Saratov kalach

Saratov kalach. If you come across a bread product with this name in some other city, you should know that it is only named "Saratov". And not because, of course, craftsmen are less skilled in Kostroma or Astrakhan. No, today's bakers all over the Volga know the secrets of their forerunners, craftsmen, who baked sieve, sieve, oat and mill bread in Russia; very Russian in origin.

Nowadays bakers also know how to create kalachny, that is, white, wheat bread, but Saratov people prepare it according to their own special recipe. Ask Saratov residents what the secret of making a roll, and you will be amazed at the answer at first glance by three alien words: hands, flour and brick.

Photo Omela

In fact, in order to bake saratov-style kalach, first of all, high-grade durum wheat flour with gluten at least 30 percent. It is also necessary that after grinding it ripens for at least a month. And then witchcraft over the test begins. Any housewife who deals with pies knows what it means to "beat" the dough. So, before you create a roll, you need to beat twice, or, as the Saratov bakers say, roll up the dough, then pour over it with a special lubricant and .... But do not try to put the roll dough on the conveyor. This will ruin everything. The fact of the matter is that the Saratov kalach loves skillful hands. Only manual work can bring him to people. And do not try to bake it in smaller sizes. He hates to be crushed. Otherwise, he will simply cease to be a roll. In any case, a Saratov kalach.

Imagine that you have followed all the requirements of the Saratov recipe. So you have performed a miracle. Here he appears in front of you in the form of a unique, unparalleled in taste, tenderness and spirituality of the roll. To say that he is white, tall, odorous is like saying nothing. You need to hold it in your hands, breathe in this rare smell of earth, steppe wind and sun, you need to cut it into large chunks, and then, even if you are full, your hand will reach for it by itself. Why did the once widespread in Russia kalach now find its uniqueness in Saratov? Perhaps an old saying will serve as an explanation: "Need will teach rolls to bake"? Need taught Saratov more than once, especially in those terrible years, when famine in the Volga region mowed whole villages and towns with its mortal scythe. A kalach similar not to the sun became a symbol of a strong life, fenced off from those hungry years by the current power of the state.

Bread price - the highest price, and it consists not only of the labor costs of a plowman and a baker. Behind it, if you like, is our history, our fate of the people and the fate of the country. Once upon a time, the steppe Volga region put three words next to each other, threateningly arising from one another: "drought", "poor harvest", "hunger". Nowadays, the two words "drought" and "crop failure", unfortunately, have not lost their real basis. However, the third word, the terrible word "hunger" no longer follows from the first two.

Vasiliev