Subject: Re: SC - Ice

[Elaine Koogler]

My Lady,
Do you, by any chance, have a source for period Russian recipes?  We are looking
to do a Russian event in November, and the cook would love to get his hands on
some.  Please understand that none of us read Russian.

Any help you can provide would be appreciated.  We already have the book on
Medieval Polish recipes and plan to use some of those as we know that there was
some crossover...Russia conquered Poland, Poland won their freedom back and
invaded Russia...and on and on, or so I have read.

thanks!

Kiri

Jenn/Yana wrote:

> On the subject of icehouses...
>
> >From _The Archaeology of Novgorod, Russia_ , ed. by Mark Brisbane. (1992)
>
> "Some structures were wells, althought the water which made its way through
> the town's cultural layer was full of organic matter and, above all, dung,
> so that it was unsuitable for drinking or cooking, , and more than likely
> for the production processes as well.  It is highly likely that the
> majority of the sunken-floored buildings were cellars designed for the
> storage of varios provisions.  One was an ice-house dating from the 16th to
> 18th centuries of rectangular shape with a partition separating off from
> the rest a small chamber which would be filled with ice, once the ice
> melted the water would be drained off through a wooden pipe." (p.150)
>
> So this particular icehouse had a long use, spaning from the 1500s to the
> 1700s and it likely served the dual purpose of cooling food and providing
> relatively fresher drinking water.  The illustration shows a small
> wood-walled and floored room about 2m X 1.5m with a wooden partition
> dividing the room lengthwise.  The larger section is about 2/3 the total
> area of the room.  The smaller section has the drainage pipe, which appears
> to be sticking out of the wall horizontally .
>
> The article also mentions that stone foundations of icehouses have been
> found, and that all of the sunken-floored buildings were kept dry by a
> city-wide drainage system.
>
> >From the _Domostroi_ , a Russian household manual.  The chapters below are
> from the 1550s.
>
> "Liquor should be kept in the cellar or the icehouse." (Pouncy:138)
>
> "54.  How to Preserve Food in the Cellar and in the Icehouse
> In the cellar, in the icehouses, and in the small storerooms are kept
> bread, rolls, cheese, eggs, dairy goods, onions, garlic, fresh and salt
> meat, fresh an dsalt fish, fresh honey, and such cooked foods as meat and
> fish dishes in aspic.  There you should also store cucumbers, pickled and
> fresh cabbage, turnips, other vegetables, mushrooms, caviar, pickles, fruit
> juice {cherries in syrup, raspberry brandy, apples, pears, melons,
> watermelons in syrup, plums, lemons, fritters, pastilles} apple kvas,
> bilberry juice, Rhenish wine, vodka, mead, fermented and unfermented beer,
> and ale." (Pouncy:165)
>
> Too bad it doesn't say which foods to store where, but it is a nice list of
> foods.  :-)
>
> (From chapter 63. Instruction to a Steward)
> Treat all drinks the same way (mead, beer, fruit juice, cherries in syrup,
> apples and pears in syrup and in kvas, cranberry juice).  Keep the jars
> full and buried in ice.  When you drink from one, refill it and return it
> to the ice. (Pouncy:176)
>
> Yana (Ilyana Barsova)  jdmiller2 at students.wisc.edu
> http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~jdmiller2
> "Shchi da kasha, pischa nasha"
>        -- Cabbage soup and kasha are our native food
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