Easter dishes. Cottage cheese Easter and its meaning

Easter is the central event in the spiritual life of every Christian. That is why this holiday should be celebrated with special reverence, identity and joy.

On Easter day, a lot of food was traditionally prepared for the festive table, lamb was baked, veal was fried, and ham was cooked. In accordance with tradition Easter table no hot food was served. It was not customary to serve fish at the Easter table on this holiday.

The Easter table was distinguished by its festive splendor and was especially beautiful, tasty and plentiful. Easter cakes and Easter cakes have always been decorated with flowers. These flowers were made from colored paper and used to decorate the dining room and walls of the house, icons and festive tables.

Painted eggs were placed on fresh greens of sprouted wheat, oats, or on young and soft green leaves of watercress. The greens were specially sprouted for Easter.

Easter has always been a family holiday.

To the old ones good times The obligatory symbol of the Easter table was a lamb, as a symbol of the sacrificial death of Christ. Lamb was prepared from sugar or butter. Previously, there were special molds for baking lamb or for making butter lamb. Ready-made lambs made from butter and sugar were sold in stores.

In our troubled times, the main Easter decorations have become colored eggs, Easter cottage cheese and, most importantly, the dish Easter cake.

Easter is not just cottage cheese with raisins, but an important Christian dish. Traditionally, Easter consisted of cottage cheese with sour cream and cream pressed into a truncated pyramid with an image of a cross and the letters “ХВ”.
Do you know what Easter symbolizes? This is a symbol of the Holy Sepulcher. And the letters “ХВ” remind people that Christ became an Angle, slain for human sins.

Kulich

According to legend, Jesus Christ, after the Resurrection, came to the apostles while the apostles were having a meal. The middle place was not occupied, and in the middle of the table lay the bread intended for Him. Over time, a tradition arose of leaving bread in the temple on the festive Resurrection. And they left it on a special table. Exactly the way the apostles did it.

Since the family has long been considered a “small church,” over time the custom of having its own bread arose. Easter cake became this “own bread” (from the Greek kollikion - “round bread”). Easter bread was baked round in memory of the shroud of Christ, which had a similar shape. As for the Easter cake dough, according to legend, before his death Christ ate unleavened bread with his disciples, and after the miraculous Resurrection they began to eat yeast bread.

Easter cake is traditionally prepared on Holy Thursday, i.e. on the day that symbolizes Last Supper. In the kitchen where the cake is baked there must be absolute silence; doors and windows must not be opened. And you can't talk loudly. Ancestors believed that doors and windows are a connection with outside world, in which evil forces live.

In general, Easter cake dough is incredibly capricious. It simply does not tolerate drafts, temperature changes and fuss (or haste) during cooking. Therefore, it will not be possible to cook Easter cake quickly.

Easter photos

Resurrection of Christ
Princess E. Gorchakova

On Easter Day, playing joyfully,
The lark flew high,
And in the blue sky, disappearing,
He sang a song of resurrection.

And they repeated that song loudly
And the steppe, and the hill, and the dark forest.
“Wake up, earth,” they said,
Wake up: Your King, your God is Risen!

Wake up, mountains, valleys, rivers,
Praise the Lord from Heaven.
Death is conquered by him forever -
Wake up, you too, green forest.

Snowdrop, silver lily of the valley,
Violet - bloom again
And send up a fragrant hymn
To Him Whose commandment is love.”

Easter recipes

Easter Tender

To prepare Easter for this recipe you will need:

• Cottage cheese 18% fat - 500 g
• Cream 30% fat - 300 ml
• Powdered sugar – 150 g
• Yolks – 4 pcs.
• Lemon – 1 pc.
• Light raisins – 100 g
• Candied fruits – 120 g
• Chocolate – 50 g
• Vanilla sugar – 10 g.

Preparing Easter:

1. Soak candied fruits and raisins in warm water for 2 hours. Dry.
2. Remove the zest from the lemon using a fine grater.
3. Grind the lemon pulp into puree.
4. Beat the cottage cheese with a blender into a smooth, creamy mass. Gradually add lemon zest and vanilla sugar mixed with powdered sugar, yolks and lemon puree. Stir until smooth.
5. Add raisins and candied fruits to the curd mass, mix gently.
6. Line the Easter pan with gauze. Place the curd mass on the gauze and press the mass with a weight. Place the mold in a large cup and refrigerate overnight.
7. Before serving, remove the Easter from the mold, grate the chocolate and decorate the Easter.

