The proposed article and video material, without any doubt, will be received with interest by our colleagues. Extremely interesting facts are revealed to us in the process of becoming acquainted with the dietary habits of the ancient Slavs. Without in any way denying the usefulness of vegetarianism and Ayurvedic cuisine, however, we are forced to admit that the food of our ancestors was much more varied. In places where, due to natural conditions, it was difficult to grow grain or keep domestic animals, the Slavs were forced to eat what a successful hunt or fishing would send them. And yet bread, milk, kvass and porridge are our strength. It's hard to disagree.

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FOOD OF THE EASTERN SLAVS

The traditional food of the East Slavic peoples has not been studied enough. The economic activities of the population were studied much more intensively. Methods of processing products and preparing various dishes from them, that is, folk cooking techniques, attracted attention to a much lesser extent. Meanwhile, it is in the various details of folk cuisine, in the everyday diet and nutrition, in festive and ritual food that the characteristic features of the traditional way of life of an ethnic group are manifested with particular brightness.

In the 19th - early 20th centuries, information about the food of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians was published mainly in local publications. They characterized the nutrition of the population in one district, province or in individual localities and were written by doctors, economists, statisticians, military personnel, etc. This determined a different approach to the phenomena under consideration. Thus, medical articles aimed to find out the causes of common diseases and, in connection with this, paid attention mainly to nutritional deficiencies. The composition and quality of the products were taken into account in the statistical and topographical descriptions. Finally, some works colorfully depicted the richness and diversity of the population's culinary skills.

In general, we can say that in those days collecting work was carried out, and there was no unity in understanding the subject of research and methodology. Therefore, such publications are fragmentary. Typically, researchers have noted the predominance of plant products, largely attributing it to the restrictions imposed by the Christian religion, which established fast days when it was forbidden to eat meat and drink milk. There were more than two hundred such days a year, which in itself established certain proportions in the diet. Reporting an approximate menu for residents of a particular area, many authors listed the most popular dishes that are eaten during fasting and during meat-eaters. Basically, the nutritional conditions of the peasantry were displayed, which in most works was considered as a single whole, without taking into account its social stratification.

Bread, dough products, cereals, stews

The leading branch of the economy of the Eastern Slavs was grain farming, so flour and cereal products formed the basis of nutrition. Bread was especially important. Due to its high calorie content and good taste, it has been and is an invariable component of the diet of all segments of the population. The expression: “Bread and salt” served as one of the forms of greeting, meaning a wish for well-being. They greeted especially honored guests and young spouses on their wedding day with bread and salt, and they went with bread to visit the woman in labor. Guests were treated to bread products and brought as gifts to the owners when they went to visit. When setting off on a long journey, the first thing they stocked up on was bread. None of the other types of food can compare with it in terms of variety of both preparation methods and finished products.

Bread differs in the types of flour, its quality, methods of making the dough and its recipe, the nature of the baking, and shape. Rye bread “black” has played a major role in Russia since ancient times. Its predominant consumption in the northern and middle zone of settlement of the Eastern Slavs (non-chernozem lands) was explained by the zonal features of agriculture: the predominance of rye crops over wheat crops. The expansion of wheat crops observed during the 19th century in the southern part of the black soil steppes contributed to the fact that by the beginning of the 20th century, wheat - “white” - bread became the main bread in the south and southeast. In some places (Altai, Minusinsk regions) they stopped eating rye bread altogether, and in some areas they baked rye-wheat - “gray” - bread.

However, the rural population did not have enough reserves of rye and wheat, so flour from other grain crops was also used. They baked the so-called chaff (in Belarus) - bread from wholemeal rye flour, to which half of the bread was added barley, buckwheat or oatmeal. Depending on the type of flour used, the bread was called grechanik (with buckwheat flour), yachnik (with barley flour), prosyanik (with millet flour). In the Carpathians and the Urals, where there were poor grain harvests, oatmeal was also used.

In lean years or in the spring, when supplies were running low, various impurities from dried and crushed plants were added to the flour. So, in Belarus and in the Carpathians, when there was a shortage of crops, bread with the addition of grated potatoes was very common (Belarusians call it bulbyan bread, Hutsuls - riplyanyk, Lemkos - banduryannik). In general, a lot of such impurities were known at that time: among cultivated plants, these were most often potatoes, then carrots, beets, bran; from wild ones - crushed pine and oak bark, acorns, wild buckwheat, quinoa, fern, etc.

Depending on the quality of the flour, a distinction was made between sieve bread - made from flour sifted through a sieve (with a fine mesh), sieve - from flour sifted through a sieve (with a fine mesh), and fur (or chaff) - from wholemeal flour.

The Eastern Slavs, like other Slavic peoples, baked bread from sour dough. The most ancient techniques of baking bread from unleavened dough in the form of shortcakes were preserved in folk memory, but were usually used occasionally. As a basic and everyday unleavened bread, unleavened bread was common only in the Carpathians: the Boykos baked it from oatmeal flour (oshchipok), the Lemkos and Hutsuls baked it from corn flour (the Lemkos called it adzimok, oschinok, the Hutsuls called it mala, korzh). They baked it immediately before eating, kneading the dough in a wooden trough, often without salt.

Preparing sour bread required longer processing of the products. The flour taken for baking was carefully sifted into a special wooden trough (selnitsa, nochva, nochva, netski). Then they kneaded the dough in wooden (dugout or cooper's) kneaders, and in Ukraine in some places also in clay kvass (Northern Russian kvashnya, South Russian dezha, Ukrainian dizha, white dzyazha) and at the same time fermented it. Yeast, special mixtures with hops, kvass or beer grounds, and most often the remains of dough from previous baking were used as leaven. In southern Russian villages they also prepared scalded bread, for which the flour was brewed with boiling water before fermentation. The well-kneaded dough was placed in a warm place where it would rise. To ensure that the breads were fluffy, zealous housewives “beat” them and let them rise a second time.

The finished dough was cut into round loaves (in the form of tall, thick flat cakes) and baked in a hut oven on a cleanly swept hearth (hearth bread). Bread was sometimes placed on cabbage leaves, and in some areas in the 20th century they used tin round cylindrical or oblong rectangular shapes (tin bread).

Usually bread was baked once a week, but in areas with stable high yields (southern Western Siberia), daily baking became customary.

In cities at the end of the 19th century, bread was usually bought ready-made. It was baked in bakeries and sold in bakeries. In bakeries, they made a wide variety of products from rich (with the addition of butter and eggs) wheat dough, which varied both in dough recipe and shape. These were various round and oblong rolls and buns, pretzels (figure eight), rolls (round or shaped), etc. Bagels, bagels and sushki (dried and small sizes) were made from wheat dough, rolled into a ring, boiled in water and then baked. All these products were very popular. They were sold in bakeries and shops, peddled at bazaars and fairs, in taverns and teahouses. They widely entered the life of the urban commoner and, together with tea, constituted a daily breakfast for many. These products were brought to the village as gifts.

In rural areas, small cookies were baked in a frying pan from sour dough left when cutting bread (Belarusians called them skavarodniki, Ukrainians called pampushki) in the form of flat cakes or rings, which were usually served for breakfast (in the north and in Siberia they were called soft, soft breakfast).

From pieces of bread, various grain remains, crusts and crackers, they prepared tyurya, or murtsovka, which on fasting days constituted the main food of the poorest segments of the population of the city and village (with the exception of Transcarpathia, where it was almost unknown). Tyurya was pieces of bread crumbled into salted water, kvass, spring birch sap, whey, milk, and in Belarus they used potato decoction for this (the dish was called kapluk). As food for children, prison also entered the life of the wealthy: pieces of white bread or buns were soaked in milk or cream with sugar and served as sweets.

On holidays they baked pies (pie) from sour wheat or rye dough. In areas with unstable grain harvests (Belarus, the Carpathians, Russian non-black earth provinces), pies were also considered bread baked from higher quality flour; among northern Russians and Belarusians - wheat, among southern Russians and in the Carpathians - even rye, but from sifted flour . For Russians in other areas and Ukrainians, pies with fillings are more typical, for which vegetables, berries, mushrooms, fish, eggs, meat, cottage cheese, porridge, etc. were widely used. It is interesting to note that the areas of the most common types of pie fillings have developed. Thus, the Russians of the northern provinces and Siberia loved pies with wild berries (blueberries, cloudberries, bird cherry) and especially with fish; in the southern zone of Russia and Ukraine - with garden berries. Very popular were small flat cakes, on which a filling of cottage cheese (cheesecakes) or another type of dough was placed (shanegs, common in the European North, the Urals and Siberia), as well as without any filling at all, smeared with sour cream on top (pampushki of Ukrainians and Belarusians ), sprinkled with salt, caraway seeds, poppy seeds, crushed hemp seeds (lacunas, sochni Belarusians), with mushrooms, with porridge. Pies baked from sour dough in the Carpathians were called baked pies and were rarely prepared. More common there were pies made from unleavened dough - knishes, filled with boiled potatoes, sauerkraut, sometimes cottage cheese and usually had a triangular shape.

Ritual cookies were baked from sour dough, specially intended for annual and family holidays. Each of them was designed in a certain way. So, on Holy Week, for Maundy Thursday, cookies were prepared in the form of animal figurines (Russian roe, cow), which were given to livestock; for March 9 (“forty martyrs”), larks were baked from dough to commemorate the arrival of birds; for the Ascension, ladders (oblong a pie with cross bars), for Epiphany - crosses, for Easter Easter cakes (tall, fluffy rich breads in cylindrical shapes). These cookies reflected ancient religious and magical ideas in materialized form, for example: the ladder symbolized the ascension and were baked both on the corresponding holiday and on days of remembrance of the dead.

Large ritual pies for weddings were baked from the best types of flour. In the Russian North, in the Volga region, the Urals and Siberia, such pies were called kurniks; they were filled with chicken, lamb, and beef. In the southern Russian provinces (Don, Kuban), as well as in Ukraine and Belarus, tall, fluffy loaf bread was baked for weddings. It was decorated with cones baked from dough, animal figures, as well as flowers or tree branches.

An ancient ritual dish was pancakes (Russian pancake, white pancake, Ukrainian pancake). They were baked from sour dough of any type of flour (buckwheat, millet, oatmeal, barley, sometimes pea), and in the 20th century mainly from wheat; They ate it with butter and lard, with sour cream and liquid cottage cheese, sometimes with honey, with salted fish and sturgeon caviar. For Russians and Belarusians, pancakes have been a mandatory dish during funeral rites since ancient times. Until now, Russians eat them in large quantities and with a variety of seasonings in the spring, on the holidays of farewell to winter. Ukrainians (mlintsi) consumed pancakes made from sour dough much less often. They were baked in the central Ukrainian provinces, usually from buckwheat flour (grechaniky). More often they prepared pancakes from unleavened dough, known to all East Slavic peoples (Russian blintsy, Ukrainian and white nalisniki).

