Folk utensils. Old Russian dishes

For modern man So it’s natural when starting lunch, breakfast or dinner to use a spoon, fork, knife to eat, put food on a plate, and pour drinks into a mug or glass. And these are just the basic everyday table items that accompany our regular meals. And we don’t even think about how and when they appeared in our kitchen.

Let's start from the very beginning a simple knife. In traditional Russian cuisine, the knife began to be used a very long time ago. Our ancestors did not distinguish between a fighting, hunting or table knife. It’s just that each Russian had his own knife, which was worn in his belt or behind the top of his boot (only men wore it) and was used as needed. Special table knives appeared only in the 16th century, but in their own way appearance These knives were no different from combat or hunting knives: just as sharp and heavy. There is a belief that the first knife with a rounded end was ordered by Napoleon, who feared an attack by conspirators during a dinner party.

A spoon, like a knife, in Russian traditional cuisine has been used since time immemorial. The oldest mention of a spoon was found in the Tale of Bygone Years, where it is said that it is a familiar and absolutely necessary tool for eating. The story says that Prince Vladimir’s warriors began to complain that they were eating with wooden spoons and not silver. And the wise prince ordered spoons to be forged for them, because gold and silver cannot buy a real squad, but with a good squad you can always get both gold and silver.

Our ancestors made sheaths for knives, and special cases for spoons. However, much more often, a spoon, like a knife, was worn in a belt or boot. Imagine such a hero with a table set behind his boot. But what can you do - what happened, happened.

And if today we are talking about a table, tea or dessert spoon, then in traditional Russian cuisine the range of spoons was much wider: draft, mezheumok (simple wide), butyrka, burlatskaya, boskaya (long and blunt-nosed), semi-boskaya, thin, white, nosed and others.

Traditional Russian cuisine did not know the fork. More precisely, it would be said that for many centuries the fork was not used in Russian cuisine. This is one of the cutlery that appeared in Russian cuisine just some three hundred years ago. Our ancestors took the cut pieces with their hands or “as best they could.”

The aristocrats were the first to use a fork during the time of Peter I. According to existing legend, the tsar's orderly was obliged to carry a wooden spoon, table knife and fork, and lay out the tsar's cutlery and plates - in those days, even aristocrats rarely used a fork and the tsar tried to instill culture nutrition. To be fair, it must be said that in Europe the fork was not used often at that time.

The forks were forged two-pronged. And very expensive. Perhaps for this reason, ordinary Russian people began to use a fork in the kitchen only in the 19th century.

Now let's talk about plates. Bowls in Russian cuisine, like spoons, have been known since ancient times. The bowls were made of clay or wood. This is from the peasants. Wealthy citizens, merchants and aristocrats used gold and silver bowls in the kitchen. Somewhat later, bowls made of iron appeared. Russian bowls were not intended for individual use, so they were quite large in size, because... The whole family ate from one such vessel.

There were even rules of etiquette that dictated how to eat from a common bowl. For example, cultured person should have wiped my spoon before scooping food because... Not everyone may like to eat food if someone dips a spoon into it directly from their mouth. Dubious advice: just imagine a family where everyone takes turns wiping spoons... What or how do they wipe them? Napkins appeared in Russian cuisine much later.

But let's get back to the plate. Still, a bowl is not a plate. Let's start with the fact that the plate is intended for individual use. So, real plates appeared in Rus' in the mid-16th century. But they became widespread only a hundred years later. And then only among the wealthiest part of the population. Ordinary people used bowls for a long time: they became smaller in size, they began to eat from them individually, but these were still bowls, not plates.

For many centuries, Russian cuisine has made a ceramic pot the main serving vessel. There were pots different sizes and shapes, and were used as a modern saucepan, and as a jar for spices (and spices were very loved in Russian cuisine - Read “Traditions of Russian Cuisine”), and as a container for bulk and liquid, etc. In pots and pots they cooked cabbage soup, soups and porridges, stewed meat and fish, made sweets and butter, and boiled water. Accordingly, the sizes of the pots were very different - from multi-bucket pots to small ones with a capacity of 200-300 grams.

The pots also differed in their appearance. Russian cuisine has always been not only tasty and satisfying, but also beautiful. Those pots in which food was served on the table were decorated with ornaments and drawings. The most interesting are the pots that were made in ancient times. The more perfect pottery skills became, the less often the craftsmen applied ornaments to pots. Those ancient pots had extraordinary strength, and if it happened that the pot cracked, it was not thrown away, but was braided with birch bark and used for storing bulk spices and cereals.

There is an opinion that our distant ancestors, if only boiled, steamed and baked, did not eat fried food. Allegedly, there was not even such utensils in Russian kitchens. Once again, I suggest you read the article “Traditions of Russian Cuisine”, and there you will find a description of dishes that are described as frying dishes. It was frying pans, as we know them today, that appeared in Russian cuisine much later.

The traditional Russian frying pan was... ceramic!!! It was shaped like a pan that expanded at the top. Such pans were called patches. The patch had a hollow handle into which a wooden handle was inserted. Agree, it’s simply an analogue of a modern frying pan – ceramics with a removable handle.
However, over time, frying pans began to be made from cast iron.

Now let's talk about the tablecloth. This item is not new to Russian cuisine at all. The first written reference to survive mentioning a tablecloth dates back to 1150. This is the “Smolensk Charter”.

Now let's remember the cutlery that was intended for drinks. In my opinion, Russian cuisine has no competitors in this dishware: cups, horns, brothers, charms and cups, shot glasses and glasses, and, of course, ladles.

Ladles are a completely different story: scoops, brackets (with two handles), liqueurs (small ladles), ladles and a huge number of varieties of ladles.

And in conclusion of the article, it is necessary to recall such a traditionally Russian tableware as the samovar. The tradition of tea drinking appeared in Russia relatively recently - a little over three hundred years ago.

And this “water-heating vessel for tea with copper pipe"appeared... no, not in Tula. The first Tula samovar was made by master Lisitsyn in 1778. And in the Urals, samovars began to be made in 1740. And our Russian samovar had predecessors in Europe. True, the Russian samovar and its European analogue are similar only in name.

I will not engage in criticism, but will draw your attention to only one interesting fact. Have you ever drunk tea from a real samovar? Not electric! From a real Russian samovar? The thing is that in a Russian samovar the water heats up evenly, and does not boil from bottom to top. As a result, salts, scale, and mechanical particles contained in the water settle to the bottom of the samovar rather than being agitated. Accordingly, all this “garbage” does not end up in the tea. Our ancestors were wise.

A mandatory attribute of a Russian samovar was a tray.

Well, perhaps that’s all about the traditions of Russian cuisine.

I hope I was able to convince you that Russian cuisine has its own deep traditions not only in preparing dishes, but also in the use of kitchen utensils and utensils. This is part of Russian culture, which is being conveniently forgotten today.

Sitting down festive table, covered with a snow-white tablecloth, beautifully served, picking up a glass or fork, we do not think that each item has its own history, that it took many centuries to create it, to give it a convenient, simple and beautiful shape. We don’t think about why the tines of a fork are curved, why knives have this shape and not another, why a cup has a handle and bowls don’t, and finally, why the serving items we are used to are called this way and not another.