Easter White light

White chocolate will add an exquisite taste to Easter.
To prepare Easter recipe you will need:

• Cottage cheese (preferably farm cottage cheese) plastic – 1 kg
• White chocolate – 200 g
• Butter (sweet cream) 82.5% - 200 g
• Yolks – 6 pcs.
• Powdered sugar with natural vanilla – 150 g
• Yellow (golden) raisins – 200 g
• Rum – 100 g
• Sea salt - a pinch.

Preparing Easter:

1. Pour boiling water over the raisins, dry and pour in rum. Close the container with raisins and rum and leave for 18 hours (preferably 36 hours).
2. Place the cottage cheese in a kitchen waffle towel or gauze folded in several layers. Place the towel with cottage cheese in a colander, the colander in a large basin. Place a heavy weight on top of the cottage cheese. Leave for at least 4 hours.
3. Rub the cottage cheese through a sieve.
4. Chop the chocolate and butter into small pieces and melt in a water bath (or in the microwave). Cool slightly.
5. Beat the yolks with salt and powdered sugar - add to the chocolate mixture and mix.
6. Combine with cottage cheese and beat with a mixer until fluffy (about 10 minutes).
7. Add raisins and rum and stir until raisins are evenly distributed.
8. Line the Easter pan with gauze, lay out the curd mass and cover the mass with the ends of the gauze.
9. Place Easter in the refrigerator for 12 hours (preferably 36).
10. Before serving, decorate as you wish.

Easter cake with glaze

Very beautiful and tasty cake.

For the dough:

• Yeast: 13 g dry or 25 g fresh
• Wheat flour – 130 g
• Milk – 200 ml
• Granulated sugar – 15 g

For the test:

• Wheat flour – 320 g
• Granulated sugar – 150 g
  Butter – 150 g
• Vegetable oil – 30 ml
• Yolks - 120 g
• Candied fruits – 100 g
• Raisins – 100 g
• Rum – 60 ml
• Vanilla – 1 pod
• Ground nutmeg, cardamom, ginger and salt - to taste.

For the glaze:

• Protein – 1
• Powdered sugar – 130-150 g
• Lemon juice – ½ teaspoon.

Preparing Easter cake:

1. Cut the candied fruit into pieces, mix with raisins and rum. Leave until ready to use.
2. Heat the milk to 36-38 degrees, mix with crushed yeast, sugar and flour, mix and leave in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.
3. Drain and save the remaining rum, dry the candied fruits and raisins on a paper towel.
4. In a large bowl, mix the dough with sugar, softened butter and vegetable oil, yolk, rum, vanilla seeds and spices to taste, and salt. Stir until smooth.
5. Add sifted flour, raisins and candied fruits. Knead into a homogeneous soft dough. Divide the dough in half.
6. Divide the dough into the molds, filling the molds no more than 2/3 of the volume. Keep the molds with the dough in a warm place for 1-1.5 hours.
7. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes at a temperature of 165 -170 degrees.
8. Cool the cake.
9. For cooking sugar icing mix powdered sugar with egg white and lemon juice. Drizzle this glaze over the cakes.
10. Decorate the cake to your liking.

Easter cake with yolks

To prepare Easter cake according to this recipe you will need:
For the dough:

• Milk – 200 ml
• Granulated sugar - 1 tablespoon
• Fresh yeast – 30 g
• Wheat flour – 1 cup (not full).

For the test:

• Butter – 70 g
• Butter for greasing the pan
• Egg yolks – 5 pcs.
• One egg yolk for greasing Easter cake
• Granulated sugar – ½ cup
• Salt - a pinch
• Wheat flour – 2.5-3 cups
• Breadcrumbs.

Preparing Easter cake:

1. To prepare the dough, mix warm milk with sugar, add yeast and sifted flour. Stir and place in a warm place for 20 minutes.
2. Grind the yolks with sugar, add salt and softened butter. Add the mixture to the risen dough and mix well.
3. Pour in most of pre-sifted flour and knead a soft elastic dough. The longer you knead the dough, the tastier the cake will be. Cover the dough with a napkin and leave it in a warm place.
4. Once the dough has doubled in volume, knead the dough again. If necessary, add flour. Cover the dough with a napkin again and leave it in a warm place for several hours.
5. Grease the cake pans with butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Divide the dough into parts and place in molds (1/3 volume). Let the dough rise. Brush the top of the cake with whipped yolk.
6. Bake the cake at 180 degrees for 40 minutes.

Easter in 2018, the main Christian holiday established in honor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is celebrated on April 8. On this day they will begin folk festivals, and the main dishes will be eggs, Easter cakes and cottage cheese.

