Changes

I suppose that to any Polish person this dish would immediately bring back some childhood memories. Rice with cream, sugar and cinnamon was a typical children’s food when I was growing up. The only difference between modern and hitorical historical versions is that in our times, you would cook the rice in milk and only then mix it with cream, rather than cook the rice already in the cream. A more important difference distinction is in the way this dish was and is perceived. In our times, it would be seen as a rather simple dish, tinged perhaps with a bit of nostalgia for some people. But in the 16th century, it would have been a the pinnacle of luxury. Rice, sugar and cinnamon were all treated as considered exotic spices that were imported from overseas for a lot of money. Butter and cream were source sourced locally, but they were the most expensive of all dairy products. What’s more, in a cuisine where colours played an especially important role, white was prized above all other colours – hence the warning not burn the rice. All in all, it was definitely a rich man’s porridge.