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A gift to young housewives e Molokhovets. Gift for young housewives

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Molokhovets E I
Modern hostess

FOREWORD

The kitchen is also a kind of science, which, without guidance, and if one cannot devote a few hours exclusively to it, is acquired not in years, but in dozens of years of experience, and this ten years of inexperience is sometimes very costly, especially for young spouses, and one often hears how over time, a disorder of the state, and as a result of this, various displeasures in family life it is mostly attributed to the fact that the mistress of the house was inexperienced and did not want to delve into and take care of the household herself.

To prevent these bad consequences, or at least take a step towards avoiding them, is my direct goal and my most sincere desire, and if my book achieves at least half of my desired goal and benefits my compatriots, then I will be completely happy and this will be the best reward for my labors.

I compiled this book exclusively for young housewives, in order to give them a chance without their own experience and in a short time to gain an understanding of the economy in general, and thereby encourage them to take up housekeeping.

This book has been compiled on the following grounds:

Firstly, to introduce the hostesses themselves to the kitchen and the household in general. To do this, I tried to collect a description of various simple foods, as well as descriptions of various supplies needed in the household, such as: biscuits, breadcrumbs, making jams, homemade drinks, various supplies of vegetables and fruits, salting meat, in total up to 2000 Nos. .

Secondly, to reduce household expenses and help housewives themselves to issue provisions from the pantry. To do this, in all the dishes I placed, I tried to assign, as far as possible, the most accurate proportion of all supplies to the composition of the dish, a proportion for 6 people, and under the description of almost every dish, a list of distribution was assigned, because, without having before my eyes a register of everything that is included in the composition of the food, not only the hostess, but even the cook, who is exclusively occupied with this, cannot suddenly recall everything; it follows from this that during the whole morning until dinnertime one has to go to the pantry several times, first for one thing, then for another, which not only soon becomes boring, but also extremely difficult for every housewife, and even impossible in secular life.

Housewives who wish to adhere to the issuance of provisions assigned in this book, please have in your pantry:

First, a tablespoon of silver spoon.

Secondly, a copper or tin collar, that is, ¼ of a bucket, and if possible, ½ of a collar and ¼ of a collar, which will facilitate them when dispensing milk, flour for rolls, etc.

Thirdly, an ordinary glass of medium size, not the largest and not the smallest; there should be 3 such glasses in a large bottle of champagne, i.e., in ¼ garnets, in 1 damask, i.e., in ½ garnets - 6, in 1 garnets, therefore, 12.

In some dishes, sour cream is assigned as follows ½-2 cups, which means: from ½ to 2 cups of sour cream; who does not like a lot of sour cream, or, for example, in winter, when it is difficult to get it, you can put, for example, only ½ cup in sorrel soup No. 37, and in the same soup you can put 1, 1½ and even 2 cups of sour cream, depending on the desire and whenever possible.

To dispense oil, it is most convenient to prepare it as follows: take 5-10 pounds of Chukhonian or Russian butter (if the latter is in a cold place), hang each pound separately, then divide it into two equal parts, roll up half-pound balls. When giving out provisions, count how much butter will come out for food, and then give out one ball, 1½ or 2, etc. When these balls come out, prepare others.

For jellies, creams, marshmallows, mousses, etc. I advise you to buy veal glue called zhilotin; it is also sold by the pound, and consists of the thinnest oblong slices, each of which is about the size of a spool, so that when 3 spools are to be dispensed, dispense 3 or 4 slices.

This glue comes in white and raspberry color, so that jelly made from raspberry gillotine gets an excellent color.

Zhillotin is much cheaper than fish glue, namely about 1 p. 50k lb, so healthy, extremely tasty and still expensive jelly can now be part of an inexpensive lunch.

To make sure that the proportion I have appointed is sufficient for 6 people, I ask each housewife to choose three or four dishes for testing and order them to be cooked with her.

Since I tried to acquaint the young housewives with the whole urban economy in general, I will add a few more words about the little things, which, however, in the mass make up their own account, namely:

When plucking feathers from birds, then put them in one place; on long winter evenings, order them to be sorted out; they are suitable for pillows for ministers or for the poor; collect feathers and down from geese and ducks separately.

Skins from calves, rams, etc., stretched into sticks, immediately dried and given for leather dressing.

When cattle are slaughtered, their blood is poured under fruit trees.

If dinner is cooked on a stove and it heats up for three or four hours, then order coals to be raked out of it for two or three large samovars.

Veal stomach, well washed and salted, dry; it is used for Dutch and Swiss No. 1460 cheeses.

In every kitchen it does not hurt to have one or two piglets constantly, which can be fed with slops, the remains of roots, bread, etc., but only beware that they do not get pieces of meat and entrails from game.

Soap for washing clothes should be prepared, if not for several months, then at least for several weeks, so that it dries out; give out 1¼ pounds for 1 pood of linen.

In general, every housewife must strictly ensure that the house is clean, tidy, and that nothing is lost, but is used with benefit.

NOTE AND GENERAL VIEW ON THE PLANS AND DEVELOPMENT OF HOUSES

Wishing to encourage young housewives to perform the duties of a good family woman, both morally and economically, I consider it necessary to give them friendly advice, namely: to ask their husbands, if they wish, that their wives strictly fulfill the duties of the mother of the family and that they willingly take care of the household , not in the least upsetting their health, then for their part to take care of delivering them apartments that are comfortable in all respects, which is very rare with us; therefore I hope that the plans of medium-sized houses that I have enclosed may be somewhat useful to those who are going to either build anew or rebuild their house.

When building each house, you must certainly keep in mind the following:

Morally:

Firstly. To have a room for prayer, where the whole family could gather once a day, as well as servants for prayer. In many pious families, both in Russia and abroad, this custom is accepted, and I find that it is not only good, but also necessary, especially in our age, and even more so in our time, where the united forces of believers are needed, to support the wavering faith in God, in His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ and faith in the afterlife. In order to establish the worship of God in spirit and in truth, it is necessary that each head of the family, by daily fervent and unanimous prayer and good example, try to inspire and root, both in the family and in his servants, boundless love for God and faith in impartial justice and mercy. Him to the human race.

Secondly. To have one large dining room, where the whole family would gather to work and read, where children could run and play freely in front of their parents. From this dining room there should be a door to a covered balcony, decorated in summer with flowers, with a staircase to the garden.

Third. To make the children's rooms closer to the bedroom.

Fourth. I find that the servants will partly improve morally, that there will be more cleanliness and order in the kitchen if it is on the same floor as the other living rooms and is separated from them only by a small cold, and even better, a warm vestibule.

In economic terms:

Firstly. To close the kitchen.

Secondly. So that from the girl's room or buffet there is a passage directly to the pantry, where cereals, flour, eggs, etc. should be stored. There should be wide clean shelves around the walls. So that the hostess does not waste time when issuing provisions, it is necessary that in the pantry every thing should be in its place, flour in tubs covered with linen and a lid with an inscription; cereals, pasta, raisins, peppers, etc. are most conveniently kept in a wide and low simple cupboard with drawers different sizes; On each box, stick an inscription that is poured into it.

Third. From this pantry, make a hatch and stairs directly to the basement, which would not have other doors. This basement, which may take up the space of the two upper rooms, must be carefully made, dry, and lined all over, both the walls and the floor, with bricks; it should store wines, jams, fruits, roots, milk, butter and meat in cold weather.

This is extremely convenient for the hostess, because, sitting at the table in a warm maid's room or buffet and, due to poor health, not entering the pantry in cold weather, she can dispose of the provisions; nothing superfluous will be carried past her; moreover, when the milk is milked, they must bring it to the same room, immediately pour it on the table; the hostess can sometimes give herself the pleasure of removing the cream or sour cream herself, ordering the butter to be churned, etc.

Under the house, arrange a separate vegetable cellar for sauerkraut, a large number potatoes and greens, you can even make beds where you could transplant in the fall cauliflower etc. (see No. 1528 to No. 1609). You can also make a basement for firewood, for oats and husks, that is, buckwheat husks, which are so good for heating stoves, because it is warm from the husk and it serves the best remedy drain stone houses.

