Kissel is a type of porridge made in Russia, Poland, the Baltic countries, Germany, and Denmark, whose origins date from the 10th century. There is a story about its making in The Primary Chronicle (aka The Tale of Bygone Years) that was compiled by the Kievan monk Nestor in the early 1110s. The historical accuracy of this work has been debated by modern scholars but it provides a wealth of information about medieval Eastern Slavs that's intresting not only to historians. Among other things, The Primary Chronicle describes the life, culture, and beliefs of those people. Its three surviving codices are beautifully illuminated with scenes from major chapters, of which one narrates the siege of Belgorod by the Pechenegs in 997.
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| Illumination of the kissel episode from the Ratziwil Chronicle (originally, 13th century) |
Belgorod Kievsky was a legendary city in Kievan Rus' (modern Ukraine) that flourished between the 10th and 12th centuries. It was established by Vladimir I of Kiev, Prince of Novgorod, who built his castle there in order to protect the area from the Drevlyans - another Eastern Slavonic tribe - as well as from steppe nomads, like the Pechenegs. According to The Primary Chronicle, Belgorod was miraculously saved from the Pechenegs when the general assembly of the city was advised by an old man to prepare some food and drink and hide them in wells. So when the Pechenegs came, they assumed that Belgorod people were being nourished from the earth and therefore invincible. The victuals hidden in the ground were porridge and mead from leftover cereals and fruit. The combination of these staple foods was kissel. In Russian & other Slavonic languages, the word means sour, which is the dominant taste of the porridge because of the fruit acids.
Unfortunately, no recipe exists for the original kissel but the traditional versions surviving in modern cuisines use oats and, generally, red fruit. Kissel is often a fruit drink or a jelly topped with sour cream, vanilla custard, icecream etc. but it can also be a porridge garnished with stewed fruit. In the first case, a variable amount of starch (like corn flour) is used for thickener. In modern adaptations red fruit is cooked with sugar but in the early recipe the sweetness came from mead.
KISSEL
This is not exactly the kissel that saved Belgorod Kievsky - not least because it doesn't use mead. The nearest I got to making jelly with alcohol was in the recipe for English trifle, in which I mixed water, sugar, corn flour and Heering liqueur.
version 1 - Oat porridge with bilberry jam
I n g r e d i e n t s
500ml whole milk
3tbsp rolled oats, ground
3tbsp corn flour
1tbsp honey
2tbsp bilberry jam
M e t h o d
Place the milk and honey in a saucepan. Add the oats and corn flour and heat gently, stirring continuously with a metal spoon. Remove when the mixture thickens. Fill two ceramic bowls and top each with a spoonful of jam.
version 2 - Rich bilberry jelly (gelatine-free)
I n g r e d i e n t s
250ml water
1tbsp rolled oats, ground
1tbsp corn flour
1tbsp bilberry jam
M e t h o d
Place everything in a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring from time to time until set. Fill two individual ramekins and serve warm or cold.
Variations
Use other kinds of red fruit or any colour you like.
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