Porridge, according to its composition and method of preparation, are divided into crumbly, viscous and liquid.

Crumbly porridge prepared from rice, buckwheat, millet, pearl barley and some other cereals. In the finished porridge, the grains should be completely swollen, well-cooked and easily separated from each other.

Cooking utensils porridge should have a thick bottom so that the porridge does not burn. Loose cereals are boiled in a small amount of water, when all the liquid is absorbed by the cereal, and in a large number water (for example, rice). In the latter case, take 5-6 liters of water and 50-60 g of salt per 1 kg of cereal. Before cooking, the cereals are sifted, sorted out and washed. Do not rinse only semolina, buckwheat and "Hercules".

Buckwheat is pre-fried at 110 ... 120 degrees to reduce the cooking time of porridge from it. Rice, millet, pearl barley washed first warm (up to 40 degrees), and then hot water.

This sequence is not accidental. Warm water removes starch from the surface of the grains, hot - the fat released on the surface of the grains during storage. Prepared cereals (except for buckwheat) are poured into boiling salted water and boiled at low boil until tender. Then they are thrown into a colander and washed with hot water. The porridge is transferred to a bowl and seasoned with melted fat.

Viscous porridge cook on whole milk, mixtures of milk with water or on water. In the finished dish, the grains are well boiled, the porridge is kept on the plate in a slide, without spreading. From 1 kg of cereals, 4-5 kg ​​of ready-made porridge are obtained. Some cereals, such as rice, pearl barley, millet, do not boil well in milk. Therefore, first they are boiled in water for several minutes, then the water is drained and hot milk with salt and sugar dissolved in it is added. Serve viscous porridge sprinkle with melted butter or sugar. The range of milk cereals can be expanded by introducing various additives, for example pumpkin, prunes, carrots.

Liquid porridge prepared from semolina, rice, millet, barley grits, oatmeal... They are boiled in milk, a mixture of milk and water (in a ratio of 2: 3) or in water. On vacation, pour over butter, honey, jam. Liquid porridge is prepared in the same way as viscous, but with big amount liquids. The output is 5-6.5 kg of porridge from 1 kg of cereals. It must be remembered that semolina is poured into boiling milk in a thin stream, stirring continuously. At a temperature of 90 ... 95 degrees, semolina quickly (within a few seconds) swells, so you need to have time to pour out all the cereals before the porridge thickens so that no lumps form.

After the porridge has thickened, reduce the heat and bring it to readiness within 15 ... 20 minutes. On vacation, pour over melted butter. You can diversify the range of cereal dishes by using all kinds of dishes prepared from crumbly and viscous cereals with the addition of cottage cheese, vegetables, fruits, candied fruits. Casseroles, puddings, cereals, cutlets, meatballs have a pleasant taste and aroma. These dishes are served with butter, sour cream, sweet sauces.

Why do they say: "You can't cook porridge with him"?

In ancient times, porridge was the name for dishes prepared not only from cereals, but also from other crushed products (fish, peas, bread). And these dishes were ritual: porridge was cooked at weddings, christenings, commemorations, before battles and at victorious feasts. Often the feasts were called "porridge".

According to ancient chronicles, it is known that at the wedding of Alexander Nevsky twice "the porridge was repaired" - one at the wedding in Trinity, the other - in Novgorod. Porridge was also a symbol of truce, peace after the battle. This is where the expression "make a porridge" came from: the warring parties at the same table ate a single porridge.

If the world did not work out, they said: "You can't cook porridge with it." Many holidays were necessarily celebrated with their own porridge. Christmas porridge was not like the porridge that was prepared on the occasion of the harvest, special cereals (from a mixture of cereals) were prepared by girls on the day of Agrafena Kupalnitsa (June 23).

All cereals, from which it is now customary to cook porridge, are useful, since they contain a whole set of substances necessary for the body: carbohydrates, proteins, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, vitamins.

How not to mention the Suvorov porridge? Once, in one of the military campaigns, Suvorov was reported that there were small reserves of barley, millet, peas. If you cook porridge from one type of cereal, then there will not be enough for everyone. Then Suvorov ordered to mix both cereals and peas and cook food for everyone. The soldiers liked the Suvorov porridge. So the great commander contributed to the development of cooking.

