[Sca-cooks] Fw: Fw: [EK] Russian mushrooms

[Phlip]

The question of ussian mushrooms came up on the EK List, so I did the fair
thing and asked a Russian friend about them. He's very interested in SCA,
and has a very strong historical bent, so when I ask him a question, he
tends to give answers that I can use to expand my historical knowledge.

Anyway, because of the extent of the answer, I'm also fwding this to
SCA-Cooks, and our Households List- enjoy, all ;-)

Phlip

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexey Kiyaikin"
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 1:58 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: [EK] Russian mushrooms


> Greetings Phlip!
>
> There is reference to mushrooms in early post period & maybe late
> period. My copy of the Domostroi is not full I'm afraid, but all in
> all the main edible mushroom was boletus. There were lots of its varieties
> & relatives, but mainly it was it. No field mushrooms/agaric until
> French couisine domination.
>
> As it is, the mushroom variety divided into three main groups: for
> frying (tubular mushrooms, if my guess is correct - with tubes under
> the cap, not concentric plates), afair not mentioned in the Domostroi,
> for drying (that means long shelf time and finally mushroom soup.
> Squirrels dry mushrooms in all Russian
> woods, so nutritional qualities of mushrooms COULD have been found
> very early). Same kind of mushrooms. The third one is for salting, and
> it IS mentioned in the Domostroi. You may salt (pickle) either tubular
> & plate mushrooms (sorry, am literally translating Russian biological
> terms). Thge former are more nutritional, but the latter are more,
> ergm, spicy & multiple in woods.
>
> Maybe, at least some recipes were borrowed from Finnish tribes of
> central Russia, as mushroom&onions filling is characteristic of
> Estonia/Lietuva/Buelorussia/Smolensk region. e.g., Kolduny, a Lietuvan
> kind of Pelmeni, stuffed with chopped mushroom.
>
> The names:
>
> Tubular:
>
> Bely grib (boletus, "white mushroom") with relatives borovik ("pine
> wood one") (pod)dubovik
> ("(under) oak one"), mokhovik ("moss one"), and less nutritional but
> more abundant podberezovik (under birch one) and podosinovik (under
> aspen one).
>
> Plate ones:
>
> Gruzd' - white, big & of wide conical shape, there are white Gruzd & black
one. It's
> bitter to eat raw or fry, so they put it into water for a day or two
> to strip some bitterness, then they salt it. It's the main kind of
> plate mushrooms, it's also about the only mushroom that went inbto
> popular proverb:
> Nazvals'a gruzdem - polezai v kuzov
> (if you call
> yourself a Gruzd (a mushroom), here's a mushroom basket for you, - if
> you claim to be somewthing you'll be treated accordingly, it's late to say
you didn't mean
> it).
> That also makes the Gruzd one of the earliest edible mushrooms in
> Russia.
> Domostroi also mentions, afair, Ryzhik (Red one - the colour of red
> hair), it's smaller & is considered fine for salting too. Dunno for
> sure but Lisichki ("foxes") are also rather early to become saltable.
> Their shape is rather characteristic: inmagine an almost flat cap that
> is folded to make a cone, with all that "waves" at edges. It's a size
> of a small agaric.
>
> The conical shape means that the mushroom's
> cap is conical by the centre and more flat at edges.
>
> Only in 19-20 century they started to eat less and less
> nutritional mushrooms because of worse environmental conditions, that
> enlarges the list of edible mushrooms almost by two, so I won't treat
> other varieties, they are too many.
>
>
>
>