Kissel or kisel is a simple dish with the consistency of a thick gel, and made of sweet fruit, berry, grains (oatmeal, rye, wheat), peas, or from milk.
Etymology
"Kissel" is derived from a Slavic word meaning 'sour', after a similar old Slavic dish—a leavened flour
porridge (or weak
sourdough) which was made from grain, most commonly
, but any grain, including
like
peas or
lentils could be used. Bean kissels were typically not leavened, and lacked the sweetness of the modern variants.
History
Grain-based kissels were known 9000 years ago in ancient Anatolia and Mesopotamia, they are mentioned in
and
Akkadian Empire texts.
In ancient times, oatmeal kissel was prepared by fermentation of
oat milk.
In Russia, oatmeal, rye or wheat kissel was an everyday dish, but also a ritual one, eaten at funeral feasts.
Oat-based kissel soup is one of the characteristic national dishes of Poland ( żurek) and Belarus.
In old Polish cuisine, the name kisiel or kisielica was used for thick soups (slush, , plural breje) made of fish gelatin.[ Caution:] In Western European languages, fruit and berry sweet kissels based on starch do not have a common name and are attributed to "fruit cereals", "gravy", "sautés", "fruit sauces" etc.
Among other dishes closely related to starch-solidified kissels are: rice pudding, flummery (British cuisine), Haferschleim (German), Turkish delight (Turkish), polenta (Italian) or mamalyga (Eastern-Roman).
File:Oats kissel 6.jpg|Sourdough kissel from oat flakes and rye bread
File:Podlaski kisiel owsiany.jpg|"Podlaski oat kissel" entered on the Polish List of Traditional Products
Fruit kissel
Fruit kissel is a viscous dish, popular as a dessert and as a drink in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe.
[ The Oxford Companion to Food (2014, ), page 446][ Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture (2013, ), page 73] It consists of the sweetened juice (or puree
) of berries. Sometimes
red wine, fresh, or
are added as well.
It is similar to mors, but usually thickened with
cornstarch or
potato starch;
arrowroot may be used as a substitute as well. The thickness varies depending on how much starch is used and on temperature. Thin kissel is most easily consumed by drinking, while thicker versions are almost like jelly and eaten with a spoon. Kissel can be served either hot or cold. Can be paired with sweetened quark or cream, can also be served on pancakes or with ice cream.
It is similar to the Danish rødgrød and German Rote Grütze.
Today, most Polish households prepare fruit kissel from instant mixes instead of the traditional way. The most popular flavours are strawberry, gooseberry, and raspberry. In Russia, the most popular flavours are cranberry, cherry, and Ribes rubrum.
In Lithuania, cranberry kissel (
In Finland, kissel is often made of bilberry (since they can often be found growing wild in forests, and are thus both easy to gather and free) as well as from prunes, apricots, strawberries, etc. Rhubarb can also be used (see #Vegetable kissel), but is often combined with strawberries to produce a sweeter flavour. Kuningatarkiisseli ('Queen's kissel') is made with mixed berries and berry juices, generally bilberries and raspberries. Prune kissel (luumukiisseli) is traditionally eaten with rice pudding at Christmas.
File:05166 Kissel, with bananas and grapes, Sanok 2011.jpg|Commercial strawberry flavour kissel from Poland
File:RusSyrnikiKissel.JPG|Russian syrniki with kissel
File:Kusil 020.jpg|Ukraine blackcurrant kissel as a drink
File:Finnishkiisseli.jpg|Finnish fruit kissel
File:Red Currant Kissel.jpg|Ribes rubrum and gooseberry kissel
Vegetable kissel
Less common, vegetable kissel is made from boiled or baked vegetables such as
rhubarb,
, or
beetroot.
Milk kissel
( or ; ) is a
creamy pudding, similar to
semolina pudding or
budino. It is made from
milk and
potato starch (Poland
) or
corn starch (Finland
[ Maitokiisseli. Valio]) and flavoured with sugar and
vanillin (or
vanilla) or
cocoa powder. It can also be enriched with the addition of
butter and
.
[video ]
It may be eaten as a dessert, alone, or garnished with fruit syrups, fruit sauce, fruit jam, fresh or dried fruit, or with cookies and biscuits.
It may also be used as an ingredient in cake creams (i.e. for karpatka or napoleonka). Most Polish households prepare milk kissel from Drink mix instead of the traditional way.
Pudding sprinkled with chocolate.JPG|Milk kissel sprinkled with chocolate
Vanillepudding mit frischen Erdbeeren.JPG|Vanilla milk kissel with strawberries
Cultural references
Kissel is mentioned in the
Primary Chronicle, where there is a story of how it saved the city of
Belgorod Kievsky in Kievan Rus', besieged by nomadic
Pechenegs in 997. When the food in the city became scarce, the population followed the advice of an old man, who told them to make kissel from the remnants of grain, and a sweet drink from the last
mead they could find. They filled a wooden container with the kissel, and another one with the mead drink, and put those containers into the holes in the ground, and built two fake
Water well over them. When the Pechenegian ambassadors came into the town, they saw how the inhabitants took the food from those "wells", and the Pechenegs even were allowed to taste the kissel and mead beverage. Impressed by that show and degustation, Pechenegs decided to lift the siege and to go away, having concluded that the
Ruthenians were mysteriously fed from the earth itself.
[ The Russian Primary Chronicle, Laurentian Text. Translated and edited by Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor. Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953, p.122. Kissel is translated as "porridge" in this edition.]
In Russian fairy tales, the land of marvels (similar to Cockaigne) is described as the land of "milk rivers and kissel banks". This expression became an idiom in Russian for prosperous life or "paradise on earth".
Another phrase common in Russia and Poland, "the seventh water after kissel" (, ), is used to describe a distant relative.
See also
Notes
External links
Recipes