In the Orthodox tradition, Easter is considered the “king of days.” The main event of the festival is the service in the temple. The Easter service begins on the night from Saturday to Sunday. During Holy Saturday and after the Easter service in churches, everything that is

Prepared for the holiday table. The first dish during the Easter meal is an egg, which is traditionally cut into pieces according to the number of people sitting at the table. After this, everyone receives a slice of Easter cake and a spoon cottage cheese Easter. Then red wine and the rest of the holiday food are placed on the table.

Each family has long prepared its own special dishes for Easter, which were based on Old Russian cuisine. Various snacks were placed on the table, jellies, liver cauldron, nanny - stewed buckwheat porridge with lamb meat and rennet, roast with mushroom seasoning, beef with turnips, boiled pork in hay with beer, duck with honey or goose fried with juniper.

Kissels and sbitni were cooked, and homemade liqueurs and wines were provided. Prosperous owners served 48 different dishes - according to the number of days of the expired fast. But in addition to family dishes, ritual dishes were also indispensable attributes of the holiday.

Cottage cheese Easter (in the foreground)

Easter (cottage cheese Easter, paska) is a special dish made from cottage cheese, which, according to Russian tradition, is prepared only once a year - on Easter. The custom of preparing cottage cheese Easter is known in the central and northern regions of Russia, while in the south of Russia and Ukraine Easter or Easter bread is called holiday bread (Kulich).

Tradition and symbolism

The original form of Easter is a truncated pyramid, symbolizing the Holy Sepulcher. Traditionally, a special collapsible wooden form was used to prepare Easter - Easter girl. Nowadays, other utensils are often used for this; In Russia there are also industrially produced plastic bean boxes on sale.

A wooden bean box is made from planks, on inside in which the letters “ХВ” are cut out, meaning the greeting “Christ is Risen!”, as well as images of a cross, a spear, a cane, sprouted grains, sprouts and flowers - symbols of the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ (sometimes also a dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit). These drawings and the inscription are then imprinted on the finished Easter. Two boards have ears, and the other two have holes for the ears. For greater strength, wedges are inserted into the holes of the ears.

Cooking method

There are two types of Easter: raw and boiled. Since raw cottage cheese cannot be stored for a long time, raw paskhas are usually made in small sizes.

The cottage cheese is placed under pressure to remove excess whey, then rubbed through a sieve twice. For raw Easter, all ingredients are thoroughly ground into a homogeneous mass. For boiled Easter, this mass is also heated in a saucepan over a fire. Then the pan is lowered into a container with cold water and, gradually stirring, bring the mass until it cools completely. Then the mass is placed in a bean bag lined with muslin, damp gauze or just a soft napkin. The mold is placed under slight pressure in the cold, but not in the cold - for 12 hours. Having removed the bean bag from the cold, place it with its wide base on a dish, disassemble it and remove the gauze so as not to damage the drawings.

Together with other Easter dishes (Easter cakes, babas, colored eggs), Easter is blessed in the church and served at the festive table.

• There is a Church in St. Petersburg Holy Trinity 18th century, known as “Kulich and Easter”, since the church itself is shaped like an Easter cake, and the bell tower is shaped like Easter. The church has the appearance of a rotunda, surrounded outside by Ionic columns and decorated inside with white Corinthian pilasters; bell tower - a type of tetrahedral pyramid, with a baptismal chapel on the first and a belfry on the second tier. The temple owes this unique architecture to its customer, Prosecutor General Prince Alexander Vyazemsky.

Every year all christian world celebrates great holiday Easter. Each element festive table- this is a symbol, and three components - colored eggs, Easter cakes and cottage cheese Easter have become traditional in Orthodox countries. It is Orthodoxy in modern Christianity that is the custodian of the traditions of the Easter festival, both in the spiritual and in the culinary sense. The Easter table, if you look at it from a gourmet point of view, is rather poor: colored eggs, Easter cake, and sweet curd mass. If you look at the festive table with the eyes of a person who fasted for 40 days and observed strict Orthodox rules abstinence, then these three dishes will be a feast. And often it turns out that way, because Easter cake made from the best ingredients with the freshest cottage cheese and aromatic tea plunges the fasting person into culinary pleasure, which, however, cannot be called gluttony. This ascetic feast is the basis Orthodox attitude for the Easter holiday, where it is not the quantity that matters, but the quality and symbolism of food. Although Lent and completed, meat and fatty dishes are still not welcome, so as not to destroy the bright mood of believers, created during the 40 days of fasting.

