| There is a long tradition confirming vodka's vodka’s vocation as an ideal aperitif. The custom at the banquets of Polish and Russian nobility was to offer male guests vodka before serving fine wines and quality ales for the remainder of the feast. {{...}}
The function of a good aperitif is not just to whet the appetite, but to get people in the right mood for what follows. Champagne is a very good aperitif for this purpose, but vodka is even better. {{...}} Two glasses of vodka can {{...}} give a wholly unimagined dimension to the most tiring in-laws in record breaking time. If you want to get the evening off to a good start, then vodka as an aperitif is probably unbeatable.
The Chamberlain, as always, the foremost took place, {{...}}
The Almsman was not present, his place occupied
By the Chamberlain's Chamberlain’s wife who sat at his right side.
The Judge, when he the guests in due order had placed,
Blessed the table by saying a short Latin grace;
{{ Cytat
| Grind a large handful of chopped fresh dill together with salt. Boil some chopped sorrel, chards or red beetroots and leave to cool down. Add some meat broth, half a gallon of sour cream, mix it all together and adjust the thickness and sourness by adding more of either the broth or the cream, so that the soup is white and cloudy. Just before serving, add a few chunks of ice, a few quartered hard-boiled eggs, a few finely chopped cucumbers, threescore crayfish tails or some large cooked fish, or if you don't don’t have any, some roasted veal cut into thin stripes. If you have cauliflower or asparagus, then you can add some that was boiled separately in water, cooled down and broken into chunks.
| oryg = Utarć sporą garść pokrajanego zielonego kopru z solą, odgotować usiekanego szczawiu, botwiny lub buraków czerwonych, ostudzić, włożyć trochę gęstwiny i część rosołu dla kwasu, śmietany pół garnca, zmieszać to wszystko, a w miarę jak będzie gęsto lub kwaśno, rozrzadzać rosołem lub śmietaną, tak aby zupa była biała i zawiesista. Na samym wydaniu włożyć kilka kawałków lodu, kilka jaj na gęsto ugotowanych i pokrajanych na cztery części, parę drobno skrajanych ogórków, kopę szyjek rakowych, lub ugotowanej jakiej dużej ryby, a w niedostatku ich, cielęciny pieczonej, pokrajanej w drobne podłużne paski. Jeżeli są kalafiory lub szparagi, można je dodać w kawałkach, osobno ugotowane w wodzie i ostudzone.
| źródło = {{Cyt
{{ Cytat
| In this paradise, springtime flowers are in bloom alongside ripening autumn fruits. At the same time, violets and Michaelmas daisies grace some perfect season, in which poppies charm the eye with a "multi“multi-hued show"show”, in which the pumpkin ripens, farmers harvest grains and mow grass, and the feast of Our Lady of the Herbs falls on Palm Sunday.
| oryg = W raju tym równocześnie kwitną kwiaty wiosenne i dojrzewają owoce jesieni. W tym samym czasie fiołki i astry zdobią jakiś idealny sezon, w którym mak mami źrenicę wielością „farb żywych, różnych” i w którym dojrzewa arbuz, żniwiarze kończą żniwo i kosi się trawę, a święto Matki Boskiej Zielnej przypada na Niedzielę Palmową.
| źródło = {{Cyt
{{ Cytat
| <poem>The third course had been served. And then Lord Chamberlain,
In Miss Rose's Rose’s glass pouring a wee drop again,
Pushed a plate to the younger of gherkins and bread,
"I “I myself must look after you, daughters," ” he said,"Although “Although clumsy and old".”</poem>
| oryg = <poem>Dano trzecią potrawę. Wtem pan Podkomorzy,
Wlawszy kropelkę wina w szklankę panny Róży,
Pośrodku szła dziewczyna, w bieliznę ubrana,
W majowej zieloności tonąc po kolana; {{...}}</poem>
| źródło = Mickiewicz, ''op. cit.'', Book II, verses 430–435<br>* The Polish adjective "majowej"“majowej”, here mistranslated as "May"“May”, was actually used by Mickiewicz in the now largely forgotten sense of "vividly green"“vividly green”. }}
But even if cukes were no longer in season, Zawadzka assures us that "brine-pickled cucumbers may be stewed in the same way".<ref>{{Cyt
For husbandry domestic: today widely known,
In those days it was still as a novelty shown,
Received but as a secret from one's one’s trusted friends,Until finally published as: "One “One Sure Defence
Against Goshawks and Kites, Or, A New Method Simple
For The Raising of Poultry" Poultry” {{...}}</poem>
| oryg = <poem>{{...}} sławna gospodyni.
