[Sca-cooks] OT/OOP Kvass Recipe

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Feb 23, 2010, at 8:39 AM, Terry Decker wrote:

>> I'm just wondering about the age of the recipe I had found in English (not sure, but I can't imagine it's from much after the Russian Revolution), the fact that this kvass is made, essentially, from bread. You just have to make the bread in a specific way. And in what way, if any, the process has changed over the years, and how old and widespread, as has been discussed in other threads on kvass, the stuff really is.

<snip>

> If you're referring to the mythical character of making beer from bread, the technique is recorded in the Sumerian "Hymn to Ninkasi" which is about 4000 years old.  The Sumerians used a bread made from barley and honey.

Partly. Mostly I'm referring to the possible blurring and/or removal of the lines (if any) between making solid cakes of grain for beer and solid cakes of grain for eating, and to what extent (if any) this contributes to the widespread idea that kvass is made from bread, and how accurate this idea is over the full historical spectrum of kvass-brewing. In other words, to what extent is it possible that yes, kvass is made from bread, but do you really want a nice sandwich made from it?

I have seen and tasted the Ninkasi bread (or at least bread baked from the hymn's text)... not bad, but material for a BLT? Not so much...
 
> BTW, R.C.B. should be "the Russian Cookery Book" by Molokhovets translated by Joyce Toomre (1992).

Quite possibly. As I say, the specifics don't appear to be in my edition of Simon's book, but since it was published in 1952, I'm not sure whose translation is being used.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's bellies."
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