Concerning convenience:

So that every apartment, no matter how small, contains in miniature all the comforts of a vast and rich room, so that each member of the family has his own separate and calm corner. To do this, when drawing up a plan, it is necessary to mentally designate places for the main furniture, such as:

Firstly. So that in the hall or living room there is a good blank wall for the sofa.

Secondly. A place for the piano away from windows and stoves.

Third. In order to protect the bedroom and nursery from the through wind, it is necessary that there are good walls for beds, also away from windows and stoves; in a word, that there be every possible comfort and convenience, guarding both the tranquility and the health of the family; do not spare any extra hundred rubles in silver for this; having protected the family from a cold, this excessive expense will pay off in a short time.

DIVISION I
SOUPS

Note. The purpose of this book is to provide a means, with little fortune, at moderate expense, without sometimes having an excellent cook, to have a constantly good, tasty, healthy and varied dinner. This goal can be achieved only by prudent economy, i.e., timely purchase and careful distribution of provisions; at the same time, the measure and weight of not only one provision, such as meat, butter, flour, etc., is needed, but even the water itself; this measure, which we have not yet adopted, will seem strange, even ridiculous and inconvenient to implement, especially for the simple class, i.e. for our servants in terms of cooking. Meanwhile, this measure, when issuing an accurate proportion of provisions, appointed in the book, is necessary. Let's take broth #1 or #3 as an example.

To prepare it for 6-8 people, you need to choose a saucepan in which to constantly boil the soup, pour 6 to 8 deep full plates of water into it, put 4 pounds of beef, measure the height of the water with a clean, smoothly planed stick, make a sign on the stick, then add water, cook the broth over low heat, putting salt, roots and spices, at least 3 hours; boil it so that it is just before the holiday as much as it is assigned on a stick; so prepared broth will be tasty and strong, as much as this amount of meat can be. 1
Exactly such a broth can be cooked even for one person, taking a small saucepan and only a 6th part of both meat, roots, and water.

Meanwhile, it often happens differently, namely: they take beef in proportion, that is, 4 pounds, pour water without measure, cover the broth with a lid, let it boil over a fairly strong fire; shortly before dinner, it turns out that the broth has boiled away - that there is not enough of it; then water is poured according to the eye, which, especially of a commoner, often deceives; pouring the broth into the soup bowl, it turns out that the broth is not 6 or 8 plates, but 12 or even more, of which 7-8 plates will fall on the table, and the rest will remain in the kitchen. The broth, of course, is not tasty, weak; if the soup is with cereals, then these cereals will hardly be noticeable.

As a result, if the hostess gives out provisions for food according to this book, it can easily happen that the food will not taste good; not knowing the real reason for this, the fault must fall on the book, although it is completely unfair; therefore, I ask once again about what has already been said in the preface, so that each housewife chooses at least 2-3 dishes and orders them to be cooked under her supervision, observing everything that is said in the description of the dish, etc., and if the broth prepared as said above, it will seem to her tasty and quite strong according to her taste and her condition, then she can already demand from the cook or cook that the soup is constantly so strong. This warning also applies to all other foods, such as pies for people: for the dough for 4 people, 3 pounds of coarse flour of the 2nd grade are assigned, and exactly 3 glasses of water, along with yeast; if water is poured in according to the eye, then it can easily be 3¼ or 3⅛ cups, in which case there will be no flour.

A) SOUPS HOT, MEAT

(proportion for 6 people)

In order for the soup to be clean, it is necessary to boil it on the lightest fire, removing the scale, so that it boils from only one side, then it will be tasty and so transparent that it will not be necessary to clean it with proteins, but only strain it through a napkin. If it fails, then strain it, cool slightly, put 2-3 proteins mixed with 1 tablespoon of water, put on fire, let it boil slightly; when the broth clears and the boiled proteins rise - strain; if that does not help much, put a piece of ice and boil again.

Broth for 6 people or 6-8 deep bowls is brewed from 10-12 pounds of meat with bones, but this is superfluous; from 6 pounds, that is, assuming 1 pound of beef per person, the broth is excellent. Ordinary very tasty broth for 6-8 people is cooked from 4 pounds of beef, putting half a pound on a plate, and cabbage soup and other soups-puree from 3 and even 2½ pounds.

Soup can be cooked from different parts of beef, depending on the need, such as:

If some cabbage soup is cooked, and you need to serve beef in the cabbage soup, then you can take the brisket.

If a good piece of boiled beef should be served for the second dish, see from No. 308 to No. 325, then take 5-6 pounds of beef from the thigh near the spinal bone, boil the soup for two days, and on the first day serve boiled beef for the second dish, and the next day some kind of sauce or roast.

If you need roast beef for the second course, such as: regular roast beef No. 331, hussar liver No. 327, beef like zrazy and similar roasts, then take 6-7 pounds of beef from the cut or from the edge, cut off the ribs, use them on soup, and the soft part - for roast; you can also take the rump, the bones in the soup, and the soft part for the roast.

If you need cutlets or other dishes of minced beef, and minced meat for pies, etc., then take 6 pounds of beef from the cut or front shoulder, which are cheaper than the edge, cut 2½ pounds of soft beef into cutlets, etc., from the remaining 3½ pounds, cook soup: when this meat is cooked with the bones, remove it, chop it and use it for minced meat for pies, loaves served with soup, for mincemeat, etc., or give it to people.

If the boiled beef is not needed for anything, then it is best to cook the broth from the bulls - this is the name of the part of the ox leg from the knee to the leg. These bulls weigh from 3 to 5 pounds and are (maybe not everywhere) very cheap: from 1½ to 3 kopecks in silver a piece; one such large bulldyshka is enough for broth for 6 people.

On purpose, for soup, you can sometimes not buy beef, but boil it from beef trimmings and bones left over from the roast, from trimmings of bones and veal, turkeys, chickens, etc., which are assigned to the roast, if these trimmings are typed up to 3 pounds .

The roots I have appointed are small, and therefore large parsley or celery, and so on. can be divided into two or three parts.

Onions and bay leaves are mostly printed in parentheses, because not everyone likes them, and therefore you can put them in the soup or not. Butter in cabbage soup and so on. soups are put good Chukhonsky or creamy.

The proportion of soups is assigned to 6 and even 8 people; from 9 to 12 people increase the proportion by 1½ times; from 13 to 18 - 2 times, from 19 to 24 - 3 times.

Therefore, for pure broth No. 1 or No. 3, etc.:

For 6-8 people, 4 pounds of beef is required.

From 9-12 > > > 6 > > >

From 13–18 > > > 9 > > >

From 19–24 > > > 12 > > >

In addition, put in the broth the bones and trimmings from veal, turkeys, chickens, etc., which are assigned to the roast.

Thus, increase the proportion of other soups and cabbage soups.

The proposed drawing of an ox will give young housewives a little idea of what each part of the beef is called, which part is used and which part is worse and better.

The cheapest and worst meat is:

1) Neck, taken for people. After

2) Front shoulder for cutlets and soup also for people

3) Ssec and thigh

4) Brisket in cabbage soup and for people.

5) Rump for small roast beef, zrazy and other roasts; bones for soup.

6) The edge near the spinal bone is used for roasts, such as No. 331, 325, etc., and cut ribs and the lower part of the edge with ribs for soup.

7) Whole fillet with bones for roast beef.

8) Cut fillet, the most expensive, is taken mostly for beefsteak. However, beefsteak can also be made from the edge, along the spinal bone, but it will be worse than from a cut fillet. Buldyshki are used for broth.

The legs and head of an ox are for jelly for people.

Brains - for sauce and pies.

Liver, heart and kidneys - for people.

Tongue for sauce.

In the calf the same parts, but a different use of them, namely:

1) 2 back quarters with kidneys - for roast.

2) 2 front shoulder blades are sometimes used for roasts, but mostly for chopped cutlets, minced meat, minced meat for pies, and bones - in soup.

3) From below, under the front shoulder blades, starting from the neck and to the back quarter, first comes the brisket, which is cut into 2 halves in length and used for soup and sauce; and then the cutlet part, which is also cut into 2 parts, and from each part chops No. 379 with 12 pieces of bones will come out.

4) The head and legs are used for soup, sauce, mayonnaise and aspic. The small tongue is served along with the head.

5) Liver and heart - for sauce and minced meat for pies.

