Many of us think that meat and other fast foods should not be eaten only during fasting. It turns out that everything is much more complicated: in the Old Testament you can find a whole list of foods that cannot be eaten even outside of fasting.

In the Old Testament it is said that to eat the meat of strangled animals, as well as animals that died a natural death (they were not bled). It is also forbidden to eat blood sausage and other products that are made using blood.

This prohibition is due to the fact that the Holy Scripture says that the soul is in the blood of animals. In no case should you eat the flesh of an animal along with its soul. If a person consumes the blood of an animal, he will acquire the face of the animal whose blood he ate.

Unclean meat includes: dead animals (without released blood), crayfish, horse meat, crabs, fish without scales, rabbits, hares, fried blood of animals and birds. But at the same time, it is not forbidden to eat unclean meat in times of need or hunger.

Rabbit meat, horse meat, hare

This prohibition is due to the fact that it is permissible to use only the food of those animals that have a cloven hoof or chew gum in food. These animals include: goats, cows, sheep, and those that are classified as artiodactyls by modern standards. It is also impossible to eat hares, because this animal, although it chews gum, does not have cloven hooves.

The ban on the use of rabbit and hare is also connected with the fact that these animals are killed with a blow to the back of the head, which means that the blood remains in the animal, and the Orthodox cannot eat meat with blood.

Crabs, crayfish, fish without scales

As for crabs, crayfish, as well as fish without scales, the ban on their use is due to the fact that these creatures mainly feed on carrion from the bottom (crab and crab eat animal remains, and such fish without scales, such as eel, catfish, also do not they disdain carrion), which means they are unclean.

Regarding pork, it is also not so simple here. The Bible has the following words on this subject.
The same prescription is found in the Bible: “And a pig, although it doubles its hooves, does not chew gum, it is unclean to you; do not eat their meat, and do not touch their corpses. " (Bible. Deuteronomy 14: 8).

I must say that all food prohibitions are indicated in Old Testament... In the New Testament, in the Epistle to the Corinthians of the Apostle Paul, there are such “Everything that is sold at the market, eat without any research, for the peace of conscience; for the Lord's earth, and what fills it. If one of the infidels calls you and you want to go, then eat everything that is offered to you without any research, for peace of mind. "

According to Herodotus, “heating with stones” was widespread among the Scythians. It consisted in the fact that hot stones were thrown into a pit filled with water until the water boiled. After that, meat was cooked in it. Often the Scythians baked meat in ash.

In Kievan Rus, our ancestors, along with agriculture, were engaged in cattle breeding, hunting and fishing. This determined the traditional set of products in the diet of a Russian person.

Of course, in ancient times, the main source of animal protein was animal meat and fish. Horse meat did not play a significant role in the diet of Russian people, although there was no ritual ban on its use before the spread of Christianity. The chronicles mention the use of horse meat for food, but they always talk about exceptional cases - hunger, campaigns, siege of cities, etc.

Before the adoption of Christianity in Russia, the slaughter of cattle was in the nature of sacrifices, but with the adoption of Christianity, the population began to observe Christian fasts and meat-eaters. Artisans, butchers, tanners, and bone cutters appeared.

Naturally, already in the 9th century, techniques for preparing rather complex meat dishes were developed.

Range and technology meat dishes Russian cuisine was formed by claims under the influence of a number of factors, and above all the development of culinary technology.

With the advent of pottery, cooking began to be used, and together with the Russian stove (about 3 thousand years ago) it became firmly established in everyday life. complex dishes cooked in pots: boiled and stewed.

Among the cold meat snacks old Russian cuisine should be called, first of all, ham with kvass, fried fresh pork hams with horseradish on kvass or crushed garlic with kvass, corned beef with horseradish, steamed piglets, all kinds of jellies, fried geese and game with pickles, pickled or pickled plums, lemon. Cold snacks for festive feasts made out especially carefully.

The common people had meat on the table only in big holidays... The name of the dish has survived: fried meat with onions - "feast".

Veal for a long time in Russia they did not eat, and the use of it by Dmitry the Pretender (1605-1606) caused a storm of indignation, as a violation of the customs of his native country. Initially, this ban was caused by the peasant's concern for the preservation of young animals.

Only at the end of the 18th century veal became an adornment of the banquet tables of the nobility.

