Gingerbreads

Prjaniki

Appears in

By Elena Molokhovets

Published 1992

  • About

[Translator’s note: Gingerbreads are among the oldest baked confections in Europe. No one knows when they were first made in Russia, but prjaniki are mentioned in folk tales and fairy tales and in numerous proverbs and folk sayings. Stamping designs on gingerbreads is an old tradition in Russia. Intricately carved gingerbread boards have been found in the excavations of the medieval city of Novgorod. In the sixteenth century, foreign visitors recorded seeing impressive examples of these cakes, and by the early seventeenth century cities like Tula, Gorodets, Moscow, Archangel, and Suzdal had become noted for their gingerbreads. These took many shapes: human figures, horses, fish, and birds, especially roosters and peacocks. Molded and three-dimensional figures were popular in the north, especially Archangel; elsewhere, stamped gingerbreads were more common. Gingerbreads were produced for name days, holidays, and other special occasions; at weddings the bride traditionally presented one to the groom. The carved boards were often exquisite—and won prizes for the artists—but size was also important. On the principle that the bigger the cake, the greater the honor, these ceremonial gingerbreads were embellished with appropriate inscriptions and could weigh several poods (1 pood = 36 lbs). An extensive collection of preserved gingerbreads and carved boards is in St. Petersburg’s Museum of Ethnography. (See Novgorod the Great: Excavations at the Medieval City, 10; Kovalev, Rasskazy o russkoj kukhne, 145–148; and Smith and Christian, Bread and Salt, 24, 180.)