Recipes from old Russian cookbook (long)

In Monday I have accidentally found this excellent book deep in the
drawers of my table at my work. Its title translating "A Perefect
Kitchen and Practical School of Housekeeping with 3000 Recipes Proved
by Practice", someting like this.
It is a reprint edition, the date of original publishing is 1892. It
makes an interesting reading in all meanings ) - our ancestors
definitely knew what, how and how much to eat ) as apart from
recipes the books contains introductory articles in which autor
ponders upon food, housekeeping, health and economics: p17 cAs a
meat serves as a FOUNDATION of a human nutrition..." /c, p55 in
"Liquid hot and cold dishes" c What could be more tasty, healthy and
nourishing than a cup of well cooked broth with a good piece of
roasted of boiled beef ? Nothing. It is a basement upon which arising
a generation of healthy citizens /c ). Also he is making comments
about importance of fats and proteins and inferior significance and
even harm of carbohydrates (he calls them FAT GENERATORS btw) all the
way through the book. What had been happened with our common sense in
only 100 years that we start to love a food which was undoubtedly
crappy for our ancestors ? BTW my grand grand mother who lived with us
and died in her 93 on her feets almost newer ate sweets, sliced only
one thin slice of rye bread for all dinner and LIKED meats, fishies
and until her death always asked to pour a glass (or another ) of
vodka for herself at holiday dinners .
That was a preamble. )
In this book I looked for recipes of dishes made from by-products
(dont know that word) such as tongue, brains, heart, etc as they cheap
and delicious if cooked properly. If interested, see some recipes
below.
Note: every recipe serves 5, all lbs are russian pounds which are ~400
but not 453 gramms as british pounds.
In Russian cuisine soups and hot dishes made from groats [kasha] are
served first so I begin with simple but nourishing soup named
The Russian Tschi With Sauerkraut.
a broth from 1/2lb of fat beef or bacon per serving
2lbs of sauerkraut
5 onions
1/2lb of butter
1T of flour [optional, used as thickener]
Fry sauerkraut and onions with butter until tender. Put them into
the broth and simmer for a while. Serve with a lot of sour cream,
roasted/boiled beef, fried pork etc... Also you may fry small strips
of fatty pork and simmer soup with them until ready. If you freeze
tschi for 24 hours and warm-up it before serving it will be much much
more tasty. This is a basic variant of tschi, there is very many
variations of it.

The English Tongue
1 tongue
4 cups of read meat sauce or white sauce (with guarana (sp?) gum
instead of flour) with vinegar and capers
5 onions
2T capers
2T parsley greens
1/2 lemon
1 cup of tomate puree
1 cup of broth
1/2 cup of madeira
salt and cayenne pepper to taste

Boil tongue until it becames soft enough to peel skin off then skin
it and put it whole in a saucepan adding a lot of sauce with sliced
onions, parsely and capers, lemon, tomate puree, salt and cayenne
pepper. Dilute with broth and simmer until ready, then slice the
tongue to thin slanting slices. Add 1/2 cup of madeira or sherry to
the sauce in the saucepan and serve the tongue pouring warmed-up sauce
over it.

The Tongue a-la Italiano
1 tongue
1/2lb cheese
1lb butter
1cup crumbs [I used cauliflower instead]

Boil the tongue in salty water until ready then peel and slice to
slanting slices. Put a layer of the tongue slices it deep strewing pan
strewing it with grated cheese thickly. Repeat. Strew last layer with
cheese mixed with crum [use you favorite crumbs substitute here] and
pour melted butter over it. Bake in oven until light-brown crust.

I fried chopped onions, cauliflower and chopped pickled milk
mushrooms in butter and added them to cheese. I feel that it was
tastier than original recipe.
Note: it takes a long time to boil a tongue, perhaps 2-2 1/2 hours
for a 2-3lbs tongue.


Fried brains

2 brains
2T vinegar
2 onions
1/4lb butter
2T flour [or your strach substitute of choice]
spices and roots

Soak brains in cold water then peel films from them. Boil brains in
salty water with vinegar, roots and spices. Slice each brain
lengthwise and sprinkle it with flour. Fry in butter with chopped
onions. Serve with any salad.