Modern nutritional science has confirmed that porridge made from a mixture of cereals is healthier than from one, since each cereal has its own chemical composition, and the more cereals are used in the mixture, the higher the nutritional value porridge.

Cabbage porridge

• 0.4 liters of milk
• 1 kg of cabbage
• 80 g barley
• 100 g lard

Cut the cabbage, fall asleep barley, pour in a little water and stew until the cereal is half cooked. Then milk is poured in, lard is added, salted and stewed until all products are boiled. Ready porridge mix.

Spelled porridge

Take 1 pound of spelled cereal, wash in cold water, put in a saucepan, pouring 4 cups of boiling water, put 2 teaspoons of salt, cook, stirring, so that it does not burn and does not dry out until the water boils away, transfer the porridge to clay pot, put a spoonful of butter, pour a glass of boiling milk over it, stir again, close the lid, put in the oven in a frying pan with hot water, which gradually add so that it does not boil away. In 1.5-2 hours the porridge will be ready. Serve butter or milk to it.

Porridge from Smolensk groats in mushroom broth

Rinse 4 cups of Smolensk cereals, fry in a pan, pour into a pot, mix with finely chopped boiled white dry mushrooms, pour a glass of loose butter or Little Russian bacon and pour the broth of mushrooms so that the broth covers the cereal, put in the oven for an hour and a half, watch , so as not to burn, stir with a spatula once when it starts to reproach. When the porridge is ready, place the pot in a saucepan of hot water. Serve directly in the butter pot.

Guryev porridge

½ cup semolina, 2 cups milk, ½ cup chopped walnuts or candied fruits, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, 2 eggs, salt, vanillin to taste. For the sauce: 10 apricots, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 - 3 tablespoons of water.

Add salt to boiling milk and gradually pouring semolina in a thin stream, stirring constantly, brew viscous porridge... Ready porridge a little cereal, stirring constantly, brew a viscous porridge. Cool the prepared porridge a little. Add egg yolks pounded with sugar and whipped whites, as well as walnut kernels fried in butter. Mix everything carefully. Put a layer of porridge in a greased, massive (with a thick bottom) frying pan.

Put the pitted apricots on it and cover them with milk froths, then put the porridge layer again. (To prepare foams, pour milk into a wide, shallow pan and put the pan in a preheated oven. As the foams form, remove it from time to time.) Sprinkle the porridge on top icing sugar and cauterize with a hot metal rod (knife, knitting needle) so that stripes form on the surface.

Place the porridge in the oven and bake until it forms golden crust. Ready dish sprinkle with nuts, garnish with fruits, candied fruits and serve in the same dish in which it was cooked. Serve the sauce separately - you can either cold or hot. Preparation of the sauce: chop the pitted apricots, mix with sugar, add water and cook until the fruit is tender.

Lean porridge

Make 1/8 lb mushroom broth; when ready, strain it through a napkin, add a little olive oil and put on fire; when it boils, add salt and cover with buckwheat or Smolensk groats, add mushrooms, cut into thin slices, and put in the oven; ¼ hours before lunch, spread the form with Provencal butter, put the porridge in it, fry in the oven and serve with almond milk.

Barley porridge

Take 1.5 lb. barley, rinse warm water, pour boiling water, put a spoonful of oil, and put in the oven. Note. Pots for cooking porridge should be large enough to fit ¾ of the pot in them, the rest of the space is filled with water. When he starts to reproach, stir 2 times.

Millet porridge with pumpkin

Ingredients:

• 3 glasses of milk
• 1 glass of millet
• 500 g pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• vanilla sugar to taste
• 0.5 teaspoon salt

Method of preparation: Put peeled and finely chopped pumpkin in hot milk and cook for 10-15 minutes until soft, then add washed millet, add salt, sugar, stirring, continue to cook for another 15-20 minutes until thickened. Transfer the cooked porridge to clay pots, put a piece of butter and put it in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Serve porridge in pots or on a plate, sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Barley porridge with cabbage

• 0.4 liters of milk
• 100 g barley
• 0.25 liters of water
• 800 g white cabbage
• 100 g lard

White cabbage is cut into strips, put into a saucepan, covered with barley, pour in a little water, boil until the food is ready. Then add milk, put lard, salt and cook on the edge of the stove or in a thermos until all products are boiled. The prepared porridge is mixed.