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, in the cities of central Russia, gingerbread cookies, known since the 17th century, which were distributed throughout Russia as a festive treat, were sometimes served as ritual cookies. They were baked from round dough with plenty of spices, on molasses with honey or pure honey, sprinkled with raisins on top, and decorated with embossed patterns (gingerbread patterns were cut out on pear or linden boards). Gingerbread was given as a gift to relatives and distributed to the poor on the day of remembrance of the dead. They have long been a favorite gift at all wedding and pre-wedding parties, and in cities they replaced chicken and loaf.

Many different dishes were prepared from unleavened dough. Flatbreads are known to all agricultural peoples. Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians baked them from any type of flour, usually as a substitute for bread when there was a shortage of it. In some areas of Belarus, flat cakes (lapuns), spread with cottage cheese, crushed poppy seeds or hemp, were sent to relatives during family holidays.

Dishes made from dough cooked in boiling water, milk, and broth are very common not only among the Eastern Slavs, but also among many peoples of Western Europe, as well as the peoples of the East. Of these, the most famous is noodle soup (Russian noodles, Ukrainian lokshina, white noodles). Steep noodle dough was kneaded with eggs, rolled out thinly, cut into small narrow strips, dried and then boiled in broth or milk. Other soups had less complex cooking, prepared with boiled dough, scooped out with a spoon (Ukrainian dumplings, Russian dumplings) or torn off (rvantsy). Boiled pieces of dough were eaten without broth, pouring them with sour cream (Ukrainian dumplings) or “milk” made from poppy seeds and hemp (bel. kama).

Dishes made from unleavened dough in the form of small filled pies boiled in water: dumplings and dumplings were very popular.

Dumplings were the favorite national food of Ukrainians; Belarusians and Russians in the southern provinces also prepared them. The dough for dumplings was rolled out thinly, cut into circles and stuffed with cottage cheese, shredded cabbage, and, in the summer, with berries, primarily cherries. After boiling, the dumplings were taken out and eaten with sour cream or butter. Ukrainians also made dumplings from yeast dough, filling them with plums or sire (cottage cheese).

Dumplings were a favorite dish among the Russians of the Urals and Siberia. The dough for them was rolled out not into a sheet, but into a thin sausage; they cut it up, kneading each small piece into a flat cake; stuffed with minced meat and folded into a half ring. Boiled dumplings were removed from the broth, if with hot seasoning: vinegar, pepper, mustard. There is an opinion that dumplings were adopted by Russians from the peoples of the Urals (the Komi-Permyak word “pelnyan” means “bread ear”). In Siberia, in winter, dumplings were prepared in large quantities, frozen, put in bags and used as needed.

Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians who lived in Central Asia adopted from the local peoples a dish similar to dumplings - manti. They were made larger, filled with minced meat with a lot of onions and steamed on special grates.

Dough products boiled in boiling fat were considered festive table dishes among the Eastern Slavs, as well as among many other peoples of Eurasia. Their forms were very diverse. Most often, the dough was cut into narrow strips (Russian brushwood, struzhni), in Ukraine round nuts (gorishki) were rolled up and served at weddings, in Siberia they used a variety of tin forms (they were dipped in dough and then in boiling fat). In cast iron molds with patterns, the dough was dried and waffles were made, which were considered a delicacy.

In Ukraine, dough in the form of balls was boiled in boiling honey (cones). Brewing in honey, as you know, is very common among the Caucasian peoples.

Everyday meals included easy-to-prepare, but extremely high-calorie dishes made from custard or steamed flour. Russians and Ukrainians widely used salamata (Ukrainian salamakha), which was made from fried flour, brewed with boiling water and steamed in the oven. The finished salamata was poured with fat (animal or vegetable) on top. Kulaga (kvasha) was prepared from sweetish malt flour with the addition of viburnum berries in the north and Siberia, and fruits in the south. This sweet dish was served as a delicacy, usually during Lent. Ukrainians prepared sauerkraut from a mixture of millet, buckwheat and rye flour; Flatbreads were made from heavily boiled buckwheat flour, which were eaten with fresh milk. Ukrainians and Belarusians prepared grout in the form of flour crumbs brewed with boiling water (Russian grout, Ukrainian grout, white grout). Liquid dishes made from boiled flour (bautukha, kalatukha, tsirka) were especially common among Belarusians. They are still cooked today, but with milk. Similar dishes are known in Poland (zacirca).

Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians prepared oatmeal from oatmeal (Belarusians also call it milta), which some researchers consider an ancient Slavic dish. For this purpose, oats were steamed, then dried and ground into flour. When eating, it was diluted with salted or sweetened water, kvass, milk, or added to liquid dishes. In the North and in the Urals, oatmeal was one of the ubiquitous dishes; Ukrainians prepared it less often than others. Oatmeal was very common in central Europe and Asia, but it is almost unknown to the southern Slavs.

Kissels were made from leavened flour (most often oatmeal, but also rye and pea). For this purpose, the flour was poured with boiling water, left for several days, changing the water (“fermented”), and then filtered and boiled. Russians and Belarusians ate these thick jelly with the addition of cow or vegetable oil, and Ukrainians also with honey and milk. Kissels were an ancient ritual dish; they were served at all family holidays (birthdays, weddings), as well as at funerals.

Cereal dishes, and especially porridge, were no less common than flour dishes. In the Russian North, in the Urals, in Siberia and in the Ukrainian Carpathians, mainly oat and barley cereals were consumed, in the south - millet, and on the border with Moldova - corn. Buckwheat, which was not very common in other countries, was very loved by the East Slavic peoples. Rice cereals were available to the rural population of the southern strip of Siberia and Central Asia, where they were purchased from the local indigenous population. In the European part of the country, only privileged sections of the urban population had the opportunity to buy rice. In the Amur region they used budu - Manchurian millet.

Porridge was cooked in water and milk and steamed in the oven. They have been ritual food since ancient times, they were fed to newlyweds at weddings, they were served at christenings, and they were prepared as boiled kutya (sometimes with honey or raisins).

Since ancient times, porridges have been eaten with liquid hot dishes (cabbage soup, borscht); in the south-west of Ukraine, liquid dishes were served with kulesha - corn porridge, which replaced bread. Widespread among Ukrainians and Russians in the southern regions, kulesh (Ukrainian kulish) was a liquid millet porridge cooked with lard (in the 20th century also with potatoes and onions). Russians in the northern provinces of Siberia and the Urals prepared thick, so-called “thick” cabbage soup, boiling barley with flour dressing. In the 20th century, potatoes began to be added. Ukrainian groups in the Carpathians made "rye borscht". To do this, flour was poured with water and fermented, and then boiled. Since that time, people began to eat this borscht with separately boiled potatoes. Belarusians also prepared a hot dish of cereals (krupnik).

Liquid hot dishes (Russian stews, Ukrainian yushki) were also cooked from vegetables. However, cereals or a dressing made from flour stirred in water were often added to them. Gradually, these dishes became more widespread. Legumes used for stews were peas, and in the south, beans and lentils.

In the middle and southern zone of the country, the most popular dish among Russians was cabbage soup (“Shchi and porridge are our food”). To prepare them, sour or fresh cabbage was used, root vegetables were added to it and seasoned with flour dressing. Belarusians called a similar dish cabbage.

In Ukraine and in the southern Russian and Belarusian provinces, a favorite hot dish was borscht, which was prepared from beets, sometimes with the addition of other vegetables. It was cooked with beet kvass (the beets were filled with water and left for a day - fermented) or with bread kvass (raw cheese). Ukrainians put many different vegetables in borscht besides beets: cabbage, potatoes, onions, dill, parsley, beans, seasoned with flour or cereal grout, lard or vegetable oil. In Kuban, plums were also added to borscht.

In the spring, in many places, young beets and their tops were used to prepare botvinya (white: batsvinne) - a stew, to which various greens that had grown by this time were added.

On fast days, hot dishes were cooked in meat broth or seasoned with sour cream and whitened with milk. During the 6th post they cooked them with mushrooms and fish (in the summer - fresh fish soup, in the winter - stew with smelt - small dried fish, Ukrainians - with taranka - dried fish). Lenten hot dishes were seasoned with vegetable oil.

Vegetables

The consumption of vegetables varied depending on the possibilities of their cultivation: the food of the inhabitants of the northern provinces was poor in them; The further south you went, the more different vegetables were used. In the northernmost zone of vegetable growing, only onions, garlic and horseradish were grown. Simple dishes were prepared from onions: they ate them green and onions, cut them, pounded them with salt and ate them with bread, sometimes washed down with kvass. In poor families this was a common breakfast. Onions and garlic were added in abundance when boiling and stewing vegetable and meat dishes as seasonings. The East Slavic peoples generally greatly valued hot and spicy seasonings, but used them in relatively small quantities, more so in the southern provinces. Horseradish, vinegar (in the north), mustard (in the south), and sometimes also pepper were served at the table in wealthy houses. Imported spicy seasonings (saffron, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg) and almonds were more familiar to the townspeople, and the wealthy added them to holiday dishes, and the rest - on special days, such as Easter.

In the non-chernozem zone, radishes, rutabaga, turnips, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and cucumbers grew.

Since ancient times, vegetables (except for potatoes, which spread late) have been used to prepare parenki: vegetables were heated in an oven in a sealed container until soft.

The radish kept well throughout the winter. It was finely cut (lomtikha) or grated (trikha) and eaten with vegetable oil, sour cream, and kvass.

They ate boiled rutabaga, finely chopped and seasoned with milk. Belarusians cooked stew from rutabaga and carrots.

Until the 19th century, turnips occupied a leading place among vegetable crops. It was eaten raw, steamed in the oven, and dried for future use. In the northern provinces, turnips at times acted as a bread substitute. Its value fell due to the spread of potatoes. In the second half of the 19th century, it was already known everywhere and won general recognition.

Potatoes were boiled, fried, baked, eaten whole, chopped, mashed, with the addition of meat, butter, dairy products, and seasoned with sour and salty vegetables. However, eating it was not the same everywhere: the Old Believers treated it with prejudice as an innovation, calling it a “damn apple”; The Russian old-timers of Siberia also ate little of it. But among the Belarusians it acquired the greatest importance; they prepared a large number of dishes from it, baked flat cakes, pancakes (dzerun), added it to bread, cooked soup, made potato porridge (kamy, potato porridge). This brings Belarusians closer to their western neighbors: Poles, Germans, Czechs, Slovaks.

For all levels of society, potatoes became a necessary product, but its importance was especially great among low-income workers and peasants, where in years of grain shortages it became almost the only food. The resulting monotony in diet had a negative impact on the health of poor families, and especially children.