Pork and veal were used in Russian cuisine much earlier than beef... In written monuments of the 17th century mutton and pork mentioned more often than beef. "Domostroy" has already given recommendations on the rational use of individual parts of the carcass of mutton.

Dishes from meat offal were especially loved and considered a delicacy.

Before the era of Peter I, cattle were killed in markets, in the hallways of houses, in special "meat huts", on wastelands, on the banks of rivers or in an open place near ravines. Peter I ordered the construction of slaughterhouses and issued decrees regulating the meat trade. "In the rows and places where canteens are sold, keep everything healthy ... If someone does not fix it according to this and is caught, he will be whipped for the first fault, sent to hard labor for the second, and the death penalty for the third."

At this time, the production of salted and smoked meat for the army on an unprecedented scale that contributed to the development of sausage production.

The 18th century was a century of turbulent transformation. They touched and kitchen appliances... Peter I also introduced kitchen stoves.

Of course, the reform first affected the palace kitchen, then the houses of rich people, and only much later began to penetrate into the life of the townspeople, and it reached the peasant kitchen only at the beginning of the 20th century. Our taverns also kept old traditions for a long time, and new dishes penetrated them slowly.

Continued to improve and stews... Goulash, stews and other dishes appeared. However, a strange metamorphosis occurred with goulash in Russia: in Hungary it is liquid soup from veal with sour cream, and with us it turned into thick second dish with sour cream and tomato.

A relatively long time ago, such dishes as stuffed vegetables meat products: stuffed cabbage, pumpkin baked with meat, stuffed cabbage, etc. fried meat with onions, covered with a cut top and baked. Among baked dishes The hodgepodge in a frying pan was especially popular. They have been preserved in our cooking since ancient times without any significant changes.

In the first half of the 19th century, the demand for meat products increased, as a result of which many private slaughterhouses were created, and in 1825 the first urban slaughterhouse in Russia began to operate in St. Petersburg. However, in technical and veterinary-sanitary terms, the slaughterhouses remained primitive and dirty. The city government, urging to monitor the quality of meat, at the same time wrote: "... but with the least possible violation of the economic interests of the livestock producers and the livestock trade."

In 1846, a committee was formed to develop a draft of model slaughterhouses. However, the Duma allocated funds for their construction only in 1879 and they were opened in 1882. This date can be considered the beginning of streamlining the slaughterhouse business in Russia. MA Ignatiev, Master of Veterinary Sciences, made a huge contribution to it. He also organized the first meat museum in Russia at the slaughterhouse, in which public lectures on food sanitation were read and classes were held with students of the school. culinary arts Russian Society for the Protection of Public Health.

In 1857, the "Medical Charter" was issued in Russia, in which for the first time in the legislation were formulated the rules governing the slaughter of livestock. They stated that "only skilled people can be butchers, so as not to spoil good livestock, to beat livestock only in slaughterhouses, not to sell dead and killed in a sick condition, and not to inflate meat in order to give it a better look."

The simplest methods of preserving meat have been known since antiquity. In particular, animal meat was prepared for future use by smoking in smoke. In the middle of the XIX century. in Russia, the production of pork for the production of smoked meats is increasing. Apparatus and devices, spices and spices for the production of smoked meats and sausages.

At the beginning of the XX century. factories producing equipment for the preparation of sausages and smoked meats were opened in Moscow (" Trading house Fritz Furle "and" Werner and Pfleiderer ").

In traditional Russian cuisine meat dishes were steamed or boiled. Boiled ones were cooked in cabbage soup, in fish soup or brine (brine), under various boils (sauces).

The cabbage soup was whitened with an estimate during cooking, and not on the table during meals. To prepare cabbage soup, either cabbage or chopped cabbage, both fresh and sour, was used. Buckwheat porridge was traditionally served with the cabbage soup.

Ear

It should be noted that originally in Russian cuisine, soup was called any soup with fish, poultry or meat, as well as lean. Ear was called liquid dish well seasoned with spices. And the black ear is the ear with beef. White ear - with pepper. Ukha without spices - naked.

The traditional pickle was reminiscent of today's hodgepodge: the meat was cooked with spicy roots and vegetables (or without vegetables) in a cucumber pickle.

Vzvars are analogs of modern sauces.

Fry or fried meat dishes were: sixth, twisted, baked and pans.
Most traditional meat there was lamb. It was consumed from spring to late autumn.

