4 ms·

The Historic Russian Recipe That Turns Apples into Marshmallows

60 points by beefman 5y ago

exhilaration 5y ago
I would love to try this stuff, does anyone know if the pastila sold on Amazon is any good? https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Pastila-200g-3-packs/dp/B00N5UXNAQ https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Pastila-200g-3-packs/dp/B00N5...
redact207 5y ago
Is this basically just an apple flavoured meringue?
- _Microft 5y ago
  It sounds very similar. I might try both the recipe as it is given and a slight variation to compare them. Variation would be peeling, dicing and steaming the apples instead of preparing them in the oven as that might be quicker. Preparing egg white foam and putting the blended apples into that also seems like something that might make preparation a bit quicker but I would have to try to find out. Maybe adding a tiny amount of lemon juice would make sense if the acid turns out to be super important. Beside that it seems like something that lends itself to experimentation. Maybe a pinch of cinnamon would go well with the apples? Very fine ground walnut and some honey instead of sugar might also work well but I guess that‘s a whole new recipe already. I’m looking forward to it.
b3morales 5y ago
Quite interesting. This makes sense. "Standard" marshmallows are made with gelatin. (I believe xanthan gum is also sometimes used instead or alongside these days.) Apples are extremely high in pectin. Gelatin and pectin have broadly similar behavior: their molecules link up into a network that captures water, firming a liquid into a semi-solid and helping prevent spoilage. Compare fruit preserves (pectin) and jello or aspic (gelatin). The long slow bake from this recipe is also how you make apple butter.
taejo 5y ago
I'm no slavicist but the "bed" etymology seems unlikely to me compared to a loan from Latin pastillus = loaf or one of its descendants like English, French and German pastille and Italian pastiglia all referring to (sometimes medicinal, admittedly) confectionaries.
- sdekk 5y ago
  This is what I thought too! I actually emailed the woman from whom that information was taken and this was her response: "I used to be convinced that the word ‘pastila’ derived from the words you mention below, but the deeper I dug, the more I came to believe that its etymology is more likely the old Russian стьлати — to spread out, which is the root of the word ‘postel’ as well. The derivation has to do with the technique of spreading the fruit paste into sheets to dry, and it ultimately makes more sense to me than the expected connection to various words related to ‘pastilla.’ One of the problems with researching food is that most of the people who compiled dictionaries were not fluent in in the kitchen, so I don’t entirely trust Fasmer, for instance, who states that the connection to ‘postel’ is a folk etymology."
  - taejo 5y ago
    Thanks for reaching out and for coming back to reply. I personally find this unconvincing: lexicographers aren't fluent in the kitchen (nor in the factory, or the farm, or any other particular area where language is used) but they are experts in how words are formed and change over time. If there were some linguistic process that could change the 'o' and 'e' of 'postel' into 'pastila', there would be other words were the same change occured and lexicographers would know about it. They also know that non-experts become convinced by all sorts of explanations for the origins of words that sound plausible but for which there is no evidence -- folk etymologies, in other words.
    - sdekk 5y ago
      I completely agree with you. I have a background in linguistics and have studied Russian a little bit, and based on my experience, the likelihood of the orthography changing that much is practically nonexistent. Do you think it would be too much to get into it with Darra? She does seem to have a lot of influence in the culinary world, and it pains me to know that she is spreading her own lore as if it were truth.

60 points by beefman 5y ago

I would love to try this stuff, does anyone know if the pastila sold on Amazon is any good? https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Pastila-200g-3-packs/dp/B00N5UXNAQ https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Pastila-200g-3-packs/dp/B00N5...

redact207 5y ago

Is this basically just an apple flavoured meringue?

_Microft 5y ago
It sounds very similar. I might try both the recipe as it is given and a slight variation to compare them. Variation would be peeling, dicing and steaming the apples instead of preparing them in the oven as that might be quicker. Preparing egg white foam and putting the blended apples into that also seems like something that might make preparation a bit quicker but I would have to try to find out. Maybe adding a tiny amount of lemon juice would make sense if the acid turns out to be super important. Beside that it seems like something that lends itself to experimentation. Maybe a pinch of cinnamon would go well with the apples? Very fine ground walnut and some honey instead of sugar might also work well but I guess that‘s a whole new recipe already. I’m looking forward to it.

b3morales 5y ago

Quite interesting. This makes sense. "Standard" marshmallows are made with gelatin. (I believe xanthan gum is also sometimes used instead or alongside these days.) Apples are extremely high in pectin. Gelatin and pectin have broadly similar behavior: their molecules link up into a network that captures water, firming a liquid into a semi-solid and helping prevent spoilage. Compare fruit preserves (pectin) and jello or aspic (gelatin). The long slow bake from this recipe is also how you make apple butter.

taejo 5y ago

I'm no slavicist but the "bed" etymology seems unlikely to me compared to a loan from Latin pastillus = loaf or one of its descendants like English, French and German pastille and Italian pastiglia all referring to (sometimes medicinal, admittedly) confectionaries.

sdekk 5y ago
This is what I thought too! I actually emailed the woman from whom that information was taken and this was her response: "I used to be convinced that the word ‘pastila’ derived from the words you mention below, but the deeper I dug, the more I came to believe that its etymology is more likely the old Russian стьлати — to spread out, which is the root of the word ‘postel’ as well. The derivation has to do with the technique of spreading the fruit paste into sheets to dry, and it ultimately makes more sense to me than the expected connection to various words related to ‘pastilla.’ One of the problems with researching food is that most of the people who compiled dictionaries were not fluent in in the kitchen, so I don’t entirely trust Fasmer, for instance, who states that the connection to ‘postel’ is a folk etymology."
- taejo 5y ago
  Thanks for reaching out and for coming back to reply. I personally find this unconvincing: lexicographers aren't fluent in the kitchen (nor in the factory, or the farm, or any other particular area where language is used) but they are experts in how words are formed and change over time. If there were some linguistic process that could change the 'o' and 'e' of 'postel' into 'pastila', there would be other words were the same change occured and lexicographers would know about it. They also know that non-experts become convinced by all sorts of explanations for the origins of words that sound plausible but for which there is no evidence -- folk etymologies, in other words.
  - sdekk 5y ago
    I completely agree with you. I have a background in linguistics and have studied Russian a little bit, and based on my experience, the likelihood of the orthography changing that much is practically nonexistent. Do you think it would be too much to get into it with Darra? She does seem to have a lot of influence in the culinary world, and it pains me to know that she is spreading her own lore as if it were truth.