Rice porridge with beets

• 0.3 liters of milk
• 200 g rice
• 0.4 liters of water
• 400 g beets
• 30 g sugar
• 50 g butter or margarine

Rice is poured into boiling salted water, peeled beets chopped into strips and sugar are added. Bring to a boil again, cover with a lid and cook for 5-6 minutes, then infuse for 15-20 minutes, add milk, bring to a boil without stirring the mass. Before serving, stir and pour over with melted butter or margarine.

Enjoy your meal!

I never saw Pokhlebkin and always envied the lucky ones who dined with him, but I was lucky for many years to be friends with this outstanding person by correspondence. We even exchanged photos. His portrait with a friendly inscription still hangs over my stove, that is, by the hearth, to which we both treated with great respect. I am proud that I had the opportunity to help Pokhlebkin by writing an American chapter for his monumental book “Kitchen of the Century”.

However, much more often Pokhlebkin helped me, politely, in detail, thoroughly, with ancient courtesy, answering countless questions in his neatly handwritten letters. He asked to write to him "on demand" so as not to attract robbers with foreign stamps. William Vasilievich owned a unique library of antique cookbooks and was afraid of robbers. As it turned out, not in vain.

While Pokhlebkin was alive, I complained about the ocean that separated his Podolsk near Moscow from my New York suburb. But now it turned out that geography not only hindered, but also helped. Thanks to her, I have a lot of letters.

Judging by them, William Vasilyevich, despite the millions of copies of his books, lived extremely poorly. He saved on everything, even on stamps and kefir, but perceiving need as a challenge, taught how to cook deliciously with any budget (in the book What I Eat, which is now published under the title My Kitchen and My Menu). The last years of his life were difficult. Stung by the post-perestroika devastation, he suffered from the squalor of life and a lack of recognition. When some crooks offered him membership in a fictional American academy, Pokhlebkin seriously got ready to go to the States, but I managed to dissuade him from participating in this scam. Instead, I offered him another project that allowed him to combine Russian literature with Russian cuisine on New York soil.

As everyone probably knows now, there is a restaurant-club "Samovar" in Manhattan, run by my friend Roman Kaplan. Once I invited him to arrange Russian literary dinners. Having secured Roman's consent, I wrote a letter to Pokhlebkin asking him to draw up a lunch menu that would please the Russian classics: Pushkin and Gogol. A detailed and precise answer soon came:

“There are at least 20-25 Russian historical figures (state, cultural, military), to whom at least 45-50 dishes are dedicated (and bear their names). As for Gogol and Pushkin, I designed their dinners based on the study of their predilections. These are, so to speak, theoretically scientifically grounded writers' menus, not real ones. They can be considered typical or characteristic of their tastes. "

The next letter contained menus - classic in all respects reconstructions of Pokhlebkin's work. Here is Pushkin's dinner. Moreover, as Pokhlebkin clarified, it is Russian - as opposed to French, restaurant - home lunch, which he could have eaten at his own estate or visiting Vyazemsky:

Snacks: Sturgeon (boiled, or aspic, or hot or cold smoked). Cold veal with pickled cucumber. Vodka: Moscow, lemon, caraway.

First: in winter - daily cabbage soup with sauerkraut, in summer - fresh lazy cabbage soup. (Both varieties on bone broth with dry porcini mushrooms.)

Meat kulebyaka.

Second: Stewed goose with cabbage. Pozharsky cutlets (chicken). Fried mushrooms in sour cream.

Wine: Red Kakhetian or Bordeaux.

Dessert: Tea with rum. Jam (strawberry, strawberry, raspberry).

And here is the dinner, which, according to Pokhlebkin, Gogol would have ordered himself in a good tavern:

Snacks: Pickled mushrooms. Salted salmon. Jacket potatoes. Gorilka with pepper.

First: Fresh cabbage soup (lazy) with sour cream.

Butt: Meat hearth pies.

Second: Labardan (boiled cod with chopped steep egg, boiled potatoes and pickled cucumber).

Dessert: Watermelon. Prunes with cream.