Cabbage was no less important in nutrition. In autumn and early winter it was consumed fresh, the rest of the time - pickled (sour, salty). For pickling, cabbage was chopped in wooden troughs with special chops. Women from several families usually united for this work (gathered for kakustka) and prepared several barrels for each household. Sometimes small whole heads of cabbage were placed among the chopped cabbage (they were considered a delicacy), apples and carrots were added, which improved the taste. Sauerkraut, chopped or shredded (very finely chopped), was on the table every day in winter. It was seasoned with vegetable oil or kvass and eaten with bread. Also, cucumbers were eaten fresh in summer and autumn, and pickled in barrels for the winter. In the fall, lightly salted, delicate-tasting lightly salted cucumbers were served as a delicacy.

Red or table beets were grown everywhere in Russia, and white sugar beets were also grown in the black soil zone of the European part. Red beets were eaten boiled (especially in the south), borscht and botvinya were prepared with it. Both types were used to make kvass: they were fermented, and sugar was also simmered in the oven.

Pumpkin (Ukrainian, White watermelon) was of great importance in nutrition, especially in the black earth zone. Pumpkin was fried, baked, and porridge was made with it. The seeds were dried and “hulled” in their free time, from which they obtained edible oil or crushed them and ate them with bread, pancakes, and flat cakes. In the southern part of this zone, tomatoes (tomatoes), zucchini, eggplants, parsnips, and peppers are widespread.

Vegetables were consumed as a side dish for other dishes and as an independent dish. They were stewed by cutting them, each type separately or in a mixture. In the summer, okroshka was prepared with vegetables using kvass (mainly from potatoes, onions, cucumbers) with the addition of eggs, fish, and meat. Vegetable soups were common among Belarusians (hernia from rutabaga, garbuzianka from pumpkin, carrot from carrots, etc.).

Fruits, wild fruits and plants

In Ukraine, the Volga region, Central Asia, and the Amur region, melons grew - melons and watermelons. They were eaten fresh, watermelons were also salted, and melons were dried.

In the European part of the country, almost everywhere, with the exception of the cold regions of the North, gardens were planted and apple trees, pears, cherries, plums, cherries and various berry bushes were grown. In some places they also planted rowan and bird cherry. The most common were apple and cherry trees. Particularly popular were some ancient folk varieties (Vladimirskaya cherry, Nezhinskaya rowan), as well as those bred by Tambov breeders in the 19th century (apple trees Antonovskaya, Semirenko, etc.).

The fruits were eaten fresh, jam and jelly were made from them, and compotes were prepared from various fresh and dry fruits. They prepared marshmallows for future use from dried fruit and berry purees and candied fruits from fruits boiled in sugar syrup. Pears were fermented in barrels for the winter, apples were soaked and filled with sweet must.

Wild fruits (apples and pears for drying and pickling) and berries were collected everywhere: currants, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, lingonberries, in the North - cloudberries (ate fresh and stored for the winter), in Siberia - bird cherry (dried and ground into flour, which was baked into pies or, brewed with boiling water, eaten with pancakes and pancakes).

Wild plants have been known to people since ancient times; among many nations they are still held in high esteem. Wild green products also occupied a worthy place in Russian national cuisine. The folk calendar even designated a special day for “Moor green cabbage soup” - May 16, when cabbage soup, borscht, botvinya, and gruel prepared from the leaves of young nettles, lungwort, and quinoa appeared in abundance on the table. The collected leaves were boiled in water, rubbed through a sieve and poured with kvass.

In lean years, quinoa was threshed, ground and, mixed with rye flour, baked into bread. They also collected brood buds of the spring clear, which were sometimes carried away by wind and rain and accumulated in large quantities at the bends in the lowlands. The peasants called these buds “heavenly wheat”, “millet” and used them for food. Chistya tubers, washed from the ground by rain, were also used for food; they taste a little like potatoes.

The fragrant stalks of caraway seeds, which in peasant usage were called “meadow apples,” were also eaten in the spring.

When there was a shortage of crops in the past, they ate the giant grass angelica, and in the North angelica replaced vegetables the whole summer.

For a long time, horsetail was held in high esteem on the peasant spring table; in the Smolensk and Kaluga provinces it was called piedstrukh. In early spring it was a delicacy for village children, and then no less a delicacy were the young strong green fruits of the willow, called “cones” by the peasants; after that, sorrel and sorrel ("hare cabbage"), wild strawberries, raspberries, wild currants and other gifts of wild nature, used by the people to this day, ripened. Once upon a time, pies with nightshade (“late nightshade”) were a considerable delicacy for peasant children. Ripe late fruit was even sold on market days, although it could not compete with raspberries, black currants, and blackberries.

In Siberia and the European North, forest berries - blueberries, strawberries ("glubenina" - in Altai), raspberries, black and red currants, and bayarka - were a great source of food and delicacy. viburnum, bird cherry, blueberry ("shiksha") - gonobobel and marsh - cloudberry, cranberry, lingonberry. In Altai, the berries were boiled with honey and eaten on fasting days as a special dish, and also used as a filling in pies and shangi. Kissel was prepared from viburnum. Boyarka, raspberries, bird cherry and viburnum were dried, scattered on the stove or in the oven on baking sheets, on cabbage leaves, and often on dryers in the yard, on which grain is dried in the summer. In winter, dried raspberries were used for colds, and viburnum and boyarka were steamed in pots in the oven and eaten with bread. Dry bird cherry berries were ground into flour, diluted with water, placed in the oven overnight so that it “malted,” and eaten with bread.

In Siberia, in the forest zone, collected lingonberries and cranberries were often stored in the forest (fresh) in large birch bark containers lowered into dug closed pits. Some peasants had up to 80 such pits, and berries were taken from them in the winter as needed.

In many places they collected and stored nuts for the winter (in the forest belt - hazel, in the Siberian taiga - pine nuts), which were a favorite treat at all evenings and gatherings. They started harvesting pine nuts from the end of August and often went skiing for them in winter. They were not only a delicacy (“Siberian talk”); Oil was squeezed out of the peeled nuts, and the cake was used to whiten tea and, like butter, it was eaten with bread.

Chewing larch resin (serki) was widespread in Siberia. Its preparation was usually done by old people who were good at finding trees suitable for this.

Fireweed (the popular name for Ivan-tea) has long been known as “Koporie tea” - from the village of Koporye, from where for many years hundreds of pounds of tea were exported, prepared from young fireweed leaves steamed and dried in the free spirit of the Russian oven. When brewed, the color of fireweed tea is indistinguishable from natural varieties of tea. Fireweed rhizomes were dried and ground when crops were in short supply. The resulting flour was used to bake flat cakes or add it to bread, which made it sweeter. Hence the popular nicknames of this plant - “breadbox” and “miller”. Young May leaves of fireweed ("cockerel apples") were used for salad, and fireweed honey. as experts say, the sweetest.

Everywhere they drank an infusion of St. John's wort, and in the European North. Altai and Transbaikalia - oregano herbs, or "white scrolls", "shulpa" (rotten birch wood) and bergenia leaves. For tea, they used last year's brown, leathery bergenia leaves, which had already lost their bitterness. In addition, in Transbaikalia they drank brewed chaga as tea. In Altai, the population ate wild onions and sweet onions, as well as mountain garlic.

Wild garlic, wild garlic ("flask"), was widely consumed in fresh and salted form. Ramson, one of the first spring plants in Siberia, is widely used by people to this day. In the Far North of Siberia, the roots of the macaria plant - "snake root" - were eaten as an antiscorbutic remedy.

The use of sunflower to obtain oil testifies to the people's ingenuity. Until the second half of the 18th century, it was only an exotic golden flower, when Count Sheremetyev’s serf Danila Bokarev was the first to obtain oil from sunflower seeds. On his initiative, a makeshift butter churn was built in the Alekseev-ka settlement, Voronezh province. And in three years, Alekseevka turned into the center of the Russian oil industry.

Mushrooms have been a great help in food since ancient times. But according to established habits in different places, their use was different. In the central provinces of the European part of Russia, the collection of different types of mushrooms and their consumption fresh were more widespread. In Siberia, more milk mushrooms and saffron milk mushrooms were prepared for winter and spring consumption in salted form. In Ukraine, mushrooms were held in less esteem, but in Belarus and the European North they were widely consumed fresh, salted and dried. Porcini mushrooms are considered the best, followed by black ones: birch and boletus mushrooms, called “obabki” in Siberia, then red ones: aspen mushrooms, butter mushrooms, saffron milk caps, milk mushrooms and others. Apparently, the noted proverbs were born in the mushroom areas: “If there is mushrooms, so there is bread”; “They take every mushroom in their hands, but not every mushroom they put in the back.” In some places, mushroom picking had commercial significance - they were sold fresh and dried.

Beverages

In the forest belt, the sap of birch, maple, and pine was collected and consumed as a refreshing drink. Various drinks were obtained from plant products by fermentation. Particularly popular was the sour-tasting kvass, the methods of preparation of which were very diverse. Ukrainians and Russians from the southern provinces drank kvass from beets. In Ukraine and Belarus, kvass was made from apples and pears, which were soaked for a long time, and the infusion was fermented with yeast and hops. Bread kvass had the most pleasant sweetish taste. Ukrainians used it as a liquid for borscht, and among Russians and Belarusians it was a favorite everyday drink. Kvass was made from rye malt, bran or crackers, which were brewed with boiling water, steamed in an oven, fermented, allowed to brew and filtered. Bread kvass, which has a pleasant aroma and slight “playfulness,” quenched thirst well and satiated. During fasting, kvass with bread was the main food of the poor.

For the holidays, beer was brewed from oats, often from barley with the addition of sprouted malt grains. This intoxicating drink was widespread among the Western Slavs, Balts, and Scandinavians. For Russians, beer was a ritual drink in the old days. It was prepared communally and drunk on holidays and special days. Joint brewing of beer (by families, villages, church parishes) was especially common in the northern Russian provinces. They brewed in special log houses (breweries or breweries). in large artel boilers. In the 19th century, “brothers” were organized on church holidays. which was the manifestation of the ancient custom of drinking together from a common larger bowl, usually hollowed out of wood, which was called bratina. Home beer production lasted the longest in the North and Siberia, while industrial beer production was established in the cities.

Another drink widespread not only among the Eastern Slavs, but also in many Western European countries, was honey. Bee honey was diluted with water, boiled, hops were added and infused (sometimes with plant leaves), causing fermentation to occur and alcohol to be formed. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, intoxicated meads had already become a rarity; in some places (in Siberia, Ukraine) the preparation of light beer - mead - was preserved, and in the cities they sold a hot honey drink with sbiten spices.

Samosidka vodka was used as an intoxicating drink, which was made at home or distilled in factories from wheat, and in the 19th century also from potatoes. It appeared in Russia in the 16th century, and soon the sale of vodka became a state monopoly. By infusing vodka or alcohol (of higher strength) with herbs, they made tinctures ("St. John's wort", "Zubrovka", "ryabinovka", etc.), and with fruits and berries - liqueurs ("Vishnevka", "Slivyanka", "Grushovka", "robin", etc.). On the Don and Kuban, grapes were grown, from which various wines were prepared; but this did not become widespread due to unfavorable climatic conditions. Nobles, merchants and the townsfolk who imitated them in everyday life considered it necessary to serve foreign wines and liqueurs to the table on special occasions.