The custom of painting eggs for Easter most likely comes from the legend of Mary Magdalene’s sermon. When Mary appeared before the Emperor of Rome Tiberius and spoke about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, he laughed and said that he believed in it just as much as he believed that the chicken egg lying in front of him would turn red. A moment later the egg turned red. This miraculous transformation of an ordinary egg into a red one is considered by believers to be proof of divine power. In memory of this they paint on Easter chicken eggs. According to other versions, the egg is a symbol of new life, a miraculous transformation, and even a model of the Universe.

Kulich, in essence, is bread that symbolizes food in every sense. The festive Easter cake, of course, is far from black bread and is a delicious pie, more like a cupcake. Easter cakes are often made with raisins and cottage cheese. Kulich is made from the best products. It should be truly festive and very different from ordinary everyday food. On Easter cakes they spread dough or write in some other way two letters - ХВ, which means Christ is Risen!

Curd mass or Easter is another element of the festive table. There are versions that curd masses, like cottage cheese itself, are one of the most ancient sacred foods associated with fertility and the worship of fertility deities. Multiple rituals of antiquity ( spring rite greetings to the earth, the first plowing of the field) were carried out using cottage cheese and other dairy products, which had symbolic meaning. Cottage cheese is more than food; This is the best thing about milk, its essence, the most nutritious and beneficial for humans. And pureed cottage cheese, and even with sugar and the best butter, is the highest gift of nature. For common man in the past, such luxurious food was available only once a year, so it took a long time to make and from the best ingredients. With the adoption of Christianity, traditions gradually changed, and the meaning of the symbol was lost in the pagan past. The main thing remains - on Easter, the most important holiday in Christianity, treats were made with special care and love. Cottage cheese Easter cakes were blessed in churches and had the essence of “blessed” food.

Until the 18th century, curd masses were loose and were not even made from cottage cheese. Rather, it was sour milk that was collected by the entire village and fermented. Since the 18th century, hard cottage cheese, cream or butter, eggs, sour cream and sugar have been used to make Easter. In addition, it was allowed to include nuts, candied fruits, raisins and spices - the most expensive overseas products - in Easter. Initially, Easter looked like a truncated pyramid. In addition to the fact that it is a symbol of Golgotha, the truncated pyramid is also the strongest ancient symbol striving for excellence. Almost all ancient cultures there are buildings that look like a truncated pyramid. Even the legendary ones Egyptian pyramids originally had a truncated form. According to many scientific, non-scientific, religious and mystical theories, this form concentrates energy, and in Orthodox meaning- the grace of God.

All curd masses can be divided into two types: raw and custard or, in other words, heated. Technologically, raw pastes are quite simple: the cottage cheese is thoroughly ground through a sieve, becomes fine and crumbly, then mixed with the rest of the ingredients. Distinctive feature method - long and thorough grinding of the cottage cheese. This part of the process is the most important. The sequence of mixing products is also important.

The second type of pasta is custard. In them, all the products are mixed and then boiled or simmered over low heat for about an hour. Sometimes raw products are added to the finished mass. There is also a third type - confectionery pastes. In this case, the finished mixture is baked in the oven. Confectionery pastes are not pressed, unlike raw and custard pastes.
The pressing process is required only for the custard mass; the raw mass does not need to be pressed, since in this case some of the nutrients are lost.

Recommendations for preparing raw Easter

1. Choose cottage cheese with the finest grain and the least fat. If it is purchased, then best option- low-fat cottage cheese.
2.Wipe the cottage cheese separately from all components.
3. Mash the cottage cheese (or pass through a large sieve). Add powdered sugar, sour cream and butter, grind with these ingredients. Grind the eggs with sugar separately until lightened. The lighter the better. Ideally, eggs with sugar should look like a thick paste of a very light shade.
4.Combine both parts, mix thoroughly, the mass should be as homogeneous as possible.
5.You can add some spices (in powders).
6.Add heavy whipping cream or egg whites (or a mixture of both). Mix everything thoroughly again.
7.Add raisins, candied fruits or nuts. Mix the mass so that it is all evenly distributed throughout the entire volume (grinding is no longer required).

Raw Tvo Recipeshorny masses
(All masses have the same preparation technology, so only the ingredients are indicated).

Fast

600 g cottage cheese,
150 ml whipped cream,
100 g sugar,
beaten white of one egg,
½ teaspoon vanillin.

Regular

800 g cottage cheese,
200 g butter,
1 tbsp. whipped cream,
1 tbsp. Sahara,
½ tsp. vanillin.