6) The liver is also used for minced meat for pies, for sauces and roasts.

7) Brains - for sauce and minced meat for pies.

1) The broth is clean

Wash 4 pounds of beef thoroughly in warm water, pour in cold water, cook over low heat, removing scale for two hours. Then take out the meat, wash it in cold water, strain the broth, put the roots, salt, English pepper and bay leaf and cook again with meat over low heat for an hour or two. Shortly before dinner, strain through a napkin, serving, add finely chopped green parsley and dill.

4 pounds of beef. 2 carrots. 1 celery. 1 parsley. 1 leek. 1 baked onion. 2 dried mushrooms. 2–4 pcs. bay leaf. 10–15 English grains pepper. Green parsley and dill. Salt.

This broth can be varied as follows:

a) Clean with pies.

b) With croutons No. 116, 117, 118.

c) With carrots and sorrel leaves cut in half or better spinach (¼ pound and 2 carrots).

d) With meatballs No. 119, 120, 121, 122, use the fourth pound of beef on meatballs.

e) With dumplings from No. 139 to 145.

f) With porridge from Smolensk cereals No. 126.

g) With vermicelli No. 133.

h) With lasagna No. 134.

i) With manna No. 132.

i) With rice or rice porridge No. 130, or rice cakes No. 306.

j) From sago no. 129.

l) With chiseled roots and pies No. 136.

l) With chiselled roots and potatoes No. 138.

m) With roots and cabbage No. 137.

o) With potato grits (8-9 teaspoons).

o) With pearl barley No. 131.

2) Bouillon for children

This broth is made from ox legs and bulls. Take all the bones from the bull's leg and bull, crush them, cook on low heat for at least 3 hours. If the leg is large, then pour so much water that the whole broth of 5-6 plates comes out. The next day, boil these bones again in fresh water, which is poured half as much as yesterday. After boiling in this way for about two hours, pour yesterday's broth into it, boil everything together for ¼ hours, strain. Minced meat can be prepared from cooked meat and marrows from bones by mixing it with a bun and green parsley. This broth can be boiled for two or three days, kept only in a cold place, in bottles corked with just paper. Before leaving, pour a small teaspoon of rum onto each plate. This broth is especially good for children and even for adults who are in poor health, but who are forced to lead an active life and be in constant motion. This broth is especially great to use in the summer, at breakfast.

3) Red broth

Put 2 chopped onions, 2 carrots and 3-4 pounds of beef in a saucepan with the fat side on the bottom of the pot, fry until red, pour in water, put the rest of the roots and spices, cook over low heat for 3-4 hours, strain through a napkin.

4 pounds of beef. (2 bulbs). 2 carrots. 1 parsley. 1 celery. 1 leek. 10–15 English grains pepper. (2-3 bay leaves). Green parsley and dill.

This broth is served:

a) Clean with pies.

b) With turned roots No. 136.

c) With meatballs from No. 119 to 121.

d) With dumplings from No. 139 to 145.

e) From sago No. 121.

f) With carrots and sorrel leaves (¼ pound, 2 carrots).

4) Strong broth with wine, sometimes served in cups

5 pounds of beef, roast red in a saucepan, putting 1 celery, 1 parsley, 1 tablespoon oil and one carrot on the bottom of it, then pour a full saucepan with water; as it boils, remove the foam, put the chicken, cook for 2-3 hours, removing fat and scale, strain, put separately boiled chiseled roots, pour in ½ cup Madeira.

If this broth is served in cups, then there is no need for chiseled roots, but put them all into the broth, boil, strain; if served on plates, then pour finely chopped green parsley, dill and, who loves, a little nutmeg into a bowl.

5 pounds of beef. 1 chicken. 3 carrots. 2 onions baked. 1 parsley. 1 leek. 1 celery. 1 turnip. 10–15 English grains pepper. 2–3 pcs. bay leaf. Salt ½ cup Madeira or 1 cup table wine. If served in bowls, add green parsley and dill. Nutmeg.

5) Wallachian red broth with roots

Place 1 chopped chicken, 1 carrot, ⅛ or ¼ lb butter, top with 3 lb beef; when the beef is browned on the bottom, then pour in enough water so that it is no longer added and so that the broth, when it is ready, has 6–8 deep full plates; put roots, spices, salt, you can add 1 pound of veal and about 1 pound of smoked ham, cook on low heat for several hours, removing scale, then strain through a napkin, remove fat, if necessary, clean with proteins, strain again, heat, serve, sprinkled with green parsley and dill.

3 pounds of beef. 1 pound veal. 1 pound smoked ham. 1 onion. 2 carrots. ¼ pound butter. 15–20 English grains pepper. 1 turnip. 1 celery. 1 parsley. 1 leek. 2–3 pcs. bay leaf. A little marjoram. Salt.

This broth is served:

a) Clean with pies.

b) In the filtered broth, put boiled chiseled roots separately in the broth: 1 carrot, 1 head of cauliflower, 2 heads of safoy, 12 pieces of asparagus, 1 galarepa (turnip cabbage or kohlrabi).

c) Put chopped and separately boiled 1 carrot and a cut head of cabbage into 6 parts, the leaves of which are shifted with minced meat No. 122.

d) With meatballs No. 120, in this case, pour ½ cup Madeira into the broth.

6) French soup a la Julienne

Boil plain broth from 3-4 pounds of beef and roots, strain as stated in No. 1; ½ pound of rye bread dry red, pour in the broth to cover the bread, cover with a lid, let stand for an hour or an hour and a half, drain and strain. Meanwhile, cut like vermicelli 1 large carrot, 1 galarepa or young turnip, celery, 50 spinach leaves, also cut 6-7 pieces of asparagus, 1 tablespoon of dried green peas, rinse all this, cook for an hour in strained broth; just before the holiday, pour the aforementioned bread broth into it and serve immediately. Chopped roots can first be fried a little in ½ tablespoon of oil, and then put in the broth and boil for half an hour.

3-4 pounds of beef. 2 carrots. 1 parsley. 1 celery. 1 leek. 10–15 English grains pepper. 3–4 pcs. bay leaf. ½ pound rye bread. 1 galarepa, or young turnip. Leaves 50 spinach. 6-7 pieces of asparagus. 1 teaspoon dried green peas. ½ tablespoon of oil.

7) French white transparent soup

Take 3 pounds of beef and ½ chicken, pour water, boil, then put roots, spices, salt, boil over low heat, removing scale. When the meat is ready and the broth has boiled down to 6-8 deep bowls, strain, remove the fat from above, let it settle, pour it carefully into another pan, peel, if necessary, with proteins. Just before the holiday, pour ⅛ cup of white French wine into a bowl and sprinkle with nutmeg.

For a change, you can sometimes put in the broth ½ lemon, cut into slices, without grains, or 1 carrot or toast, sprinkled with Dutch cheese No. 118.

3 pounds of beef. ½ chicken. 1 celery. 1 leek. 1 parsley. 2 carrots. 10–15 English grains pepper. 2–3 pcs. bay leaf. Salt. (3 proteins). ½ cup white French wine. Nutmeg. Green parsley and dill. ½ lemon. Give out on toast or pies.

8) Veal Leg Windsor Soup

Boil the broth from 2-3 pounds of beef and roots, strain; take four veal legs, remove the meat from the bones, wash in cold water, dip into the broth; when cooked, take them out, put in cold water; 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 tablespoon of oil, fry, dilute with broth, boil, removing scale. Carefully cut the legs, dip in the soup, put the chiseled white roots one at a time; boil two or three times, put chopped herbs, 1 glass of Madeira, add, who loves it, coarsely crushed simple pepper.

2-3 pounds of beef. 2 carrots. 1 parsley. 1 celery. 1 leek. 15–20 English grains pepper. 4 small veal legs 2 tablespoons of flour, i.e. ⅔ cup. 1 spoon of oil. 1 glass of Madeira. Greenery. (Simple pepper).

Serve him pies.

9) White soup

Boil plain broth #1 with 3 pounds of beef, roots, spices, salt to make 6-8 deep bowls.

