Traditionally, the majority of Russians celebrate Maslenitsa. This year, more than 80 percent plan to participate in the celebration, only 12 percent refused to mark the annual festival of the meeting of winter and spring, sociologists found. The traditional Russian Maslenitsa was a bright folk festival with lots of food and entertainment. At the same time, the Church teaches that the purpose of this week is to prepare us for the Great Lent through reconciliation with our neighbours and granting forgiveness for injuries.
Beginning Monday, amongst Orthodox Russians, 80 percent of respondents indicated they would take part in Maslenitsa festivities by making and eating pancakes, about one-third (29 percent) plan to visit others or to entertain friends and family at home, and one-fifth of those polled (20 percent) are going to visit folk festivals, pollsters from the Yuri Levada Analytical Centre told Interfax. Meanwhile, despite the customary religious ban, 38 percent of respondents do not intend to give up meat during Maslenitsa week.
Maslenitsa is the most popular in the Far Eastern region; it has the largest number of those planning to make pancakes (92 percent) and to participate in folk festivities (38 percent). Southerners are much less likely than others to celebrate this week. In this group, the proportion of respondents who did not note Maslenitsa was twice as high as that found for the sample as a whole (23 percent versus 12 percent). However, as sociologists from VTsIOM found out, Moscow and St Petersburg exhibit a very low participation in the Maslenitsa celebration. In the two capitals, they found the lowest number for those who planning to make pancakes (59 percent versus 71-76 percent in other urban areas), to go visiting or to entertain guests (21 percent versus 34-40 percent, respectively), or to visit folk festivities (11 percent versus 24-33 percent).
Maslenitsa… one of the most cheerful, noisy, and vivid holidays. Mark it well; be forthright. Stuff yourself… drink it down… sing loudly… dance till you drop! Maslenitsa Week is the last week before the Great Lent. According to church canons, at this time, we no longer eat meat, but fish, eggs, dairy products, and eggs in abundance surround the main dish of the week, bliny (pancakes).
Cheese Calendar
The whole week has a special theme each day. Monday is “meeting”, Tuesday is “flirting”, Wednesday is “pig-out”, Thursday is “expansive Maslenitsa” (also called “Rowdy Thursday”), Friday is “Mother-in-law’s Evening, Saturday is “stuffed to the gills”, and on Sunday, the holiday is on the wane, we come to “seeing”, or Forgiveness Sunday.
Traditionally, each day this week we prepare and eat pancakes make according to the classical old home recipes. In olden days, this was women’s work. They had to prepare the starter, knead the dough, cook the pancakes, and bring them to those waiting at table; they did it all. Today, however, we see a new fashion. Modern men do not lag behind women and they show fantastic dexterity and skill in cooking pancakes, ruddy, spongy, and fragrant.
Ideal Proportions
In traditional Russian cuisine, there were tips on how to prepare the flour for pancakes. The best are made of a mixture of buckwheat and wheat. When a dough is formed, the starter is added. The starter is prepared in advance, using fresh yeast. The longer the yeast works, the better the dough rises, the more spongy and looser it becomes. A correctly chosen quantity of fresh yeast gives the final product a pleasant taste of slight acidity. If you use dry yeast, preparation time for the dough is reduced, but it changes the taste. However, the most important thing is to follow the recipe precisely. Then, you have to perfect your technique!
It’s best to use a well-heated cast-iron griddle (a drop of water should sputter when you cast it on the surface), then, oil its surface well. Pour the dough on the griddle, usually, people use a half-cup measure, but you can use slightly less depending on the size of the pan. Pour it in the centre, shaking the pan from side to side to shape the dough evenly. Fry the pancake for 2-3 minutes on each side.
When you stack the pancakes, slather each one liberally with butter. Most importantly… don’t stint on the melted butter, sour cream, cottage cheese, salted fish, eggs, jams, and honey. These are necessary accompaniments to pancakes, and some folks take then all at once!
Good eating!
Recipes
Editor’s Warning!
The original recipes are those using the metric measurements. The American units are approximate, you may have to jiggle them about a tad to get the proper consistency.
BMD
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Yeast Pancakes from the Moscow Region/Блины дрожжевые подмосковные
250 g/9 oz/2 cups buckwheat flour
50 g/2 oz/½ cup wheat flour
100 ml/½ cup milk
100 ml/½ cup warm water
5 g/1 Tsp dry yeast
10 g/1½ Tsp salt
25 g/1 oz/2 Tbsp sugar
vegetable oil (sunflower oil is traditional)
Combine the buckwheat, wheat flour, salt, sugar, add water, and stir it quickly to blend it thoroughly. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk; add it to the dough. Let the dough rest covered in a warm room so it can rise (at least an hour, I’d say… more is better). The finished dough should be thick. Cook the pancakes on a greased pan.