Wooden dugout buckets

Once upon a time, banquet and everyday tables were decorated with bread bins woven from willow twigs, carved and painted boards for serving bread and pies, kvass and kumgans, cups and bratins, wooden salt licks and painted ladles. Now such table decoration has given way to modern table settings. There are no words - much in modern dishes is convenient and practical, but we should not forget the no less convenient ancient dishes, cutlery, various items everyday life.
We go to museums and exhibitions to admire the wonderful ceramics of Gzhel masters, the burning gold Khokhloma, the bright painting of Zhostovo trays, and on our tables we rarely see these wonderful works of folk craftsmen. Therefore, let's remember a little about the traditional decoration of the tables of our grandfathers. Here is a description of serving a feast in a rich resident's house Kievan Rus: “On the table there were valleys with overseas wine, brothers with honey, glasses, glasses and bowls. The guests scooped honey from their brothers with their korks and brackets. The servants served wine from pots.”
How much will a modern reader understand in this description?
The old valleys have given way to erratic schedules. Endova, or yandova, has been known since the times of Ancient Rus' and was used to serve mash, honey, wine and beer. It was made of wood, metal and usually decorated with painting or chasing. There were valleys and clay ones. The valley is characterized by a squat, stable shape with a narrow, long spout open at the top - a groove. You can’t accidentally turn such a vessel over. Soft rounded outlines and the absence of small details gave the valley a solemn, solid look. Its volume could be different - from damask (about 1.2 liters) to a bucket, so that, depending on the number of guests, it was possible to choose a valley so that its contents were enough for everyone.
The story of the word “decanter” is funny. The Arabs once called a giraffe a long and highly loose bodies, which is why the longest-necked animals were called giraffes (later giraffes). The name of the Arabic cups - guraf - comes from the word “giraffe”. then this name came to Spain. France, Germany and finally to Russia.
Over such a long journey, the giraffe turned into a carafin, and then into a decanter. Back in the 18th century, they usually wrote “carafin”. Its surface was covered with rich decoration - niello, enamel, etc.
All ancient tableware was distinguished by stability and the absence of high legs. This was what Bratina was like - an ancient vessel for serving honey and beer at “brothers’” feasts, i.e. christenings, name days, and even at wakes, they drank from it “in a circle.”
The brother is characterized by a spherical shape of the body, mounted on a low tray or without it. They were made from wood (in folk life), from copper in richer houses, from silver and gold for feasts of the feudal nobility.
The solemnity of the form, stability and rich decoration (chasing, painting) perfectly corresponded to the purpose of these feast vessels. The spherical shape of the body is not accidental - in a spherical vessel, a cold drink (honey, beer) heats up more slowly, and a hot drink (sbiten) does not cool down for a long time. Bratins were often equipped with a high, richly decorated conical lid, which not only helped maintain the temperature of the contents, but also, with its shape, disrupted the squat uniformity of the rest of the serving.
Copper and wooden bratins were known from the 11th century, and silver and gold ones with a chased pattern and dedicatory or edifying inscriptions came into use from the 16th - 17th centuries. In the 19th century, bratins lost their purpose and turned into decorative gift vessels or prizes.

Small vessels for strong drinks were also stable: glasses, or small charms, which in the old days replaced glasses. Sometimes they were equipped with a stem, but not a thin and long one, like modern glasses, but a thick, stable one. The shape of the glasses and enchantments was surprisingly varied, and the surface was covered with rich decoration - niello, enamel, etc.
The glasses were usually equipped with a small flat handle. Charka was also a measure of volume. One glass was equal to 1/10 of a damask or 1/100 of a bucket, or 2 scales and corresponded to approximately 0.12 liters (more precisely 0.12299 l).
Larger vessels - bowls - were used for honey and beer. These are vessels round shape with a wide top and narrow bottom, usually without a leg. Their body was directly connected to the stand. They also drank light wines from cups. They are also mentioned in Russkaya Pravda.
Stops were also in use, but they were completely different from our modern piles. Firstly, they were larger, and secondly, they were often equipped with lids. They were often made faceted, the surface was decorated with drawings. At the bottom, the stacks narrowed a little, but not so much that the vessel lost its stability, which was further enhanced by the thick, massive bottom. These were original glasses made of glass or metal.
The word glass itself came to us later and was borrowed from Turkic languages. Initially, these vessels were called “dostokan”, as they are now called in the East. Over time, as often happens, the first letters were lost. One should not think that our ancestors did not know vessels with a high stem. Such dishes existed, but had a different purpose. Thus, the high legs had chalices - liturgical vessels for consecrated wine (from the Greek name for a bowl or cup).
Cups, vessels for wine, known since ancient times, also had high legs. These were vessels not for everyday use, but for feasts: filled with wine, they were presented to dear guests. The shape of the cups also served for these purposes - solemnly strict, emphatically festive.
Cups were often equipped with lids, decorated with engraving, carving, chasing, etc. They were made of metal, glass, bone, and valuable wood. In particular, in Rus' they used burls - growths on birch - to prepare goblets and bowls. Beginning in the 15th century, cups began to be used more and more often as souvenirs and prizes.
At the end of the 17th century, cups were received new life. In 1635, the first glass factory in Russia was founded.
In the 70-80s of the 17th century, a wide variety of glassware (suleys, flasks, glasses, brothers, etc.) was made at the sovereign factories. The Maltsev cups with engraved coats of arms, symbolic drawings, and various inscriptions were especially famous. The fame of Russian glassware was created by the products of the Ust-Rudetsk factory (1753), founded by Peter I near Moscow, as well as products of the Gusevsky and Dyatkovo glass factories. Already at the beginning of the 18th century, “crystal” glasses, goblets and damasks were produced, decorated with polishing, engraving and gilding.
One of the most ancient serving items were ladles. In different places of our country they had the most various names: scoops, scoops, scoops, brackets, etc. The oldest wooden ladle, about 2 thousand years old, was found by archaeologists in the Gorbunovsky peat bogs. Ladles served not only as utensils, but also as decoration for tables and homes. Just like cups, from about the 16th-17th centuries, ladles made of bone, silver and gold began to be used as memorable gifts.

Carved wooden utensils

However, it was also different: serving items lost their decorative character and became objects of everyday use. This was the fate that befell the karchags. In Kievan Rus in X - XII centuries karchagas were vessels for storing and transporting wine, aromatic oils and other valuable products. These were amphorae-type vessels with rounded shapes; they were equipped with decorative ornaments, inscriptions and drawings. Gradually, their character and purpose changed, and they turned into large clay vessels in the shape of a pot with a very wide socket. Even now, dough is fermented in such karchags, bird cherry and rowan berries are steamed, etc.
T plate - comparatively new item on our table, which came into widespread use only in the 18th century.
They claim that before this there were no individual tableware in Rus' and the whole family, including guests, ate from a “common cauldron”, scooping food one by one with spoons. This is not entirely true. We had staves (“every elder has his own stave”), and bowls, and bowls.
Stavets is a very unique vessel, consisting of two equal-sized containers in the form of hemispheres. The upper half (lid) had (just like the lower) stops. If you remove it and place it next to the bottom one, it would be like two bowls, which replaced our ancestors with the entire set of modern plates. Only if the lid of the stave had a handle, then it could no longer be used as a vessel.
There were also a variety of bowls and plates made of wood (turned and carved) and metal.
In the old days, tables were made especially massive and stable. Their place in the living room was strictly defined - in the red corner, benches were attached to the walls and a table was placed near them.
The tabletop was made thick, planed cleanly and scraped out as it became dirty.
Tablecloths appeared a very long time ago; miniatures from the 15th century depict tablecloths, knives and spoons.
Napkins, although they were known to the ancient Romans and became widespread in Europe in the 15th century, appeared in Russia only under Peter I. Initially, they were served only to noble guests. Since we borrowed the napkins, their name remained foreign, passed down from the German language. The Germans borrowed it from the Italians and French.
Sometimes borrowed serving items were immediately received Russian name. It was the same with the fork. This is understandable - it was very similar to a pitchfork, an ancient item of peasant life.
The fork became widespread only in the 18th century, and its ardent promoter was Peter I. True, there is reason to believe that they appeared much earlier (wooden and bone), but even in the 18th century they were rare. Foreign guests wrote about the table customs of that time: “At dinner, a spoon and bread are placed on the table for each guest, and a plate, napkin, knife and fork are placed only for honored guests” (V. Makushev. Legend of foreigners about the rules and life of the Slavs. St. Petersburg , 1861).
Spoons came into use a long time ago, since it was impossible to eat liquid dishes without them. The use of spoons made of wood and silver is known back in the 10th century. It is not for nothing that A. Nikitin, in his notes (1466-1472), was so amazed that in India “... they don’t hold a knife, they don’t know liars.” Gradually, the shape and size of forks, knives and spoons changed and differentiated according to their purpose. Dinner, tea, coffee, and dessert spoons appeared; forks - snack bars, for meat, for fish: a whole set of knives, etc.