In the 19th century, tea was included as an everyday drink, imported from other countries, primarily China. Wealthy townspeople preferred Indian and especially flower tea (the best variety, obtained from the buds of a tea bush), which gave a pale yellow, very aromatic infusion. More accessible was long tea (black) and cheap, so-called branded, or brick (pressed in the form of tiles - bricks) tea of ​​the lower grade. When brewing, rural residents added dried flowers, leaves and small shoots of some plants that have been used since ancient times as aromatic or medicinal decoctions (mint, currant, raspberry, carrot leaves, linden flowers, roses, apple trees, etc.).

Tea was especially loved in Siberia, where it was served with almost every meal. Here, in the neighborhood of the Chinese and Mongols, among whom this drink has been known since ancient times, tea spread earlier than in the European part of the country. Among Russians, tea became such a beloved and popular drink that it gave rise to new national ways of preparing it, like no other borrowed dish. So, water was boiled in samovars. They were developed on the basis of ancient vessels with a heating device in the form of a hollow pipe in the center, into which smoldering coals were placed. These devices were used to keep drinks (sbitennik) and dishes hot. In the samovar, the heat of hot coals brought the water to a boil and did not allow it to cool for a long time. The samovar in the house became a symbol of prestige and prosperity. They brewed tea in small earthenware or porcelain teapots, which were placed on a samovar to keep warm. In the cities in the 19th century, many public teahouses were opened, where huge samovars holding several buckets of water were constantly boiling. Carami were served on the table. The pair consisted of a small teapot with tea leaves placed on a small samovar or kettle with boiling water. In cities, water for tea was also boiled in large tin kettles. Among Ukrainians and Belarusians, teapots were more common than samovars. Rural residents often brewed tea in cast iron, in a Russian oven, where it was steamed.

Tea was usually drunk with bread products. Prosperous families served it with confectionery and cream (tea “in English”). Among the people, the addition of milk and cream to tea became widespread in areas where there were contacts with the Turkic and Mongolian peoples. Yes, in the Urals. In the Lower Volga region, in the Northern Caucasus and Southern Siberia they drank tea “Kalmyk”, “Mongolian”, “Tatar”, adding milk, flour, and butter to the boiling broth.

Coffee, cocoa and chocolate (imported, as well as tea) were familiar mainly to city dwellers. Cocoa and chocolate, cooked with milk, were a delicacy and were used mainly in the diet of the children of the townspeople. In rural areas, the difference in children's food was mainly that babies were given more dairy, as well as soft or crushed food and they were limited in the use of fat and spicy seasonings. Special food for little ones was prepared in wealthy and mostly urban families (various porridges with milk, especially semolina, omelettes, cutlets). All families tried to allocate more sweets, delicacies, and fruits to their children.

Vegetable oils

Since ancient times, some oilseed plants have been used to produce vegetable oils, which were also called “lenten”, since they could be consumed during fasting. Their distribution showed zonality, which was explained by natural conditions. In the northern and central provinces they used mainly linseed oil, and south of Moscow - hemp oil. Along with it, from the middle of the 19th century, oil from sunflower seeds began to be squeezed out in the black earth zone. From here sunflower oil was exported to the central provinces. Petersburg, Moscow. It gained universal recognition and gradually replaced other varieties. Mustard, poppy, and pumpkin oils were extracted in small quantities in the black earth zone of the European part of the country, which were used as aromatic flavors and as a delicious seasoning for flour dishes. The olive oil produced in Transcaucasia was little known to the rural population; it was used only by wealthy city dwellers, mainly for salads.

Vegetable oil was cheaper than animal fats and therefore more accessible. It was used to season soups, flour dishes (jelly, zavarukhi, grout, salamata, etc.), porridges, poured onions and potatoes with it, dipped flatbreads in it, and cooked dough products in it.

The seeds of some oilseeds were pounded in a mortar to obtain a fat emulsion (hemp, pumpkin, poppy milk), which was spread on bread and eaten with flatbreads. This use of seeds is also known to the peoples of the Baltic and Urals.

Milk and dairy products

East Slavic peoples consumed mainly cow's milk, and Ukrainians, Russians of the southern provinces and the Urals also consumed sheep's milk; in some farms where goats were kept - also goat. They drank fresh milk (fresh - straight from the cow and chilled, boiled and baked), ate fermented milk (yogurt, sour) with bread and potatoes. In the North and Siberia, milk was frozen, cut into thin shavings and eaten with flatbread. Frozen milk was stored in winter, taken on the road, melted as needed.

Milk was consumed more often in the summer. They “whitened” soups with it, fried eggs with it, cooked milk porridge, and added it to porridge cooked in water. Baked milk was fermented with sour cream and Varenets was obtained. In the southern Russian provinces they made kaymak (a word borrowed from Turkic languages), which was cream with foam skimmed from baked milk (it was melted several times to obtain as much foam as possible). However, sour milk was more often consumed. To ferment, raw milk was placed in a warm place and sour cream or other sour products (yogurt, bread) were added to it.

Cottage cheese and cottage cheese were made from sour milk. To obtain cottage cheese (in many places it has long been called cheese), sour milk was drained and the whey was allowed to drain. For longer storage, it was pressed in a wooden vice and dried. If with bread, milk, sour cream. Russians in the Urals and Siberia rolled cottage cheese into cakes, like local peoples, and dried them in the sun. Cottage cheese was used to prepare a ritual dish - cheese Easter.

Cheeses were cooked at home only in some districts of central Russia, Kuban and Ukraine. To curdle milk, they used starter cultures (in particular, the stomach of a young calf or lamb). In Ukraine, feta cheese was made from sheep's milk. Industrial cheese making was of incomparably greater importance. Cheese was consumed mainly by urban residents.

Cream (the upper fat layer formed when milk settles) and sour cream (sour cream) were almost never consumed as a separate dish in peasant families. They were used as a seasoning.

With the spread of separators, the development of commercial butter-making and cheese-making, peasants who handed over milk to factories either did not leave it for their families at all, or were content with what they had removed. Among the wealthy urban and rural bourgeoisie and nobility, on the contrary, the use of concentrated dairy products: butter, cheese, cream became widespread. The latter were used as baby food and served with tea and coffee. Ice cream was prepared using cream (with the addition of eggs and sugar), and it was sold on the streets of cities and large villages.

Butter was churned from sour cream, cream and whole milk. The most common method was to prepare butter from sour cream by melting it in a Russian oven. At the same time, an oily mass was separated, which was cooled and beaten with wooden whorls, spatulas, spoons, and hands. The finished oil was washed in cold water. The resulting so-called butter could not be stored for long. It was consumed little as food, mainly by wealthy city dwellers, and in less affluent environments it was given to children little by little. Peasants usually melted butter in the oven and washed it in cold water, melted it again in the oven and filtered it. Its preparation is typical for all Eastern Slavs and is also known to some of the neighboring peoples, who borrowed it from the Russians (hence its common name Russian butter).

Meat and fish

The traditional meat diet of the Eastern Slavs was meager. This was partly due to the fact that in Tsarist Russia livestock farming was one of the most backward branches of agriculture. Although cattle, pigs and sheep were bred everywhere, certain areas of animal husbandry and the predominant consumption of certain meat products developed. Thus, in the southern Russian provinces, Ukraine and Belarus, they ate mainly pork. Preference for it is also typical for Western Slavs. Beef was eaten everywhere, but very limitedly; it played a somewhat larger role in the northern provinces. In mountainous areas (Urals, Carpathians, Caucasus), Siberia and Central Asia, preference was given to lamb.

In the southern part of Siberia and Central Asia at the end of the 19th century, pig farming and, accordingly, pork consumption increased significantly, which was associated with the resettlement of people from the southern Russian provinces and Ukraine. Beyond the Urals, more livestock was bred and the population was better provided with meat food, however, seasonality was also acute here. This was caused by the established timing of slaughtering livestock in cold weather (November-December) and so on. that fresh meat does not withstand long-term storage. It came to the market at low prices, and at this time the poorest residents of the cities were better supplied with meat products. During the rest of the year, the rural population consumed them more.

Poultry: chickens, ducks and geese were bred everywhere (especially chickens), eaten mainly in the fall and winter, slaughtering the birds as needed. Poultry dishes were considered festive, and chicken meat and eggs were used, for example, to make wedding cakes. The eggs were used to make fried eggs (the eggs were put into a frying pan, keeping the yolks intact), scrambled eggs with milk (milk was added to the mashed eggs) and scrambled eggs (coarse flour and sugar were added to the mashed eggs and baked), which was eaten. washed down with milk. Eggs were also eaten boiled, baked and, less often, raw.

They tried to prepare the meat for future use, for which they salted it (put it in barrels and filled it with brine), smoked it and dried it. In winter, the carcasses were frozen. This method of storage was most suitable for the climate of Siberia, where it was constantly practiced. In the warm season, they ate mostly corned beef (salted meat).

Boiled meat was most often eaten. They cooked it in cabbage soup. borscht, noodles, but they were also eaten as a separate dish, and in rural areas usually without side dishes, and in cities - with vegetables and cereals. Roast meat was a festive dish; it was prepared with the addition of various seasonings. Whole carcasses of suckling pigs (sometimes baked in dough) and poultry were fried; According to tradition, for Christmas they cooked a roast goose (Christmas goose), and baked a pig or ham in the oven. Dishes of stewed meat with the addition of cereals or vegetables were common; they especially loved solyanka (pieces of meat stewed with sauerkraut). In Ukraine and Kuban, meat was generously mixed with lard when stewing.

A traditional dish of the Eastern Slavs, served on all family and many other holidays, was aspic (Russian jelly, jellied meat, Bel. scyudzen, Ukrainian jellied meat). To prepare it, bones with meat, legs and head, containing a lot of sticky substances, were boiled down. The boiled meat was selected, placed in bowls, poured with broth and placed in a cold place, where jellied meat was formed - a gelatinous jelly. Jelly was eaten with the addition of hot seasonings: horseradish, mustard, pepper, and sometimes kvass was served with it. The head was prepared separately as a ritual dish (for Christmas, weddings). The entrails were also eaten. Giblets were considered most suitable for rassolnik - a hot dish cooked with the addition of chopped pickles.

In Ukraine, Belarus, and in some places in the southern Russian provinces they made sausage (Ukrainian kovbasa, white kaubasa). At the same time, lard and various spices were added to the meat. Sausages were also prepared from chopped liver and blood, mixing them with flour or cereal. Cleaned and washed animal intestines were stuffed with all this. Sausages were smoked or baked in ovens and filled with fat. Ukrainians, Belarusians, and occasionally Russians also smoked pork hams.

Animal fat was considered the most valuable product. The internal lard was rendered, poured into bowls, cooled and stored until consumption. The outer lard of pork carcasses was salted, cut into pieces, and stuffed into intestines or packed into boxes and barrels.

