[Sca-cooks] new translation was Russian food - zakuskas

[Stephanie Ross]

Oh Kiri, this is WONDERFUL!! I can't believe my wistful request would be
answered so quickly! (Doing the happy dance around the house!) He found
sour cream three times so far!?! I swear I didn't find it anywhere in
Pouncy's translation. He definitely needs to concentrate on the foodstuff
parts that she glossed over.

<<If the Swedish smorgasbord can be shown to be period, I'm *very* happy 
postulating that the Russians borrowed the
concept. (In point of humor, the Russian term for a smorgasbord 
translates literally as "Swedish table.") The zakuska
table itself, however, I haven't seen in any of my other research. I've 
read accounts from European travelers to the
Courts of the Tsars, and nothing of the sort is ever even alluded to. I 
*did* see reflections of another practice that is
mentioned in the Domostroi: The food is brought to the Master's table en 
masse, then distributed from there, with the
guests being sent "food from [the Master's] own dish>>

Looks like I need to look toward smorgasbord again. I was also pondering
that maybe mezze came through to Russia from the -stan countries and
Georgia, and became popular after they became part of the USSR. I'm unsure
of the history of that part of the country and when it actually came to be
considered Russia.
 
<<Lastly, the kasha with ham
and onions "specifically mentioned on p.161." I looked it up. Kasha is 
mentioned, as is ham, and onions--but I couldn't
find them put together in a meal. Kasha and ham, yes--but no onions. 
Not in either the Pouncy translation, or the Russian.>>
 
You're right, I screwed up on this. I was reading from notes I took last
summer as I went through the Domostroi. I think I actually got the idea
that onions were in kasha from _Russian Cooking_ the Time-life series of
cooking books. My notes read (and it's the first thing I wrote down
actually), "Kasha - buckwheat groats mixed with a little onion, boiled in
broth, with ham p161". No cite for everything before the ham. Sorry I was
sloppy on that one. All the modern cookbooks I looked in to see where it
might have come from mentioned onions and kasha, but I didn't find it in
the Domostroi when I skimmed it just now. P. 161 just says, "...thin kasha
with ham...".

 As mentioned, I'm playing with this in my free time; it's slow going, 
and certainly not my full-time occupation. That being
said, I'm happy to chat with anybody about it, and I'll gladly sit down 
one-on-one with folks and compare specific parts
of the Pouncy with the relevant parts of the Russian. If you wish, I'll 
keep you updated on my progress from time to time.
 
Please have him translate the recipes, for god's sake!! :)  I'd like to
know what it says about the sour cream too. Feel free to give him my email
Mistress Kiri. And THANK YOU! Maire, would you be so kind as to cc me
during your discussion? Is Lord Mikhail stationed in this country? If we
could just get one SCAdian food scholar who reads Russian into Russia to
see if there are other manuscripts... (yeah, I know, dream on).

~Aislinn~