Dissolve 1 tablespoon of oil in another saucepan, fry finely chopped in it until soft: 1 carrot, ½ celery, ½ parsley, (1-2 onions), adding ¼ cup of fat broth, then add 2 tablespoons of flour, stir, fry again, dilute all strained broth, boil, stirring with a spoon two or three times, no more, strain through a fine sieve, then pour ½ cup of cream mixed with 1 yolk into it. Just before the holiday, put 2 small heads of cabbage into the broth, each cut into 4 parts and boiled separately in the broth.

3 pounds of beef. 1½ celery. 2 carrots. 10–15 English grains pepper. 2–3 pcs. bay leaf. 1 leek. ½ parsley. ⅛ pound butter. ⅔ cup flour. ½ cup heavy cream. 1 yolk. 1 medium or 2 small cabbages

10) Bread and wine soup

¾ pound of rye bread crumb, finely chopped, simmer in a saucepan with a lid with two tablespoons of oil, rub through a sieve, dilute with an ordinary broth of 3 pounds of beef and roots, pour in 1 glass of Madeira or sherry before leaving. To make the soup dark in color, then set fire to a piece of fine sugar in a small frying pan, dilute it with broth, and then pour in the wine.

¾ pound rye bread. ¼ pound butter. 3 pounds of beef. 1 carrot. 1 celery. 1 leek. 10–12 English grains pepper. 1 cup Madeira or sherry 1 piece of sugar.

11) Chicken Soup

Take a plucked, gutted 3-pound chicken (if the chicken is smaller, then add ½-1 pound of beef or veal bones), pour in water and cook in a saucepan for ¼ hour, constantly removing scale, then strain through a sieve into a pot in which the broth will be cooked . Wash the chicken in cold water, cut it into pieces, lower it back into the broth, put the roots and spices, add ⅛ pound of oil if you want, cook, removing the scale, on the lightest fire. Pouring into a bowl, add a little dill and green parsley, put boiled rice, pearl barley, Italian pasta or manna separately in the broth. You can serve this soup in a creamer of boiled cream; in this case, along with other roots, boil ¼ pound of rutabaga in the soup.

3 pound chicken. Some beef bones. 1 carrot. 1 celery. 1 parsley. A little bit of parsnips. 8-10 grains English. pepper. (1-2 bay leaves). (⅛ lb butter). Dill and green parsley.

½ cup rice, or ½ cup pearl barley, or ½ cup semolina, or ¼ pound pasta.

(¾ st. cream, who wants, and rutabaga).

Boiled chicken can be served separately with some kind of sauce, such as No. 466.

12) Turkey Soup

Since there is a big difference in the size of turkeys, it is difficult to determine its quantity; for 6 people, however, a rather small turkey the size of a large chicken, and if the turkey is large and fat, then take offal from it, that is, legs, wings, head, etc., and leave the meat or fillet itself for another meal. Turkey soup is prepared in exactly the same way as chicken number 11.

1 small turkey, or offal from a large fat one. 1 carrot. 1 celery. (1 onion). 8-10 grains English. pepper. 1–2 pcs. bay leaf. ⅛ pound butter. Dill and green parsley. ½ st. rice or pearl barley. 1 parsley.

13) Soup a la tortue

This soup should be strong and made from several types of meat, and at least 2 pounds of beef, 1 pound of veal, 1 head of veal, ½ chicken and various roots. Having cooked this broth properly, strain, remove fat from above.

Melt ⅛ lb fresh butter in a saucepan, add 1 finely chopped parsley, 5-6 parsley. cloves, 10-15 grains of coarsely crushed English pepper, fry everything over low heat, then add ⅔ cup of wheat flour and fry again. Half an hour before the holiday, pour strained broth, cook, stirring constantly; when it boils, strain through a fine sieve, put in it the amorets, stuffed olives, evenly sliced meat from the head of the veal, a few truffles and champignons, if any, boil again, pouring in ½-1 glass of Madeira or French wine, and finally put the slices lemon, salt and not very finely crushed simple pepper, depending on taste.

It does not hurt every housewife to have a good cookbook, and then it will not be difficult or difficult for her to draw up a dinner menu, both formal and simple. I am talking here, of course, only about those housewives who do not keep expensive cooks, but are content with cooks who cook according to their instructions (Hygieno-economic dictionary of practical knowledge necessary for everyone to preserve and extend life in the economy and economy. In 2 volumes / Ed. I. Kustarevsky. M., 1888. T. 2. S. 12).

In 1932, Yevgeny Zamyatin, who fled the USSR, noted in his notebook: “In exile there are two most popular authors: Elena Molokhovets is in the first place, Pushkin is in the second.” Elena Molokhovets, author of a pre-revolutionary culinary bestseller, died in 1918. At the same time, her second life began - the life of a myth about a beautiful pre-revolutionary past.

In Soviet times, those few "former" who carried and preserved through the seals, purges, wars, fires and famine one of the 29 editions of the thick "Gift to Young Housewives" became the owners of an ideological weapon of incredible power. The book written by Molokhovets was evidence of a great bygone era, "when Rus' was free and a goose cost three kopecks." At the mention of the name Molokhovets, any Soviet person quoted with a mixture of irony and admiration: “If twenty guests suddenly appear, don’t worry - go down to the cellar and take one or two hams that hang there.” There is no such advice in the books of Molokhovets - this is a fantasy that arose when remembering the past, because to Soviet citizens who stood in lines for amateur sausages and glazed curds, pre-revolutionary Russia seemed to be a world of full-blooded abundance. In fact, the bourgeois cuisine described by Molokhovets was the antipode of gluttony, wastefulness and conspicuous consumption. In the recipes of Elena Ivanovna, there were almost no products that in the 19th century were associated with a luxurious life, the life of the aristocracy or the nouveau riche.

However, war communism, the first five-year plans, the war, the Brezhnev deficit made Molokhovets an apostle of grouse and pineapples in champagne. Even its basic recipes required what was simply absent in Soviet life: good beef, a variety of vegetables and spices, which culinary lovers learned about from the books of William Pokhlebkin, and not from personal experience.

According to the Molokhovets book, they did not try to cook - it was impossible. With her, they dreamed of the lost past, reading "A Gift to Young Housewives" as a novel. Her recipe for sterlet in white wine, like the furniture from the palace in Pavlovsk or the Kustodievsky "Merchant for Tea", served as a kind of Proustian madeleine - with the difference that none of the Soviet readers could even imagine the taste of this fish.

Gone complex life - with huge amount pots, cocotte makers, molds for timbales and pâtés, dessert forks, caviar spoons, lafitniks made of colored glass and dozens of types of jam - caused a longing for the life that was taken away from their ancestors in 1917.

This feeling is wonderfully conveyed in an essay by Tatyana Tolstaya, who reviewed the English translation of A Gift for Young Housewives in 1992.

Another common anecdote about Molokhovets was the advice to give half-eaten leftovers to "people" - that is, servants. This recommendation also spoke of the lost welfare, but did not meet the sympathy of a Soviet person who was brought up on the idea of equality. Evidence of this was the famous and offensive poem dedicated to Molokhovets by Arseny Tarkovsky in 1957:

Where are you, salted writer,
Molokhovets, little holuyka,
The bliss of ten-pound carcasses
Owners of ten thousand souls?

This text is not only unfair, but also inaccurate: the phenomenon of Molokhovets was formed as a result of the great reforms of Alexander II, neither she nor her readers were and could not be "owners of ten thousand souls."

* * *

Elena Ivanovna Burman (married Molokhovets) was born on April 28, 1831 in the family of the commander of the Vilna Infantry Regiment Ivan Ermolaevich Burman, who, upon retirement, served in the Arkhangelsk customs, and his wife Ekaterina Dmitrievna. After the death of her parents, the girl was taken care of by her grandmother. She secured a place for the orphan at the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens (it was not easy: they were admitted to the institute from the age of six, they were admitted to the senior classes only on special requests, and Elena Burman was already fourteen at the time of admission) and paid for her maintenance and education.

The Smolny Institute of the times of Nicholas I was the most prestigious educational institution for girls price Russia | In any school, first of all, two sides are important - the program and social connections (and it is not known which is more important). Elena Burman studied with the daughters of noble and enlightened noble families - Olimpiada Turchaninova, Varvara Delvig, Elena Golitsyna, Vera Bunina, Zoya Bagration, Nadezhda Shenshina (Fet's niece).

