Legends were made about the feasts of those times. There were rumors that sometimes they lasted up to ten hours, the stewards brought up to 200 different dishes to the royal chambers. As a result, boyars and overseas guests overeat to such an extent that they could hardly get up from the table. At the same time, the sovereign himself hardly touched food.
“When John appeared, everyone stood up and bowed low to him. The king walked slowly between the rows of tables to his place, stopped and, looking around the meeting, bowed in all directions, then read a long prayer aloud, crossed himself, blessed the meal and sat down in his chairs. (…) Many servants in violet-colored velvet caftans, with gold embroidery, stood before the sovereign, bowed to him at the waist, and went two in a row to get food. They soon returned, carrying two hundred and two roasted swans on golden platters. This started lunch.
When the swans were eaten, the servants left the room in pairs and returned with three hundred fried peacocks, whose loose tails swayed over each dish in the form of a fan (…). While the guests were eating, the servants brought ladles and cups of honey: cherry, juniper and bird cherry. Others served various foreign wines: Romanesque, Rhine, and musket (…). The servants, who were in velvet clothes, now appeared all in brocade dolman.
This change of dress was one of the luxuries of the royal dinners. First they put various jellies on the tables, then cranes with a spicy potion, pickled roosters with ginger, boneless chickens and ducks with cucumbers ", - this is how the writer Alexei K. Tolstoy describes the feast that Ivan the Terrible threw for 700 oprichniks in the book" Prince of Silver " …
Table setting
Such feasts were usually served by 200-300 people. At first, the table was covered with white embroidered tablecloths, then seasonings were placed: horseradish, mustard, salt, pepper and vinegar. At the same time, bowls with pieces of bread, spoons, knives lay on the served tables - forks were not used at that time. They appeared in France during the reign of Louis XIV.
Pavel Pleshanov. Tsar Ivan the Terrible and Priest Sylvester during the great Moscow fire on June 24, 1547.
Promotional video:
Viktor Vasnetsov. Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
Apollinary Vasnetsov. Moscow under Ivan the Terrible. Red Square. 1902.
Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye, built in honor of the birthday of the future Ivan IV. Photo: A. Savin / Wikimedia.
The knives did not at all resemble the modern ones from the service. They were rather large and sharp daggers with pointed ends. Kvass, wine, beer, honey and other drinks were placed on the table in jugs. Their size depended on the number of the feasting.
Sometimes cabbage leaves were placed on the table, with the help of which it was convenient to remove fat adhering to the fingers. At the same time, the boyars most often used their lush beards for this. As they said then, "keeping the smell of the feast until the next visit to the bath." Many dishes, as well as soup, were served for two, and the guests, turning to each other, sipped it from one dish. It was believed that this allows neighbors to get to know each other and communicate more actively, while maintaining an affection for each other.
Such a custom aroused hostility among foreign guests. They even refused to eat, so later overseas guests were served separate dishes, and the plates were changed after each change of dishes.
Foreign guests were jarred by the behavior of the feasts. Memories of some of them are preserved, where it is said that those present at the royal table spoke loudly, even shouted during a feast, "wiped their lips with clothes or just with their hand, blew their nose right on the floor." To Europeans, accustomed to secular manners and formal conversation at the table, it all seemed wild.
Despite the behavior of those present, the foreigners liked the food they were treated to. Especially red and black caviar - at that time it was served not only salted, but also boiled in poppy milk. Geese stuffed with buckwheat porridge, cuckoos fried in honey and fried lynxes were exotic for foreign guests.
Fears come from childhood
Since early childhood, Ivan Vasilyevich suffered from colitis, so he tried to avoid spicy and fatty dishes, for which he paid with stomach pains. In addition, he was terrified of poisoning. This fear was justified: his mother Elena Glinskaya was poisoned during a meal, having mixed poison in the food.
Each dish that was brought to the monarch had to be tasted by at least four people before serving. First - the cook, then the servants, after that the sample was taken by the steward who served it to the sovereign. Most likely, it was not easy for the king to refrain from plentiful food, because what was served to the table was really tasty. Much later turned into classic Russian cuisine.
Yuri Sergeev. Feast of Ivan the Terrible in the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda.
