What does "birch porridge" mean?

Birch porridge ... The meaning of this winged expression evokes a slight smile, because in our days it is hopelessly outdated. But in the old days, the promise of the parent to feed his child with this "dish" gave the mischief many unpleasant minutes. The phrase "to give birch porridge" meant a kind of corporal punishment, that is, the usual whipping with a bunch of twigs cut from a white-stemmed tree. With the adjective "birch" everything is more or less clear, but where did the word "porridge" come from? There are several interesting versions on this score.

"Special cooking" rods

The phraseology "birch porridge" arose among seminarians trained in the spiritual schools - bursa. In the dictionaries of Dahl, Ushakov and other connoisseurs of Russian speech, this expression is synonymous with the word "rods". Teachers punished negligent students for any pranks and faults. They could pull it by the hair, hang it in the face, and whip it down with a ruler. If, however, all these measures did not produce a proper impact on the bursak, he was given a punishment by rods. The violator of the order was put on a wide bench, ordered to strip the soft spot just below the back, along which the birch whiskers were struck.

The raw material for the rods was harvested in advance and put in a closet, so that it was always at hand. Presumably, a bunch of dry rods, from which the leaves were ripped off early, the flogging of the penalty box was somewhat uncomfortable. Beat weakly - no effect, and you hit harder, just skin to the blood obderesh. To the unhappy child fully experienced the inevitability and "charm" of cruel punishment, the rods should be soft and elastic. To do this, shortly before the execution, they were steamed in a kadushka with hot water. That's where the expression "birch porridge" came from - by analogy with a dish of boiled cereal.

Mashanka from damp bark and fallen leaves

The path to knowledge for a medieval schoolboy was not easy. A rare lucky man managed to escape from an individual or general flogging. The latter was conducted for all students without exception, a couple of times a month in educational and preventive purposes. Corporal punishment by rods in most European countries has been used since ancient times for the adult population as a disciplinary sanction for petty offenses. In Russia, this method was abolished a little over a hundred years ago - in 1903.

It is not hard to imagine that after flogging in the water stuck in the water on the soft spot of the man who was mistreated, there were scrapes of bark, sodden knots, remains of leaves. Well, what is not birch porridge? Surely, this similarity was noticed by one of the perpetrators of the execution or by the onlookers watching the scene. The phrase acquired an ironic connotation and went out into the people.

Treat for the elect

Another version of the emergence of verbal turnover leads modern linguist Olga Aleksandrovna Anishchenko. In the study "Types of punishments and their names in the spiritual school of the XIX century", the candidate of philology explains in detail the meaning of phraseology "birch porridge". In the educational institutions of that time, there was a custom in honor of the transition to the next educational stage to arrange for seminarians a large festive dinner, where the main course was a porridge. Those students who did not excel at school were not invited to the festival. Teachers gloated, referring to the guilty: "And you have a porridge special, birch." This was a direct hint at the traditional flogging in such cases.

Punishment is severe, senseless and cruel

Execution with the help of rods was also called birch tea, a birch bath, a seminar porridge. According to the testimony of people who have passed courses of spiritual academies, pupils have been mercilessly slain for not only negligence, but also for innocent children's pranks, inflicting 100 or more blows.

In some educational institutions teachers showed indulgence towards their wards and stopped spanking in response to their cries and tears. In schools where teachers were not excessively sentimental, it sometimes happened that during the "educational measure" the boy lost consciousness, and later found himself in a hospital bed, or even went to another world.

Was the punishment effective? Probably not. Its main goal is to keep students in fear and obedience. It was hardly possible to drive the necessary knowledge into the head of an unfortunate obtus with birch rods, but you could easily leave it to the end of days crippled or even take your life.

The dish is hearty, sweet and buttery

But let's not talk about sad things. Finally, finding out what is the significance of phraseology "birch porridge", let us turn to the recipes of modern Russian cuisine. Apparently, some culinary so fond of a sonorous phrase that they summed up the technology for making delicious dishes.

Birch porridge can be cooked from half a glass of rice, taking twice as much liquid, seasoning with a pinch of salt. Ready meal is flavored with dried fruits, sugar, butter. Then give 10 minutes to stand under the lid, when served on the table decorate with nuts. It's very simple, but the main secret is that instead of water or milk, birch juice is used to make porridge.

Buckwheat in the pot for the second

Approximately the same way as rice porridge, cooks a dish of buckwheat. Groats and birch sap should be taken in the same proportions 1: 2. Porridge, placed in a clay potato pot and slightly podvoliv, are cooked until cooked in the oven at 180 degrees. Before serving, a hot dish is mixed with a finely chopped pickled cucumber, seasoned with vegetable onion and a piece of butter. Fast, tasty and original.

Probably, you can experiment with other cereals. No less appetizing will be a porridge on birch sap, cooked from mango, millet, pearl barley or Hercules. Fans of culinary fantasies can surprise their guests with delicious dishes, using as a supplement to cereals fruit, berries, nuts, mushrooms, fresh or pickled vegetables, spicy spices.

Porridge from birch bark

Previous recipes, of course, are good. But you will not be surprised by the true gourmets. They will certainly want to taste real birch porridge. It turns out that this also exists, and it is prepared from the bark of a tree. No, we do not eat birch bark. How many do not cook it, it still will not do anything good. But if this very birch bark is removed, a less dense vascular tissue of brown color, called a brow or a phloem, is found beneath it.

Tourists caught in extreme situations, argue that the phloem can be eaten and raw. To do this, you need to very thinly scrape it off the trunk with a knife. This woody layer is also suitable for making porridge. Brewing will take a long time, until the bast does not turn into a homogeneous semi-liquid mass. We must assume that the birch porridge, like any other, can not be spoiled with oil. Season the dish with salt and sugar to taste, too, is not forbidden.

Birch buds and young leaves scalded with boiling water are quite edible. Of these, salads are prepared in combination with various greenery, added as flavorings to soups, broths, grilled meat.

How the main ingredient is mined

We hope that some time will pass and phraseology "birch porridge" will cease to be associated with corporal punishment. And in order to cook a delicious cereal dish, we have to go to the forest for birch juice. To collect sweetish vitamin nectar follows in the early spring with the onset of the first thaw, before the swelling of the kidneys.

At this time, the movement of wood juices begins. The birch is chosen young, with a bulky stem. A hand drill or a twist in a tree is drilled with a hole into which a tin or plastic groove is inserted. An empty container is suspended from below, where the birch sap will flow. For a day you can get from 3 to 10 liters. After the end of the collection, the hole in the trunk of the tree should be sealed with clay or wax.