During the Hundred Years War, people not only fought and killed each other. They also ate, and tried to eat better. But what they ate - that will be our story today …
“Russian cuisine is in one of the first places in the world in terms of cost. And the author has perfectly confirmed this. Let him tell you how long it took him for all this sacred rite.
Due to the fact that everything was fine with firewood in Russia, Russian cuisine is also energy-consuming. Only Russians and their closest neighbors have this kind of cooking, like languor!"
ee2100 (Alexander)
To begin with, I really liked the article by Roman Skomorokhov about Suvorov cabbage soup. Well, cabbage soup and cabbage soup, we can only be glad that someone here knows how to cook and write “deliciously” about it, but there was also a commentary, which is given here as an epigraph. We are talking about the energy consumption of the national Russian cuisine. And it seems to be a trifle, but the devil is just hiding in the little things. Which are in this already of a fundamental nature, because such "little things" are directly related to the culture and history of our country.
We point out right away that the cuisine of all peoples in a certain era was very energy-consuming. Meat - the same chicken was cooked for several hours. Take the book by Elena Malokhovets - this is the most accessible publication for a Russian - and there is about all this. But English cuisine was no less costly in terms of the amount of firewood and the amount of time: open, say, the book by Maggie Black and Deirdre Le Fay "Jane Austen's Cookbook", and there you will find all the same!
What distinguished our cuisine from all others, and then only in particular, was the church regulations, according to which our ancestors, up to Peter I, had to cook food. The Church pointed out that food should be cooked whole, as they were given to us from God, that it is a sin to grind them before cooking. Hence, our pies with porridge - nothing to grind, pies with mushrooms - the smallest ones were selected, pies with fish - were baked gutted, but not cut, with bones and scales, so only some low-bone fish species were used. Cabbage was fermented with a head of cabbage, turnips were steamed and baked whole.
Eating veal in Russia was considered an unacceptable, shameful thing (they took care of the livestock!), And it was on this that False Dmitry got caught, who loved roast veal, which immediately proved that he was "not our man." The main meat was considered to be lamb and pork. Lamb even paid a salary to the archers: half a cow to an ordinary archer a week, and a whole to the foreman, plus three loaves of bread for a shovel of fathoms for the first and six for the second! Of course, it was not so easy to know and the tsar ate. In the inventory of the tsarist dining there are such dishes as "smoking in pieces under lemons", "smoking in pieces under cucumbers", "smoking in shtyah" and even "smoking in wrappers". But in general, the tradition not to cut or grind anything was strictly observed. And how not to observe, if the same Ivan the Terrible, observing church deanery, on pain of death, forbade "grouse" (black grouse) and "stuffing sausages", which eventually appeared in our country in large quantities only under Peter.
However, kitchens of many other nations were also expensive in terms of time and firewood. For example, the Poles who have been at enmity with us since the time of the Pretender. Their national dish is bigos, and … every time we find ourselves in Poland, we order it with the whole family, eat it and praise it. But … they still have not dared to cook it at home according to all the rules, although it seems that everything is available for this - both food and time. And this is because the recipe for bigos is still the same. For example, here is the simplest one for an ordinary family:
400 g sauerkraut, 400 g fresh cabbage, 200 g of veal (or other meat), 200 g smoked meat (boneless), 100 g smoked bacon
150 g of uncooked smoked sausage, 1, 5 Art. tablespoons of tomato paste + 1 glass of water, 1 onion
1 carrot, 1 pickled apple
100 g pitted prunes, 50 g raisins
50 ml of dry red wine, a few dried mushrooms, frying fat (lard or a small piece of unsalted bacon), bay leaf, marjoram, allspice, salt, black pepper, sugar - all to your taste.
Then we start cooking. First, you need to drain the brine from the cabbage, and soak and chop the dried mushrooms. Cut fresh cabbage rather coarsely so that it does not boil over during cooking. Carrots are rubbed on a coarse grater. The pickled apple is cut into large pieces, the onion is cut into rings. Meat products, on the other hand, are cut into small pieces.
A piece of bacon is cut into cubes and melted in a preheated frying pan, onions are added there and fried until half cooked, after which soaked mushrooms are added to the onions (you can use champignons from the store, by the way) and fresh cabbage. Fry until the mushrooms give juice. Now add carrots and a glass of salted boiling water with tomato paste diluted in it. All this is stewed until the cabbage becomes soft and juices.
Now you can add sauerkraut, chopped apple, mix it all, cover and simmer. Then, when the sauerkraut becomes soft, pour in red wine and simmer again over low heat for 45 minutes - stirring so that our bigos does not burn. However, this is not all, do not even hope!
Now let's move on to the meat. Cut it finely and fry in another pan for 5-15 minutes, then add smoked meat and fry a little again. Sausage and smoked bacon also go there, and all this is also fried for several minutes.