Thats all for this time. Like that korean guy said (about green tea
ice-cream)
it is hard to write a recipe in English.

WBR, Serge.

"Serge N. Ivanov" wrote:

In Monday I have accidentally found this excellent book deep in the
drawers of my table at my work. Its title translating "A Perefect
Kitchen and Practical School of Housekeeping with 3000 Recipes Proved
by Practice", someting like this.
It is a reprint edition, the date of original publishing is 1892. It
makes an interesting reading in all meanings ) - our ancestors
definitely knew what, how and how much to eat ) as apart from
recipes the books contains introductory articles in which autor
ponders upon food, housekeeping, health and economics: p17 cAs a
meat serves as a FOUNDATION of a human nutrition..." /c, p55 in
"Liquid hot and cold dishes" c What could be more tasty, healthy and
nourishing than a cup of well cooked broth with a good piece of
roasted of boiled beef ? Nothing. It is a basement upon which arising
a generation of healthy citizens /c ). Also he is making comments
about importance of fats and proteins and inferior significance and
even harm of carbohydrates (he calls them FAT GENERATORS btw) all the
way through the book. What had been happened with our common sense in
only 100 years that we start to love a food which was undoubtedly
crappy for our ancestors ? BTW my grand grand mother who lived with us
and died in her 93 on her feets almost newer ate sweets, sliced only
one thin slice of rye bread for all dinner and LIKED meats, fishies
and until her death always asked to pour a glass (or another ) of
vodka for herself at holiday dinners .
That was a preamble. )
In this book I looked for recipes of dishes made from by-products
(dont know that word) such as tongue, brains, heart, etc as they cheap
and delicious if cooked properly. If interested, see some recipes
below.
Note: every recipe serves 5, all lbs are russian pounds which are ~400
but not 453 gramms as british pounds.
[snip]
The English Tongue
1 tongue
4 cups of read meat sauce or white sauce (with guarana (sp?) gum
instead of flour) with vinegar and capers
5 onions
2T capers
2T parsley greens
1/2 lemon
1 cup of tomate puree
1 cup of broth
1/2 cup of madeira
salt and cayenne pepper to taste

Boil tongue until it becames soft enough to peel skin off then skin
it and put it whole in a saucepan adding a lot of sauce with sliced
onions, parsely and capers, lemon, tomate puree, salt and cayenne
pepper. Dilute with broth and simmer until ready, then slice the
tongue to thin slanting slices. Add 1/2 cup of madeira or sherry to
the sauce in the saucepan and serve the tongue pouring warmed-up sauce
over it.

[snip]

Isn't that interesting, Serge? How, indeed, did things change so
much?

BTW, there is indeed something called guarana. I don't recall if
it is a gum. I do seem to remember that it contains quite a lot
of caffeine--more than coffee.

--
Jean B.

"Jean B." wrote in message
...


BTW, there is indeed something called guarana. I don't recall if
it is a gum. I do seem to remember that it contains quite a lot
of caffeine--more than coffee.

Also known as guar gum. You can substitute xanthan gum instead if you
can't find guar. Both found at health food stores. Expensive, but a
small amount lasts a very long time.

revek who likes the soup recipe and will give it a go Real Soon Now --
thanks Serge!


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.543 / Virus Database: 337 - Release Date: 11/21/2003

Serge,

Thanks, Gracias, or as you say: spasibo. Interesting recipes.

Yazaira
Member since Oct 03
265/252/154
http://plaza.ufl.edu/yazaira/dieta/

On 22 Nov 2003 11:58:33 -0800, (Serge N. Ivanov)
wrote:

The English Tongue

The Tongue a-la Italiano

Personally, I like paper-thin sliced corned tongue from the deli, but
I can't get it where I live - just on visits to New York City.

Fried brains

Except in those horror movies ("Night of the Living Dead"), low carb
or not, "brains" are not going to happen for most Americans!!! Don't
know about the rest of the nationalities represented on this group
(Danes, Aussies, Brits, Canadians??? Are brains a big seller with
you?)

it is hard to write a recipe in English.