Antique Russian porcelain

Wooden carved and painted dishes
Wood served our ancestors as the main material for the construction of houses and palaces, fortresses and temples, the manufacture of peasant household items (arched sleighs, etc.) and dishes. Everyday utensils and utensils were made from wood: dough troughs, bowls, scoops, barrels, jugs, cups, bowls, salt licks, spoons
etc. They also made festive dishes from it: stavtsy, carved dishes, valleys, ladles for honey and kvass, brothers, etc. Dugout utensils were especially widespread: spoons, ladles, troughs, mortars, bowls, troughs and dishes for chopping vegetables and meat. Wooden tableware featured more complex shapes and decorative patterns.
Wooden dugout ladles are very beautiful and varied. Their most common forms were northern brackets in the shape of ducks, geese, swans with handles in the form of bird heads and tails. Tver ladles were decorated with horse heads, Vologda ones - with a frieze depicting birds, Kozmodemyansky ones - were distinguished
a high raised handle in the shape of a bird or a horse's head.
Absolutely amazing works of Russian decorative art are carved wooden salt licks. In wooden vessels, the salt did not soak and remained crumbly. Salt licks (now called salt shakers) were often shaped like birds or animals. They were equipped with lids on wooden pins, which opened as if on hinges or rotated on an axis.
No less expressive and convenient were carved dishes and boards for serving bread, pies, gingerbread and other baked goods.
However, wooden spoons have the greatest variety of shapes. Their shape was determined by their purpose (pouring spoons - scoops, soup spoons, small spoons for salt, etc.) and local traditions. In the Gorky region, which was considered one of the main centers of spoon production, spoons were made thick (mezheumki) and thin, basque (beautiful) and semi-basque, bends and silvers, thick-edged and polovniks. Their scoop is usually made spherical, the handle is round or faceted with a thickening at the end (forged). Vyatka spoons have an egg-shaped scoop and a flat curved handle, etc.
Spoons were made white, painted, and less often with carved ornaments on the handle.
If on serving items and utensils the carving was purely decorative, then on gingerbread boards it was for service purposes, since it served as a stamp.
The artist A. Efimov wrote: “In order for the gingerbread to come out beautiful and tasty, two craftsmen worked - a woodcarver and a baker.”
The carvings were subjected to various types processing: sanding, staining (painting wood with water-soluble paints), waxing, smoking, varnishing, etc.
Painted wooden products have been known since ancient times, and they are found during excavations of ancient settlements. The products of Gorodets, Pinega, Arkhangelsk, Semenov (Gorky region) and other centers of folk decorative painting stand out for their color, technique and special character of painting. Ancient painting traditions wooden utensils have survived to this day.
First of all, this is the golden Khokhloma, the birthplace of which is considered to be the city of Semenov, Gorky region. In the second half of the 17th century, icon painters who fled persecution from the church and settled in the village of Khokhloma created original and unique lacquer painting of household utensils. They used the secrets of church painting, which more than once aroused the wrath of the patriarchs and sovereigns of Moscow.
Spoons, ladles and other utensils carved from wood were primed with a solution of clay, raw linseed oil and tin (now aluminum) powder. An intricate floral design was painted onto this base. Then the products were coated with varnish (based on linseed oil) and hardened in ovens. At the same time, the clear varnish took on an amber tint, and through the layer of varnish the tin primer looked golden.
Gold, black and red paints create a special flavor, and the intricate pattern with “Kudrina” is a special grace of Khokhloma painting.
There are two varieties of it - top and background.
When painting on horseback, a pattern painted with black and red paint clearly stands out against a golden background - grass (twigs and bushes) or a pattern “under a leaf” (a branch with leaves).
When painting, a gold ornament, the famous Khokhloma “Kudrina”, is applied to a red, green or black background. The assortment of Khokhloma dishes is varied: dishes, plates, spoons, cups, ladles, brotins, ladles (ladles), trays, salt shakers, spice utensils and even entire sets, sets for serving honey, kvass, fish soup, okroshka, etc. Crockery this one is not afraid of heat, soap solutions and acids.
No less famous are the Polkhov-Maidan painted boxes, salt shakers, mortars and other utensils (the village of Polkhovsky Maidan). They attract with bright painting on a white or colored background.
The “Obvinskaya rose” (painting of the Kama region), Gorodets and Ural painting (Turinsk) are also famous.
Trays
The birthplace of metal painted trays was probably Nizhny Tagil, where in the middle of the 18th century the production of lacquered trays with color painting began at Demidov's factories. These trays were distinguished by a variety of shapes. They made them round, oval, four- and triangular, etc. The original “picture” painting of the Ural trays was replaced by “floral” painting, close to the painting of objects of peasant life in Siberia and the Urals. The painting was carried out on a red-brown background.
In the village of Zhostovo, “The Vishnyakov brothers’ establishment of varnished metal trays, crackers, pallets...” arose.
The basis for painting Zhostovo trays was a bright bouquet of flowers on a black lacquer background.
Ceramic tableware
The plasticity of clay attracted the attention of man at the dawn of its history, but only the discovery of a way to impart hardness and water resistance to clay products by firing played a huge role. This happened approximately 4 thousand years BC. Since then, ceramics have firmly entered into human life and helped him in the struggle for existence, since cooking food has greatly expanded the list of edible products. The honor of this discovery belongs to no one nation.

