SC - Domostroi/Kvass Farily long

[Philip E Cutone]

It seems i may have been incorrect about the domostroi being just out
of period:
http://www3.traveller.com/chess/trivia/r.html has:
>In 1549 the Protohierarch Sylvester wrote his Domostroi (Houshold Government).

and from http://coral.bucknell.edu/departments/russian/chrono1.html:
>1560's          Edition of Domostroi, a book of principles of family life


so it seems that is at least 40 ish years in period.

here is the bib info from rialto clothing archive:
    The Domostroi
    Carolyn Johnston Pouncy
    Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1994
    0-8014-2410-0
    culture, Russian
    Rules for Russian households in the time
    of Ivan the Terrible
    (essentially the Medieval Home Companion for Russia) 

The domestroi is a pretty cool book.  It's fairly sexist, but then,
that was the norm then.  If you dig through, you can find quite a few
recipies and menu's for various tiimes of year.

(from what i remember from the translated version) 
To make Ordinary Kvass:
you add one part honey to five parts water and a soft rye loaf. let
sit a while, strain and bottle up.

When i remember to bring it in, i'll type in the translated sections. 


here are other reverences i've found online:

Travelers yellow pages online http://www.infoservices.com/stpete/94.htm
has this to say about it:
>Kvas is a traditional lightly fermented drink made from rye bread and
>raisins, once sold from tank trailers on every street corner. Now two
>beverage manufacturers," Polyustrovo" and "Bavariya", have begun to
>bottle kvas in 0.33 l bottles, while another beverage factory
>n.a. Razin, also produces kvas on draught.  


http://hubris.engin.umich.edu:8080/Beer/Threads/Threads/thread.829083082.html#71:
> As several persons have noted, kvass is made from rye,
>while kumys or kumiss is made from fermented mare's milk.  John
>Braue, though, is incorrect in suggesting in HBD #1913 that the
>making kvass from rye bread is a prison varient.  It's actually
>the most common way to make kvass: soak dry, toasted rye bread in
>water with sugar and lemon (if possible), let ferment slightly
>and drink while still fermenting.  I've also had it made from rye
>flour.  Prepared properly, it's tart, effervesent, and quite
>refreshing, especially after a hard morning spent planting
>potatoes.  It's the base of several traditional Russian soups.
>        Commercially-prepared kvass was considerably sweeter,
>rather insipid, and almost flat.  It was traditionally served
>direct from large tanker trailers.  The saleswoman had three
>mugs, usually, which she would take back from customers and rinse
>in a pail of filthy water before serving her next customer. 
>Before perestroika, this was the most common way of selling beer
>as well, though by 1990 these mugs were in short supply, and beer
>drinkers generally brought their own containers.  I well remember
>standing with a couple of strangers draining a three-liter jar of
>beer outside a kiosk in Moscow in early '91.
>        Alas, kvass production is now down something like 98% in
>Russia: Russians prefer western soft drinks.
>

http://hubris.engin.umich.edu:8080/Beer/Threads/Threads/thread.825014283.html#64
is the intro to the above, but gives little information

http://hubris.engin.umich.edu:8080/Beer/Threads/Threads/thread.832942925.html
mentions that kvass contains a lactic fermentation as well.  It almost
surely did in period.. :)



http://hubris.engin.umich.edu:8080/Beer/Threads/Threads/thread.832884837.html#34:
>
>Posting 34: Extracted from file:  1914
>Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 13:53:59 -0800 (PST)
>From: eurquhar at sfu.ca (eric urquhart)
>Subject: kwass
>
>I found this recipe on my hardrive from an old HBD.
>
>Subject: Kvass/Kwass
>From: duncan at vt.edu
>Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 10:35:28 -0500
>
>Sounds like an interesting experiment - was the product drinkable at all?
>
>For the sake of comparison, here's a recipe for "Kwass" taken from "The
>Compleat Anachronist Guide to Brewing" (Compleat Anachronist #6),
>published by the Society for Creative Anachronism:
> ---------begin quote-----------
>Kwass
>(Yield: 6 cups)
>1 lb. day-old black bread or Danish pumpernickel
>1 cup sugar
>2 tbsp. dry yeast
>1/4 cup lukewarm water
>2 tbsp. mint leaves or 1 tbsp. dry mint
>2 tbsp. raisins
>
>Dry the bread and then chop it into coarse pieces. The add the bread to six
>quarts of boiling water, remove from heat and cover with a towel. Set aside
>for eight hours. Then strain the mixture through a fine sieve into another
>large pot, extracting as much liquid from the bread as possible. Discard the
>bread. Add the yeast and 1/4 tsp. sugar to the lukewarm (110-115 F [43-46 C])
>water and stir thoroughly. Set this aside for about ten minutes in a warm
>place and then add the yeast mixture, the remaining sugar, and the mint [to
>the 6 quarts of bread-water], cover again with a towel, and set aside for
>about another 8 hours. Strain the mixture again and bottle in a gallon jug
>or several quart-size bottles. Fill the bottles 2/3 full, then divide the
>raisins evenly among the bottles. Cover each bottle with plastic wrap
>secured with a rubber band. Place in a cool spot for three to five days, or
>until the raisins rise to the top and the sediment sinks to the bottom.
>Carefully decant the clear amber liquid [picking out the raisins?] and
>rebottle in clean bottles. Refrigerate until ready to drink.
> ----------end quote--------------
>Sounds interesting, although I've never tried it. "Dry yeast"? I suppose
>bread yeast (yech!) would suffice, but I'd use ale yeast in my own typical
>overkill manner. Evidently, this version is not meant to be served
>carbonated, but in a second recipe the author directs you to bottle the
>mixture as soon as you see gas bubbles rising from the fermentation (of
>course, he also complains of the bottles building up so much pressure that
>the corks were extruded throught the wire cage - can you say "kwass
>grenades"? I knew you could). Further recipes on the making of Kumiss
>(fermented milk) <shudder> and Kefir (fermented buttermilk - which I have
>tried to make and do not recommend for the weak of stomach). Basic beer,
>mead and winemaking information is also included.
>
>The CA Guide to Brewing, Compleat Anachronist series #6 is available
>for $3.00 from:
>Society for Creative Anachronism
>Stock Clerk
>P.O. Box 360743
>Milpitas, CA  95035-0743  USA
>
>Regards, and happy brewing!
>Tom Brady
>(known occasionally as Lord Duncan MacKinnon of Tobermory)
>duncan at vt.edu
>
>
>Eric Urquhart, Centre for Pest Management,
>Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University,
>Burnaby B.C. CANADA V5A 1S6
>e-mail: eurquhar at sfu.ca


