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 legs of frogs.
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 firmly 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 chickens 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 the friable meat, in which there are no nerves, 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 it is necessary to keep in mind the condition of the animals: their age and pasture. "

Russian cuisine is not only cabbage soup, porridge, baked pigs and pickles. And Russian technologies for cooking and preserving food are not limited to simmering in the oven and salting. We have quite a few other ways. About three of them, forgotten and not so much, AiF-Kuhne told Anna Sokolova, owner of the Russian diner BERIOZKA... It is especially valuable that we can use these technologies right now, although we do not have a Russian stove at hand:

Urinating

Everyone knows pickled apples are made in this way - by soaking. But besides the apples, which we prepared back in the fall, you can cook any berries... The peculiarity of our berries, lingonberries, viburnum, mountain ash, cranberries ... yes, almost all that grow in the north - bitterness. They knit to varying degrees and bitterness to varying degrees. But they are also very useful. Most often we freeze them for the winter. Or we make jam. But soaking is much better and tastier than jam.

The berries are soaked in own juice, with spices and not big amount Sahara. We also add water, but very little. Best to soak straight frozen berry... If you have frozen cranberries and lingonberries for the winter - now is the time to get them, pour a little water, add cloves and cinnamon, a little sugar. No heat treatment, no loss of vitamins. In Russia, earlier this was the only way berries were harvested. The berries will be ready in 4-5 days.

Soaked berries can be served with fish, meat, they can be used to decorate salads or even just eat like that, instead of jam with tea - they are very tasty.

Sagging

This method is rarely used now. Its essence is in hanging a piece of meat, it can be game, beef, poultry. But this is not drying.

We all know how meat is dried in Italy and Spain, we all know jamon and prosciutto. We have something completely different. The fact is that when you eat jamon, you feel that the meat has been dried in the warm wind, in the heat, under the sun. We have a completely different temperature, which means that the processes in the meat are different, and the taste is also completely different.

Hang meat or poultry at a temperature slightly above 0 degrees. Previously, this was done in the entryway. It was warm in the hallway, and cold seeped from the street. Therefore, the temperature there constantly kept close to zero.

Photo: AiF / Maria Tikhmeneva

Before hanging, the meat was rubbed with salt, marinated in spicy herbs... This killed bacteria and allowed the meat to last longer. This is what we are now playing with taste, but before everything was subordinated to one idea - to keep the product as long as possible. The pieces were small. For example, you can hang the breast of a duck, and cut into pieces larger than the palm of the venison.

By time: the duck will be ready in 3-4 days, the venison will hang for a week. The main thing is that the meat does not freeze, otherwise nothing will work.

After we have hung it, we freeze it a little and cut it very thinly.

Photo: AiF / Maria Tikhmeneva

Scrapbook

The meaning is the same as that of sagging, as long as possible to preserve what was taken during the hunt in the fall. Actually, the bracket is rather a way slicing. Just imagine, your meat is very rare. Since autumn, the carcass or half-carcass of an animal is stored on ice, and you cook it only according to great holidays... And suddenly appeared Dear guests, which urgently needs to be treated well. The hostess cannot cut off a single piece from her carcass, all the ice cream, she can only scrape off. And from such thin, torn pieces of meat to cook something. For example, a dish that looks like beef stroganoff. So you can cut not only meat, but also fish, if it is large enough. Let's remember that this is nothing more than a fish scraper, only it is not cooked, but served directly ice cream.

Meat bottle

Recipe of Kirill Eliseev, chef of BERIOZKA cafe

• 20 g frozen duck fillet
• 50 g frozen beef fillet
• 50 g frozen pork fillet
• 50 g tomatoes
• 20 g champignons
• 15 g porcini mushrooms
• 10 g pickles
• 45 ml heavy cream
• 40 g hard mozzarella
• 1 potato
• 15 ml vegetable oil
• Soaked lingonberry
• Salt and pepper

Step 1. Cooking mushroom sauce... Cut onions and pickles into strips, champignons arbitrarily into 4-6 pieces, porcini mushrooms into large cubes.