Institutes of noble maidens brought up future "good wives and useful mothers of the family" - educated, seasoned, able to keep up a conversation with anyone, from the king to the guard. Necessary secular skills were perfect French, the ability to play music, draw and supervise the upbringing of children. Contemporaries already had many complaints about this program, but no one denied that in terms of self-discipline and accuracy, college girls who measured the distance from the edge of the apron to the hem of their uniform coffee dress with a ruler had no equal.

In addition to French and dancing, Smolensk women were taught needlework, the beginnings of home economics and home economy - according to a detailed plan drawn up in 1818 by Empress Maria Feodorovna, the widow of Paul I. High school students were taken to the storerooms, explained to them "the properties and use of life supplies and how to save them", and taught to cook exemplary kitchen, that is, equipped with the latest state of the art of that time. In the 1840s, college girls got up at six in the morning, prayer began at 6:30, tea was served at seven, then, from 7:30 to noon, there were lessons, from noon to two - lunch and a walk, then until five again lessons, a break for an afternoon snack until six o'clock in the evening 1
Memoirs of a pupil of the XVIII grade Sofia Cherevina, by marriage Rodzianko, from December 1847 to February 1853. St. Petersburg, 1898, p. 5; Lyadov V. N. Historical sketch of the centenary life of the Imperial Educational Society for Noble Maidens and the St. Petersburg Alexander School. St. Petersburg: Printing house of the spiritual magazine "Wanderer", 1864. P. 46; Cherepnin N. P. Imperial Educational Society for Noble Maidens: A Historical Sketch. In 3 volumes. T. 1. St. Petersburg: State Printing House, 1914. S. 480–481.

After which the girls were dancing; Dinner at eight, went to bed at nine. Pupils helped to make the menu and calculate the cost of dishes. In this sense, their training was far ahead of its time.

For townswomen of other classes - merchants or petty bourgeois - housekeeping was a vital necessity. They learned this knowledge "from the hands", from their mothers, aunts and grandmothers. The noblewomen, up to the last third of the 19th century, had more theoretical knowledge than practical skills. Overseeing the household was a feature of the old estate life: Tatyana Larina's mother "salted mushrooms for the winter, kept expenses, shaved her foreheads"; Gogol's old-world landowners do the same. But it is impossible to imagine secular beauties from "War and Peace" who would be guided by market prices and knew how to butcher a chamois. In Russian urban culture, interest in cooking, knowledge of the latest French cuisine and game processing methods, and the ability to understand wines were predominantly male knowledge. It was the owner of the house who leafed through French cookbooks, he also gave orders to the barman and hired a cook - usually a Frenchman (Russian cooks with French training began to serve in wealthy homes only from the 1810s). Since Pushkin's time, unmarried youth of the nobility learned cuisine in restaurants, where the French also served as cooks.

Public demand for literature on home economics and cooking arose in the 1830s. It is formed against the background of the "impoverishment" of the nobility and the appearance of raznochintsy on the public stage. From the Rostovs and Bolkonskys, the landlords are gradually turning into the Manilovs and Nozdrevs. A hereditary nobleman, now dressed in a bureaucratic uniform, is easy to meet in the office or - in an officer's overcoat - in a Ukrainian town. For these people, economy and simplicity of cooking becomes an urgent need, because they - or their wives - are no longer dealing with a French chef, but with a cook. And although French cuisine has not lost its prestige, cookery literature is beginning to drift towards cheaper, simpler and more accessible Russian dishes.

* * *

The Russian tradition of culinary and, more broadly, domestic literature goes back to Domostroy, that is, to the era of Ivan the Terrible. The economic treatises of that time were reminiscent of the Torah in their thorough didactics. The same "Domostroy" contains not only recipes and advice, but also moralizing and prohibitions concerning all issues - both economic and religious and moral. This cannot be called a Russian invention: such books were widely distributed in medieval Europe.

With the beginning of the secularization of knowledge, they did not disappear - publications that talk about cooking and about church holidays, and about the upbringing of children - in a word, about everything that a moral and pious family needs to know, they regularly came out until the beginning of the 20th century. Food appeared in them not as an object of gluttony (gluttony is a mortal sin), but as a gift from God, and the task of the owner or hostess was to dispose of it reasonably and prudently 2
??These are the medieval French treatise Le menagier de Paris or its translation into English - The Good Wife's Guide.

But from the time of Peter the Great, cookbooks proper began to appear in Russia. They were translated - first from Polish and German, and at the end of the 18th century - from French 3
? The treatise “Article of the Cookery” (end of the 17th century) was translated from Polish, from German - “The New Cookbook with Instructions” by A.-Kh. Christa (1775). N. M. Yatsenkov translated from French the culinary books of Menon (“The Newest and Complete Cookbook”, 1790), V. A. Levshin - “Cooking Dictionary” (1795–1797) and “The Royal Cook” by A. Viard (1816).

There were also original Russian records of recipes. The first edition with recipes for Russian cuisine - "Economic Instruction for Nobles, Peasants, Cooks and Cooks" by S. V. Drukovtsev, an official of the Main Provisional Office - was published in 1772. It was followed by N. P. Osipov’s “Old Russian Housewife, Housekeeper and Cook” (1790), the anonymous “Lenten Cook” (1793), published in Kostroma, “Folk Cookery” (1808) and “Russian Cookery” by V. A. Levshina (1816).

But they could only be used by a professional chef who was able to decipher and put into practice a short record like “Greuse grouse or small birds fried with egg yolks, with turnip juice, a glass of Rhensky, with red broth” 4
Drukovtsev S. V. Economic guidance to nobles, peasants, cooks and cooks. SPb., 1773.

A new reading public appeared in Russia, which needed non-binding literature, written in understandable language, on all important issues. One of the hottest things was cooking. In boarding schools, and then in women's gymnasiums, practical home economics courses were introduced, this knowledge was considered necessary for home teachers and governesses, books and brochures were published, addressed to readers and readers of average incomes.

Their key words are "savings", "cheapness", "simplicity". If in the first third of the 19th century the imaginary space of the Russian cookbook was an aristocratic city house or estate, now we are talking about a rented apartment. The first real bestseller was The Manual Book of Russian experienced hostess» E. A. Avdeeva, older sister journalist and historian Nikolai Polevoy (1842). The fame of this book was so great that they immediately began to imitate it, and copy the advice and recipes from it. The same fate - huge popularity and many pirated publications - awaited the book of Elena Molokhovets.

* * *

After graduating from the Smolny Institute in 1848 with a gold bracelet and excellent marks in foreign languages, literature and the Law of God, Elena Ivanovna Burman returned to Arkhangelsk, where she married the architect Franz Frantsevich Molokhovets. Nothing is known about his architectural activities, he had a low rank - a collegiate secretary. The family grew - the Molokhovets couple had ten children (nine sons and a daughter), it was difficult to support them on one salary. Franz Molokhovets retires, and the family moves from port Arkhangelsk to prosperous noble Kursk, where he is promised lucrative orders - there is work for an architect on the estates of the black earth belt. Most likely, the constant need for money taught Elena Ivanovna to exemplary household savings. And this also becomes an impetus for the writing and publication of A Gift for Young Housewives in 1861: the abundance of then culinary literature suggests Elena Molokhovets the idea to contribute to this genre. On May 21 (June 3), 1861, on her name day, the first edition of A Gift to Young Housewives was published in Kursk, containing one and a half thousand recipes. During the life of the author, this book will go through 29 editions with a total circulation of about 300,000 copies and will become one of the most widely read Russian books of the 19th century.

A Gift to Young Housewives” came out in the year of the liberation of the peasants, in an era when Russian youth fell ill with “nihilism”. Estate girls dreamed not of becoming “young housewives,” but sought to cut their braids, put on blue glasses, fictitiously get married and leave to study medicine at the universities of Zurich and Geneva. Molokhovets's book, on the one hand, ideologically contradicted the "spirit of the times": the ideal she portrayed was a conservative, religious, child-loving and faithful to her husband housewife. In this sense, it directly continues the tradition of Domostroy. On the other hand, this book is evidence of the coming era of women's emancipation. Elena Ivanovna Molokhovets, the author of the culinary Bible, became one of the first successful women writers in Russia.

