SC - re: Lentils

[Dan Gillespie]

>Conchobar says:
>	Ok, I foolishly agreed to make a soup/stew for our event in March.
>
>Me too!   It's the first time I've volunteered for such a thing.  The
>title of the event is "Cossaks, Mongols & Huns" and I don't have to stick
>to the theme, but it would be nice.  Anyone have an idea what Cossaks,
>Mongols or Huns ate?  Or know of what book I should hunt down to start
>finding out?   I was surprised at the number of Russian cookbooks at the
>library, but most of the soups and stews listed had either potatoes or
>tomatoes in them.  I know I can't document any of the other recipes, but
>at least those I know couldn't be right and up until a week ago that
>seemed like a pretty good start.
>
>Anne
>

Here's a little something for you:

"He had us asked what we wanted to drink, wine or terracina, which is rice
wine (cervisia), or caracosmos, which is clarified mare's milk, or bal,
which is honey mead.  For in winter they make use of these four kinds of
drinks."(From "A Mission to the Great Khan," by William of Rubruck, c.
1253-4, found in Ross, p. 469.)

KOUMISS, A VALUABLE WINE OF THE TARTARS - 1819

1 part mare's milk	1/8 part cow's milk, soured
1/6 part water

Take of fresh mare's milk, of one day, any quantity; add to it a sixth-part
water, and pour the mixture into a wooden vessel; use then, as a ferment,
an eighth-part of the sourest cow's milk that can be got; but at any future
preparation, a small portion of old koumiss will better answer the purpose
of souring.  Cover the vessel with a thick cloth, and set it in place of
moderate warmth; leave it at rest twenty-four hours; at the end of which
time the milk will have become sour, and a thick substance will be gathered
on its top; then, with a stick, made at the lower end in the manner of
churn staff, beat it till the thick substance above mentioned be blended
intimately with the subjacent fluid.  In this situation leave it again at
rest for twenty-four hours more; after which, pour it into a higher and
narrower vessel, resembling a churn, where the agitation must be repeated
as before, till the liquor appear to be perfectly homogeneous; and in this
state it is called koumiss:  of which the taste ought to be a pleasant
mixture of sweet and sour.  Agitation must be employed every time before it
is used...
(From The American Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book, by Mrs.
Esther Allen Howland, 1850.)
(Excerpted from A Sip Through Time, copyright 1994, Cindy Renfrow.)

HTH,

Cindy/Sincgiefu


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