Ceramics of Gzhel

Scientists are still arguing about how pottery was discovered. For a long time it was considered an indisputable truth that the first pottery was obtained by accident, noticing that when heated over a fire, wicker baskets coated with clay were made hard and waterproof. However, in Lately scientists from the laboratory of the history of ceramics at the Institute of Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences proved that this was not at all the case: ancient people sculpted their first pots from a mixture of clay with fragments of shells, crushed grass, bird droppings, etc., and then fired them. There are other hypotheses.
The oldest pottery had a sharp bottom, as it was placed between stones over a fire. With the transition to a sedentary lifestyle, flat-bottomed dishes appeared, and the Russian stove required the creation of a very special type of dishes - Slavic pots.
In Russian tableware there is a vessel for kvass - kvasnik. He is not here. and it could not have happened among any other people. This vessel is very unique - it has a disk-shaped flat body, often with through hole in the middle; its neck ends in a funnel, its massive body is emphasized by the bend of the handle and spout.
The first thing that strikes is the flat disc-shaped body. However, there is a reason for this: flat vessels took up less space when installed on shelves in glaciers. A funnel was also needed: they placed a cloth on it and strained the kvass from the barrels. Finally, a hole in the center of the disk is also necessary. The fact is that with this shape, the body was well blown by the cold air of the glacier and cooled quickly. Of course, it was difficult to wash such ferments, but this was more than compensated for by other advantages.
The decorative nature of these vessels was also of great importance. They were a wonderful decoration for the home, and special shelves were made for them in living rooms. How could such a vessel appear? It is believed that kvass appeared in our country at the end of the 17th century and was first found in Gzhel ceramics. Indeed, from 1770 to 1780, Gzhel workshops produced kvass, decorated with paintings and sculptural compositions at the base of the neck. Usually these were scenes of hunting, battles, and less often - genre plots. Later, the design of the Gzhel kvass was simplified, the sculptural compositions disappeared and only the painting remained. It’s hard to believe that there were no kvassmen in Rus' before the 17th century. They, of course, were and are even mentioned in Domostroy, but we do not know their form.
Finally, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, ceramic kumgans were widespread in Russia. They made kumgans that were polished and painted (coated with green glaze). They were decorated with a relief pattern. Later, more expensive (majolica and faience) kumgans began to be decorated with polychrome painting. The southern Cumans are also similar to them. Russian ceramic kumgan is very similar to oriental metal kumgans. Characteristic feature This dish had a long spout.
By the way, Ukrainian Kumans come in two types: “plaskachi” with two ears or with a spout and handle freely spaced from the neck, and “kalachi” - always with a spout and handle and often with big hole in the center of the body. Such Kuman kalachi are not fundamentally different from kvass.
Modern table setting
The transfer of ceramic production to an industrial basis expanded the range of tableware: snack plates, bread plates, sub-plates, small plates, deep plates, soup bowls, gravy boats, butter dishes, herring bowls, salad bowls, spice utensils, tea sets, bowls, all kinds of vases, etc.
The range of drinkware has also changed. Charms and glasses were replaced by glasses, stops replaced shot glasses and glasses, goblets turned into wine glasses, decanters appeared instead of kvass, kumgans, kumans, bratins and endovs, etc.
Our table setting has largely lost its national characteristics and has become international. This process is natural, since the nature of the serving reflects the characteristics of the new way of life, corresponds to the new assortment of dishes, the changed family structure and the increased material standard of living of the people.
However, in recent years there has been more and more interest in Russian dishes, national style in the design of the table, tableware and teaware. The artists of our porcelain and glass factories carefully preserve and develop the best traditions of Russian applied art.
More and more often you can find embroidered tablecloths in restaurants and cafes, samovars, of course, modernized, electric, but still samovars, not thermostats. More and more specialized catering establishments are opening, the interiors of which are decorated in antique style, and teahouses are gaining popularity again. This is not nostalgia, but an urgent necessity and need. The fact is that this shows a love for the past, for preserving and studying national culture.
In addition, modern serving items, despite their convenience, do not always correspond to the characteristics of Russian cuisine. So, cabbage soup, cooked and brought to the table in a pot, has a special taste; roast served in a frying pan retains its aroma; salt in a wooden saltbox does not become damp; It is more convenient to drink kvass from mugs than from wine glasses; The samovar gives a special flavor to the tea table, and the taste of the drink is better; It’s easier to cut the cake into wooden board than on a porcelain dish, etc.
Serving items are placed on tables in a certain order, which is now approximately the same in all European countries.
For each guest, a small dinner plate is placed, and a smaller snack plate is placed on it. A pie plate for bread is placed on the left side and a little further from the edge of the table. A spoon and a knife are placed to the right of the plates (with the blade towards the plate, and the spoon with the concave side up). The fork is placed on the left and also with the concave side up. If several knives and forks are placed, then they are placed in the same order in which they will be used: a small snack knife (fork), a fish knife (wide) or fork, a dinner knife or fork.
Feast traditions
Meals have always been associated with traditions and have a solemn character. A special role at the table was assigned to the head of the family or the eldest: he sat in the place of honor at the head of the table in the red corner; no one could start eating before him; he ensured that order and piety were maintained at the table. The order of seats at the table, the order in which dishes were served, etc. were strictly observed. Three meals a day reflected work schedule day. It is even difficult for a Russian person to imagine a different diet.
Our day starts with breakfast. Its name itself indicates the time - it comes from the word “morning”, i.e. early in the morning. This time was determined by the beginning of work in accordance with the agricultural calendar. Peasant families usually had breakfast before sunrise.
The second meal is lunch. The root of this Slavic word “ed” indicates that it is a staple food. Its time was determined by the position of the sun in the sky - noon, sometimes even now this time is called lunch time.
The origin of the word "dinner" is unclear, but most scholars believe that it comes from the root "south." The fact is that “yu” often turns into “u”, and “g” into “zh”, and from the root “south” or “uzh” the name of food after noon (“south”) comes from.
In a number of Slavic languages, dinner is called “vecherya”, i.e. evening food.
The distribution of the diet among these three traditional meals is characterized by the proverb: “Eat breakfast
yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to the enemy,” that is, breakfast and lunch should be hearty, and dinner should be light. This tradition is typical for countries with cold and temperate climates.
Previously (in the 16th century), Russians traditionally had four meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.
In countries with hot climates, main meals usually occur in the early morning and cool evening hours.
This routine is advisable from a physiological point of view.
Perhaps no aspect of family life is so connected with folk rituals as cooking and table customs. In contrast to religious rituals, folk rituals corresponded to the needs of society, they reflected the peculiarities of its life, and on their basis, national original art was formed and developed.
It should be especially remembered that folk customs were adopted by a religion that was unable to overcome them, and the essence of many of them was distorted beyond recognition.
For example, initially the posts were of a reasonable nature. Among peoples engaged in agriculture and hunting, it was forbidden to eat meat during a period when slaughter and hunting were impractical. Fasting reflected natural cycles and regulated consumption. Many of these customs are physiologically appropriate, but fasting taken to extremes has turned into fanaticism. Of course, the monks could eat during fasting
fish soup made from sturgeon and sterlet, and the working people went hungry on such days.
Folk customs appeared before religious ones, and among the Slavs, most of them developed before the spread of Christianity. So, new year holidays“Carols” have nothing to do with Christmas. Gogol’s beekeeper Rudy Panko said: “They say that there was once a fool Kolyada, who was mistaken for a god, and that’s why the carols began. Who knows? Not for us. ordinary people, talk about it. Last year, Father Osip forbade caroling in farmsteads, saying that it was as if these people were pleasing Satan. However, to tell the truth, there is not a word about Kolyada in carols.”
By the way, this name came to us from Byzantium, although the custom itself is Slavic. The Greco-Roman New Year's holiday was called "calende" and was accompanied by very similar customs. Kalende perfectly suited the work calendar of our ancestors: everything autumn work finished, harvest harvested.
A characteristic feature of the Russian feast has always been traditional dishes corresponding to the occasion for which the guests gathered. So, at weddings they served chicken, the groom was fed scrambled eggs, at christenings the father was treated to over-salted “baba’s porridge” so that he would know what it was like for his wife to give birth; At the wake, pancakes, kutya and jelly were served.
The treats at the spring, autumn and winter holidays were completely different. For example, on spring holidays they served eggs, cottage cheese dishes, etc. New Year sweet wheat porridge, etc. Pie was a must-have item for the birthday table; pancakes, gingerbreads and various cookies - Maslenitsa, etc.
Many holiday feasts were strictly regulated. Here, for example, is a sample wedding menu: “Loaf, gingerbread, gingerbread, poppy cakes, pies (fish and meat), fried lamb, geese, pigs, buckwheat or barley porridge, nuts, cranberries, lingonberries, apples (soaked and fresh) , mushrooms (salted and pickled), sauerkraut.”
Let's try to describe some of these dishes.
Wedding loaf. Cook viscous rice porridge in milk, cool it, add egg yolks, ground with sugar, raisins, candied fruits, vanillin and mix well. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until the foam holds well on a broom or fork.
The loaf mixture is combined with whipped egg whites and placed in molds greased with butter and sprinkled with breadcrumbs. The surface of the loaf is brushed with egg mixed with sour cream and baked in the oven. After the loaf has cooled a little, it is removed from the mold and placed on a dish. Jam berries are placed on top of the loaf. On the table, the loaf is cut, placed on plates and topped with sweet gravy.
Rice 200, milk 500, water 100, eggs
2-3 pcs., raisins, candied fruits, crackers, butter, sour cream, jam.
Goose, duck fried with apples. Goose or
the duck is processed, the legs are tucked into the pocket, salted inside and out, placed back down on a large frying pan, baking sheet or patch, the lean bird is poured with fat, and the fatty bird is poured with water and put in the oven. Periodically, the bird is doused with fat.
and juice. The finished bird is placed in a patch, covered with a lid and kept hot until served. Pour meat broth into a frying pan with juice, boil it and filter.
From whole large unpeeled apples, the core is cut out so that the bottom remains, the meat juice obtained by frying the bird is poured into this hole, and baked on baking sheets greased with fat.
The fried bird is cut into pieces, placed on a large dish, and baked apples are placed around it. Separately, soaked lingonberries or lingonberry jam, which is not very sweet, are served in a bowl.
In the family of L.N. Tolstoy, “Ankovsky” pie was especially loved, the recipe for which was given to them by the doctor S.A. Bers, who learned it from Professor Anke. This pie was served at all holidays and dinner parties. Therefore, even the entire way of life in Yasnaya Polyana was called “Ankovsky pie.” Let us remember that the same traditional dish in the Wulf family in Trigorskoye was apple pie, in the family of A. N. Tolstoy - baked potatoes, in the family of I. E. Repin - soup from wild herbs, etc. According to the recollections of contemporaries, A. N. Tolstoy described the preparation of baked potatoes this way: “You first wash them, then salt them wet - and into the oven, the skin will wrinkle and crisp... It’s good!”
The traditions of the holiday table were strictly observed, unlike our holiday feasts today, which have become faceless and monotonous. It can be difficult to distinguish the menu of a wedding dinner from the menu of an anniversary feast, New Year's table from May Day!
Traditional dishes are created not only in certain areas of the country, but often in individual families and
Good Russian housewives are still proud of them.
We find many descriptions of such family dishes in literary works, memoirs of contemporaries and home handwritten cookbooks. Books like this have been written before
in many families. In the memorial museum of A.S. Pushkin's Dacha (Kitaeva's house in the city of Pushkin) such a cookbook by Natalia Nikolaevna Pushkina is kept. S. A. Tolstaya also wrote such a book, some recipes from which were published by V. Kovchenkov in the magazine “ Catering" Here are a few of them (slightly modified).
Black bread cake. Crush and sift the rye crackers. Grind the yolks of 10 eggs with a cup of sugar, mix with a cup of ground crackers, mix, add beaten whites, peeled almonds. Place the dough in a mold, greased with butter, sprinkled with breadcrumbs, and bake.
Carrot or turnip porridge. Boil carrots or turnips in broth, puree, add broth, cream, butter, spices and heat through.