Add meat plus bacon, plus sausage, as well as prunes, raisins, bay leaves and spices to taste, add to the cabbage and simmer it all together for a few more minutes until cooked. If necessary, try and add some salt. A teaspoon of sugar should also be added, which is said to further enhance the flavor of the bigos.
And only now this dish can be served on the table, and the bread for it should be rye, and vodka - well, how can it be without it - Polish bison, which even more helps him … "to open up". Of course, it is best to cook bigos in a Russian oven (the Polish one is not much different from it) and serve it warmed up on the second day, or even on the third.
P. S. Bigos is served on the table with fresh rye bread, and on the festive table - with a traditional Polish drink such as zubrowka. You can also serve our vodka. But bison better sets off the taste of bigos.
But now we have reached the Hundred Years War … It is believed that the recipe for such a French dish as cassoulet (fr. Cassoulet) appeared just at that distant time. And it was in the southern regions of France, so that Jeanne d'Arc might well have eaten it in Orleans. At first glance, there is nothing complicated in it: a stew of meat and beans is what it is. But in reality it is a masterpiece: in a bowl, you will find delicate white beans in an abundance of sauce. But among the beans you will also find large chunks of garlic sausage and even fried duck (confit). Moreover, the beans in real cassoulet should be soft and tender, and not fall apart, and their entire surface should be covered with a golden crust of crackers. Prepare cassoulet … for a few days! And quite a lot of firewood had to be spent on it too!
On the first day, the pork knuckle had to be thoroughly cleaned and washed in running water. Then pour clean water and salt a little, after which you and I can put it in the refrigerator for the whole night. Meanwhile, the white beans are washed and soaked overnight.
Now you need to cook duck confit. Its meat is covered with coarse salt, black pepper, poured with lemon juice and marinated with onions for 8-12 hours. The inner fat of the duck is melted separately, then the marinated meat (but without onions) is placed in it, a couple of garlic cloves, sprigs of rosemary and thyme are added.
Simmer duck meat for 3 hours at 140-150 degrees in a container with a tightly closed lid. Cool the finished confit and put it in the refrigerator before time.
On the second day, all skin with a thin layer of fat is cut off from the pork shoulder, which is cut into long strips, from which five rolls are folded and tied with thread. The meat that was under the skin is cut into 3-4 cm cubes.
Now rolls and meat "cubes" need to be cooked in a duck on medium heat, pouring duck fat from confit. The browned meat is laid out on a plate.
Carrots are cut into thin rings. Chop the onion and tomato into large pieces. All this is fried for 1-2 minutes.
Now we need one liter of water (the liquid should cover the meat). Put in it a bouquet of garni, a slice of celery, pork skin rolls, previously fried pork. Bring to a boil, season with salt to taste, cover the roaster and simmer the stew over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
The shank should be welded so that the bones are exposed. Now you need to take it out, cool it a little, separate the meat and fat along with the skin. Then the meat is cut into small pieces and returned to the pan. The bones should be thrown away, but the pieces of skin with fat should be put in a container and put into the refrigerator for making garlic dressing. Leather rolls are also put away in the refrigerator.
Now is the time for the beans. It is poured with cold water and brought to a boil over low heat, boiled for 3 minutes, then the water is drained. Now the beans are added to the stew and stew for another 1-1.5 hours over low heat. Then the stew must be allowed to cool and again put in the refrigerator overnight.
The third, decisive day has come! The hardened fat is removed from the surface of the stew. Garlic (2 cloves) is ground with boiled pork skin (you can use a blender or a copper mortar and pestle, traditional for the Hundred Years War!) And add to the stew, bring it to a boil and simmer again for 15 minutes over low heat.
Once they made cassoulet at home. Not in three days, and it turned out delicious, but there was a lot of fuss with him. I wanted to say: "Oh, these Frenchmen …"
At the same time, brown the confit duck legs in a frying pan and fry small sausages. Now all this needs to be laid out in portioned ceramic bowls, untie the pork skin rolls and cover the bottom of the bowls with them, the fat side down. Moreover, confit and pork sausages are placed on top, but so as to slightly immerse them in the stew. And the final touch - all this should be covered with bread crumbs (from a white bun or breadcrumbs) and again put into the oven for … 1-2 hours so that a golden crust forms on top, and so that the cassoulet does not burn, pour broth into it.
Before serving this dish, let it stand and cool down for a while. To it is a glass of red wine and white bread. Here the output is indicated for eight servings, so it will be enough for a family and … for guests. And most importantly: you will satisfy your exquisite taste, find out what the gentlemen ate during the Hundred Years War (although who knows, maybe not only gentlemen - the ingredients were all quite accessible to people even easier), and … once again remember that the cost was in the past peculiar to the cuisine of the most different nations of the world!
