Old Russian dishes: names

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Old Russian dishes were diverse, despite the fact that they were most often made of 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 manifested itself.

Features of ancient dishes

As already mentioned, in Russia all dishes were carved from wood, both for food and for drinking. That is why very few samples of real folk art have come down to us. Old Russian crockery is diverse - these are bowls, and ladles, and 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 antique gizmos.

What material was used

Not all types of wood were suitable for creating dishes. The most commonly used birch, aspen, coniferous trees. Soft linden was used to create spoons, pouring ladles. Moreover, the documentation contains ancient Russian dishes, the nameswhich attracts attention with its unusualness. For example, a straight spoon, a root ladle - such names do not tell us anything, modern people who are accustomed to glass and porcelain for table setting. In fact, 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 - both ruins, and bark, and flexible roots that are convenient to weave. And the most expensive dishes were considered to be made of burl - a growth on a tree.

Bucket

This old Russian crockery has come down to us in a modified form, because modern models are by no means made of wood. Metal ladles in modern Russia are often used in villages when equipping a bath. In ancient Russia, a 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 glassware for wine has always been elegant and interesting, for example, in the form of a boat, a floating bird. On the Northern Dvina, they created this dish with two handles that resembled the head and tail of a duck. An important role was also played by the bright painting with which these simple peasant attributes of life were decorated. 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, on his orders 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 from different regions

Moscow craftsmen created buckets from burl, which made it possible to preserve a beautiful pattern of texture. These products had the shape of a boat, a flat bottom, a pointed spout 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 of linden and resembled those in Moscow in shape, but were deeper and larger in volume. Ladles made by Tver craftsmen were hollowed out from the roots of trees, most often in the form of an elongated boat. And in the 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's or horse's head.

Bread box and s alt shaker

This ancient Russian utensil was also a mandatory attribute on any table, because bread and s alt 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, which is located between the bark and the core. Such dishes reliably protect bread from mold and moisture.

S alt in Russia was an expensive pleasure, so the creation of dishes for its storage was approached very carefully. The s alt box was made in two main forms - in the form of a high chair, in which the seat-cover rises, or in the form of a floating bird. Very beautiful and unusual looked old Russiandishes - the pictures show how much attention was paid to the elements of painting and carving.

Bratina, bowls and eyelids

If the names "ladle" and "s alt cellar" (although we often call it "s alt 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 from above by a neck-crown with bent edges. The ancient Russian ornament on the dishes of this type was very different. For example, a bratina made in the 18th century, decorated with painting 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 a lot: about the place and date of creation of the attribute, about its owner, and so on.

Were in use in the old days and bowls, which are 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 with a lid on top and additionally equipped with handles. It was used for various purposes: for baking pies, storing kvass, cooking meat dishes. Subsequently, this dish turned into a frying pan known to us.

Valley and cups

If everything is clear with cups, then the valley is an old Russian dish, the names of which were different: both a bowl andyandova, and brother. This dish is a round vessel made of copper or bast, which was used to drink beer, mead, home brew. Such vessels were stylized in the form of figures of a duck, goose, rooster, boat, and each region had its own drawings. Karelians still have such utensils - they create valleys from linden, oak, maple or birch wood.

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

Stavtsy and spoons

Old Russian wooden dishes are unusual and very colorful, and sometimes their names are very unexpected. For example, a stave was used for food, 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. Fruits and vegetables were also served in stavtsy in Russia. But there was also dishes for a specific type of fruit - lemongrass, vegetable, borage.

There were a large number of types of wooden spoons in Veliky Novgorod. Products that had a kind of raised stalk looked especially beautiful. Most often, braid was used as an ornament, which was carried out using the technique of contour carving. And in the northern regions, shadrovye were createdspoons inlaid with bones or fangs. In addition, in each region, the spoons had their own unique shape. For example, in the Gorky region they created ladles, salad, fishing, thin spoons, which were distinguished by a rounded and faceted handle-handle. The Kirov spoon was distinguished by an egg-shaped scoop and a flat handle.

Drinking Vessels

In Ancient Russia, all the utensils used for drinking were called drinking or drinking utensils. At the same time, the name of almost each of them is interesting and original in terms of origin. Perhaps the simplest and most understandable vessel is a jug - drinks were stored in it and served on the table. A variation of the jug was a kumgan, borrowed from the eastern neighbors, distinguished by a narrow neck, a long spout and a handle. Water was most often stored in kumgans, so they were of large volume. Pewter is also a type of jug. Various drinks were stored and served to the table in it. But with glass products in Russia, the situation was very interesting. So, already in the XII century, the word "glass" was known, but they were brought from other countries.

Glass utensils and old Russian wooden utensils look very interesting. Pictures from chronicles and ancient records show that most of these attributes were simple, concise, and differed only in drawings and ornaments. Cookware was named after its appearance or the material used to make it.