Pokhlebkin did not live to see the implementation of this project. He was brutally murdered by a robber in his apartment.

It was only a few years later that his last letter reached me, which he was writing just at this terrible moment. I still cannot look at the sheet with spots without shuddering.

When Pokhlebkin turned 75 in 1998, only we, in my opinion, managed to celebrate the anniversary by broadcasting on Radio Liberty. Today, in the days of Pokhlebkin's 90th birthday, everything looks different. His collected works are published in Russia. There are also deluxe illustrated editions. Carefully and lovingly collecting each of his notes, scattered around unusual magazines and newspapers. It's a pity that it's too late - for him, but not for us, his readers, fans and followers, to whom he generously revealed the secrets and joys of the culinary world.

At the same time, I must say that Pokhlebkin's dry prose, acmeistically, wins greatly against the background of the latest culinary books, which are now experiencing a real boom in Russia. Unfortunately, most often tasteless licentiousness, "banter" reigns in such publications. Food, of course, is inherently optimistic, which means it has to do with humor. However, since new authors, like Chekhov or Gogol, do not work out, humor is replaced by "humor". All this has nothing to do with real culinary literature, which is able to unite the bottom with the top, the body with the spirit, the stomach with the heart, the animal need with spiritual impulses, the prose of life with its poetry.

It was this kind of culinary literature that William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin was engaged in all his professional life. And his books are distinguished by an extremely impressive style for the discerning reader. They are written in dry, sober, laconic, extremely precise, terminologically unambiguous prose. Pokhlebkin is not a poet, but a scientist, a major historian, not only culinary, and he wrote in real scientific prose, whose poetry of dispassionate precision only benefits from its tasty subject. Pokhlebkin's research interests are gastronomic history, semiotics of cuisine, culinary anthropology. And here he made many discoveries that even have political significance. I dare to assert that one Pokhlebkin's book about the cuisines of the peoples of the USSR, which, by the way, survived the USSR itself, did a lot for the revival of national consciousness. (Now this monumental masterpiece bears the politically incorrect and ambiguous name “ National cuisines our peoples ".)

Professing table cosmopolitanism, Pokhlebkin was a great connoisseur of all culinary traditions... He wrote, for example, about fancy cuisines like Thai or Finnish. His work "Tea" is magnificent, which in my youth opened my eyes (including the third) to the tea secret of the Asian worldview. And of course, no one knew better than him in subtle secrets high French cuisine... However, Pokhlebkin's main contribution to Russian culture is that he returned her “cabbage soup and porridge”.

This can be taken literally. Having learned from Pokhlebkin to cook rich - merchant - cabbage soup, I have been feeding all my international guests with this miracle for a quarter of a century (the only misfire came with Umberto Eco, who hates sauerkraut because of his ex-German wife).

Russian cuisine owes more to Pokhlebkin than any other. The fact is that, as Roland Barthes wrote, national cuisine"Remains invisible to those who own it." Pokhlebkin not only made Russian cuisine visible for a generation that did not really know it, but also cleared recipes from seven decades of Soviet culinary barbarism.

What is worth, say, his description of specific Easter "accessories", among which I was especially struck by the "Thursday salt":

“It is prepared only in Russia and only once a year, for Easter. For this, a major rock salt pounded in a mortar, mixed with thick leavened milk, thereby dissolving the salt, and then evaporate this mixture in a skillet over low heat. The salt should have a slightly coffee (beige) color and a special pleasant taste... Easter eggs are eaten only with Thursday salt. "

When I wrote to William Vasilyevich about the recipe that had captured my imagination, he replied with some resentment that I noticed only "ants" in him. However, he immediately added that this "ant" is "extinct, relict". This letter was followed by a wonderful historical anecdote:

“In 1843, the Russian embassy in Paris commissioned the then leading chef of France, Mr. Plumre, to cook easter table including Thursday salt... The Frenchman could not, even though he fought for two days. He just didn't know what to do and how. Russian diplomats were also unable to explain to him. They ate it, but did not know how to do it. They sent a dispatch to Baden-Baden, where the Russians were, and by chance a man was found who told the recipe. "

Today, when Pokhlebkin has become a classic, we must admit that, explaining the principles of Russian gastronomy and restoring forgotten recipes, he guarded the national treasure. In essence, his noble work can be considered a culinary ecology. Each dish fished out of Summer - this hieroglyph of Russian culture - is no less valuable than a rebuilt church or a saved icon.