Lard was used for frying, soups and porridges were seasoned with it. Pieces of pork fat were fried in a frying pan and served with potatoes and porridge along with fried pork cracklings. Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians from the southern provinces seasoned cabbage soup and borscht with crushed lard (sometimes along with garlic). In winter they liked to eat frozen lard with hot potatoes. However, lard was a favorite, but not an everyday food. As the most high-calorie product, they tried to save it for holidays, during intense field work, and on the road.

Meat and lard from domestic animals were scarce for the majority of the population. This deficit was partially compensated by hunting products.

Hunting was especially developed in the forest areas of Siberia and the European North. In the central regions, hunting has long been the privilege of feudal lords. They ate poultry carcasses (partridges, geese and ducks, swans, hazel grouse, quails, etc.), bear meat, hare meat, meat of wild boars, elk, deer, etc. But in accordance with ancient Slavic religious prohibitions, Old Believers, especially conservative ones in In terms of food, they did not eat hare, bear meat, or the meat of certain birds (pigeons, swans). Among the nobles, game was considered a particularly valuable dish, and for the landed nobility it was a matter of pride to serve game from their possessions and hunted with their own hands.

Meat, lard, and milk were considered “meat” food, which the Christian religion forbade consumption during weekly and annual fasts. This rule was very strictly adhered to by the majority of the population in the European part of the country, various Old Believer groups, and the Cossacks. The peasant masses in the North, Siberia and Central Asia, where the influence of the official church was not so strong, did not always and not everywhere observe it. The advanced layers of the Russian intelligentsia also refused to observe fasts.

Fish was no less, and at times even more important than meat, since it was considered a “semi-lenten” food; it was not eaten only on the days of the strictest fast. In northern Pomerania, where cultivated plants grew poorly, fish was the main daily food.

Fresh fish was boiled and fried in oil, sometimes topped with sour cream and eggs. A favorite dish was ukha - a fish broth served as a first course. Especially tasty is the fish soup, in which several different types of fish were boiled successively, and the last of them, the best, was served with yushka (decoction) to the table.

In the European North, in the Urals and Siberia, fish was baked in dough (fish pie) and eaten with the bottom crust of the pie soaked in fat. Belarusians baked fish on coals, in an oven, after clearing it of scales; in other areas they baked it in scales.

When preparing fish for future use, it was salted, dried, dried, fermented, and frozen.

They salted fish in barrels. Herring was in great demand. It was sold in all cities, and brought to villages remote from water bodies as gifts. Herring was the most affordable fish food for the urban poor, and in families where it was a luxury, they bought herring brine and consumed it with bread and potatoes. Of the dried fish, vobla (Ukrainian taran) was especially popular, which often replaced meat for the urban poor. Small fish, especially smelt, were dried; in winter, cabbage soup and stews were cooked with it.

In the northern coastal zone of the country, fish was fermented in barrels, for which it was filled with weak brine and kept warm. The fermentation process that developed softened the meat and bones, giving the fish a specific pungent taste. It was seasoned with onions and sour milk and eaten with bread. In the Primorsky region of Eastern Siberia, fish for pickling was placed in earthen pits, where it was fermented. This ancient method of canning was preserved until the end of the 19th century among the Russians, as well as among the neighboring peoples of the North, where the food of the population was depleted in vitamins.

In winter, the fish was frozen and stored in this form. Russians in Eastern Siberia, like the local population, ate stroganina - finely chopped frozen fish.

In areas rich in sturgeon and salmon fish, they prepared caviar, which was very valuable on the world market - black (sturgeon) and red (salmon), keeping it in strong brine. Such caviar was a delicacy and was consumed mainly by rich city dwellers; it was available to the rural population only where it was mined. Caviar was eaten with bread, pancakes, and red caviar was also baked into pies, adding chopped onions. Near the seas and large bodies of water, caviar of any other fish was used, which, like sturgeon and salmon, was a high-calorie product and an important source of vitamins. Therefore, they ate a lot of salted caviar, and in the north of Siberia they made flat cakes, pancakes, and pancakes from frozen and mint caviar.

Meals

Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians ate three to four times a day. Breakfast (Russian breakfast, zautrok, Ukrainian snidanok, sshdannya, white snyadannya) was early, usually at sunrise (5 - 6 am) and quite hearty (they ate a lot of bread with tea or milk, fresh or salted vegetables and etc.). Lunch (Ukrainian ooid, white abyad, breakfast) was arranged in the first half of the day (10 - 12 o'clock). It was the most abundant meal. They served two or three dishes, and always among the first - liquid ones: hot in winter, and sometimes cold in summer.

In the summer, in the afternoon (4-5 o'clock) there was an afternoon snack (Russian afternoon tea, g.auzhina, Ukrainian. midday, midday, white. paludzin, pydvyachorak), consisting of tea, milk, and light snacks. We had dinner in the evening, at sunset (Russian supper, Ukrainian supper, Bel. vyachera), with anything left over from lunch or with tea, milk, or a light snack.

On holidays, they tried to prepare food as plentiful as possible. The table was especially richly decorated for Easter and Christmas, when after a long fast it was allowed to eat meat. Several courses were served for Christmas dinner. Here is a description of such a dinner among Ukrainian peasants: “First of all, they snack on Lenten pies, drink a glass of vodka, then serve yesterday’s cabbage and peas. Having finished with Lenten dishes, they begin to eat meat: initially they serve pies with pork filling and with dumplings coated with buckwheat flour ( baked the day before), and heated sausage. Next comes cabbage with pork. First, they eat the cabbage itself, and the meat is served separately on a wooden plate. The owner cuts the meat himself, adds salt, takes the first piece for himself, and then the rest, according to seniority. After the cabbage they serve lokshina (noodles), and again, first they eat the noodles, and then the goose, which the owner also cuts. Finally, yesterday's kutya with honey or poppy seeds appears on the table, and, finally, “uzvar.”

The Easter meal “breaking the fast” was no less plentiful. They loved not only to eat heartily themselves, but also to feed to the full the guest who came to the house.

Hospitality - the ability to generously receive guests - was considered a great advantage of the owner. Guests were served the best dishes available in the house (the Russians had a saying: “What is in the oven is all swords on the table,” similar ones were common among Belarusians and Ukrainians). Feasts were especially abundant among merchants and nobles and landowners, where each owner sought to outdo the others with a variety of dishes and drinks. The meals of the wealthy classes were also based on folk cuisine.

To the south of the capital of Buryatia, Ulan-Ude, lies a land of rare beauty: high mountains and ridges, centuries-old pine forests, sandy gullies and water meadows in river valleys. Tarbagatai district is located here. The Moscow-Vladivostok Trans-Siberian Highway passes through Tarbagatai, a beautiful Old Believer village. More than 18,000 people live in 22 villages and hamlets of the district. This is mainly the Russian Old Believer population - “Semeyskie”.

Semeyskie are a very bright and ancient branch of the Russian people – a part of pre-Petrine Moscow Rus'. Who are they, why did they end up in Transbaikalia and why are they called that?
In the second half of the 17th century, radical changes occurred in the history of Russia.
Two major phenomena in the history of Russia: the schism and Peter I. The Russian ruler wanted to win over the peoples professing Orthodoxy (Slavs, Georgians, Armenians, Greeks) towards Russia. To this end, the Tsar decides to reform and bring the forms of worship and rituals closer to modern Greek models, which were already adopted in other Orthodox centers (Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia). The books were corrected, the salting walk was changed, that is, walking in the sun around the lectern while performing rituals, the number of bows was reduced, and the church chant was greatly changed, because of which it actually lost the “polyphony” that shortened the service in the church.

The spelling of the name Jesus with two “and” was introduced; all adjustments were made in accordance with the rites of the Greek church. For many believers, it seemed that a new faith had actually been introduced in Rus'. All supporters of double-fingered in 1656 were equated with heretics, excommunicated from the church and cursed. The reform divided the Russian Church into two camps of Orthodoxy: the mainstream and the Old Believer.

Old Believers are that part of the Russian population that abandoned innovations, continuing to adhere to the old faith, rituals, and way of life. For this they were subjected to severe repression, many were forced to flee to free lands on the Terek, Don, beyond the Urals, and many abroad, to Poland.
In the second half of the 18th century, by decree of Catherine II, schismatics were forcibly expelled from Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. An unknown land awaited them, harsh Siberia, untouched lands. The first Old Believers taken from Vetka in 1766 were settled near Verkhneudinsk in the villages of Tarbagatai, Kuitun, B-Kunaley, Desyatnikovo, Burnashevo.
They settled as whole families, which is why they were later called “semeiskie”. They quickly got used to the harsh Siberian nature. Thanks to the exceptional hard work of the Semeis, good-quality villages soon grew up.
Intangible culture served as a constant support in the difficult fate of Semeysky or Old Believers, always persecuted by the official church and state.

About 240 years have passed. The Semey Transbaikalia firmly rooted themselves in the Siberian soil and found a second homeland here. Semeysky huts are tall wooden buildings; they are painted inside and out and washed twice a year. If you approach from the outside, you can barely reach the window with your hand. The frames and cornices in many huts are decorated with carvings and painted. From the 17th-18th centuries to the present day, Semeyskie have preserved the ancient form of clothing without changes.

The traditional folk culture of the Semeis is a unique, original ethnocultural phenomenon. The value of Semeyskie, as a historical and cultural phenomenon of Russia, is difficult to overestimate. They managed to preserve spiritual experience, which was actually lost from other groups of the Russian people. Folk singing traditions, which are a masterpiece of oral and intangible heritage, have their origins in ancient Russian musical culture and whose roots go back to the depths of the Middle Ages.

The skill and unique technique of polyphonic singing, which incorporates many special techniques, deserve the highest praise.
Representing exceptional value for a new civilization, the original spiritual culture of the Semeis of the Tarbagatai region of the Republic of Buryatia in May 2001 in Paris was proclaimed by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” and included in the first list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

By visiting the museum created at the temple in the village of Tarbagatai by Father Sergei, you will see antiques, icons, household utensils, and touch the distant past of the Semeis.

LLC offers tourist routes to the villages where Old Believers live.

This August, Buryatia is hosting celebrations dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the first Old Believers settlers in Buryatia. In order to convey to descendants a living thread of ancient, deep traditions and customs in order to preserve the original folk art of the Semeis, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Buryatia, the Republican Center for Folk Art with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation held an International Festival-Competition of Old Believer Art Folklore on August 8 at the Ethnographic Museum of the Peoples of Transbaikalia collectives “Give up, korogod!”

The organizers report that the festival is aimed at preserving continuity and developing the original unique art of the Old Believers, identifying interesting creative groups that promote folk traditions, and international cultural cooperation in exchange between folk groups.

During the festival, competitions of song and ritual folklore, accordionists, ditties, dancers, Old Believer costumes, an exhibition-fair of folk arts and crafts, and souvenirs were held.