Carved wooden utensils

The restaurants also had their own traditions, their own, as we would now say, “specialty dishes.” Thus, Test restaurants were famous for Guryev porridge, pies, suckling pig and botvinya; Yegorov taverns - pancakes and fish dishes; Arsentyev - ham with red bread kvass, "Yar" - cold veal, "Peterhof" - kebabs, etc.
This good tradition is maintained by our modern restaurants. However, restaurants and taverns in Russia were not only establishments where one could eat. They were a kind of clubs, meeting places for friends. This was the case under Peter I, when the sovereign himself held lively conversations with foreign sailors and merchants in austeria.
This was the case under A.S. Pushkin: “He rushed to Talon: he is sure
What is Kaverin waiting for him there?

This happened later too. N.A. Nekrasov met with friends in St. Petersburg in a tavern on Razyezzhaya Street, A. Green, D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak chose “Capernaum”. In the story about drinks, we already talked about the literary cafes of the first post-revolutionary years.
I. S. Sokolov’s restaurant “Vienna” played a very special role as a literary and artistic salon. Its cozy halls hosted V. Mayakovsky and A. Blok, A. N. Tolstoy, F. Chaliapin and I. Seveyanin, A. Kuprin and L. Sobinov, the organizer of the orchestra of Russian folk instruments V. Andreev and many other famous writers and artists.
In the same way, publishers of cheap publications gathered at Kolgushkin’s Moscow tavern, and at Shcherbakov’s -
artists, writers, playwrights, and among them A. N. Ostrovsky, in the “Hermitage” - eminent merchants, employees of “Russian Thought” (N. K. Mikhailovsky, Gleb Uspensky, etc.), artists.
Many restaurants were also original centers of musical culture. Suffice it to recall the concerts of V. Andreev’s orchestra in the Vienna restaurant in St. Petersburg, musical evenings in the Slavic Bazaar and the Sokolovsky Choir at the Yar in Moscow.
Necessary kind words remember the Russian chefs who worked in the darkened basements of taverns and restaurants, the unknown workers who created the glory of our cuisine and left us their culinary art as a legacy. Without them, without their talent, our modern cooking would not exist, and there would not be those dishes that are now the pride of Russian cuisine.

The few household utensils in the hut were represented by dishes and tools of female labor. From the dishes - clay pots or cast iron of various sizes for cooking, latki - clay frying pans with high vertical sides; nights, or overnight stays - wide linden trays with low sides and two handles at the ends (dough was kneaded on them, pies baked in the oven were placed here), a wooden scoop for flour, wooden spoons; high-necked krinks or gorlacs (kubans) for milk or kvass, clay and wooden cups and bowls, jugs of various sizes, with handles and lids, for beer and mash, ladles of various types and sizes - from bucket brackets with two handles to small liqueurs with one handle, for pouring liquids and drinking; valley, a large round wooden or copper tinned bowl with a spout for draining, or a similar bowl that did not have a spout, which were displayed on the festive table for beer and mash. There could also be small wine glasses here, copper or glass, made of thick green glass. In the richer huts, and then everywhere, there were lafitniks, large stemmed glasses, as well as cheap, brightly painted tea cups and saucers, products of numerous small peasant Gzhel factories or the A. Popov factory, whose products were designed for the common people. A large copper samovar made in Tula or Ural was a luxury item and was usually owned only by wealthy families; It is not for nothing that when inventorying property for non-payment of taxes, the samovar was first described as an absolutely unnecessary item. Of course, in the hut there were one or two clay pots, buckets for two or three, for a consumable supply of water for kvass, mash or beer, as well as cooperage buckets assembled from riveted wooden hoops, tub or tub for slops. Near the door, at the entrance to the nook, hung a hand-pot for washing, with two ears and two spouts, and under it was a basin. Under the cook's bench there was either a cooper's-made kneading bowl made from cuttings of a thick linden tree, or a jar in which the dough was kneaded. There was also a kornovatka, or kornovatka, a rounded small basket, tightly woven from thin pine roots, for shaping bread. In the hut there was also a horsehair sieve and a sieve made of bast, both with bast surrounds; they were used to sift flour. There could also have been a wooden, hollowed-out trough, as well as a mortar with four handles, dug out from a stump of strong wood (preferably oak), with a heavy, strong wooden pestle in it.

Solonitsa

Zhban

In the millstone corner of the hut, or more often in the entryway, there were hand millstones on a bench: two flat round stones lying on top of each other and enclosed in a shell made of bast. A short vertical handle was driven into the edge of the top stone, the runner, and in the middle there was a hole for filling grain for grinding. In case of poverty, instead of stones, two heavy wooden circles were used, preferably oak, into which fragments of broken cast iron were tightly driven. A small amount of flour was ground by hand for immediate use.

Besides, in peasant hut What was needed was an object such as a rubel - a flat, slightly curved bar, an arshin long, with a handle at the end and ridges on the working plane.