You did fine. But I don't know how a Russian can live without
potatoes, bread and pierozhkies. You must be a lonely voyager in the
world of Russian low-carbing ...best of luck! Kalish

On 22 Nov 2003 11:58:33 -0800, (Serge N. Ivanov)
wrote:

In Monday I have accidentally found this excellent book deep in the
drawers of my table at my work. Its title translating "A Perefect
Kitchen and Practical School of Housekeeping with 3000 Recipes Proved
by Practice", someting like this.
It is a reprint edition, the date of original publishing is 1892. It
makes an interesting reading in all meanings ) - our ancestors
definitely knew what, how and how much to eat )

snip

Aren't old cookbooks fascinating? I love collecting them!

My oldest one (reprint edition - I don't have any originals sigh) is
Curye on Inglysche, which is a collection of 14th century English
cooking manuscripts. Redacting the recipes is fun sometimes!

Opening the book at random:

For to make cratoun. Tak checonys & schald hem, & seth hem;&grynd
gyngeuer other pepyr & comyn, and temper it vp wyth god mylk & do the
checonys thereyn, & boyle hem and serue yt forthe

Spelling is directly from the book, not mine!

It seems to be a recipe for chicken, simmered in milk with ginger,
pepper and cumin - but no quantities, no times and no idea of *what*
the dish should look like at the end which is completely different to
a modern cookbook.

Even if I don't try all the recipes (I have tried, and enjoyed, some
of them) they are fun to read through.

Aramanth

In article , "Jean B."
wrote:

"Serge N. Ivanov" wrote:

Note: every recipe serves 5, all lbs are russian pounds which are ~400
but not 453 gramms as british pounds.
[snip]
The English Tongue
1 tongue
4 cups of read meat sauce or white sauce (with guarana (sp?) gum
instead of flour) with vinegar and capers
5 onions
2T capers
2T parsley greens
1/2 lemon
1 cup of tomate puree
1 cup of broth
1/2 cup of madeira
salt and cayenne pepper to taste

Boil tongue until it becames soft enough to peel skin off then skin
it and put it whole in a saucepan adding a lot of sauce with sliced
onions, parsely and capers, lemon, tomate puree, salt and cayenne
pepper. Dilute with broth and simmer until ready, then slice the
tongue to thin slanting slices. Add 1/2 cup of madeira or sherry to
the sauce in the saucepan and serve the tongue pouring warmed-up sauce
over it.

[snip]

Isn't that interesting, Serge? How, indeed, did things change so
much?

BTW, there is indeed something called guarana. I don't recall if
it is a gum. I do seem to remember that it contains quite a lot
of caffeine--more than coffee.

But there's also a thickener, guar gum. That's what I assumed Serge was
referring to.

--
AF
"Non Sequitur U has a really, really lousy debate team."
--artyw raises the bar on rec.sport.baseball

revek wrote:

"Jean B." wrote in message
...

BTW, there is indeed something called guarana. I don't recall if
it is a gum. I do seem to remember that it contains quite a lot
of caffeine--more than coffee.

Also known as guar gum. You can substitute xanthan gum instead if you
can't find guar. Both found at health food stores. Expensive, but a
small amount lasts a very long time.

revek who likes the soup recipe and will give it a go Real Soon Now --
thanks Serge!

Guarana is the same as guar gum? I'll have to check that out. No
guarana is Paulinia cupana, and guar gum is Cyamopsis
tetragonolobus. Probably Serge did mean guar gum though.

--
Jean B.

"Jean B." wrote in message
...
revek wrote:

"Jean B." wrote in message
...

BTW, there is indeed something called guarana. I don't recall if
it is a gum. I do seem to remember that it contains quite a lot
of caffeine--more than coffee.

Also known as guar gum. You can substitute xanthan gum instead if
you
can't find guar. Both found at health food stores. Expensive, but
a
small amount lasts a very long time.

revek who likes the soup recipe and will give it a go Real Soon
Now --
thanks Serge!

Guarana is the same as guar gum? I'll have to check that out. No
guarana is Paulinia cupana, and guar gum is Cyamopsis
tetragonolobus. Probably Serge did mean guar gum though.

Huh. I know I saw that word or similar in parenthesis beside guar gum
somewhere. Oh well. Nevermind.

revek


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.543 / Virus Database: 337 - Release Date: 11/21/2003

interesting read! thanks serge!

you are right about the old way of eating being rhe better way. it
worked.