At the same time, in traditional Russian cuisine, there were following rules cooking lamb dishes: brisket - on the fish soup or cabbage soup, kidneys and shoulder blades - for frying, ribs - for cooking with broth (sauce). The legs were stuffed with eggs, the tripe - with porridge, and the liver was finely chopped and fried with onions, the lungs were cooked with eggs, flour and milk. The brains were removed from the lamb's head and a very special stew or sauce seasoned with spices was prepared. Often they cooked thick lamb fish soup and put it in the cold (on ice) - it turned out to be jelly.

Now let's talk about beef. In our times, beef is any meat that is obtained by slaughtering cattle, i.e. cows and bulls. In the old days, the ancestors found they ate only yalovichin, i.e. barnyard cow meat. There was no concept of beef (beef is a cow), but there was the concept of yalovichina, that is, the edible meat of a cow that was not 1 year old at the time of slaughter and was still calving. Yalovichina was harvested exclusively in autumn. The meat was traditionally salted for future use, and the giblets: lips, heart, ears, liver, legs, tongues - served for immediate consumption (immediately after slaughter) and served under jelly, under various boils, and with porridge, and in fried... In general, not a lot of fresh beef was used in Russia. They ate mostly corned beef.

Many kept pigs and fattened them for a year and then stabbed them before Christmas. Pork meat was salted or smoked, but ham was used to make winter cabbage soup. The head, intestines, legs, stomach were used in fresh(not salted) in different types: the heads went to the preparation of jellies, seasoned with garlic and horseradish. A variety of sausages were made from the intestines, which were stuffed in different proportions, a mixture of meat, buckwheat porridge, flour and eggs.

Russians, in the old days, loved pork even more than lamb.

Hares were prepared with stifling (brass), and brine (boiled in brine), and under various boils (sauces), especially the ancestors of hares under sweet sauces were fond of.
For some reason, hares were considered unclean animals, and "Stoglav" simply forbade the sale of hares, unless the blood was bled from the animal.

The same attitude was towards venison and elk. Maybe this is because the meat of deer and elk, in Russian cuisine, was consumed mainly by wealthy people.

Chicken was eaten in cabbage soup, and in the ear, and in pickles, and fried on rods or on spits (they were called folk or spit). Cabbage soup cooked with chicken was called rich cabbage soup and was traditionally whitened with sour cream. TO fried chicken something sour was sure to be served: either vinegar or lemon.
Chicken soup was prepared with Saracen millet (rice), raisins and spices.

Boneless Chicken - Chicken sauce stuffed with lamb, eggs and saffron stew. Per festive dinners ate special dishes: chicken navels, necks, and liver, and heart.

Ducks, geese, herons and other birds

Ducks, geese, herons, and other birds, namely: swans, black grouse, cranes, hazel grouses and partridges, larks, were also eaten. The ducks were served fried and in cabbage soup.

Pole geese - filled with porridge and seasoned with beef lard. And they also made canvases from geese, which they ate in winter with horseradish and vinegar. And fatty goose giblets went on the ear, or in special dishes under explosions.

Grouse, partridge and black grouse - belonged to winter dishes and, as a rule, were served: hazel grouses - seasoned with milk, and the rest - fried with plums and / or other vegetables and fruits. Game, at all times, was considered an exquisite dish and was served not just like that, but with explosions under topships (thinly cut slices in cow oil). Swan and goose offal, prepared with honey infusion, sometimes with the addition of beef or in pies and baked goods.

And there were a lot of other game in Russia and it was cheap, but the Russians did not really like it and rarely ate it.

Each type of meat assumed the use of certain vegetables and seasonings: turnip - this is for a hare, garlic - for beef and lamb, and onions - for pork.

Talking about meat dishes one cannot but mention one completely original dish, which was called hangover. This dish consisted of cold lamb, cut into thin slices, mixed with finely chopped cucumbers, cucumber pickle, vinegar and pepper. Well, as its name implies, they used it to fight hangovers.

About the abundance of various meat food in Russia, numerous written sources say, one might say meat in Russia it was the foundation of the nation's foundations, food and health. One of the most interesting "chroniclers of the Russian meat history"- Italian Ambrogio Contarini. The traveler visited our lands in the 70s of the fifteenth century. And although he mainly describes the life of Muscovites, you can get a rough idea of ​​how our ancestors ate.