there is also a goodly amount of discussion in the rialto archives:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/kvass-msg.html

which provides some references...


Cat's meow has a recipe for mint kvass at
http://alpha.rollanet.org/cm3/recs/12_47.html:
>
>Mint Kvas
>
>
>Classification: kvass, rye, bread, mint kvass
>
>Source: Dave Vaness (vaness at bowler.dacc.wisc.edu), r.c.b., September
>22, 1995
>
>The following quotation and recipe are from "Russia" of the Time-Life
>Foods of the World series.
>
>"For drink the peasant diet had kvas, which was much like the 'small
>beer' of Western Europe. It could be made from grain and malt, but was
>often made from leftover dark bread soaked in hot water and allowed to
>ferment for a few hours; sugar, fruit or honey was customarily added
>as a sweetener. The finished brew could be drunk on the spot or
>bottled for later use; in some households a part of the brew served as
>a fermented stock for soups. Homemade kvas is somewhat effervescent
>and only slightly alcoholic. It has never enchanted many non-Russians,
>but it had an important place in the peasant diet. It was cheap and
>the yeast suspended in it, like the vegetables in shchi [cabbage soup]
>or borshch (beet soup), formed a nutricious supplement to a limited
>diet."
>
>Ingredients: (for 6 cups)
>
>       1 pound day-old black bread or Danish pumpernickel
>       2 tablespoons active dry yeast
>       1 cup sugar
>       1/4 cup lukewarm water (110 - 115F)1/4 cup lukewarm water (110
>- 115F)
>       2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves or 1 tablespoon crumbled dried
>mint
>       2 tablespoons raisins
>
>Procedure:
>
>Preheat the oven to 200F. Place the bread in the oven for about 1
>hour, or until it is thoroughly dry. With a heavy knife, cut and chop
>it coarsely. Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil in an 8-quart casserole
>and drop in the bread. Remove from heat, cover loosely with a kitchen
>towel, and set it aside for at least 8 hours.  Strain the contents of
>the casserole through a fine sieve set over another large pot or bowl,
>pressing down hard on the soaked bread with the back of a large spoon
>before discarding it.
>
>Sprinkle the yeast and 1/4 teaspoon of the sugar over the 1/4 cup of
>lukewarm water and stir to dissolve the yeast completely. Set aside in
>a warm, draft-free spot (such as an unlighted oven) for about 10
>minutes, or until the mixture almost doubles in volume. Stir the yeast
>mixture, the remaining sugar and the mint into the strained bread
>water, cover with a towel, and set aside for at least 8 hours.
>
>Strain the mixture again through a fine sieve set over a large bowl or
>casserole, then prepare to bottle it.  You will need 2 - 3 quart-sized
>bottles, or a gallon jug. Pour the liquid through a funnel 2/3 of the
>way up the sides of the bottle. Then divide the raisins among the
>bottles and cover the top of each bottle with plastic wrap, secured
>with a rubber band. Place in a cool -- but not cold -- spot for 3 - 5
>days, or until the raisins have risen to the top and the sediment has
>sunk to the bottom. Carefully pour off the clear amber liquid and
>re-bottle it in the washed bottles. Refrigerate until ready to
>use. Although Russians drink kvas as a cold beverage, it may also be
>used as a cold-soup stock in okroshka (chilled vegetable soup with
>meat) or botvinia (green vegetable soup with fish).
>


i love the net... ;)


In Service to the People of the Society,
Filip of the Marche