Modern housewives know how difficult it is to iron linen items. In addition, with intense ironing, linen, especially at the seams, begins to shine unpleasantly and does not at all justify the name “northern silver”, beloved by journalists and art critics. And rightly so. Linen cannot be ironed. It needs to be rolled out with a ruble. The hostess wrapped a linen towel around a rolling pin and, pressing it with a ruble, rolled it forcefully across the table. This caused the canvas to be wound tighter and tighter around the rolling pin, while at the same time softening and smoothing out. When rolled out, the dried tiny fibers, characteristic of linen fabric, straightened out, “stood on end,” and the rolled out product actually turned silver. True, rolling out linen with a ruble is not like ironing it with a modern iron; a lot of sweat will come off here.

Rubel

Since we started talking about fabrics, we need to talk about " washing machine" – Valke. This wooden product, however, most likely it was not in the hut, but in the entryway. The roll was a weighty short one, usually slightly curved wooden block with a handle. The hostess took him to the river and, having soaped the folded fabric several times, hit it with force with a roller, “knocking out” the dirt along with the soapy water. The hostess carried the wet “washing cloth”, previously boiled in the oven in a pot with lye, to the river in baskets, hooking them on a yoke. They also carried water from the well with a yoke. It was a long, arm-span, flat block, arched, lying comfortably on the shoulders; the handles of buckets or handles of baskets were hooked to the cutouts at its ends. The rocker hung or stood in the corner of the entryway.

Well, and of course it is necessary to talk about one of the most important tools of women’s labor - the spinning wheel. The spinning wheel with a flywheel and foot drive, known to many from grandmother’s household, is not a spinning wheel, but a self-spinning wheel, a mechanism of relatively recent origin that came to us from Europe. A real Russian spinning wheel, or spinning wheel, can now be seen in museums or among collectors. There were two similar types of gingerbread. One of them, the hoof, was cut down from a tree trunk with a rhizome. The relatively narrow bottom turned into a perpendicular leg, which expanded into a wide blade. A tow prepared for spinning was tied to the blade, and the spinning wheel itself was placed on a bench, and the spinner sat on the bottom, pressing it with her weight. Later spinning wheels were prefabricated - turned spinning wheels: they had a separate bottom, and the leg was figured, turned on a lathe. There were simple spinning wheels, but mostly they were richly decorated with paintings or carvings, sometimes painted, and in some places carving and painting were combined. It was customary for the groom to give the bride a richly decorated spinning wheel. Such spinning wheels were kept and passed from mothers to daughters. After work, they were placed on shelves or hung on the wall, and they served as decoration for the hut. In some places, wide, frequent maple combs on long legs, inserted into carved or painted bottoms, were also used for spinning. But in all cases, the spinner, with three fingers of one hand, pulled out several fibers from the tow, or lobe, twisting them into a thread, and with the other, she rotated a vertical spindle, winding the thread on it; In self-spinning machines, the thread was wound onto a bobbin. The spindles with threads wound on them were placed in a round bast box.

spinning wheel

Vologda province

And the women sewed, using seamstresses - low carved openwork columns inserted into the bottom or cut out together with the bottom; At the top there was a piece of leather nailed or a cloth bump filled with tow. The seamstress clamped the fabric between two hoops and used a needle to pin the sewing to the seamstress. When working, you only had to lightly hold the sewing with one hand while working with the other, and if the seamstress got up, the sewing in the hoop remained hanging on the seamstress. There were intricate seamstresses with pencil cases near the counter, where thimbles, threads, needles, pins and other small items were stored.

In general, this is an amazing phenomenon - the decoration of peasant household items. It would seem that a hard life left neither time nor feelings for beauty. And here you go: literally everything that could be decorated was decorated with carvings or paintings. Clay pots were covered with green, sometimes brown, glaze, and a simple ornament peeked out from under it. Sometimes the pots were brightly painted with colored clays - engobes. Cups, spoons, ladles, bratins, valleys, tues, rockers were painted, flax flaps, horse arches, rollers and rubles were covered with intricate small carvings, spinning wheels and bottoms were decorated with carvings or paintings, sometimes even the interior of the hut was painted: the doors of the goblets and cabinets and even the ceilings. Moreover, the carved Vologda spinning wheels had rattles: ground colored stones were inserted into the holes in the blade on the wire, and when the spinning wheel trembled during operation, they made a slight rattling sound. By the way, many local schools of wood carving and painting and their types have developed in Russia. Apparently, a harsh and difficult life required at least some kind of joy, spiritual compensation. Well, it would seem that it doesn’t matter whether the woman is ruffling the flax with a simple plank or a carved ruffle, which will quickly wear out anyway, rub off on the hard flax straw, or break. But no, a man sat over him with a knife, covering him with rosettes so that the woman would have more fun working.

It is difficult to say from what time the production of turned wooden utensils began in Rus'. Archaeological finds on the territory of Novgorod and on the site of Bulgarian settlements in the Volga region indicate that the lathe was known back in the 12th century. In Kyiv, in the hiding places of the Tithe Church, a chiseled bowl was found during excavations. In the XVI-XVII centuries. installation of the simplest, so-called beam, lathe was available to every ordinary artisan.

About the places of production and sales markets for wooden turned utensils in the 16th - early 17th centuries. give great material receipts and expenditure books, customs books, acts and inventories of monastery property. From them it is clear that the production of wooden turning utensils was carried out by the quitrent peasants of the Volokolamsk, Trinity-Sergius, Kirilo-Belozersky monasteries, artisans of the Kaluga and Tver provinces, and townspeople of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas. By the end of the 18th century. the production of wooden turning utensils became widespread. Russian artisans created truly perfect forms: stavtsy, stavchik, bratina, dishes, bowls, goblets, cups, glasses (Fig. 1). The skill, passed down from generation to generation, was improved by the creativity of each generation.

Rice. 1. Common forms of Russian turning utensils. XV-XVIII centuries: 1 - brother; 2 - bowl; 3, 4 - dishes; 5, 6 - cups; 7 - glass; 8 - glass; 9 - bettor; 10 - bettor.

The most common of individual dishes was stavets- a deep vessel like a bowl with a flat tray and a voluminous lid. Some of them had figured handles. There were stavtsy different sizes: stavs, stavs And bettors. Stavtsy and stavchik were used as dinnerware. Large stavs served as storage for smaller dishes and bread products. The festive table was decorated with brothers, dishes, plates, cups, glasses, feet. Brother- a medium-sized spherical vessel with a small neck on top and a slightly bent outward rim was always made on a pallet. Bratina served to serve drinks to the table. Pies, meat, fish, and sweets were served on dishes and plates with wide edges, flat sides and round trays or reliefs. The diameter of the dishes reached 45 cm. The most common type of dishware among peasants was the bowl - a hemispherical vessel with a straight rim, a flat low tray or a small round relief. These bowls often had a height to diameter ratio of 1:3. For stability, the diameter of the tray was made equal to the height of the bowl. The diameter of the running bowls is 14-19 cm. Large bowls reached a diameter of 30 cm, and barge bowls - even 50 cm. An indispensable accessory for each table was a salt shaker. Turned salt shakers are small, capacious vessels with a low, stable base, with or without a lid. Very popular since the 19th century. Khokhloma dishes began to be used, which were produced in large quantities in the Semenovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province (Gorky region). It could be found not only in Russia, but also in the countries of the East.

Popularity Khokhloma dishes Industrial exhibitions contributed to this: in 1853 it was first demonstrated at a domestic exhibition, and in 1857 at a foreign one. At the end of the last century, it was exported to France, Germany, England, and North America. Over the centuries, certain types of wooden utensils have been developed and improved in this craft, distinguished by their noble simplicity of silhouette, strict proportions, and the absence of pretentious details that crush the shape. Modern masters, using the best traditions of the past, continue to make wooden utensils, which are both household items and a magnificent home decoration.