At first, Molokhovets' books were published anonymously, under the initials "E. M ... ts. " A woman writer was considered a comic figure, all the more strange and indecent for a lady to earn money in this way. However, over time, attribution became a necessity: a successful publication was shamelessly copied by pirates. Molokhovets puts his full name and facsimile signature on the flyleaf, threatening the plagiarists with a court (this does not help much). New editions of "Gift ..." came out regularly, each next one is thicker than the previous one: Molokhovets tirelessly supplements and refines his work. They all sell out instantly.

Prosperity comes to the family: the Molokhovites move from Kursk to St. Petersburg and rent an apartment in the prestigious Mizhuev house (26, Fontanka river embankment), side by side with the Sheremetevs, Naryshkins and Panins. This is the most aristocratic section of the Foundry part: the house with a view of the Mikhailovsky Castle was built in 1804 by the author of the Admiralty A. D. Zakharov, Karamzin and Vyazemsky used to live there.

By the 1880s, Molokhovets' book had finally eclipsed all its competitors. When reading "Gift ...", an image of an ideal hostess is created, hospitable in Russian and economical in German. Molokhovets serves a generous and plentiful table for guests and does not forget to feed the servants. Among the many recipes - in the latest edition there are about 4,500 of them - there are both common cabbage soup and thin French pâtés. The writer took care of all conceivable cases: Molokhovets described economic menus (offering two rubles - the price of one restaurant dinner - to feed 6-8 people), gave recipes for the sick and convalescents, advised soups and diet cutlets for children and 25-ruble ceremonial dinners. Armed with this book, it was possible to give a worthy welcome to a poor relative, and her husband's colleagues, and, on occasion, members of the royal family.

The Molokhovets author was generous, but she knew the value of money - hence, in her book, a guide to prices for basic products and calculations of the cost of meals. In that era, a cook was sent to the shop and to the market, she also stood by the stove. The task of the hostess was, first of all, control, she was not a worker, but the foreman: “the hostess can sometimes give herself the pleasure of removing cream or sour cream herself, ordering to churn butter, etc.,” wrote Molokhovets, but the rest of the work was done by the servants . Therefore, advice appears in the cookbook on how to treat the servants - what to feed, what to wear, how to "improve morality."

A good hostess will not be deceived - she knows how much, what when to buy, what to cook. She knows both the old secrets of cleaning diamonds and washing lace, as well as newfangled hygiene knowledge. She doesn’t lose anything, nothing gets spoiled, and if this suddenly happens, there is always advice at hand on “how to freshen spoiled hazel grouses.” Molokhovets advised preparing "economic oil from potatoes", candied barberry sprigs for the winter, growing mushrooms in the cellar and using chlorine water twice - first for cleaning cast-iron dishes, then for washing clothes.

According to the Molokhovets book, housewives learned how to behave correctly in the market: not to buy products at the beginning of the season when they are expensive, to be able to distinguish whole milk from diluted milk, to dose perishable supplies (recall that there were no refrigerators then, and basement glaciers did not cope with the task perfectly). In her world, all the details were tightly fitted together, there were no gaps in which money flew out. Its basis is common sense, common sense, which suddenly makes Elena Ivanovna related to Victorian housekeepers. Conservativeness connects her with them: Molokhovets treated outdated and archaic recipes with the same frugality - suddenly come in handy! When the fashion for hygiene prompted her to write a manual, modern facilities coexisted in it with advice to heal sweaty hands with young frogs, and epilepsy with "magnetized water" 6
Molokhovets E. I. To young housewives: A collection of hygienic and most useful simple, allopathic and homeopathic remedies for various diseases of adults and children. St. Petersburg: Printing house of Dr. M. A. Khan, 1880; Molokhovets E. I. Help for doctors and patients: questions and answers, especially for remote consultations and remote use different ways treatment. St. Petersburg: G. Dyuntz Printing House, 1883.

Which caused an outraged review in the journal "Health".

Housewife Molokhovets is an Orthodox married mother of the family, who with Protestant thoroughness monitors the family budget and opposes any sloppiness and extravagance. The audience to which it is addressed is constantly growing: the characters of Tolstoy and Turgenev are being replaced by Chekhov's characters. The estate is replaced by a dacha, and not a hazel grouse, but a goose becomes a gastronomic symbol of the time. In the parallel world, Faberge, the guards restaurants "Kyuba" and "Donon", furs from Mertens and fresh oysters from Eliseev continued to exist, but they no longer determined the development and course of Russian life.

The world of Molokhovets readers - raznochintsy, educated merchants, officials, zemstvo employees, writers and doctors, that is, a new middle class, formed on the ruins of the Russian class society as a result of the great reforms of Alexander II. From now on, women were charged with bourgeois virtues - the ability to receive guests, manage the household, "set up a house." They were interested in the gymnasium successes of their children, read the Niva with supplements and followed the servants, who in this era were not numerous: a nanny, a cook and a maid, and in poorer families there was one servant “for everything”. Such were Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya, Maria Pavlovna Chekhova and Serafima Vasilievna Pavlova-Karchevskaya, the wife of the great physiologist. These women consider their family and household to be their main business, but they have an idea of “good manners”.

An educated woman had to dress discreetly, but elegantly, have her own dressmaker, and understand furniture. She knew how to provide the first medical care(this is the time when sisters of mercy and women doctors appear), she knew how to entertain children, she could keep up the conversation about politics and literature - and at the same time remain in the image of a “charming lady”.

The little that we know about Elena Ivanovna Molokhovets allows us to attribute her to this female type. In addition to cookbooks and household books, she composed music (and even published a polka in 1854), wrote a textbook French for children and a medical questionnaire. She had her own circle of friends (in 1889 she became a widow), and, in addition to the economy, she was very interested in spiritual and political issues. She had ultra-conservative convictions and was an ardent supporter of the monarchy. Her views on modern politics, regularly presented in pamphlets, far from being as popular as her cookbooks, seemed to contemporaries a parody of the journalism of F. M. Dostoevsky and N. M. Danilevsky.

Encyclopedia of Russian life

The departed complex life - with a huge number of pots, cocotte makers, molds for timbales and pates, dessert forks, spoons for caviar, lafitniks made of colored glass and dozens of types of jam - caused melancholy for the life that was taken away from our ancestors in 1917. This feeling is wonderfully conveyed in an essay by Tatyana Tolstaya, who reviewed the English translation of A Gift for Young Housewives in 1992.

Where are you, salted writer,
Molokhovets, little holuyka,
The bliss of ten-pound carcasses
Owners of ten thousand souls?

* * *

The Smolny Institute of the times of Nicholas I was the most prestigious educational institution for girls in Russia. In any school, first of all, two sides are important - the program and social connections (and it is not known which is more important). Elena Burman studied with the daughters of noble and enlightened noble families - Olimpiada Turchaninova, Varvara Delvig, Elena Golitsyna, Vera Bunina, Zoya Bagration, Nadezhda Shenshina (Fet's niece).

In addition to French and dancing, Smolensk women were taught needlework, the beginnings of home economics and home economy - according to a detailed plan drawn up in 1818 by Empress Maria Feodorovna, the widow of Paul I. High school students were taken to the storerooms, explained to them "the properties and use of life supplies and how to save them", and taught to cook exemplary kitchen, that is, equipped with the latest state of the art of that time. In the 1840s, college girls got up at six in the morning, prayer began at 6:30, tea was served at seven, then, from 7:30 to noon, there were lessons, from noon to two - lunch and a walk, then until five again lessons, a break for an afternoon snack until six o'clock in the evening, after which the girls danced; Dinner at eight, went to bed at nine. Pupils helped to make the menu and calculate the cost of dishes. In this sense, their training was far ahead of its time.

* * *

With the beginning of the secularization of knowledge, they did not disappear - publications that tell about cooking, and about church holidays, and about raising children - in a word, about everything that a moral and pious family needs to know, were regularly published until the beginning of the 20th century. Food appeared in them not as an object of gluttony (gluttony is a mortal sin), but as a gift from God, and the task of the owner or hostess was to dispose of it reasonably and prudently.

