“GRANNY‘S PASTA”: NAMES, TECHNOLOGIES AND SYMBOLISM OF PASTA PRODUCTS FOR SOUPS IN UDMURT AND BESERMAN FOLK CUISINE

Abstract

The article deals with different types of pasta products for soups in traditional Udmurt and Beserman cuisine, their local names, composition, cooking technologies, and area of distribution. Soups with pieces of yeast dough or fresh dough are included in the menu of national cuisine and have an important symbolic place in food identity. Such soups were prepared as an everyday dish, or as a ritual dish with sacrificial animal (poultry) meat; some types of dishes are preserved in the wedding ritual of the Southern Udmurts. Soups with slices of dough are more common in presentations and master classes of Beserman and Udmurt food traditions. In traditional cuisine flour of spelt , buckwheat, peas, oats, rye, wheat and mixtures of different kinds of flour were used. In modern cuisine, they are mainly made of wheat flour. Today traditional pasta products are often replaced by industrial ones like macaroni, noodles and spaghetti, but some traditional pasta products are still popular. The research is based on written sources, dictionaries, folklore texts, description of local cuisine and the author’s field materials.