Classical Dough Pancakes/Классические блины на опаре
500 g/18 oz/4 cups wheat flour
500 ml/2¼ cups milk
10 g/1½ Tsp salt
100 ml/½ cup cream
2 eggs
50 g/2 oz/¼ cup sugar
50 g/2 oz (½ stick) softened unsalted butter
20 g/1½ Tbsp fresh yeast
vegetable oil
First, prepare the starter. Dissolve the yeast in 300 ml of warm milk, add 150 g of flour, mix it thoroughly, and leave it to rise in a warm place for at least an hour. Cream together the softened butter with the egg yolks, sugar, salt, and remaining milk. Once the dough rises, add the egg-oil mixture, and beat in the remaining flour, mix until it is thoroughly combined. Carefully mix and knead the dough several times. Let it rest in between. Add well-beaten egg whites to cream, stir them together carefully, then, fold them with care into the dough. When these pancakes are done, they are best served with sour cream, melted butter, salted fish, and caviare.
Kid’s Pancakes/Блины детские
150 g/6 oz/1¼ cup flour
2 eggs
50 g/2 oz/¼ cup sugar
10 g/1½ Tsp salt
100 ml/½ cup milk
vegetable oil
unsalted butter
Pour the flour, salt, sugar into a bowl; mix them together well. Separate eggs, beat egg yolks together with the milk. Pour in the flour, a bit at a time, stirring constantly, to avoid lumps in the batter. Whip the egg whites until they are light; fold them into the mixture carefully. Put the dough in the refrigerator. Cook until golden brown on a greased pan. After the pancakes are cooked, brush each one with softened butter. Spoon over yoghurt or berry jam, and fold each pancake in half before serving (these are nice dusted with icing sugar).
Dessert Pancakes/Блины десертные
250 g/9 oz/2 cups flour
4 eggs
500 ml/2¼ cups milk
3 g/ ½ Tsp salt
50 g/2 oz (½ stick) melted unsalted butter
10 g/1½ Tsp vanilla sugar
10 ml/2 Tsp white rum
Separate the eggs. In a deep bowl, mix all the ingredients together thoroughly except the butter and rum. The dough should be sticky and elastic. Add melted butter and rum, mix again. Beat the egg whites until light, then, fold them carefully into the dough. Let the dough rest covered in a warm place for 30 minutes. Cook pancakes for 3 minutes per side on a pan lightly greased with butter. These pancakes are best served with orange marmalade or lemon curd.
Quick Pancakes/Блины скорые
350 g/12 oz/2½ cups flour
300 ml/1¼ cup milk
7 g/1/2 Tbsp dry quick yeast
5 g/1 Tsp salt
100 ml/½ cup vegetable oil
50 g/2 oz/¼ cup sugar
3 eggs
Combine the eggs with the sugar and salt, beat until smooth. Combine the milk, 50 ml vegetable oil, and yeast, mix together thoroughly. Mix together the yeast and egg mixtures, taking care to see that they are completely incorporated. Add the flour gradually, beating continually, so that the dough has no lumps. If the dough appears too thick, pour in up to 200 ml of water, 50 ml at a time, and mix thoroughly after each addition. Let the dough rest covered in a warm place for 1 hour. When the dough increases in volume by half, stir it down, and allow it to rise again. Cook on a well-greased griddle.
Pancakes in the European Style/Блины по-европейски
400 g/14 oz/3 cups flour
50 ml/¼ cup milk
4 eggs
100 ml/ ½ cup beer
5 g/1 Tsp salt
50 ml/¼ cup vegetable oil
Mix together the flour, salt, and milk. Beat them well to avoid lumps. Pour in the beer, add the beaten eggs, and mix well. Leave the dough covered in a warm place for 2 hours. Cook on a well-greased griddle. You can top the finished pancakes with fried bacon, thinly sliced ham, and fried mushrooms.
Practical Tips
A recipe often specifies a particular product in a given quantity. However, often the same product can be presented in various forms. For example, there is both fresh and dry yeast. For simplicity of calculation, assume a ratio of 1 to 3. Manufacturers of dry yeast usually indicate the approximate ratio of 1 tsp dry yeast is equal to 12 g of fresh, 2 tsp to 25 g, etc.
There’s MUCH more to Orthodoxy than just long faces, rigorous fasts, and being sorry for one’s sins (in fact, the people who focus overly much on such aren’t very Orthodox at all). There’s FUN… and lots of it! The Good Lord beams to see us enjoy the life that He gave us… there are loads of things that are innocent and good fun. In fact, the devil only can offer us anodynes of the real joy that the Lord hands out by the bucketful. I’m NOT talking of “spiritual joy”… all too many who gas about that are neophytes who haven’t learnt “a cat sat on a mat” as far as religious matters go. I’m talking about the earthly joy that the Almighty hands out by the gross, if we would but only take it (and all too many don’t… they’re too busy judging others and memorising long lists of “forbidden” foods and actions).
I’ll bet you that most konvertsy have never even heard about Rowdy Thursday… let alone experienced the joy of the day. Let’s see… the walruses jump in ice holes, we have sack races, catch-as-catch-can ‘rasslin’ matches, sleigh rides, ice sliding, lots of good eats washed down with copious quantities of the real thing (no, not Coke, you doofus… VODKA)… in short, tons o’ fun. If you can’t take the earthly joy the Good Lord offers you, you’re not really Orthodox, it’s quite that simple, you can’t grasp the heavenly and the sublime, either. Silly rabbit…
BMD
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