Step 3. Stew the cucumbers for a few minutes. We combine all the components and fill with cream.

Step 4. Bring to a boil, evaporate a little. Salt and pepper to taste.

Step 5. Cut thin slices of frozen duck, beef and pork with a sharp knife.

Step 6. Fry the meat in vegetable oil, add the diced tomatoes and mushroom sauce, bring to a boil.

Step 7. We put everything in a heat-resistant pan, sprinkle with grated cheese on top and send it to the oven preheated to 270C. We bake until golden brown.

Step 8. While the scraper is baking, prepare the potato chips. Peel the potatoes, rinse them, cut them into slices 2 mm thick, rinse them again in running water and fry them in deep fat or in a pan with a lot of vegetable oil. Put the finished chips on paper towel to absorb excess fat. Salt to taste.

Step 9. Sprinkle the finished scraper potato chips and pour with soaked lingonberries.

The culinary traditions of the Russian people are rooted in antiquity. Even in pre-Christian Russia, when Shrovetide was celebrated and bloodless sacrifices were made to the gods, such once ritual dishes as porridge, pancakes, spring larks other. The Slavs were engaged in arable farming, growing rye, barley, wheat, oats, millet. In the 10th century, according to travelers, the Slavs "sow millet most of all." During the harvest, they take millet grains in a ladle, lift them up to heaven and say: "Lord, you who gave us food until now, give us it now in abundance."

A little later appears ceremonial porridge- kutia. It was made from cereals with the addition of honey. Plain porridge Slavs cooked from flour, for which they grinded grains, in water or milk. Breads were baked from flour - first unleavened cakes and then rolls and pies cooked in honey.
In Russia, they were engaged in the cultivation of garden crops. The most popular were cabbage, cucumbers, turnips, rutabagas and radishes.

Ancient chronicles, telling about the fate of the state, wars and disasters, nevertheless sometimes mentioned facts, in one way or another, related to food and nutrition.

Year 907 - in the annals, among the monthly tax, wine, bread, meat, fish and vegetables are named (in those days, fruits were also called vegetables).

Year 969 - Prince Svyatoslav says that the city of Pereyaslavl is conveniently located - there converge "different vegetables" from Greece and honey from Russia. Already at that time, the table of Russian princes and rich people was decorated with salted lemons, raisins, walnuts and other gifts eastern countries, and honey was not only an everyday food product, but also an item of foreign trade.

Year 971 - during the famine, the high cost was such that a horse's head cost half a hryvnia. It is interesting that the chronicler is not talking about beef or pork, but about horse meat. Although the case takes place during the forced wintering of the troops of Prince Svyatoslav on the way from Greece, the fact is nevertheless remarkable. This means that there was no ban on eating horse meat in Russia, but it was probably used in exceptional cases. This is evidenced by the relatively small specific gravity horse bones in kitchen garbage found by archaeologists.

Usually for the characteristic, as we would now say "price index", the value of products of everyday demand is indicated. So, another chronicler reports that in the lean 1215 in Novgorod "there was a cart of turnips for two hryvnias."

Year 996 - a feast is described at which there was a lot of meat from cattle and animals, and bread, meat, fish, vegetables, honey and kvass were transported around the city and distributed to the people. The squad grumbled that they had to eat with wooden spoons, and Prince Vladimir ordered to give them silver ones.

Year 997 - the prince ordered to collect a handful of oats, or wheat, or bran and ordered the wives to make "tsezh" and cook jelly.

So bit by bit, you can collect in our chronicles a lot of interesting information about nutrition in the X-XI centuries. Describing the simplicity of the morals of Prince Svyatoslav (964), the chronicler says that the prince did not take carts with him on campaigns and did not cook meat, but thinly slicing horse meat, beef or animals, ate them, baking them on coals.

Frying on coals is the oldest method of heat treatment, characteristic of all peoples, and it was not borrowed by the Russians from the peoples of the Caucasus and the East, but has been used since ancient times. Historical literary monuments of the 15th-16th centuries often mention chickens, geese, hares "twisted", that is, on a spit. But still, the usual, most common way of preparing meat dishes was boiling and frying. in large pieces in Russian ovens.

