In early 1821, the German Baron Ferdinand Friedrich Georg
Ludwig von Wrangel was appointed to lead the Kolymskaya Expedition to explore
and survey the North-East coast of Siberia. He later, of course, published an
account of his experiences, and they provide a fascinating glimpse into local
life as well as the expedition experience.
What does an early nineteenth century explorer take along by
way of provisions for a foray into such cold, harsh territory? The Baron
outlined the basics in his narrative:
A
month's provisions for five men consisted of 21 poods (90 lbs. English) of rye
biscuit, 1 ½ pood of meat, 10 lbs. of dry soup tablets, 2 lbs. of tea, 4 lbs.
of sugar-candy, 8 lbs. of groats, 3 lbs. of salt, 39 portions of strong
spirits, 12 lbs. of tobacco, and 200 choice pieces of smoked yukhala. Each of us carried a musket and
fifty cartridges, a pike, and a large knife stuck into his girdle, to which was
attached the requisite apparatus for striking fire. As food for our dogs, we had 790 large muksun yukhala, 1,200 yukola of the same, and 2,400 fresh
frozen herrings. Our six provision sledges were entirely laden with the
eatables, and a part of our own stores we were obliged to make room for on our
travelling narti.
… for
the yearly consumption of the hundred families that compose the little
community of Nishney-Kolymsk, at least three millions of herrings are required.
Many oilier kinds of fish are caught at this time, among which is the Nelma, a
large description of salmon trout, but the first fish are generally thin, and
are mostly converted into yukhala for
the dogs; that is to say, cut open, cleaned, and dried in the air. From the
entrails an abundance of train oil is obtained, which is used for food as well
as for fuel. The yukola is
distinguished from the yukhala merely
by the selection of a better kind of fish, and by greater care in the
preparation.
“Russian” food was fashionable for a period of time during
the latter part of the nineteenth century. The following recipe sounds pretty
tasty, but being an absolute non-expert in “Russian” cuisine, I cannot speak to
its authenticity – whatever that means.
Siberian Lunch
Dish.
This
is a mince of beef or mutton, with either bacon or veal, mixed with a little
suet, a dash of onion juice, and grated nutmeg. These are put into little
“turnovers” of pie paste that is bound together with raw egg. The “turnover” is
a small circle of pastry folded over, and with the edges crimped or pinched
fast to hold the contents. Fruit turnovers are baked, but these meat turnovers
are boiled, being dropped as soon as sufficient are filled and pinched tight,
into boiling water. When cooked they float to the top, and are taken out with a
skimmer.
London Mercury November 23, 1889
2 comments:
A type of pirogi? I have a friend from Kazakhstan that made something similar. She wanted lamb suet but the best I could come up with, in the US, was pork fat. Boy, were they good. I don't remember any nutmeg in them though, just finely minced beef, onion, garlic, salt, pepper and the finely minced pork fat. She did say any red meat would work.
This is definitely a Russian recipe. They're called pelmeni, accent on the second syllable, and they can be made with various proportions of meat combination, as here, or mushrooms, onions, or pickled cabbage. Sometimes they're fried a little, just to get flecked with brown, after the boiling. Delicious on the plate with sour cream, or they can be served in soup.
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