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

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach 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.

BTW: for non-foodies out there, for whom the genus boletus and the
tubes-versus-gills question may be a bit more esoteric than they'd
like to deal with, a common edible bolutus mushroom eaten all over
Europe is boletus edulis, also known as the porcini, cep, steinpilze,
etc., depending on where in Europe you are. I wasn't sure if they
appear in Russian cookery, but they definitely do appear in Polish
and German cookery, so it seems reasonable, in theory.

Adamantius

>----- 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.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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