For a long time, cooking was a family affair. As a rule, the oldest woman in the family knew them. Professional chefs first appeared at the princely courts, and then - in the monastic refectory.

Cooking in Russia became a specialty only in the 11th century, although the mention of professional chefs is found in chronicles as early as the 10th century.

The Laurentian Chronicle (1074) says that in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery there was a whole cookery with a large staff of monks-cooks. Prince Gleb had an “elder cook” named Torchin, the first Russian chef we know of.

The monastic cooks were very skillful. Prince Izyaslav, who had been outside the borders of the Russian land, who had seen a lot, especially loved the "meals" of the monks of the Caves. Even a description of the work of cooks of that era has survived:

"And put on a hair shirt and a hair shirt for my retinue, and begin to create ugliness, and help the cooks, cooking on my brothers ... And at matins I go to the cook, and prepare fire, water, wood, and I will come to the other cooks from taking."

During the times of Kievan Rus, cooks were in the service of princely courts and wealthy houses. Some of them even had several chefs. This is evidenced by the description of one of the houses of a rich man of the 12th century, where a lot of "sokachy" is mentioned, that is, cooks "working and making darkness."

Russian chefs sacredly kept the traditions of folk cuisine, which served as the basis of their professional skills, as evidenced by the most ancient written monuments - "Domostroy" (16th century), "Painting for the Tsar's dishes" (1611-1613), table books of Patriarch Filaret and boyar Boris Ivanovich Morozov, monastic expenditure books, etc. They often mention folk dishes - cabbage soup, fish soup, porridge, pies, pancakes, pies, pies, jelly, kvass, honey and others.

The nature of the preparation of Russian cuisine is largely due to the peculiarities of the Russian oven, which for centuries has faithfully served both ordinary urban people, noble boyars, and townspeople as a hearth. Ancient Russia it is impossible to imagine both without chopped huts and without the famous Russian oven.

The mouth of the Russian stove was always turned towards the doors, so that the smoke could leave the hut by the shortest route through the open doors in the entrance. The stoves in the poultry huts were large, in which it was possible to cook several dishes at the same time. Despite the fact that the food sometimes smacked slightly, the Russian oven had advantages: the dishes cooked in it had a unique taste.

The peculiarities of the Russian oven determine such features of our cuisine as cooking dishes in pots and iron pots, roasting fish and poultry in large pieces, an abundance of stewed and baked dishes, wide range of baked goods - pies, cereals, pies, kulebyak, etc.

Since the 16th century, we can talk about the differences between the monastic, rural and royal cuisine. In the monastery, vegetables, herbs, herbs and fruits played a major role. They formed the basis of the diet of monks, especially during fasting. Rural cuisine was less rich and varied, but also refined in its own way: for festive lunch it was supposed to serve at least 15 dishes. Lunch is generally the main meal in Russia. In the old days, in more or less wealthy houses, four dishes were served in turn on a long table of sturdy oak planks, covered with an embroidered tablecloth: cold appetizer, soup, the second - in non-fasting time, usually meat - and pies or pies, which were eaten "for dessert."
The appetizers were very different, but chief among them were all sorts of salads - a mixture of finely chopped vegetables, usually boiled, to which you could add anything - from apple to cold veal. From them came, in particular, the vinaigrette known to every Russian house. By the end of the 17th century, jelly became popular (from the word "jelly", that is, cold: firstly, jelly must be cold, otherwise it will spread on a plate; secondly, it was usually eaten in winter, from Christmas to Epiphany, that is, in coldest time of the year). Then the ear appeared from different fish, corned beef and sausages. The pickle amazed foreigners with its refined taste. Cabbage soup - remember the saying: "Cabbage soup and porridge - our food" - and so, cabbage soup was served with mushrooms, fish, and pies.

Of the drinks, the most popular were berry and fruit juices with fruit drinks, as well as tinctures. Mead is a drink based on bee honey- was stronger, and then vodka appeared. But the main Russian drink from ancient times remained bread kvass... With everything they did not make - from raisins to mint!

