To dance from the stove

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Radiant warmth

In the apartments of wealthy multi-storey city houses, until the revolution, chimneys and stoves were necessarily made, despite the fact that the house was simultaneously connected to the existing (already then!) City heating system, or to its own boiler room. This was done by wise people not only for reasons of viability (in troubled times, stoves saved the lives of many), but also for reasons of more comfortable heating of apartments, the "old Russians" knew a lot about a good life and even then they distinguished the new radiator (bad) heating from the old (good) heating - stove. The stove not only stores heat, integrating its supply in time, but is also a temperature transformer, converting the high-temperature heat of wood burning in the firebox into low-temperature heat, useful and pleasant for humans.

All of us - children of asphalt and a cast-iron radiator in the third generation have completely lost touch with nature and do not suspect about another - real heat - radiant! The warmth of a Russian stove, the warmth emanating from a large mass of heated stone. Why, then, does everyone use convective heating systems, while the benefits and comfort of the radiant system are obvious. What is the reason for this? Is it really just because the children of asphalt and a cast-iron radiator do not know the radiant heat ?!

Radiant heating is not cheap. The stove is a classic example of a radiant heating device, it is a very bulky - heavy and material-intensive structure that takes away from people scarce living space - "square meters" which are especially expensive nowadays. The stove must be heated with wood - chimneys and ventilation ducts are required in the premises. How do you imagine stoves in a modern multi-storey city building? And the smoke from the chimney … and without it there is nothing to breathe in the city.

Previously, stoves and fireplaces occupied a dominant position in the house (located in the center), were the power plant, thanks to which life was possible. The stoves, the pride of the owners, were a significant piece of the interior, they were distinguished by expensive decoration: they got off with ceramics, rare rocks, artistic cast iron. That's the whole secret! By installing relatively small finned radiators (convectors), you can provide heat to any, even the most non-insulated, environmentally unfavorable room, unsuitable for human habitation, by filling it with overdried dusty air, creating only the illusion of heat.

Not only healthy, but also tasty

There are legends about the taste of dishes cooked in a Russian stove. And the secret is simple, the main factor affecting the taste of food is the temperature and cooking time. In the Russian oven, due to its massiveness and thermal inertness, dishes are cooked over low heat, "languishing". This option is the most optimal in terms of preserving the maximum amount of nutrients, and also gives the usual dishes an amazing, sophisticated and very "home" taste. The shape and material of the Slavic pot is fully consistent with the features of the Russian Stove. Ceramics have low thermal conductivity compared to metal, and this contributes to slow, almost no boiling, cooking. The small area of the bottom ensures the maintenance of the desired thermal regime, and the narrow neck reduces evaporation and contact with air, and contributes to the preservation of volatile substances. The thick bottom of the pot causes heating mainly along the walls. To do this, the pots are made "pot-bellied", with a developed lateral surface.

With prolonged, smooth and uniform heating through the ceramic wall, boiling almost does not occur. And if the broth is boiling, then it boils mainly along the walls. As a result, steam rises along the walls of the pot, and the bulk of the product is heated without boiling. Steam does not pass through the thickness of the product, and essential substances are retained in the products. A truly full bouquet of natural aromas of fresh vegetables is preserved. And this is without any frying, without any oil! However, the price to pay for such a yummy is the long cooking time. Indeed, without boiling, the layers of liquid in the broth do not mix, and the thickness of the products heats up much more slowly than with a boiling broth. A decrease in the temperature of the product leads to a significant increase in the cooking time. It is known from the theory of pasteurization that lowering the temperature of milk by only 15 degrees requires increasing the heating time by 10 times!

Cooking in a Russian oven is not difficult. You just need to practice for a while, looking closely and studying the properties of your stove.

The basic rules of Russian cooking are as follows:

1 - they begin to cook after the oven is well heated, there is no more fire, there are only coals and hot brick walls of the oven, 2 - liquid and semi-liquid dishes are usually cooked in cast iron or ceramic pots - special containers without handles.