Porridge is one of the most common Russians national dishes, the second after the cabbage soup in its meaning on the Russian table.
For a long time, porridge was a favorite dish in Russia, and initially it was even a ceremonial and ceremonial one. It was used at festivities, including at feasts, at weddings, at christenings. That is why in the XII-XIV centuries. the word "porridge" was equivalent to the word "feast". So, the chronicle reports that in 1239 Prince Alexander Nevsky made a big mess in Toropets, and then another in Novgorod. Later, porridge began to be constantly used in all kinds of collective work, especially during mutual aid during the harvest, when they acted together, by an artel. Therefore, the artel was often called "porridge". “We are in the same mess,” it meant in one artel, one detachment, one collective. This meaning of "porridge" was preserved for a particularly long time on the Don and in other places where the Russian freemen settled.

The variety of types of Russian cereals was based primarily on the variety of cereals produced in Russia. Several types of cereals were made from almost every type of grain - from whole to crushed in various ways. Most of all they liked buckwheat cereals. In addition to large cereals - kernels, which are used for steep, crumbly cereals, they also made smaller ones - Veligorka and very small - Smolensk (they were not crushed, like a modern "pro-case", but rolled round). In addition, the so-called scalded groats were obtained from buckwheat, which, wrapped in a cloth, was quickly scalded in boiling water, and then dried and only after that they were used in porridge. Three types of barley were made from barley - large pearl barley, Dutch, smaller, but whiter, and barley, very fine, like semolina.

Barley porridge was a favorite dish of Peter I. The spelled spelled porridge (now cultivated only in Transcaucasia, where it is called "zanduri"), millet (from millet), semolina (from durum wheat), oatmeal (from whole and crushed oats) and green (from young, unripe, half-poured rye). In the XIV-XV centuries. came into use rice porrige from imported, and then their own, Russian, the so-called Akulininsky or dry rice, grown in the Astrakhan and Saratov regions. Later, in the 19th century, imported or artificial types of cereals appeared in Russia - sago and pink cereal from starch, which, however, were rarely used.

In Russian cuisine, porridge has long been divided by consistency into three main types - gruel (or thin porridge), smear (or viscous porridge) and steep, crumbly. Most loved in Russia crumbly porridge, in the old days they also eagerly ate gruel (especially with fish), which replaced soup, but they disliked swarms: it was believed that it was neither one nor the other, in a word, they looked at them like spoiled cereals.

Each of these types differs in the amount of liquid in which the porridge is cooked. How more water(milk, broth), the thinner the porridge. In addition, more liquid cereals there is also mucus, which, when preparing steep cereals, either drains out or does not have time to be boiled out of the grain. The presence or absence of this mucus imparts to cereals in general different taste... It must also be borne in mind that it is impossible to change the ratio between cereal and liquid after the porridge has begun to boil. In other words, you cannot evaporate water after combining it with cereals so that it does not affect the consistency (as can be done with root-fruits or legumes), you cannot turn a liquid or viscous porridge into a steep one.

That is why it is so important to add water correctly to obtain porridge of one kind or another. In this case, it is more convenient to be guided by the ratio of the volumes of water and cereals (so many glasses of cereals for so many glasses of water).

In the past, almost all cereals were prepared in the same way: cereals and water were placed in an earthen pot and steamed in a Russian oven. This took a long time, sometimes 4-5 hours, although the results were not bad. With the transition to a new preparation, the duration of cooking porridge was reduced to about - 1.5 hours, but not much, if it is then steamed in the oven or wrapped warmly.

However, porridge in pure form not yet porridge. its taste will largely depend on what has been spiced and seasoned. To do this, you need to know well and feel that it is suitable for this kind cereals and porridge, with which it goes better.

Of course, first of all, butter goes to porridge: “You can't spoil porridge with butter,” says the proverb. But butter is by no means the only and, most importantly, not the first addition to porridge, but the final one. The most common additives in porridge are dairy products - milk, yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, cottage cheese and cream.

