Recently, I once again came across a post about the "crunch of French rolls", in which the author broadcast how wonderful Russia lived before the revolution.
That a certain stratum lived wonderfully, I do not even argue. The question is about how they did not reap, but the bulk of the people existed
But, it's not even the fasting itself, since I meet such sufferers regularly. The question is in the comments. In the comments to such publications, people always appear who talk about their "grandfathers and grandmothers". All these grandfathers, without exception, had a luxurious life, and the vile Soviet government dispossessed them. How 25-35-year-olds know the life of their great-grandfathers, whom they did not find at all, history is silent. But they broadcast as if they themselves saw this life with their own eyes. Well, or great-grandfather personally told
The funny thing was that in the comments of such people I met an acquaintance, and he also talked about the great economy of his ancestors and how they lived gorgeous. The point is that both parents of this person are from orphanages, who did not know their parents at all. It just so happened.
But the “crunch of a roll” still haunts a person ...
So today let's see how it was... but at least the city servant. We will not listen to the "eyewitnesses" who have survived to our times, but let's look into the book of Katerina Avdeeva - the one that "A complete cookbook of an experienced Russian hostess or a guide to reducing costs in the home farmsѣ ".
This is a source you can trust - after all, the book was written by a respected lady, a typical representative of the Russian class of housewives, zealous and quite the same. meticulous.
In the book, which contains a lot of recipes, which only marvel at - and ate! - there is a whole section devoted to the servants' table and the question of how to feed these servants without much damage to the budget. There you will not find blancmange, fricassee, tender blancmange-cottage cheese, made on one exclusively farm. near St. Petersburg, and the dough for pies and rolls of the master's table is very different from what was eaten by simple people.
That being said, it's worth noticing! - Avdeeva's table for servants is still quite nourishing and luxurious. The life of the servant was hard, the domestic servant was the lowest paid and deprived of rights in Europe. But this life still seemed better than the life of a "liberated" but landless peasant, which is why, after 1861, they reached out to the cities in the hope of finding a place ...
So let's go!
From the recipe for cabbage soup and potato stew, you can find out - it stands out in houses for half a pound of corned beef or beef per person. Most likely, the delivery of offal was also limited to half a pound. Avdeeva considers this to be quite a sufficient norm. It seems half a pound is two hundred grams, quite good. They will write to me now - how many people eat two hundred grams of meat every day. Yes, only gentlemen, you remember that there are about two hundred fast days in Russia - when more when less, depends on the year. So the owners were not particularly broke, especially since the book contains a clear indication of corned beef.
Here are the recipes - maybe you agree to eat like that? Something tells, the majority of contemporaries will turn their noses away from such food.
1228. Cabbage soup.
Taking half a pound of beef or corned beef per person, which proportion is almost more accepted as sufficient, but in some houses meat is released and a pound per person, boil this meat in the usual way, put in a sufficient amount of sauerkraut, chopped onions and season with wheat flour; put also yachny or buckwheat groats. When there is churning, cabbage soup and stews can be seasoned with them.
1229. Potato stew.
Take half a pound of beef or corned beef per person, wash, put in a pot, peel and gore potatoes and chop onions; put everything in the soup, put it to boil, put a little cereal, or season with flour; also churning.
And what should a servant eat on fast, meatless days? Maybe plenty of milk? Well, no, milk noodles are on holidays.
1231. Noodles.
On holidays, you can make milk noodles from plain flour. Those who have their own cows, such a meal is inexpensive. You can also give just sour milk, called yogurt in Russia.
Pancakes are also rye, and made of dough "chopped off". On fast days, most likely, they are not baked on lard ...
1232. Rye pancakes.
When baking bread, add pasta, add wheat flour, let rise and bake pancakes on sal на, whatever happens.
Or here's the recipe, by the way, is also clearly modest. It is tempting to write - gentlemen, this dish should be included in the selection of "food for the poor", such collections are very fond of publishing in Zen.
1233. Salamata.
Take wheat flour, boil it with boiling water and fry it with goose or some other bird's fat.
And here is the wonderful lean cabbage soup.
1246. Cabbage soup.
Take the cabbage, pour it with water, let it boil a few connectors and put the snapshots. When the servants are 5 or 6, then the pounds of snapshots will be four times.
Smelt, of course, is a tasty fish (nowadays it is a delicacy, after all, smelt), and light - dried up, but 400 grams of smelt for 4 boiling cabbage soup, and cabbage soup for 5 or 6 people... We lived luxuriously, right?
Beetroot is a luxurious food, and most importantly, very satisfying
1253. Beetroot.
Take a sweet beet, wash it thoroughly so that there is no soil left on it, then scrape it, pour it with water and cook it so that it controls well; but if you want the beets to have a red color, then do not cover the pot in which the beets are boiled, otherwise it will have a bland color; then, removing it from the oven, clean it completely, chop it finely and pour it with the water in which the beets were cooked, let it stand in cold place for three or four hours, and you will get a delicious meal, in which sometimes kvass is added or finely torn ogurtsov.
How long will you last on this, gentlemen?
Yes, Avdeeva gives recipes and “luxurious” ones - for example, the servants were supposed to have a lamb's head, or even scrambled eggs. However, given that the ram was expensive - 5-7 rubles in winter and autumn, 3-7 in summer and spring, the servant did not often get the ram's head. And also the posts are worth considering.
This menu gives a very clear idea of how the common people ate. So don't talk about the crunch of French buns, gentlemen!