3 - real pancakes in the Russian oven are baked only on one side, without turning, 4 - usually all prepared dishes are put into the oven at once (fortunately, the size allows you to cook in very large volumes): soup, porridge, roast, and pies - in a word, everything except bread, 5 - bread is planted in the oven separately from all other dishes, usually when they are already cooked; a baking sheet with breads is put into the oven using a special wooden shovel, after which the flap is immediately closed and no longer opened until the bread is baked.

In addition to cooking familiar and well-known dishes, in the Russian oven, you can smoke and dry fish, as well as berries and herbs in a very gentle mode. It is also very convenient to cook lye for washing clothes on the Russian stove. With a properly designed oven, all kitchen utensils can be stored in it. And, of course, it is so wonderful to sleep with the whole family on a warm stove!

The pot is the keeper of traditions

For a long time, the clay pot was not only a decoration for a dwelling or a garden, it was used to grow plants, but it was also the main and most ancient vessel for cooking. Among the Slavs (including in Russia), food was prepared both among the boyars and among the poor, traditionally in ceramic pots. A side-heated clay pot is characteristic of all Slavic peoples, in contrast to their neighbors, who ate a bottom-heated clay pot for food. This is apparently due to the design of the Russian stove, since ancient Russia did not know either open hearths or fireplaces with hanging boilers, or clay pots embedded in the stove.

Dishes were also often served at the table in large ceramic pots, and then poured or laid out in plates.

Dishes in pots

If you love to eat, if you feel natural nostalgia for the culinary relics of your abandoned homeland, if its traditions are dear to you, buy a pot. A roomy, earthen, pouring pot with a tight lid is a thing! All Russian cuisine came out of him, like all Russian writers from Gogol's "Overcoat".

Technological progress led to the invention of aluminum pans. But you can fix the matter by acquiring this simple item, the gift of distant ancestors. The fact is that the thick walls of a clay pot heat up slowly and evenly. Food is not cooked in it, but languishes, preserving all the vitamins, proteins or whatever else necessary to avoid diseases. (A normal person should not care about this. He eats not vitamins or dietary supplements Tianshi, but meat, fish, vegetables.)

But the main thing, of course, is the taste. Lunch, cooked in a pot, acquires that softness, sophistication and nobility of spirit, which were characteristic of the best achievements of old Russian cuisine. Opposing tradition, some firms in Moscow are already delivering meals to their offices in pots.

Take, say, a three-pound piece of beef tenderloin. Finely chop two large onions and pour into the bottom of the pot. Place the meat on top in one piece, add the peppercorns and bay leaves and place the pot in a moderately heated oven. Never pour water or salt the meat. The pot will do its job by itself, and in 2½ – 3 hours you will have the most tender roast, floating in onion juice mixed with meat. In the meantime, you can prepare the sauce.

Fry the flour in a dry skillet until it smells like nuts (and it starts, don't worry), put two glasses of sour cream in the flour. When it opens, add three tablespoons of Dijon (if not Russian) mustard to the sauce. Now you need to season the sauce with ginger, marjoram, season with garlic and pour the prepared sauce over the meat. Then lightly salt the dish. Another half hour in a weakly heated oven - and you've already got a roast like a merchant, the pride of the Slavyansky Bazar restaurant.

Meat can be eaten with lips, it is tender, spicy and aromatic. And if buckwheat porridge is served as a garnish, then you can call the boss for lunch "a la russe".

Likewise, you can cook chicken or rabbit in a pot. Or you can put fish fillets there, pour it with a mixture of milk and eggs, sprinkle abundantly (half a glass) with dill and serve fish in half an hour - as tender as a bride.

Cooking in a pot is very easy, because once the food has been laid, there is nothing to do.

The only problem is to buy this pot. And also - never put the pot on an open fire. He does not like this and cracks.