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This ritual repetitiveness of Soplica’s meals was adjusted only to the season and to the Catholic calendar of feasts and fasts. In this case, it’s Lithuanian cold borscht, a summertime soup that is still as popular on hot days in both Lithuania and Poland as ''gazpacho'' is in Spain.
There is a linguistic problem here, though. Mickiewicz has used two different terms, ''``''chłodnik"''`` (pronounced {{pron|HWawd|neek}}) and ''``''chołodziec"''`` ({{pron|Haw|Waw|jets}}). Both words derive from the adjective ''``''chłodny"''``, or ``cold", but while Mickiewiczologists have no doubt that ''``''chłodnik"''`` refers to a cold soup, there is some disagreement as to what kind of dish ''chołodziec'' was.<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = Pamiętnik Literacki: czasopismo kwartalne poświęcone historii i krytyce literatury polskiej
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[[File:Forma do galarety.jpg|thumb|left|upright|An old aspic mould]]
On the other hand, the vodka was served to men only, but the ''chołodziec'' was consumed by all. What’s more, there’s no evidence that, in the 19th century, the word was used for aspic anywhere outside certain regions of Russia proper; it’s not attested in either Polish or Belarusian of the time (of course, aspic dishes themselves had been known since the Middle Ages, albeit under other names). Anyway, the oldest translations of ''Pan Tadeusz'' into both Russian and Belarusian treat both ''``chłodnik"''chłodnikand ''`` and ``''chołodziec"''`` as referring to a soup. It looks like both Mickiewicz himself and his contemporary translators had no doubts that these two words were synonymous.
There’s another interesting difference, though. On the third day, the cold borscht was ``whitened", or clouded with sour cream, but on the first and second days, it wasn’t. Why? One possible explanation would be that the first two days were Friday and Saturday, that is, lean days. In Polish tradition, dairy products, as well as meat, were proscribed on lean days. It was only on Sunday that the same cold borscht was served again, but this time, enhanced with the luxurious additive. Except that if the Soplicas fasted on Saturday, then they must have done it only in the afternoon, because [[Epic Cooking: Breakfast at Judge Soplica's|for breakfast they'd had not only cream, but even smoked goose breasts, beef tongues, ham and steaks]]! This may be explained away only by the poet’s inconsistency.
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As with many minor characters in ''Pan Tadeusz'', her name is telling; ''``''Kokosznicka z domu Jendykowiczówna"''`` could be translated as ``Mrs. Hen ''née'' Turkey". Anyway, she had a little, well-meaning, even if sometimes overzealous, helper in Sophie, who fed the poultry with expensive pearl barley.
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And finally, just to make the dessert a tad more diverse and make use of some other autumn fruits, let’s add one more recipë from the same source, this one for pear compote. In modern Polish, ''``''kompot"''`` refers to a popular watery drink made from fruits boiled with sugar. In the 19th century, though, the meaning was closer to the French original, that is, a thick and very sweet fruit syrup. In fact, you could simply buy a tin of pears in syrup, pour them into bowls, add some spices and the effect would be almost the same.
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