But from the time of Peter the Great, cookbooks proper began to appear in Russia. They were translated - first from Polish and German, and at the end of the 18th century - from French. There were also original Russian records of recipes. The first edition with recipes for Russian cuisine - "Economic Instruction for Nobles, Peasants, Cooks and Cooks" by S. V. Drukovtsev, an official of the Main Provisional Office - was published in 1772. It was followed by N. P. Osipov’s “Old Russian Housewife, Housekeeper and Cook” (1790), the anonymous “Lenten Cook” (1793), published in Kostroma, “Folk Cookery” (1808) and “Russian Cookery” by V. A. Levshina (1816).

But only a professional cook could use them, able to decipher and put into practice a short record like "Greuse grouse or small birds fried with egg yolks, with turnip juice, a glass of Rhensky, with red broth".

During the reign of Nicholas, in the 1830s and 1840s, culinary literature multiplied and was in increasing demand. Publications on housekeeping and cookery become an indispensable accessory for the home library of the small and bureaucratic nobility and enlightened merchants. In the late 1830s, the Encyclopedia of a Young Russian Housewife appeared. Its author advised all young ladies "to have cookbooks and cook from them from time to time" so as not to be deceived by cooks and merchants. A new reading public appeared in Russia, which needed non-binding literature, written in understandable language, on all important issues. One of the hottest things was cooking. In boarding schools, and then in women's gymnasiums, practical home economics courses were introduced, this knowledge was considered necessary for home teachers and governesses, books and brochures were published, addressed to readers and readers of average incomes.

Their key words are "savings", "cheapness", "simplicity". If in the first third of the 19th century the imaginary space of the Russian cookbook was an aristocratic city house or estate, now we are talking about a rented apartment. The first real bestseller was "The Manual Book of a Russian Experienced Housewife" by E. A. Avdeeva, the elder sister of the journalist and historian Nikolai Polevoy (1842). The fame of this book was so great that they immediately began to imitate it, and copy the advice and recipes from it. The same fate - huge popularity and many pirated publications - awaited the book of Elena Molokhovets.

* * *

According to the Molokhovets book, housewives learned how to behave correctly in the market: not to buy products at the beginning of the season when they are expensive, to be able to distinguish whole milk from diluted milk, to dose perishable supplies (recall that there were no refrigerators then, and basement glaciers did not cope with the task perfectly). In her world, all the details were tightly fitted together, there were no gaps in which money flew out. Its basis is common sense, common sense, which suddenly makes Elena Ivanovna related to Victorian housekeepers. Conservativeness connects her with them: Molokhovets treated outdated and archaic recipes with the same frugality - suddenly come in handy! When the fashion for hygiene prompted her to write a medical manual, modern remedies coexisted in it with advice to cure sweaty hands with young frogs, and epilepsy with “magnetized water”, which caused an outraged review in the journal Health.

The world of readers of Molokhovets is raznochintsy, educated merchants, officials, zemstvo employees, writers and doctors, that is, a new middle class that is being formed on the ruins of Russian class society as a result of the great reforms of Alexander II. From now on, women were charged with bourgeois virtues - the ability to receive guests, manage the household, "set up a house." They were interested in the gymnasium successes of their children, read the Niva with supplements and followed the servants, who in this era were not numerous: a nanny, a cook and a maid, and in poorer families there was one servant “for everything”. Such were Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya, Maria Pavlovna Chekhova and Serafima Vasilievna Pavlova-Karchevskaya, the wife of the great physiologist. These women consider their family and household to be their main business, but they have an idea of “good manners”.

An educated woman had to dress discreetly, but elegantly, have her own dressmaker, and understand furniture. She knew how to provide first aid (this is the time when sisters of mercy and women doctors appear), she knew how to entertain children, she could keep up the conversation about politics and literature - and at the same time remain in the image of a “charming lady”.

The little that we know about Elena Ivanovna Molokhovets allows us to attribute her to this female type. In addition to cookery and household books, she composed music (and even published a polka in 1854), wrote a French textbook for children and a medical questionnaire. She had her own circle of friends (in 1889 she became a widow), and, in addition to the economy, she was very interested in spiritual and political issues. She had ultra-conservative convictions and was an ardent supporter of the monarchy. Her views on modern politics, regularly presented in pamphlets, far from being as popular as her cookbooks, seemed to contemporaries a parody of the journalism of F. M. Dostoevsky and N. M. Danilevsky.

In 1880, in the book The Fates of the West and East, she wrote: “Since 1848, in some kind of frenzied state, everything began to be corrupted in Russia with quick steps: husbands, in some kind of wild madness, began to leave their wives, their husbands’ wives, children rebelled against parents, younger against older, the Orthodox Church began to empty; instead of cheerful and carefree family festivities, which once united entire families of relatives and friends, clubs began to be erected with their gambling and indecent dances; theaters began to be erected with their terrifying, immoral scenes; whole flocks of foreign "camellias" came from all European states ... The West, thanks to apostasy from the grace of the true church, let its deadly poison all over the body of the Orthodox state.

In another pamphlet, she proposed to fight prostitution: to ban “all secret gynecological departments, all pornographic publications, all newspaper ads that corrupt youth, paintings, theater plays and novels”, increase the number of school lessons on Saturday, give everyone the means to marry from the age of 21, and move the brothels outside the city, surround them with a stone wall with a sentry, and let men in there only with personalized tickets from doctors. With these thoughts and ideas, she even turned to V. V. Rozanov, an influential conservative critic, to the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church and the chief procurator of the Synod, K. P. Pobedonostsev.

In addition to nationalism, Elena Ivanovna was fond of esotericism. Then it was not some kind of exotic hobby: in the 1870s, a huge fashion for spiritualism arose in Russia. Among those who were serious about communicating with the afterlife were the chemist A. M. Butlerov and the zoologist N. P. Wagner, and D. I. Mendeleev even organized a special commission to study spiritualistic phenomena. According to the conclusion of the commission, however, it turned out that spiritualism was a superstition.

The Russian spiritualists were headed by a native of a well-known Slavophile family, Alexander Nikolaevich Aksakov, the author of the term "telekinesis". The Rebus magazine, published by spiritualists, enjoyed wide popularity. It is difficult for us to understand how Orthodoxy was combined with the belief in the existence of subtle worlds, but then this did not cause much surprise.

Elena Molokhovets had two spiritualist friends, Evgenia Fedorovna Tyminskaya and Yulia Fedorovna Smolenskaya, who arranged table-turning sessions in an apartment on the corner of Vladimirsky Prospekt and Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street. For evenings, Wagner invited the widow A. G. Dostoevskaya, who lived next door, to them. Molokhovets accurately outlined and published Tyminskaya's revelations and her own prophetic dreams, maintaining a serious passion for spiritualism until her death in 1918.

The family of Molokhovets herself could serve as an example of relative social success. One of her sons, Leonid, rose to the rank of major general, the other, Konstantin, was a naval sailor (he died in Port Arthur), her grandson Vladimir served on the imperial yacht. But she herself remained in the circle of the new middle class. All of her non-culinary writings, from medical advice to soil advice on how to rebuild Russia, were eccentric at best. Therefore, Elena Molokhovets, one of the most prolific Russian writers, never entered the literary milieu. Out of economy, she also published her books on her own, although it is clear that such publishers as A.F. Marx and A.S. Suvorin would willingly take a commercially profitable author under their wing.

Russian literature of that time responded to the "Gift to Young Housewives" with parodies. Young Chekhov mocked Molokhovets, and Teffi wrote a whole story “Easter advice to young housewives” (1912): “Now let's move on to the most innocent and touching decoration of the Easter table - to a lamb made of butter. This elegant work of art is very simple to make: you tell the cook to roll an oblong spool of butter between her palms. This is the body of a lamb. From above you need to slap a small round spool with two raisins - this is the head. Then have the cook scratch the whole thing around with her nails so that the ram comes out curly. Attach a sprig of parsley or dill to your head, as if a ram satisfies its appetite, and if you feel sick, then leave the kitchen so that the cook does not see your cowardice.

Elena Molokhovets died in December 1918, according to one of the legends, from starvation. She was 87 years old, she survived four emperors and saw the end of her world. But what she carefully and in detail described in her cookbooks turned her - albeit against her will - into a writer of everyday life like Pylyaev or Gilyarovsky.

