OT: Re: SC - Another abbreviation I don't recognize

[Shari Burnham]

Michael F. Gunter wrote:
> 
> Um. I don't have the recipe on hand right now. Does anybody else have this
> recipe handy?
> 
> Gunthar

>From Andre L. Simon's "A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy", Harcourt,
Brace, New York, 1952, the section on wines and other beverages:

"KVASS
A very refreshing Russian beverage which is made in many Russian
households about once a week.

'With eight quarts water take 1 1/2 lb. malt, 1 lb. rye flour, 1 1/2 lb.
sugar, 1/8 of a lb. mint leaves, half pepp-er pod, and half cake of
yeast. Mix the malt and flour with boiling water and make a thick dough.
Put into barely warm oven, and leave for the night.Next day dilute dough
with eight quarts boiling water and pour into a wooden tub. Let stand
for 12 hours, then pass through a cloth. Pour one quart into an enamel
saucepan, put on fire, add 1 1/2 lb. sugar and an infusion made wioth
the mint leaves (resembling weak tea). Boil once, then take off fire,
cool until just warm, and add the yeast previously diluted with one cup
of this same warm liquid. Let stand in warm place until it begins to
ferment; then pour into the rest of the kvass in the wooden tub, and let
stand until bubbles appear. Prepare clean bottles, putting one malaga
raisin into each; pour in the kvass, cork the bottles, tie the corks
with string to the necks of the bottles, and keep in a warm place for a
day or two. Then put in a cold cellar.' -- R.C.B"

Note that the initials R.C.B., in keeping with the style for attribution
and documentation used elsewhere in the book, should be included in the
source key at the end of the book, but aren't, unless there is a
typographical error. I couldn't even begin to guess at the date, apart
from saying it resembles, stylistically, English recipes anywhere from
the mid-to-late 19th century, possibly as recent as the 1930's or 40's.

I've made this stuff, and it's better than it sounds. Kinda like a small
wheat beer with mint instead of hops. In spite of what the recipe says,
I found it at its best at around two weeks of age. Much more aging than
that would be a problem given its low gravity. Lacking an oven that
would maintain a low enough temperature to mash the mixture without
killing the enzymes in the malt (below 158 degrees F.), I put my dough
into a crockpot on the lowest setting, stirring frequently. I also used
a brewers's yeast, probably Munton and Fisson's Ale Yeast.

Oh, and don't be alarmed by the fact that the raisins will more or less
turn back into grapes and become completely spherical!

Adamantius
- -- 
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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