Transbaikal Cossacks also became guests of the festival. The history of the Cossacks beyond Lake Baikal began in the 40s of the 17th century. The first to come here was a detachment led by Kurbat Ivanov. The capital of the Transbaikal Cossack army was the Chita fort, founded in 1653. Subsequently, a “border Cossack army” was formed, which included Buryat regiments. By the beginning of the 19th century, a line of Cossack forts was built on the eastern border of the Russian Empire. Transbaikal Cossacks took part in all military conflicts in the East of Russia: they reached Beijing in the Chinese Campaign, fought bravely at Mukden and Port Arthur in the Russian-Japanese War, World War I and many others.

Chinese Old Believers, descendants of settlers from Transbaikalia and Primorye who went to China during the Civil War and the beginning of collectivization, also came to the festival. At the end of the 1950s, when the Communists came to power in China, almost all of the Old Believers moved from China to South America, Australia, and the USA.

There is a large Russian community in the Chinese city of Argun. There are many mixed families in which two languages ​​are spoken at once. Chinese Old Believers also sing ancient Russian songs. They sound very clear and bright, melodic in Chinese and at the same time completely Russian - in language, musical accompaniment, clothing, emotions of the performers.

The choir from the village of Bolshoi Kunaley, well known far beyond the borders of Buryatia, also took part in the festival. The village of Bolshoi Kunaley, Tarbagatai region of Buryatia, was founded by Old Believers settlers in 1765 in a place where mountain spurs turned into valleys. The name of the village comes from the Buryat word “hunilla” - assembly, fold. The village is famous for its choir, formed in 1927 from among original folk singers. The ancient folk songs that make up the repertoire are passed down from generation to generation. In 1967, the choir was awarded the title “folk”. He repeatedly went on tour abroad, surprising listeners not only with the sound of family songs, but also with colorful outfits.

Singers always wear ancient amber beads before performing. These beads are massive, made from round, roughly processed pieces of amber, and the central, largest amber is set in silver. Necklaces are passed down from generation to generation; family members bought them throughout the 19th century. in the city of Kyakhta, then a major merchant center on trade routes connecting China and Mongolia with Russia and Western Europe.

Having moved to Transbaikalia, the Semeysky Old Believers found themselves surrounded by a foreign-speaking population. Russian settlers not only became friends with the indigenous population, but also adopted farming methods from the Buryats. There were also mixed marriages, and the Semeys tried to convert the Buryats to their faith.

The Semeyskie have preserved the culture of pre-Petrine Rus' to this day. Tall wooden huts, decorated with carvings and bright patterns, traditional clothes, bright and colorful. They preserved not only spiritual experience, but also the traditions of folk singing and other elements of folk culture.

In addition to drawn-out, “long” old songs, the repertoire includes semeisk songs and ditties. This is a fairly new phenomenon that arose in the 20s of the 20th century as a kind of response to the breakdown of old structures. For a long time, ditties have taken root in the ancient culture of the Semeis.

The ancient village of Verkhniy Zhirim is 80 km away. from Ulan-Ude in the Tarbagatai region. Initially, when the Semey family moved here, the village was named Chirimskaya and was divided into two parts - the Popovtsy and the Bespopovtsy lived separately. According to F. F. Bolonev, a famous Semeysk researcher, the name Zhirim translated from Buryat means “saddle girth.” Living in a foreign-language environment, Russian settlers adopted from the Buryats not only crafts and methods of farming specific to Transbaikalia, but also borrowed names.

The festival hosted an exhibition-fair “Traditional cuisine of Semeys of Transbaikalia.” Family housewives valued dishes that could be quickly prepared for the whole day for the whole family. They cooked in Russian ovens using cast iron and frying pans. Previously, people ate from wooden utensils: cups, spoons, glasses. There were also clay and birch bark utensils, especially tueski for dairy products and berries.

Delegations from the regions of the republic arrived with their own food.

The main product of the traditional Semey family table is bread and other products made from rye and wheat flour. The bread was kneaded using dough and baked on a hearth, i.e. on bricks. On holidays, baking was more varied. Tarkas with sweet filling, cheesecakes with cottage cheese, sgibni stuffed with butter and sugar, flatbreads stuffed with berries, and sweet pies were made from butter dough made with milk with the addition of butter and eggs.

The Semei Old Believers strictly observed fasting (up to 240 fasting days a year). At the same time, in the Semey family’s kitchen there were many meat dishes from lamb, pork, beef, wild goat and wapiti. Traditionally, Semeiskies did not eat hare meat. Often the meat dish was both the first and second: asp, fried meat, roast. The main courses were stewed porridge, dairy products, lightly salted cucumbers and tomatoes. On fast days they ate fish dishes. However, fishing for the Semeis was not a permanent occupation. They ate different fish in season and salted them for future use.

Semeyskie grew vegetables, which they ate raw, and also boiled, baked, and fried. During Lenten times it was the main product on the table; during meat-eaters it was a seasoning for a variety of meat and fish dishes. Wild plants were eaten during the lean season, in haymaking, and in the taiga when collecting wild berries, pine nuts, and wild garlic.

Semeyskie clothing contains elements of Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian costume. Many details were borrowed already in Siberia from old-timers and Buryats. A traditional family women's costume consists of a silk sundress with an embossed pattern in the color of the fabric, a sweater with gathered sleeves, and a long apron (apron) made of satin with sewn ribbons. Distinctive features of the costume: beaded jewelry, girl's braid, beaded headband, beads, bright fabrics. Married women wear intricately decorated kichkas. The headdress is made from a shawl folded in a certain way, decorated at the top with brooches and flowers.

Semeyskie have preserved authentic ancient outfits. Sundresses made of rich dalemba, konkhva, satin, corduroy, velvet, cashmere freshly shimmer in the rays of the sun with a printed pattern dominated by traditional “peonies,” fabulous flowers, now known only from Zhostovo painting. Silk sweaters without embroidery in “true family” colors: scarlet, hot (orange), cherry (burgundy-brown), bagul (light crimson), saranka (light red), heavenly (turquoise-green) - soothe the eye with depth and tenderness tones.

Residents of Semey villages still weave special patterned ribbon belts. For this purpose, special small looms are used. Belts are not just a piece of clothing, but a work of art. Preserving ancient traditions, grandmothers teach their granddaughters the weaving craft.

Aprons and cufflinks are chosen in contrast to the sundress. On a bright one-color field, heavy garlands (up to 7-12 threads) of large amber of simple ancient manufacture flicker; The central bead is a “crown”, the size of a chicken egg, set in a silver ring. The waists are emphasized by narrow belts woven from garus, the diamond pattern of which is indistinguishable from Belarusian belts. Sturdy cowhide boots emphasize the everyday purpose and quality of the costume. On the factory-made satin shawls that crown the outfit (the headdress of a family woman is so complicated that a rare one can “tie a kika” alone, without the help of relatives), there are antique brooches mixed with fashionable jewelry.

With your patience save your souls (Luke 21:19).

Two weeks of Great Lent are behind us. A popular proverb says: water wears away stones. How well it applies to Lent! The stone is our frozen heart, covered with a thick crust through sins, insensitivity, and aversion to the needs of our neighbors. And cleansing water is found in repentance and prayer. If we do not abandon them, then little by little we will be able to reach the depths of our hearts and be renewed, cleansed from the filth of sin.

Unleavened dough products

What are the characteristics of unleavened dough prepared during Lent? We cannot put an egg in it to strengthen it. Because of this, our actions depend to a greater extent on the “character” of the flour, on the strength of its gluten. If the flour is good, and you tried to make a very tight dough (water:flour ratio = 1:3 by volume, and don't forget to salt - adding salt also strengthens the dough a little), you will get an excellent dough for dumplings. But a situation may well arise when the quality of the flour leaves much to be desired, there is not enough strength to knead the dough, and there is no masculine strength to help. Then you can pour more water (1:2.5), but be prepared for the dough to “float” during the cooking process, dumplings or other products will be slippery and fall apart. Treat this with prayer and patience and eat with humility (it is always useful). In the future, when using the same flour, you can “overcome” the weakness of its character by changing the cooking method: steam it (it will be something like manti), or fry it in oil (like chebureki). Both of these methods require a softer dough. Interesting dough variations are obtained by replacing water with brine or another liquid. There are methods that use hot water, which produces a dough with a special taste, with a slight sweetness, and this dough requires more water. The dough can be used directly for noodles, dumplings, for a side dish or as a component for soup, or as a shell for filling: fried cabbage or other vegetables, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, onions, herbs, fresh or frozen berries with sugar, boiled and twisted dried fruits, bean or pea puree and even porridge: for example, millet or buckwheat.

Flatbread

We prepare ordinary unleavened dough, let it rest for about twenty minutes, roll it into small thin circles and fry them on both sides. We serve it on the table, where various fillings are prepared: bean pate, fresh vegetable salad, stewed vegetables, and maybe jam, fruit salad. We put the filling directly on the flatbread and eat it right away along with the “plate”.

Galushki

Roll out the unleavened dough, kneaded with water, into a 1 cm thick cake, cut into strips 2-3 cm wide, pinching off small pieces from each strip, and throw into salted boiling water (or vegetable or mushroom broth). Dough for dumplings can also be prepared from a mixture of wheat and buckwheat flour. Dumplings boiled in water are drained and seasoned with fried onions. Dumplings boiled in broth are eaten with liquid.

Dumplings with mushrooms

Soak and boil 150 g of dried mushrooms, finely chop, add 2 onions fried in oil, 2 tablespoons of crumbs from stale bread, pepper, salt, a little mushroom broth, knead everything and simmer lightly. The dough is the usual one for dumplings. Roll out thinly, make small dumplings and cook. Serve doused with oil.

Lenten manti with pumpkin

To prepare manti, you need special utensils: a double boiler or a saucepan with a removable upper part into which racks with manti are inserted (cascan, manti cooker). Dough: for 1 kg of flour, half a liter of hot water, salt, knead well, let sit. Minced meat: pumpkin cut into small (half a centimeter) cubes, soy meat in proportionate pieces in equal proportions with pumpkin, spices: salt, red pepper, ajinomoto. Roll out the dough into thin circles the size of a small saucer. Place a heaping tablespoon of minced meat in the middle. The dough is pinched on top: with a bag or figured. The grates are lubricated with vegetable oil. Place the manti on them (do not crowd them, otherwise they will stick together), insert them into a pan where water is already boiling and steam for 45 minutes. Serve with sauce: dilute soy sauce (classic, Korean, brown) with water, add just a little vinegar, red pepper (a noticeable amount), chopped garlic.

Dumplings with cherries

Make a dough from flour and water, not very stiff, roll it out into a thin crust. Peel the cherries and sprinkle with sugar. Digest the juice that drains with sugar. Make small dumplings, boil, drain in a colander, pour juice on a plate. Serve cold.

Dumplings with apples

For the filling, take 800 g of apples, 1/2 cup of sugar. Peel the apples, remove the core, cut into strips, sprinkle with sugar, prepare dumplings from a not very thin dough and boil them. When serving, sprinkle the dumplings with sugar or honey.