> Thematic catalog

Preface 3
DIVISION I 7
Table of measures and weights 7
Table of approximate prices of different products 8
General rules regarding the amount of provisions, for 6 people 12
Table of approximate roasting times for different foods in the oven 13
Roasting table on the stove 14
Table of approximate cooking times for various foods 14
Table of measures of pickles 16
Drawing and analysis of an ox, the quality of meat and its weight 16
Relative weight of different types of meat, in half an ox carcass, medium size 20
Meat Quality Recognition 21
Economic parsing of some large cuts of beef 24
Meat saving 26
A list of heterogeneous basic rules when preparing food 26
Eating leftovers 37
DIVISION II 40
Lunch menu 4 divisions 41
Register of cold snacks 87
SECTION III. Soups 104
A) Clear, yellow and red broths 109
B) White soups with flour dressing 121
Shchi 124
Borscht 128
C) White soups with egg yolks and cream 133
D) Soups from white, meat broth with cereals and sour cream 135
D) Meat soups 136
E) Fish soups 150
G) Butter soups (i.e. without meat and fish) 160
H) Milk soups 165
I) Hot, sweet soups from apples, beer, wine and berries 166
K) Cold soups 169
SECTION IV. Soup accessories 172
Toasts, croutons and tarts 172
Meatballs 173
Meat and fish quenelles (minced meat) 174
Olives, tomatoes 176
Cereals and noodles 177
Roots and vegetables 178
Dumplings 182
Eggs 184
Ears for cabbage soup 185
Pelmeni 185
Pies 186
Pie dough 187
Puff pastries 192
Pies from crumbly dough, chopped and yeast 195
Donuts or donuts 198
Yeast patties deep fried 198
Cheesecakes 100
Pancakes and loaves of pancakes 200
Pies-buns 201
Pies in tin molds and fried in batter 202
Minced meat in shells 203
Porridge for broth, cabbage soup and borscht 205
Croutons, otherwise croutons from cereals 206
SECTION V. Gravy or sauces 207
A) Preparation of various seasonings for sauces 208
B) Hot, flour sauces for meat dishes 211
C) hot sauces for vegetables 218
D) Hot sauces for hot fish and pâtés 219
E) Cold sauces for cold boiled and fried beef, piglet, game, poultry, ham, mayonnaise, aspic and cold fish 223
E) Sweet sauces for puddings, cereals, vegetables 224
SECTION VI. Dishes from vegetables and herbs and various side dishes for them 228
I-th group. Green vegetables 228
II group. herbaceous vegetables 234
III group. roots 250
IV group. fragrant herbs 270
V-th group. Mushrooms 272
SECTION VII. Beef, veal, lamb, piglet, pork, hare 281
A) Beef 281
B) Veal 312
C) Lamb 331
D) Piglet 339
D) Pork 342
E) Ham 346
G) Wild pig, chamois, venison, fallow deer 347
H) Hare 349
SECTION VIII. Poultry and game 351
A. Poultry 351
B. Game 375
Small game 383
SECTION IX. Pisces 387
SECTION X. Salads for meat and fish roasts 438
SECTION XI. Pies and pates 442
A) Pies 442
B) Pates 452
SECTION XII. Aspic, mayonnaise and other cold dishes for lunch and breakfast 466
A) Jellied, roll 466
B) Mayonnaise 472
C) Vinaigrette 481
D) Marinated fish and poultry served with breakfast or snack 483
SECTION XIII. Puddings, charlottes, soufflés, air pies and more 484
A) Puddings that are boiled in a napkin 486
B) steamed puddings 488
C) Puddings that are baked in a mould, in an oven 495
D) Charlotte 505
E) Souffle baked on a dish or in a charlotte 507
E) Air pies that are baked and served on the same dish 508
G) Various sweet hot foods that are baked and served on the same dish 510
H) Sweet foods that are mostly served cold 512
SECTION XIV. Apple dishes 516
SECTION XV. Pancakes, Russian pancakes, croutons. Egg dishes 520
A) Pancakes 520
B) Russian pancakes 524
C) Croutons otherwise croutons 528
D) egg dishes 530
SECTION XVI. Sorcerers, dumplings, dumplings, vermicelli or noodles, lazanki, pasta, cheesecakes, dumplings, etc. 533
A) Sorcerers, dumplings, dumplings 533
B) Vermicelli noodles 536
C) Lazanki 538
D) Italian pasta 539
E) Cheesecakes 541
E) Dumplings 542
SECTION XVII. Kashi 544
A) Semolina 544
B) Smolensk groats 545
B) Buckwheat small groats 547
D) Large buckwheat "Yadritsa" 548
E) Rice groats 549
E) Barley groats 552
G) Pearl barley 552
H) Oatmeal 552
I) Various cereals 553
SECTION XVIII. Wafers, tubes, wafers, brushwood, pancakes 554
A) Wafers 554
B) Ducts 556
C) Hosts 557
D) Brushwood 557
E) Fritters 558
SECTION XIX. Sweet pies and pies, cheesecakes, petish, donuts or donuts, dracheny, etc. heterogeneous flour dishes 560
A) Sweet pies, pies and cheesecakes 560
B) small cheesecakes 567
B) Petitsha 568
D) Donuts or donuts 569
D) Dracena 571
E) Miscellaneous sweet pies 572
DIVISION XX. Ice cream, creams, marshmallows, mousses, blamange, kissels, compotes, milk custards 576
A) Ice cream 576
B) Cream 582
C) Marshmallow or cream without glue 587
D) Whipped cream 588
E) Plombir 589
E) Parfait 591
G) Jelly 592
H) Mousse 598
K) Kiseli 601
L) Compotes 604
M) Dairy custards 607
DIVISION XXI. Cakes 610
A) Glaze 611
B) Different masses for transferring cakes 612
C) Cakes 613
SECTION XXII. Mazurkas and other small cakes 628
A) Mazurka 628
B) small cake 630
SECTION XXIII. Vegetarian table 683
SECTION XXIV-XXXVI. Lenten table 698
DIVISION XXXVII. Table setting and dishes 773
DEPARTMENT XXXVIII. Department of amendments and additions 783

Molokhovets Elena Ivanovna

A gift for young housewives, or a means to reduce household expenses

Publisher: Printing house N.N. Klobukova

Place of publication: St. Petersburg.

Year of publication: 1901

Number of pages: 1052 pages.

The book "A Gift to Young Housewives or a Means to Reduce Household Expenses" is a culinary bestseller of the 19th century. First published in 1861 in Kursk, it went through more than thirty reprints in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and has not lost its relevance today.

This unique collection of Russian cuisine recipes was originally published as a manual to help young housewives manage their household. The book contains recipes for a vegetarian and lenten table, examples of table setting and dishes, and a description of the various supplies needed in the household.

A distinctive feature of this book, in comparison with previous ones, is the exact, and not approximate, indication of the amount of ingredients used. Guided by the goal of reducing household costs, the author in all placed recipes indicated the exact proportion of all ingredients for 6 people.

A graduate of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, Elena Molokhovets strove to help young housewives with a small fortune and moderate expenses to have a constantly delicious, healthy and varied dinner.

Molokhovets E I

Modern hostess

FOREWORD

The kitchen is also a kind of science, which, without guidance, and if one cannot devote a few hours exclusively to it, is acquired not in years, but in dozens of years of experience, and this ten years of inexperience is sometimes very costly, especially for young spouses, and one often hears how in the course of time, the disorder of the state, and as a result of this, various displeasures in family life are mostly attributed to the fact that the hostess of the house was inexperienced and did not want to delve into and take care of the household herself.

This book has been compiled on the following grounds:

Housewives who wish to adhere to the issuance of provisions assigned in this book, please have in your pantry:

First, a tablespoon of silver spoon.

Secondly, a copper or tin collar, that is, ¼ of a bucket, and if possible, ½ of a collar and ¼ of a collar, which will facilitate them when dispensing milk, flour for rolls, etc.

Thirdly, an ordinary glass of medium size, not the largest and not the smallest; there should be 3 such glasses in a large bottle of champagne, i.e. in ¼ garnets, in 1 damask, i.e. in ½ garnets - 6, in 1 garnets, therefore, 12.

This glue comes in white and raspberry colors, so that jelly made from raspberry gillotine gets an excellent color.