal, there was a spoon and a piece of bread on the table, which in some way replaced a plate. The food was served by the hostess - the mother of the family or the daughter-in-law. In a large family, the hostess had no time to sit down at the table during dinner, and she ate alone when everyone was fed. There was even a belief that if a cook stands at the stove hungry, dinner will be tastier.

Liquid food from a large wooden bowl, one for all, each scooped with his own spoon. The owner of the house vigilantly followed the observance of the rules of behavior at the table. It was supposed to eat slowly, without overtaking each other. It was impossible to eat "in a sip", that is, to scoop up the stew twice without biting off the bread. Thickness, pieces of meat and fat at the bottom of the bowl were divided after the liquid was eaten, and the right to choose the first piece belonged to the head of the family. It was not supposed to take two pieces of meat with a spoon at once. If one of the family members absent-mindedly or intentionally violated these rules, then as a punishment he immediately received a master's spoon on the forehead. In addition, at the table it was forbidden to talk loudly, laugh, bang a spoon on the dishes, throw leftover food on the floor, get up without finishing the meal.

The family did not always gather to dine at the house. In a bad time, they ate right in the field, so as not to waste precious time.

On holidays in the villages, "brotherhoods" were often arranged - feasts pooled. They chose the organizer of the brotherhood - the headman. He collected their share from the participants in the feast, and sometimes performed the role of toastmaster at the table. The whole world brewed beer, cooked food, set the table. There was a custom at brotherhoods: those who gathered passed around a bowl of beer or honey - a brother. Each drank a sip and passed it to a neighbor. Those who gathered had fun: they sang, danced, arranged games.

Hospitality has always been a characteristic feature of Russians. It was evaluated primarily by hospitality. The guest was supposed to drink and feed to the fullest. “Everything that is in the oven, put swords on the table,” teaches a Russian proverb. The custom dictated almost by force to feed and water the guest, even if he was already full. The hosts knelt down and tearfully begged for food and a little more drink.

Peasants ate their fill only on holidays. Low productivity, frequent shortages, heavy feudal duties forced them to deny themselves the most necessary thing - food. Perhaps this explains the national trait of Russians - love for a magnificent feast, which has always surprised foreigners.