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SCH and - the main first dish on the table of the Slavs for more than a thousand years. It was steadily preserved in different eras, cabbage soup was consumed by different strata of the population from the poor to the nobility. The word "cabbage soup" or "shti" itself, according to assumptions, comes from the Old Russian "eat", originally a collective name for any thick and nutritious "bread" (liquid food). According to another version, the word "cabbage" is distorted from the French chou - "cabbage".

Cabbage soup great amount cooking options from "rich" ones with mushrooms, meat, a variety of vegetables, herbs, spices and dressings, to "empty" ones, consisting of cabbage and onions. With all the many variations, the traditional way their preparation and the associated taste and aroma. Great value for creating unique taste cabbage soup had that they first cooked, and then languished (insisted) in the Russian oven. The aroma filled the hut and there was no longer any way to remove the cabbage spirit.
Taste qualities are reflected in longevity, cabbage soup has never become boring. Cabbage soup was cooked sour, full (rich), prefabricated, green, as well as gray (seedling), fish, daily and royal.

The most delicious cabbage soup is from sauerkraut... It is also national Russian dish prepared from fresh cabbage, sorrel, nettle based on broths from fatty meat(pork, smoked meats) or lard. According to the ancient tradition, cabbage soup is served with potato casseroles, buckwheat porridge, pies, kulebyaka, pies. A sign of cabbage is acid, created most often by sauerkraut brine, or by cabbage itself, sorrel, boiled Antonov apples, salted mushrooms, as well as sour cream in cabbage soup.

The cooking technology for all types of cabbage soup is practically the same. First, boil the meat with roots and onions, prepare the broth. Then in ready-made broth lay cabbage or its substitutes. If sauerkraut is used for cabbage soup, then it is pre-stewed or simmered in the oven separately. Initially, flour dressing was introduced into the cabbage soup to give thickness, but this affected taste and, flour was replaced with potatoes. With the advent of potatoes, in order to starch the broth in the cabbage soup, they began to add several pieces as a whole before laying the cabbage or sour base. Often the potatoes were taken out of the cabbage soup, because it hardened from the acid. Onions were certainly put in the cabbage soup, and twice. In broth and after sour base. It was unacceptable to sauté vegetables in Russian cabbage soup; they put the roots and onions finely chopped. Passing is acceptable in modern recipes. In the cabbage soup, spices, peppercorns and Bay leaf... And the last and most important step is insistence. Cabbage soup from sauerkraut best brewed in ovens. Sometimes the infusion of cabbage soup can last for a long time, up to 12 hours, which is why they acquire a peculiar taste. Such cabbage soup was called daily allowance. If the cabbage soup is made from meat, then this meat was necessarily beef, less often pork, and even less often fish. Hard-boiled eggs were added to nettle or sorrel cabbage soup. But each dish was seasoned (whitened) with sour cream mixed with cream.

Cabbage soup was often cooked in Lent. They were called empty cabbage soup. But empty cabbage soup does not mean poor. Roots, cabbage, greens, and tomatoes were added to the empty cabbage soup. Former pagans, doomed to fast for more than six months, as prescribed by the new religion, had to exert all their abilities, summon all their imagination and intelligence in order to invent a dish that would support their strength and would not contradict the preaching of the clergy. And this dish became cabbage soup.
Cabbage soup was not created in one day. By the method of sampling and selection, by the 10th century, cabbage soup became the predominant food of the ancient Russian people.

Cabbage soup embodied the best aspects of the Russian character - openness, the ability to perceive all the best, the ability to flexibly combine the national. Our history is imbued with a grave spirit. In June 1764, Catherine II visited Lomonosov's house and for two hours watched "works of mosaic art, physical instruments newly invented by Lomonosov and some physical and chemical experiments". Then the empress was invited to the table. Serving almost boiling cabbage soup on the table was a matter of honor for the owner. On departure, Catherine II invited Mikhail Lomonosov to her palace, saying the following:" My cabbage soup will be as hot as your hostess "
Everyone loved cabbage soup, despite the fact that they had the status of a peasant dish.
"There is a Russian spirit here! It smells of Russia here!" wrote Alexander Pushkin, implying cabbage soup. Suvorov once said this about cabbage soup, and this phrase sounds like a saying: "Cabbage soup and porridge are our food!"