Zwała się Kokosznicka, z domu Jendykowi-
From the sieve she held, on these heads, beaks and wings fairly,
With a hand itself pearl-like, a hail of pearl barley:
This grain, worthy to grace a lord's lord’s table alone,
And for thickening Lithuanian broth specially grown,
In the housekeeper's housekeeper’s storeroom is kept; Sophie thenceTo the household's household’s loss, steals the rich grain for her hens.</poem>
| Pluck and dress young turkeys and leave in a cold place for a few days to let them age. Lard them and salt a little, wrap in paper and roast on a spit, while dousing them with melted butter. When almost done, remove the paper and drench with béchamel sauce; once it becomes golden in colour, remove [the turkey] carefully from the spit, so that [the sauce] doesn't doesn’t fall off. To make the béchamel, melt a piece of butter, add a spoonful of flour, mix well, add a pint of milk or cream and three yolks, and bring to boil while stirring {{...}}
| oryg = Oskubać i oprawić młode indyki, i zostawić tak na parę dni na zimnie aby skruszały; naszpikować, posolić trochę, obwinąć papierem i piec na rożnie, polewając masłem; skoro będą prawie gotowe, odjąć papier i polewać beszamelem, a gdy nabierze złotawego koloru, zdjąć ostrożnie z rożna aby nie opadł. Beszamel tak się urządza: rozpuścić kawałek masła, wsypać łyżkę mąki, rozmieszać, rozprowadzić półkwartą świeżego mleka lub śmietanki, wbić trzy żółtka i zagotować to mocno, mieszając {{...}}
| źródło = Zawadzka, ''op. cit.'', p. 123, own translation
In other words, "tenth water on kisiel" refers to a very distant relation. The saying is still used in modern Polish, just as ''kisiel'' is still a popular dessert. It's also a very ancient one, although originally it wasn't sweet at all. The very word "''kisiel''" comes from the verb "''kisić''", "to make sour". The ancient Slavic ''kisiel'' was a mouth-puckering white jelly made from a fermented mixture of water and oat or rye meal. A similar concoction is still used in Poland as the basis for ''żurek'', or white borscht, one of the most popular Polish soups. It was made just as Mickiewicz described it: by pouring water on oatmeal and leaving the starchy solution to ferment until it becomes sour and gelatinous enough to be cut with a knife. For ancient Slavs, this was one of the principal staples. A mythical land of plenty is described in Russian fairy tales as rivers of milk between banks of ''kisiel''. ''The Tale of Bygone Years'', a 12th-century chronicle of Kyivan Ruthenia (or Kievan Rus'), even tells a story of how ''kisiel'' saved the city of Belgorod from an invasion by the nomadic Pechenegs. During the siege, a respected old Belgorodian man advised his compatriots to dig a deep well, fill it with water and oat starch, and wait until it went sour. Then they invited Pecheneg envoys into the city to show them the well, let them try the ''kisiel'' and convince them that they were getting their food straight from the ground, so any further siege made no sense and it would be best for the Pechenegs to go back to the steppe and leave Belgorod alone.<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = Древняя Русь в IX–XI веках: контексты летописных текстов
| nazwisko r = Elena Tokareva [Елена Токарева]
| rozdział = О происхождении сказания о «белгородском киселе»