A good deed then has a price when it is completed

(From the word about Eulogius the monk and the paralytic beggar)

It is not said, brethren, that he who endures to any extent will be saved, but it is said: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). But we don’t have this, namely, to endure to the end. It happens that we take up good deeds with full ardor and animation, but a little time passes, and we become colder and colder towards the good deed we have taken up; and sometimes even before the very end, when only it remains to receive a crown for it, we throw it away and, thus, your whole work is likened to a temple built on sand, which as soon as the wind blew, it scattered it all away (Matthew 7 , 26. 27).

No, that's not how we should act. If you start something good, then bring it to the end, without giving in to temptation; Otherwise, the devil will just snatch the crown prepared for you, and your reward will be lost.

One monk named Eulogius, having met a beggar on the street, deprived of the use of his arms and legs, took pity on him, and in his soul made the following promise before God: “Lord, in Your name, I will take this paralytic and rest him until death, so that, for his sake, to be saved. Give me patience to serve him.” Then he made an offer to the paralytic to live in his house, and when he agreed, he took him in with him. Fifteen years have passed. During this time, Eulogius served the paralytic as a father: he took care of him in every possible way, washed him, fed him, and carried him from place to place. The devil was jealous of such patience of Eulogius and, wanting to deprive him of a worthy reward, put anger and malice towards Eulogius into the heart of the paralytic. And so, so meek and wretched, he began to blaspheme and revile Eulogius in every possible way and, despite any admonitions and pleas on his part, finally brought him to the point that Eulogius fell into despair. What should I do? He said to the monks he knew, “being paralyzed leads me to despair.” Should I leave him? But I'm afraid to break my promise before God. Don't quit? But he doesn’t give me peace either day or night. The monks suggested that he turn to the great Anthony for advice, and Eulogius listened to them. Anthony first admonished him and the paralytic to live in peace, and in conclusion he said to both of them: “Temptation, children, has come to you from Satan, for you are both close to death and worthy to receive crowns from God. Now don't be embarrassed by anything. Otherwise, the Angel may catch you angry with each other and deprive you of your reward.” Convinced by the Saint, Eulogius and the paralytic lived after that in peace for only fourteen days, and then Eulogius died, and three days later the paralytic followed him.

So, brothers, be patient. Take up a good deed, bring it to the end and do not weaken in it. Otherwise the reward is gone. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is untrustworthy for the kingdom of God(Luke 9:62), says the Lord Himself. Amen. (Prototype V. Guryev, Prologue, September 12)

Martyusheva Varvara Alexandrovna

Research work on the traditional food culture of the Old Believers of the village of Kamskoye.

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Research

Traditional dishes of the Old Believers

Kamskoye villages cooked in a Russian oven

Completed by: Martyusheva

Varvara Alexandrovna,

9th grade student

MBOU Kamskaya Secondary School

Head: Novoselova

Natalya Yurievna,

History and local history teacher

MBOU Kamskaya Secondary School

Kamskoye, 2013

Introduction p. 3

Chapter I

History of the construction of the house. 5

Chapter II

Home interior 7

Conclusion p. 14

Sources and literature p. 15

Appendix p. 16

Introduction

The Old Believers are a religious movement that arose in the 17th century. as a result of the split of the Russian Orthodox Church, which occurred due to Nikon’s church reform.

On the territory of the village of Kama Old Believers has existed for a long time (Appendix No. 1). Currently, 6 families of Old Believers, totaling 15 people, live in the village of Kamskoye.

Nutrition is one of the conditions for human existence. Since ancient times, cooking has been not so much a pleasure as a necessity of life. Methods of preparing dishes and their further This study is relevant in the light of the preservation of cultural heritage. In addition, the study of the traditional cuisine of the Old Believers fills gaps in the study of the culture of our village, as well as the ethnographic characteristics of its individual groups, in particular the Old Believers population.

Hypothesis: In a given historical period, recipes for preparing traditional dishes can be preserved and passed on from generation to generation.

Object of study: traditional culture of the Old Believers.

Subject of study– traditional dishes of the Old Believers of the village of Kamskoye, prepared in a Russian oven.

Geographical limitsThe research covers the territory of the village of Kamskoye. For comparison and addition, information on the traditional food of Old Believers from neighboring Perm was also used. region and Siberia.

Chronological framework of the study– late XIX - early XXI centuries.

Purpose of the study: study and systematization of traditional dishes of the Old Believers of the village of Kamskoye.

Tasks:

1. describe the traditional dishes of the Old Believers of the village of Kamskoye;
2. identify what factors contribute to the preservation, change or loss of interior elements of a traditional home.

Research methods:work with respondents, analysis of Internet resources, analysis of sources and literature, comparison, description, work with reference material.

The main source for solving the tasks was the data received from respondents. Their information made it possible to significantly expand the scope of the study, since memory stores messages from parents and grandfathers. Photographic materials were included in the work as material sources.

Description of the traditional food of the Old Believers of the Northern Ural peasantry in the mid-19th – early 20th centuries. presented in Essays on the ethnography of the Northern Ural peasantry “On the paths from the Perm Land to Siberia.”

In addition, in my work I used Internet resources.

The research materials will be used in local history lessons, and will also be transferred to the regional archive and Museum of History and Culture of Votkinsk, where everyone can familiarize themselves with them.

Chapter I

Features of Old Believer food

The church reform of Patriarch Nikon divided the Orthodox into “Nkonians” and Old Believers, confronting the latter with the problem of realizing their own identity and the need to separate “ours” from “strangers.” Finding themselves under a ban, as if outside society, the Old Believers were forced to adapt to the conditions of persecution and develop their own line of behavior in order to protect their own way of life and their understanding of piety . The desire to preserve their faith determined their isolation and isolation . This, in turn, contributed to their preservation of Russian culture of the 17th-18th centuries, including Russian national cuisine of this period.

The persistent preservation of traditional features in the food of the Old Believers was also facilitated by the large role of the natural way of life in their economy and the ubiquity of the Russian stove. In addition, the composition of food largely depended on the economic activities of the family, the level of prosperity, and the natural environment . Religious traditions contributed to the preservation of ancient dishes and diets. Thus, the Old Believers had many prohibitions and restrictions regarding food and its intake. It was forbidden to eat potatoes, sugar, use yeast, drink tea, coffee, or use store-bought products in general.This was explained by the harmfulness of their use due to the peculiarities of their origin or the sinfulness of the products themselves. In the store they bought only unground grain and, as an exception, salt. Food products purchased at the market, in a store, etc. as “contaminated” had to be sanctified with prayer before consumption, otherwise they could not be eaten. Over time, some restrictions were lifted by councils, so in 1912 it was allowed to eat potatoes, and in 1972 - pasta. However, until the end of her life, my great-grandmother strictly forbade buying anything in the store other than flour and salt. . There was also a ban on “mixing in dishes.” “Christians have treasures of their own... The worldly have their own cups, and especially since there is no food or drink from their vessels...” .

The rules for maintaining ritual purity were also observed when preparing food in the oven: it was forbidden to light the fire with matches . Therefore, the great-grandmother kept the fire in a bent state, or knocked it out by “chickening” from special stones .

Some restrictions continue to this day. Grandparents strictly observe meal times and order (the eldest eats first). Everyone in the family has separate dishes. The meal is necessarily preceded by prayer and ends with it.for “a table that begins and ends with prayer will never fail”

Analyzing the above, we can conclude that strict asceticism, adherence to old traditions, and food restrictions played an important role in the Old Believers. But at the same time, it should be noted that modern Old Believers are already different from traditional Old Believers. Fanaticism and isolation are weakened. “We live in the world and are forced to adapt to this world,” says my grandmother. Food prohibitions and strict adherence to the traditions of our ancestors gradually began to give way to “secularization.”

Chapter II

Traditional Old Believers dishes prepared

in a Russian oven

The traditional cuisine of the Old Believers is based on the traditions and customs of Russian national cuisine; its dishes are simple, but at the same time varied. The daily diet and food consumption schedule are determined by fasting. In accordance with this, the table is divided into fast (milk-egg-meat) and lean (vegetable-mushroom). Dishes were prepared from flour, dairy, meat and vegetable supplies.

The process of cooking was reduced to cooking or baking food in a Russian oven, and these operations were necessarily carried out separately. What was intended for cooking was boiled from beginning to end, what was intended for baking was only baked. Thermal processing of food consisted of heating a Russian oven with heat, strong or weak, in three degrees - “before the bread”, “after the bread”, “in the free spirit”. The dishes turned out to be stewed or half-steamed, half-stewed, which is why they acquired a very special taste. The secret is that the heat in the oven is distributed evenly and the temperature remains constant for a long time. In round, pot-bellied pots, the contents are heated from all sides without burning.

“Bread is the head of everything,” says a Russian proverb. Bread was the basis of all nutrition. In the family of my great-grandfather Ilyin Zakhar Anatolyevich (born in 1897) and great-grandmother Ilyina Tatyana Ivanovna (born in 1905), they baked mainlyryeyeast-free bread. Barley flour was sometimes added to rye flour. In hungry years, grated raw potatoes, zucchini or pumpkin were added. They usually baked bread once a week. This is a complex and time-consuming matter. In the evening, the great-grandmother prepared the grounds (sourdough). To do this, I poured warm water into a wooden tub (kvashnya) and added raisins, then put it in a warm place. When the raisins soured, my great-grandmother added a spoonful of rye flour (currently, my grandmother adds second-grade flour instead of rye flour). Sometimes boiled crushed potatoes or other vegetables (raw or boiled, grated) were also added to this mixture. Sometimes my great-grandmother used dried or fresh currants for sourdough. When the sourdough soured (bubbles and a specific sour smell appeared on the surface), water, flour, and salt were added again (until the consistency of sour cream). They again set it to ferment for several hours in a warm place. As soon as the dough was suitable, it was kneaded thicker until the dough began to lag behind the hands and the walls of the tub. The kneading bowl was again placed in a warm place for a while, and then kneaded again. When the dough was ready, it was divided into large, smooth loaves. My great-grandmother rolled out bread in a special wooden trough - a village. She laid out the rolled out bread on fabric napkins (plates) thickly sprinkled with flour in birch bark or willow wicker bins. She transferred the risen bread from the bread bins onto wooden shovels and placed them in the Russian oven. My great-grandmother baked bread on a hearth, or on cabbage leaves. The baked bread was stored in special bread bins. They also served it on the table. Currently, in our family, adhering to old traditions, we also bake yeast-free bread, using first or highest grade wheat flour. Loaves prepared for baking are placed in frying pans and baked as before in a Russian free oven.