In the Gorky region there are two historically established centers of fishing - in the village of Semin, Koverninsky district and in the city of Semenov. Seminsky products - massive bowls And buckets- made in the traditions of peasant wooden utensils. Semenovskaya dishes It is distinguished by greater sophistication, it is characterized by improved shapes, intricate lids and handles. The search for new types of products led to the creation of previously unknown sets and sets of dishes. Tableware and fishing sets, sets for coffee (Fig. 2) and tea, sets for salad, berries and jam, and spices have received wide recognition. Sets, as well as sets, usually include several items - up to six cups, shot glasses, glasses, saucers, a large bowl or tureen with a lid, a coffee pot or kvass pot, a sugar bowl, a creamer, a salt shaker and a pepper shaker. Often the sets are complemented by large plates - trays. Each set necessarily includes spoons - table spoons or tea spoons, for salad, and ladles. Essentially utilitarian, Khokhloma dishes are distinguished by the plastic expressiveness of their forms, which favorably emphasizes the artistic merits of the painting decorating them.

Rice. 2. Coffee set. Linden, oil, turning, carving, painting “Kudrina”. N.I. Ivanova, N.P. Salnikova, 1970s, Semenov, “Khokhloma Painting” association.

Russian wooden spoons

The most ancient spoon (Fig. 1), apparently having a ritual purpose, was found in the Gorbunovsky peat bog in the Urals. It has an elongated, egg-shaped scoop and a curved handle ending in a bird's head, which gives it the image of a swimming bird.

Rice. 1. Spoon. Wood, carving. II millennium BC e., Nizhny Tagil, Gorbunovsky peat bog. Historical Museum.

In Novgorod the Great there were many types of wooden spoons (Fig. 2). Particularly noteworthy are spoons with a small flat handle, as if raised on a comb. Novgorod craftsmen decorated them with carvings and paintings. The ornament - a braided pattern, made using the technique of contour carving, was applied in belts to the handle and framed the blade. In the Russian North in the 17th century. Vologda spoons were known, made in the Vologda region, as well as shadar spoons with bones, molar spoons with bones, or spoons with a sea tooth added, that is, inlaid with bone or walrus tusk.

Rice. 2. Spoons. Maple, carving. Novgorod the Great: 1, 2 - simple spoons. XIII centuries; 3, 4, 5 - traveling spoons, X, XI, XVI centuries.

Each nationality of our country has its own forms of spoons, but the most famous are the spoons made in the Volga-Vyatka region (Fig. 3). There are over forty varieties of them, only in the Gorky region they made and make ladle spoons, rubbed spoons, salad spoons, fishing spoons, thin spoons, mezheumok spoons, half-bass spoons, Siberian spoons, children's spoons, mustard spoons, jam spoons, etc. The scoop of Gorky spoons is often spherical in shape, and rounded or The faceted handle-handle ends with a forging - a thickening in the form of a cut pyramid. The Kirov spoon has an egg-shaped scoop and a flat, slightly curved handle. The production of spoons was already a well-established, ramified production in the past. In some villages they made preparations, the so-called fragments or baklushi. In a small stump with slightly hewn edges, widening in the part that should become a scoop, it was difficult to discern a spoon. In other villages, spoon workers roughed out a hole with an adze, which was then cleaned out using a hook cutter. With a confident movement of the knife, they cut off the excess from the handle, giving it a slight bend, and the spoon was ready. Russian craftsmen have perfected the techniques of carving a spoon to such an extent that it takes 15 - 20 minutes to make it.

Rice. 3. Russian spoons of the XIX-XX centuries. State Historical Museum.

Russian wooden ladles

In Rus', wooden utensils of various shapes, sizes and purposes have long been cut: ladles, skopkari, valleys and others. Today, several types of traditional Russian ladles are known: Moscow, Kozmodemyansk, Tver, Yaroslavl-Kostroma, Vologda, Severodvinsk, etc. (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Russian festive dishes. XVII-XIX centuries: 1 - burl boat-shaped Moscow ladle; 2 - large Kozmodemyansky ladle; 3 - Kozmodemyansk scoop ladles; 4 - Tver ladle “groom”; 5 - ladle of the Yaroslavl-Kostroma type; 6 - Vologda dump bucket; 7 - Severodvinsk skopkar; 8 - Tver valley; 9 - Severodvinsk valley.

Moscow ladles, made from burl with a beautiful texture pattern, are characterized by bowls of a clear, even refined boat-shaped shape with a flat bottom, a pointed spout and a short horizontal handle. Due to the density and strength of the material, the walls of such vessels were often as thick as a nut shell. Burl dishes were often made in a silver frame. There are known ladles of the 18th century, reaching a diameter of 60 cm. Kozmodemyansk ladles were hollowed out of linden. Their shape is boat-shaped and very close to the shape of Moscow ladles, but they are much deeper and larger in volume. Some of them reached a capacity of two or three, and sometimes four buckets. The handle is flat and horizontal with a structural addition of a purely local nature - a slotted loop at the bottom. Kozmodemyansk is also characterized by small scoop ladles, which were used for scooping drinks from large bucket ladles. They are predominantly boat-shaped, with a rounded, slightly flattened bottom. The almost vertically placed handle, running from the bottom, multi-tiered in the form of an architectural structure, is decorated with through carvings, ending with the image of a horse, or less often a bird.

Tver ladles are noticeably different from Moscow and Kozmodemyansk. Their originality lies in the fact that they are hollowed out from a tree root. Mainly retaining the shape of a rook, they are more elongated in width than in length, which is why they appear flattened. The bow of the bucket, as usual with navicular vessels, is raised upward and ends with two or three horse heads, for which Tver buckets received the name “grooms”. The handle of the ladle is straight, faceted, the upper edge is usually decorated with ornamental carvings. The ladles of the Yaroslavl-Kostroma group have a deep rounded, sometimes flattened boat-shaped bowl, the edges of which are slightly bent inward. In earlier ladles the bowl is raised on a low tray. Their handles are carved in the form of a figured loop, the nose is in the form of a cock's head with a sharp beak and beard. Vologda ladles are designed for scooping drinks from large ladles. They are characterized by a boat-shaped shape and a round spherical bottom; they were usually hung on a large ladle. The hook-shaped handles were decorated with an incised design in the form of ducks.

In the Russian North, skopkari ladles were carved from tree roots. Skopkar is a boat-shaped vessel, similar to a ladle, but with two handles, one of which is necessarily in the form of the head of a bird or a horse. According to their household purposes, skopkari are divided into large, medium and small. Large and medium ones are for serving drinks on the table, small ones are for individual use, like small glasses. Severodvinsk skopkari were also cut from the root. They have a clear boat-shaped shape, handles processed in the shape of the head and tail of a waterfowl, and in their entire appearance they resemble a waterfowl.

Along with ladles and skopkars, endovs or “yandovs” were also decorations of the festive table. Endova - a low bowl with a sock for draining. Large valleys could hold up to a bucket of liquid. Their Tver and Severodvinsk variants are known. The best Tver valleys are carved from burl. They are a bowl on an oval or cubic shaped tray with a toe-drain in the form of a trench and a handle. The endova of the Severodvinsk type has the shape of a round bowl on a low base, with slightly bent edges, with a semi-open toe in the form of a groove, sometimes figuratively carved. The handle is very rare. The initial processing of the described objects was carried out with an ax; the depth of the vessel was hollowed out (chosen) with an adze, then leveled with a scraper. The final external processing was carried out with a chisel and knife. Samples of Russian wooden utensils demonstrate high skill, developed by more than one generation of folk craftsmen.

It is difficult to say when the production of wooden carved utensils began on the territory of Russia. The earliest discovery of a ladle dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. e. Archaeological excavations on the territory of Kievan Rus and Novgorod the Great indicate that the production of wooden utensils was developed already in the 10th - 12th centuries. In the XVI - XVII centuries. Wooden utensils were made by serf landowners and monastery peasants or archers. The production of wooden utensils and spoons became widespread in the 17th century, when the demand for them increased both in the city and in the countryside. In the 19th century With the development of industry and the advent of metal, porcelain, earthenware and glassware, the need for wooden utensils is sharply reduced. Its production continues mainly in the fishing areas of the Volga region.