But at the feasts of the boyars began to appear great amount dishes reaching fifty. At the tsar's table, 150-200 were served. Lunches lasted 6-8 hours in a row and included almost a dozen changes, each of which, in turn, consisted of two dozen dishes of the same name: ten varieties of fried game, salted fish, ten varieties of pancakes and pies.

Dishes were prepared from a whole animal or plant, all kinds of chopping, grinding and crushing of food were used only in pie fillings. And even then it is very moderate. Fish for pies, for example, was not chopped, but plastered.

At feasts, it was customary to drink honey before the feast, as stimulating the appetite, and after it, at the conclusion of the feasts. The food was washed down with kvass and beer. This was the case until the 15th century. In the 15th century in Russia appeared “ bread wine”, Ie vodka.

In the 17th century, the order of serving dishes began to change (this applies to the rich festive table). Now it consisted of 6-8 breaks and only one dish was served at each break:
- hot (cabbage soup, stew, ear);
- cold (okroshka, botvinya, jelly, jellied fish, corned beef);
- roast (meat, poultry);
- body (boiled or fried hot fish);
- savory pies, kulebyaka;
- porridge (sometimes it was served with cabbage soup);
- cake (sweet pies, pies);
- snacks.

As for drinks, for example, the register of those released from Sytny Dvor to receive Polish ambassadors read: “There was a drink about Vel in the outfit (from Sytny Dvor). Sovereign: 1 serving: romance, bastru, renskago, by purchase; 2 feed: malmazey, musket, alkane, by purchase zh; 3 serving: cypress, French wine, church wine, by purchase; red honey: 1 serving: cherry, raspberry, currant, bucket; 2 feed: 2 ladles for raspberry honey, ladle for boyar honey; 3 feed: 2 ladles for juniper honey, ladle for cherry honey; white honeys: 1 serving: 2 scoops for honey treacle with nails, a scoop for honey scoop; 2 feed: 2 buckets for honey with muskata, a bucket for honey bucket; 3 feed: 2 ladles for honey with cardamom, a ladle for honey with a ladle. In total about the Great Sovereign: romanes, bastra, renskago, malmazei, musket, alkana, cynarea, French wine, church wine, 6 cups each, and 6 cups of vodka; red honeys: cherry, raspberry, currant, bone, cherry, juniper, scalded, bucket; white honey: bucket with cloves, muskata, cardamom, 8 mugs, 9 mugs of sugar. About boyars, and about circumstantial, and pro-thought people, and about ambassadors, and about royal nobles: 2 mugs of aniseed vodka from Romaneya, cinnamon, too, 8 mugs of boyar vodka, 5 buckets of Romaneya boyar's, too, 5 buckets of bastru, 2 buckets of Rensky, 5 buckets of alkane, 4 buckets of fryazhsky wine, 3 buckets of church wine, 8 buckets of cherry wine, 4 buckets of raspberry honey ... ”And this is not the end of the register.

However, despite the difference in the number of dishes between the rich and the poor, the nature of the food retained national characteristics. The division took place later, from the times of Peter the Great.

The formation of Russian cuisine was also influenced by cultural exchange with neighboring peoples. Immediately after the baptism of the Slavic script came to Russia from Bulgaria, books began to be translated and rewritten, and not only liturgical ones. The Russian reader at this time little by little gets to know literary works, historical chronicles, natural-scientific writings, collections of sayings, In a very short historical period - during the time of Vladimir and especially his son Yaroslav - Russia joins the culture of Bulgaria and Byzantium, Russian people are actively assimilating the heritage of ancient Greece, Rome and Ancient East... Along with the development of spiritual and cultural life, the introduction of church canons in Russia significantly changed the nature of nutrition. Spices and seasonings have come into use: black and allspice, cloves and ginger, overseas fruits - lemons, new vegetables - zucchini, sweet peppers, etc., new cereals - "Saracen millet" (rice) and buckwheat.