My ancestors also used wheat flour, from which children’s favorite delicacies were prepared on holidays - butter rolls, pickled dough rolls, ooladies and pancakes. Pies were also baked on holidays. “A hut is red in its corners, but lunch is in pies,” says a Russian proverb. They were baked in different sizes and shapes: small and large, round and square, elongated and triangular, open (extended) and closed. And what kind of filling was there: meat, fish, cottage cheese, vegetables, with eggs, porridge, fruits, berries, mushrooms, raisins, peas. They baked pies from different types of dough: yeast, unleavened and puff pastry. There were pies baked on a hearth and spun (baked in oil). Currently, our family also bakes a wide variety of types of pies. But waders (Appendix No.) and shangi (potato and liquid) are especially often baked.

“Soup soup and porridge are our food,” my great-grandmother loved to say. Porridge was the simplest, most satisfying and affordable food. A little cereal or grain, water or milk, salt to taste - that’s the whole secret. Cooking them was not difficult, but it was important to maintain the correct ratio of grains and liquid. By changing their proportions, the housewife could prepare crumbly, thick, viscous and liquid porridge. Very often, my great-grandmother prepared millet or buckwheat porridge with pumpkin or just pumpkin porridge with milk. Rice porridge was considered the most expensive. IT was eaten with honey and ghee only on holidays. Not a single family ceremony was complete without porridge. They cooked it for weddings, christenings, and funerals. They put the porridge in the oven in a clay pot. It absorbed the spirit of the oven and became lush and tasty. Buckwheat, wheat, millet, barley porridge in our house is put in the oven to this day. Oven-cooked porridge has a completely different taste and aroma.

Various soups were also prepared in the oven. “It’s not the housewife who speaks beautifully, but the one who cooks cabbage soup well,” my great-grandmother taught my mother. Cabbage soup was cooked from fresh or sour cabbage in meat broth on fasting days or without meat on fasting days. Very often, my great-grandmother added various grains to cabbage soup. In the spring, instead of cabbage, I seasoned cabbage soup with young nettles or sorrel. They also cooked “gubnitsa” in the oven - mushroom soup with millet and potatoes, fish and potato soup. Anyone who has tried bread, porridge or soup cooked in an oven at least once in their life will not forget their amazing taste and aroma.

One of the ancient dishes prepared in our family is rye kulaga. The process of preparing it dragged on for a day or more. First the malt was prepared. For this purpose, rye was sprouted. When it sprouted, it was torn, put in a linen bag, then placed on the stove to steam. The steaming process was carefully monitored. The rye had to be constantly moist, the oven had to be hot, the bag had to be periodically turned over and kneaded, maintaining a certain temperature. The top of the bag was covered with a cotton blanket. The finished steamed rye took on a dark brown color. After this, the steamed rye was poured out of the bag and dried in an open oven. The steamed and dried rye was taken to the mill and ground, producing rye malt. Great-grandmother very often ground rye in a home mill, and later in a meat grinder. The finished malt was mixed with rye flour and water was added to the consistency of liquid sour cream. This mixture was poured into a cast iron pot and placed in a Russian oven from morning to evening. In the evening, they took it out of the oven and allowed it to cool to the temperature of fresh milk. Leaven (the grounds or a piece of dough) was added to the resulting mixture and left to ferment until the morning. In the morning they put it in the oven again. The finished kulaga was pinkish-red in color with a sweetish taste. We ate ready-made kulaga with honey. Sometimes viburnum was added to the kulaga, resulting in a new dish - “kalinnitsa”

As before, our family prepares baked milk and cottage cheese from dairy products in the oven. Fresh milk is placed in clay jars in the oven overnight. The finished milk has a pinkish-cream color and a unique taste. Another dairy product iscottage cheese, which was eaten as an independent dish, or used as a filling for pies. Dried cottage cheese was prepared from ready-made cottage cheese for the winter (when there is no milk).To do this, the finished cottage cheese was strained, laid out on a sheet and placed in a free oven to dry. Dried cottage cheese was used to prepare stews, large pies with cabbage (grouse grouse), and small pies. Dishes with dried cottage cheese were a very expensive dish, so they were prepared rarely, on great holidays, or for the arrival of respected guests.

Meat and fish were cooked in the oven. They were included in the first course and added as a filling to pies. Jellied meat was prepared from pork and beef in the oven.

Since more than half of the days of the year were fasting, when certain categories of foods were prohibited, therefore, in our family, as before, mushroom and vegetable dishes, grain dishes, wild berries and herbs predominate. We eat vegetables not only raw, but also boiled, steamed and baked. For a long time, the family has been cooking parenki in the oven. In order to prepare pumpkin and apple paryons, vegetables are cut into thin pieces, placed on a sheet, then placed in a Russian oven overnight. By morning the boys are ready. They are usually eaten before dessert or as a dessert. To prepare carrot, beetroot and cabbage soup, vegetables are cut into cubes or thin slices. Then put it in a cast iron pot and add a little water, close the lid tightly. Place the cast iron in a Russian oven overnight. The next day, the cooled parenki are laid out on a sheet and placed in the Russian oven again overnight. By morning the boys are ready. Sometimes making parenki from these vegetables can take up to three days.

Thus, we can conclude that the history of Russian national cuisine goes back to ancient times. It took shape and developed over many centuries, but, unfortunately, many Russian folk traditions and customs are now forgotten and lost.

Thus, the process of cooking was reduced to cooking or baking food in a Russian oven, and these operations were necessarily carried out separately. What was intended for cooking was boiled from beginning to end, what was intended for baking was only baked. Thermal processing of food consisted of heating the Russian oven with heat, strong or weak, in three degrees - “before the bread”, “after the bread”, “in a free spirit” - but always without contact with the fire and either with a constant temperature kept at the same level, or with falling, decreasing temperatures as the oven gradually cooled, but never with increasing temperatures, as with stovetop cooking. That’s why the dishes always turned out not even boiled, but rather stewed or half-steamed, half-stewed, which is why they acquired a very special taste. It is not without reason that many dishes of ancient cuisine do not make the proper impression when they are prepared in different temperature conditions.

The Old Believers of the village of Kamskoye, as before, pay sufficient attention to the traditions of daily food consumption. According to the rules of Christian life, they require the presence of all family members at meals, a mandatory appeal to God before the start of the meal and after its end; maintaining silence at the table. A distinctive feature of the Old Believers is the ban on musical

The owner was smart and put the hut on the stove - says a Russian proverb. The stove is the soul of the home. She will feed, drink and warm. In our family, as before, they use the oven for cooking: they bake bread and pies, cook porridge, cabbage soup, stew meat, fish, vegetables, dry berries and mushrooms. And all this turns out surprisingly tasty and nutritious. The smell of food cooked in a Russian oven is incomparable. And the bread baked in it is the most delicious and aromatic, with a crispy crust that melts in your mouth.

Recipes of ancient Russian dishes are carefully preserved and passed down from generation to generation.

Yeast-free bread.First, the grounds (sourdough) are prepared. To do this, pour warm water into a container and add raisins, then place them in a warm place. When the raisins sour, add a spoonful of rye flour (you can add second grade flour). In addition, boiled crushed potatoes or other vegetables (raw or boiled, grated), as well as raisins, can be added to this mixture. Sometimes dried or fresh currants are used for fermentation. When the starter sours (bubbles and a specific sour smell appear on the surface), add water, flour, and salt again (until the consistency of sour cream). They again put it to ferment for several hours in a warm place. As soon as the dough has risen, it is kneaded thicker, then divided into loaf portions. Loaves prepared for baking are placed in frying pans and baked in a Russian free oven.

My great-grandmother rolled out bread in a special wooden trough - a village. The rolled out bread was laid out on fabric napkins (plates) thickly sprinkled with flour in birch bark or willow wicker bins. The risen bread from the bread bins was transferred to wooden shovels and placed in a Russian oven. My great-grandmother baked bread on a hearth, or on cabbage leaves.

Waders. The dough is kneaded with sour milk (yogurt), with salt added to taste. The finished dough is divided into small portions (koloboks). The koloboks are rolled out with a rolling pin into round cakes. The edges of the cakes are pinched. Then add the filling.

The filling can be potato, curd, or liquid filling. The filling is made with buttermilk. Flour, salt to taste, and egg are added to the buttermilk. Knead until sour cream thickens. The waders are topped with whipped sour cream and egg.

Dried cottage cheese. First, the cottage cheese is boiled in the oven, strained, then laid out on a sheet and placed in a free oven to dry. Ready-made dried cottage cheese is used to prepare stews, large pies with cabbage (wood grouse), and small pies.

The grandmother said that dishes with dried cottage cheese were a very expensive dish, so they were prepared rarely, on great holidays, or for the arrival of respected guests.

Pumpkin and apple ladles.Vegetables are cut into thin pieces, laid out on a sheet, then placed in a Russian oven overnight. By morning the boys are ready. They are usually eaten before dessert or as a dessert; children really like them.

Carrot, beet, and kale parings. Vegetables are cut into cubes or thin slices. Then put it in a cast iron pot and add a little water, close the lid tightly. Place the cast iron in a Russian oven overnight. The next day, the cooled parenki are laid out on a sheet and placed in the Russian oven again overnight. By morning the boys are ready. Sometimes making parenki from these vegetables can take up to three days.

Kulaga rye

This dish is close to malt and also a dessert.
However, the process of preparing it was delayed for a day or more. It was made from rye malt and had a sweet taste. However, you can also cook it from rye flour.

Add sifted rye flour to boiling water and boil until jelly thickens. Then they add a piece of ice (in villages they put pure snow), close it tightly with a lid and put it in a Russian oven for a day. The finished kulaga is pink. Season it with sugar to taste.

Potato kulaga

To prepare it, boil the potatoes in their skins, cool, peel, and pound thoroughly so that no lumps remain. Then they knead a semi-thick dough with malt (sifted rye flour), transfer it to a clay pot and, closing the lid, place it in a Russian oven, raking hot coals from all sides to the pot. After an hour, remove the pot, beat the mass thoroughly with a beater, close the lid again and put in the oven for another hour.
Then the pot is removed from the oven, the lid is removed and, after cooling, the kulaga is transferred to a wooden bowl, covered with a towel and placed in a warm place (on a Russian stove) for another day to sour, making sure that it does not over-acidify. Then it is again transferred to a clay pot and, covered with a lid, placed in the oven for baking. After a few more hours, the kulaga is ready. In appearance it resembles porridge, but is even thicker. The color of kulaga is pinkish, it tastes sweet and sour. Kulaga is eaten cold, with ice or snow added.

The mess

Add sifted wheat flour to boiling sweetened water and boil
the simplicity of semolina porridge. Place the mixture in a heap on a greased frying pan, make a depression in the middle, pour melted margarine into it and bake in the oven or oven until golden brown. Served with yogurt.

Oatmeal

In the 16th and 17th centuries. Oatmeal, prepared from oatmeal with water, was widely used by the people; in dry form it was distributed to serving people for food along with rye flour.

This dish was prepared from oats, kept overnight in a warm Russian oven. At the same time, the flour obtained from such grains lost the ability to form gluten, but it swelled well in water and quickly thickened. The oatmeal was kneaded with chilled boiled water seasoned with salt.