Currently, scoop buckets and tabletop buckets are one of the favorite types artistic products made of wood. Arkhangelsk craftsmen, while preserving the traditional basis of the North Russian ladle, prefer not to varnish the velvety wood surface, slightly tinted in silver or light brown tones. The masters of the Khotkovo craft near Moscow created their own image of a modern ladle, a ladle-bowl, a ladle-vase, decorating a festive table (Fig. 2). They are characterized by powerful plasticity of forms, an unusual surface, sparkling with internal light, and a pleasant tone. A bucket-sail with a highly raised, straightened sail-handle, on which, as a rule, a bush of the famous Kudrinsky ornament is cut out, has become traditional for the fishery.

Old Russian dishes were distinguished by their diversity, despite the fact that they were most often created from wood. Its attractiveness for modern people is that it is beautiful, unusual, and making dishes was a real creative process, a true art in which the imagination of Russian craftsmen was manifested.

Features of ancient dishes

As already mentioned, in Rus' all utensils were carved from wood, both for food and for drinking. That is why very few examples of real folk art have reached us. Old Russian dishes are distinguished by their diversity - these include bowls, ladles, jugs, and carved spoons. These attributes were created in different centers of the Russian principality, and each master was distinguished by his own unique handwriting. Painting and carving are the most common decorations of ancient dishes. Today, these products can only be found in museums and in private collections of lovers of antiques.

What material was used

Not all types of wood were suitable for making dishes. The most commonly used trees were birch, aspen, conifers trees. Soft linden was used to create spoons and ladles. Moreover, the documentation contains ancient Russian dishes, the names of which attract attention with their unusualness. For example, a straight spoon, a root ladle - such names mean nothing to us, modern people, accustomed to glass and porcelain for table setting. In fact, the straightness is the wood of the trunk, and the root vessel is a vessel made from a powerful rhizome. Peasants, as a rule, used any tree to create dishes - ruins, bark, and flexible roots that are easy to weave. And the most expensive dishes were considered to be made from burl - a growth on a tree.

Ladle

This ancient Russian utensils have come down to us in a modified form, because modern models They are not created from wood. Metal ladles in modern Russia are often used in villages when equipping a bathhouse. In Ancient Rus', the ladle was considered the most common type of festive drinking utensils - honey, kvass, and beer were served in them. An ensemble of large and small ladles served as a real table decoration.

This ancient Russian wine glassware was always elegant and interesting, for example, in the shape of a boat or a sailing bird. On the Northern Dvina they created this dish with two handles that resembled the head and tail of a duck. The bright paintings that decorated these simple peasant attributes of everyday life also played an important role. In the Tver province, local craftsmen created vessels in the form of a horse's head, decorated with carvings and a geometric rosette in the center, which is an ancient symbol of the sun. And in 1558, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, by his order, a ladle was created, decorated with three large sapphires. Today this work of art is kept in one of the museums in Germany, where it ended up during the Great Patriotic War.

Buckets of different regions

Moscow craftsmen created ladles from burl, which allowed them to preserve a beautiful texture pattern. These items had a boat shape, a flat bottom, a pointed nose and a short horizontal handle. The vessels had dense and durable walls, and a silver frame was used as an additional decoration. Kozmodemyansk ladles were made from linden and were similar in shape to Moscow ones, but were deeper and larger in volume. The ladles made by Tver craftsmen were hollowed out from tree roots, most often in the shape of an elongated boat. And in northern regions Skopkari ladles were created - vessels in the form of a boat with two handles, one of which was necessarily made in the form of a bird or horse's head.

Breadbox and salt lick

This ancient Russian utensils were also a mandatory attribute on any table, because bread and salt were important components of the diet. A bread box was used to store flour products, and it was made from bast - a layer of a tree trunk that is located between the bark and the core. Such dishes reliably protect bread from mold and moisture.

Salt in Rus' was an expensive pleasure, so the creation of dishes for storing it was approached very carefully. The saltbox was made in two main forms - in the form of a chair with a raised seat-lid, or in the form of a floating bird. Old Russian dishes looked very beautiful and unusual - the pictures show how much attention was paid to the elements of painting and carving.

Bro, bowls and eyelid

If the names “ladle” and “salt cellar” (although we more often call it “salt cellar”) are familiar to everyone, then with the word “brother” everything is much more complicated. Most likely, the name of this dish comes from the word “bratchina”, which meant a festive feast. As a rule, it was made in the form of a ball, which was intercepted at the top by a crown neck with bent edges. on dishes of this type was very different. For example, a bratina made in the 18th century, decorated with paintings in the form of scales with an inscription, has survived to this day. By the way, inscriptions also played a big role in the design of ancient dishes. They could tell about a lot: about the place and date of creation of the attribute, about its owner, and so on.

In the old days, bowls were also used, which were wide dishes with low edges. They served fried and baked dishes, and in the monasteries they even baked loaves. The eyelid was an oblong-shaped dish, which was covered on top with a lid and additionally equipped with handles. It was used for various purposes: for baking pies, storing kvass, and preparing meat dishes. Subsequently, this dish turned into the frying pan we know.

Endowa and cups

If everything is clear with cups, then endova is an ancient Russian dish, the names of which were different: bowl, and yandova, and bratina. This dish is a round vessel made of copper or bast, which was used for drinking beer, honey, and mash. Such vessels were stylized in the form of figures of a duck, goose, rooster, and rook, and each region had its own designs. The Karelians still have such utensils - they create valleys from linden, oak, maple or birch wood.

Tver craftsmen created the best valleys from burl (growth on a tree). The dishes were made in the form of a bowl on a special tray (oval or square) and were complemented with a spout. The vessels were processed with an ax and then leveled with a scraper.

Stavetes and spoons

Old Russian wooden utensils are unusual and very colorful, and their names are sometimes very unexpected. For example, for food, a stave was used, which was created by turning on a special machine. This dish consisted of two deep bowls - one served as a lid, but it could also be used as a plate. Well, what holiday table can do without spoons? Probably, many people have this element of utensils - a beautiful and thick wooden spoon, richly decorated with paintings. In stavtsy in Rus', fruits and vegetables were also served. But there were also dishes for specific type fruits - lemongrass, vegetable, borage.

There were a large number of types of wooden spoons in Novgorod the Great. Products that had a sort of raised handle looked especially beautiful. Most often, braiding was used as an ornament, which was made using the technique of contour carving. And in the northern regions, chadar spoons were created with inlay with bones or fangs. In addition, each region had its own unique shape of spoons. For example, in the Gorky region they created ladle spoons, salad spoons, fishing spoons, and thin spoons, which were distinguished by a rounded and faceted handle. The Kirov spoon was distinguished by an egg-shaped scoop and a flat handle.

Drinking vessels

In Ancient Rus', all utensils used for drinking were called drinking or drinking vessels. Moreover, the name of almost each of them is interesting and original from the point of view of origin. Perhaps the simplest and most understandable vessel is a jug - drinks were stored and served in it. A type of jug was the kumgan, borrowed from its eastern neighbors, distinguished by its narrow neck, long spout and handle. Water was most often stored in kumgans, so they were large in volume. Tin pots are also a type of jug. Various drinks were stored and served in it. But with glass products in Rus' things were very interesting. Thus, already in the 12th century the word “glass” was known, but they were brought from other countries.

Both glass utensils and ancient Russian wooden utensils look very interesting. Pictures from chronicles and ancient records show that most of these attributes were simple, laconic, and differed only in patterns and ornaments. Cookware named after its appearance or the material used to create it.