Russian "cooks" borrowed many secrets from the Tsargrad masters who came to Muscovy - "men of skill, experienced not only in painting icons, but also in kitchen art." Acquaintance with the Greco-Byzantine cuisine turned out to be very useful for our cuisine.

The influence on Russian cuisine and our eastern neighbors, India, was no less strong. China, Persia. The first Russian people who visited these countries brought many new impressions from there. The Russians learned a lot from the famous book by Afanasy Nikitin "Walking the Three Seas" (1466-1472), which contains a description of products unfamiliar in Russia - dates, ginger, coconut, pepper, cinnamon. And the book by Vasily Gagara (written in 1634-1637) broadened the horizons of our compatriots. They learned about the products that the people of the Caucasus and the Middle East used. Here are his observations on how sugar production was carried out in the East: “Yes, in the same Egypt reeds will be born, and sugar is made from it. And the reeds are dug near the sea ... and as the reeds ripen, and eat it, as there is honeycomb. "

But not only the practical methods of cooking were mastered by our ancestors. They also thought about the essence of the phenomena occurring in this case. Long ago they mastered the secrets of cooking yeast dough, as mentioned in the chronicles: the monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra knew how to cook custard bread that did not get stale for a long time.

Already in the XI-XII centuries. Russians knew many rather complicated methods of making kvass, honey, and hops. They can be found in the famous ancient Russian herbalists, as well as in various "lives". So, kvass was widely known - zhitny, honey, apple, yash, etc. Our ancestors were well versed not only in the intricacies of cooking different types kvass, but also the mechanism of action of sourdough, yeast, as evidenced by the numerous teachings of the ancients:

"You crush and grind the wheat, and sow flour, and knead the dough and ferment." Or: "And they ferment kvass with sour thick, and not yeast." "Kvass, on the other hand, separates the copulation and gluing of the dough and makes the bread thin and loaf."

And other literary sources confirm the knowledge of Russian people in the field of food. So, in the "Book, the verb cool vertograd" (XVII century) contains numerous arguments about the difference, for example, cow's milk from goat's, hare meat from bear meat, etc. It is curious that even then Russian people had an idea of ​​the antiseptic properties of protein : “Egg white is put into medicine ... on sores and on all sorts of subcutaneous wounds. Also aids protein for otrelin, in hot water soaking apply "(section" about chicken eggs ").

For a general idea of ​​nutrition in ancient times in Russia, we give a few culinary recipes then popular dishes.

Stuffed turnip. The turnips are washed, boiled in water until soft, cooled, scraped off the skin, cut out the core. The removed pulp is finely chopped, added chopped meat and fill the turnips with this filling. Sprinkle with grated cheese on top, sprinkle with butter and bake.

Oatmeal jelly. Pour the groats warm water and leave for a day in a warm place. Then strain and squeeze. Add salt, sugar to the resulting liquid and boil, stirring continuously, until thickened. Add milk to hot jelly, mix, pour into plates greased with butter, put in the cold. When the jelly hardens, cut it into portions and serve with a cold boiled milk or yogurt.

"Pea block". The peas are completely boiled and pounded, the resulting puree is seasoned with salt and molded (you can use molds, cups, etc., oiled). Molded pea mash put on a plate and poured with sunflower oil with fried onions, sprinkled with herbs.

Peasant bread soup. Small dry crusts white bread fry in fat with finely chopped parsley and finely chopped onions, then add water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Stirring continuously, pour the pounded eggs into the soup in a thin stream. This soup, which tastes like meat, should be served immediately.

Sbiten scorched. To get burnt, heat the sugar in a spoon over low heat until a dark brown syrup is formed. Dissolve honey in 4 glasses of water and boil for 20-25 minutes, then add spices and boil for another 5 minutes. Strain the resulting mixture through cheesecloth and add burnt for color. Serve hot.

"Monastic chicken". Cut the head of cabbage not very finely, put in clay pot, pour eggs whipped with milk, salt, cover with a frying pan and put in the oven. Cabbage is considered ready when it becomes beige.

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, and 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 the 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 on the market, eat without any research, for the peace of conscience; for the Lord's earth, and what fills it. If any 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. "