Fried swans - an indispensable part of any feast in the second half of the 16th century.
One of the favorite dishes of Ivan IV and his entourage was a fried peacock.
Initially, all the dishes were brought to a special room in front of the refectory, then they were put on trays, and the stewards lined up in front of the refectory, waiting for the signal when it was necessary to bring this or that dish. The servants changed their clothes three or four times at one feast, they looked especially impressive in brocade robes with gold chains on the chest and in black fox hats.
According to the protocol, first cold snacks were served, then swans, which were considered a primordially royal dish, were brought into the chambers of the sovereign, then peacocks, quails in garlic sauce, suckling pigs on a spit, then it was the turn of hares. Sturgeon, beluga, sterlet, pike, catfish - what was not on the tables!
Let's go back to the description of Ivan the Terrible's feast given by Count Alexei Tolstoy: “The conversations grew louder, the laughter was heard more often, the heads were spinning. For more than four hours the fun had been going on (…) The gigantic fish brought to Sloboda from the Solovetsky Monastery were especially surprising. They were brought alive in huge barrels. These fish barely fit on silver and gold basins, which brought several people into the dining room at once.
The intricate art of the chefs appeared here in full splendor. Sturgeons and stellate sturgeons were so incised, so planted on dishes, that they looked like roosters with outstretched wings, like winged serpents (…). The hares in the noodles were also good and tasty, and the guests, no matter how hard they were, did not miss either the quails with garlic sauce, or the larks with onions and saffron."
Various marinades and pickles were served with the dishes. Only after that came the turn of hot soups. The tsar especially loved the fat ear made of sterlet, to which they certainly served black and red caviar. “Overseas caviar, eggplant,” they said in a popular Soviet film. However, at that time in Russia, of course, this delicacy was not yet known.
Baking followed: the tables were full of pies, pies, pancakes, pies. Desserts were a real work of art: the chefs poured various sweets: multi-pound kremlin, figurines of animals and birds, decorating them with fruits and nuts, baked gingerbreads and sweet pies. Gingerbread was especially popular. Moreover, in different regions they were prepared in their own way.
A scene from the film Ivan Vasilyevich changes his profession, in which a representative of the sturgeon family is perfectly visible on the table.
The feast of the guardsmen from the film Ivan the Terrible by Sergei Eisenstein did not like Joseph Stalin, although the way of life and customs of the era is shown in it perfectly.
For example, in Moscow - on honey with molasses, in the north - with glaze, the most popular were Tula - they were made in print, stuffed with jam. The monarch also sent sweet fruits, fresh or dried, to select guests. Prunes from Hungary were especially appreciated - the sovereign distributed it with his own hand. In addition, honey and nuts were on the tables.
In Russia - do not drink
As alcohol they drank mead, overseas wines, the tsar himself, according to historians, loved bread wine. At the same time, Ivan Vasilyevich could not stand drunkenness. If one of his companions was very drunk, then as a punishment he forced him to drain a huge goblet of wine, which was tantamount to death.
It was rumored that the invitation to dinner with the tsar was, on the one hand, a great honor for his subjects, on the other, a difficult test. The sovereign closely followed the behavior during the meal.
Despite the fact that Ivan the Terrible was against drunkenness, vodka reappeared in Russia under him. Of course, it was not so strong: it was diluted with water to 17-18 degrees. Only with the introduction of the state monopoly on alcohol in 1894, it became the Mendeleev fortress - 40 degrees.
At feasts, a vessel called a brother was filled with wine and let it go in a circle so that each of the companions could drink a sip from it. Moreover, at royal feasts, they were usually made of gold or silver, the common people used copper or wood.
Ordinary peasants generally ate simply. Their daily diet consisted of cereals, turnips, cabbage, cucumbers, fresh or salted fish. Of the utensils "no more than three or four clay pots and the same number of clay and wooden dishes." Foreigners noted that in Russia "there is good lamb, beef and pork", but due to the large number of fasting days in the year, the peasants "are accustomed to rough and bad food."
By the way, information about household and everyday life in the era of Ivan the Terrible came to us thanks to Domostroi, while most of the dishes that adorned the royal feasts then did not survive.
Konstantin Dvoretsky