As the Italian says, in those days, the cost of a duck or chicken allowed even a poor person to eat quite well. Thanks to the cold weather, the beef was kept undisturbed for up to two months. Game was also very popular. Hunting, including falconry, was very common. Hunters set snares and other traps. They hunted ducks, wild geese, cranes, swans, pheasants and other birds.

At the beginning of history, the Slavs willingly ate horse meat. In any case, Prince Svyatoslav did not take meat on the campaign at all, preferring this particular food. But with the advent of Christianity, a lot has changed. And the church actively prohibited the use of this meat, as well as, for example, bear meat.

And yet the Christian tradition strictly referred to the consumption of meat from animals that were not killed by humans. They called him "pressure". It so happened that the most stringent posts fell just on those days in which a Russian had the most difficult field work. As a result, instead of recuperating with protein foods, the peasant fasted. We do not know how this affected labor productivity, therefore, we can only state a fact.

And all the "meat-eaters" usually fell out for a time when the cattle had not yet grown. Therefore, it turned out that the peasants raised cattle of meat breeds, but especially often did not have time to eat meat. There were too many fasting days every year. This led to the fact that the meat was no longer perceived as important product... But the Russian people attached great importance to animal fats. Salo, internal fat, vegetable oil... All this was used quite regularly. Salom was used to fill soup, porridge, and even vegetable dishes.

But this does not mean at all that no one ate or prepared meat. It was salted, dried, smoked. In general, they were harvested for future use to be eaten, for example, on a holiday. Nitrate could be used instead of salt. She gave a bright red hue to the meat. Corned beef was the main meat food in summer and spring.

V winter time the meat was kept in ice, which was delivered from nearby reservoirs. Some peasants left supplies right on the ice of the river. Many do not know, but buyer of fish meat in Russia- it was a separate branch of entrepreneurship, which was very isolated in the business environment of that time.

Tobish, for a long time we have eaten meat, and we, like good children of our forefathers, continue this magnificent tradition ..

Religious traditions at all times and among all peoples have left an imprint on the use of meat food. The Koran forbids Muslim peoples, eating pork, in India they avoid it, eating

Religious traditions at all times and among all peoples have left an imprint on the use of meat food. The Koran prohibits Muslim peoples from eating pork, in India they avoid eating veal, since the cow is considered a sacred animal.
The Chinese and Koreans prefer the meat of young dogs to the meat of many animals, finding its taste spicy and aromatic and appreciating it as highly as, say, the French value the delicacy of frog legs.
In Russia, Christianity clearly distinguished between "clean" and "unclean" meat. For many decades, horse meat (which was not previously considered unworthy food), bear meat, and hare were declared unclean meat for many decades. It was supposed to be a sin to eat meat of beavers, squirrels, cats, dogs, black grouses. The Church emphatically forbade the use of "pressure", that is, the meat of animals and birds not slaughtered directly by man.
Judging by the memoirs of the Italian traveler Ambrogio Contarini, preserved from the 15th century, about the scarcity meat table the Russians didn’t have to say:
“Their home life represents more abundance than refinement, for their tables are everywhere filled with almost all those dishes that people, even those who are very devoted to luxury, can wish for; moreover, everything edible can be obtained at an inexpensive price. It is the hens and ducks that are often sold for one small silver coin; cattle and small livestock are found in incredible abundance, and the frozen meat of heifers does not rot for almost two months.
With the help of hunting dogs and snares, they catch all kinds of animals, and with the help of hawks and falcons, not only pheasants and ducks, but also swans and cranes. "
Our ancestors were great experts in meat business, and brought a certain philosophical flavor into their judgments. “The best meat and the most digestible is the meat that lies deep in the bone. The meat on the right side is lighter and better than the left side, and the meat in the middle of the muscle is most free of imperfections.
As for loose meat, which has no nerves, then it is tastier, especially the one that exists for the sake of generating milk, such as meat at the root of the tongue…. The best is the meat that is created for the sake of support, like meat woven between the vessels of the liver and other organs, or the meat of the heart and its base.
The meat of wild animals is bad, as is the meat of all large water birds. The meat of all passerines is bad.
The best bushmeat is gazelle, although it tends to be black. Best of all is the meat of animals born in winter, and you must also bear in mind the condition of the animals: their age and pasture. "