Plain with raisins

1 kg of cottage cheese,
200 g butter,
1.5 tbsp. whipped cream,
400 g sugar,
50 g egg whites,
1 tsp. lemon zest (more if possible),
100 g raisins,
50 g candied fruits.

Walnut

1.2 kg cottage cheese,
1 tbsp. sour cream,
1.5 tbsp. whipped cream,
400 g walnuts.

Full

2 kg cottage cheese,
400 g butter,
2 tbsp. whipped cream,
2 tbsp. Sahara,
3 egg yolks,
2 tsp. lemon zest,
½ tsp. vanilla,
100 g candied fruits.
Feature: aged for 2 days!

Recommendations for preparing custard Easter

1.Mix all ingredients according to the same procedure as the raw mass. In some (specially specified cases) some of the components are added at the very end - into the almost cooked mass.
2.Put the resulting mixture on the fire and cook on the lowest heat for about an hour. Don't forget to stir the mixture constantly. Cooking is a long process, and it would be a shame to spoil the result with a burnt mass at the end of cooking.
3.Add additional or specially set aside ingredients for the recipe, mix thoroughly and leave to cool.
4. Place the cooled mass in a clean linen, not very thick napkin and place under a press between two boards or in an Easter mold shaped like a truncated pyramid. The mass should remain under pressure for 12 to 48 hours.

Recipes forcooking masses

Ingredients:
1 kg of cottage cheese,
200 g butter,
300 g sour cream,
2 eggs
1 tbsp. Sahara,
1/4 tsp. vanillin

Preparation:
Grind cottage cheese, butter, sour cream and eggs. Place in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring continuously. Add the rest of the ingredients to the almost finished mass, mix, cool and put under pressure for a day.

Ingredients:
1.5 kg of cottage cheese,
100 g butter,
3 eggs
1.5 tbsp. cream,
200 g sugar
zest of 2-3 lemons.

Preparation:
Squeeze homemade cottage cheese under pressure for at least 6 hours. Grind with the remaining ingredients and heat over low heat for 1 hour. Stir the mixture continuously and do not let it boil or burn. After an hour, put it on ice to cool and put the cold one under pressure for 16-22 hours.

Ingredients:
600 g cottage cheese,
200 g butter,
400 g sour cream,
4 eggs,
2 tbsp. Sahara,
0.5 tbsp. almonds,
1 tbsp. raisins,
6 tsp. lemon zest,
1/4 tsp. vanillin.

Preparation:
Grind all the products in the recommended sequence, including sugar, add almonds (peeled) scalded with boiling water and raisins. Chop nuts and raisins. Place the finished mixture on the lowest heat, and do not let it boil, stir the mixture for an hour. After the specified time has passed, add the remaining ingredients (zest and vanillin), transfer the cooking container to ice and wait until it cools down. Place the cool mass under a press for 20-24 hours.

How did the custom of preparing Easter cottage cheese and Easter cakes for the Easter table arise?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

By ancient legend, The Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection came to the apostles during their meals. The middle place remained unoccupied; in the middle of the table lay the bread intended for Him. Gradually, a tradition arose on the holiday of Resurrection to leave bread in the temple (in Greek it was called “artos”). It was left on a special table, as the apostles did. Throughout Holy Week artos is worn during religious processions around the temple, and on Saturday after the blessing it is distributed to believers. Since family is small Church, then the custom of having your own artos gradually appeared. This is how Easter cake became (from the Greek kollikion - round bread) - tall, cylindrical, bread made from butter dough. This word entered European languages: kulich (Spanish), koulitch (French). Having Easter cake on the table during the Easter meal, we have hope that the risen Lord is invisibly present in our home.

Easter cottage cheese (in the Trebnik - “milky thickened”, that is, cottage cheese) has the shape of a truncated pyramid, which symbolizes the coffin in which the greatest miracle of the Resurrection took place. Therefore, on the top side there should be the letters “ХВ”, meaning the greeting “Christ is Risen!” On the sides of the bean bag (form), according to tradition, images of a cross, a spear, a cane, as well as sprouts and flowers are made, symbolizing the suffering and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On Easter days, Christians greet each other with a joyful, victorious exclamation of “Christ is Risen!” At the same time, kissing has been accepted since apostolic times. According to tradition, believers give each other red eggs. Tradition says that this custom originates from Mary Equal to the Apostles Magdalene, who presented Emperor Tiberius with a red egg with the greeting “Christ is Risen!” The egg serves as a symbol of the coffin and the emergence of life in its very depths; painted with red paint, it marks our rebirth through the blood of Jesus Christ.