Russian Wedding Dinner - Early 1930s in Montana, iThose Were The Days, Recipes: Chicken noodle soup, butter balls and Khvorost [deep fried bread]. Remmick-Hubert Web Page
Last Updated: 20 April 2004
in
in Montana in the mid 1920s - 1930s
written by Lillian Hein Remmick
Copyrighted Aug.2001
All rights are reserved. This story, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission. Published by Remmick-Hubert Corp.221 Main Street, Suite 1300, San Francisco, California, 94105
As a child of maybe eleven years of age it was often my duty to ride our quarter horse, Molly, to drive the neighbors "milch" [milk] cows out of our fields.
Our neighbors who had in recent years migrated from Russian seem to use some interesting ploys. For instance, every day their herd of milch cows would find their gate to the main road which was somehow open, they would cross the main road and enter our gate which seemed someone had again forgotten to close; then on they would go to the sugar beet or grain fields....
Well, one day, I decided this had to come to an end so instead of driving the cows back into their own yard across the road I headed them straight for a cut bank on a narrow branch of the Yellowstone River.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw our neighbor, I'll call him Mr. B., running and hollering at me but I pretended to be deaf and kept right on driivng them toward the cut-bank.
The cows went over, crossed the narrow branch of the Yellowstone River and start their wandering on the Diamond Island Wilderness which was about five hundred acres.
Well, Mr. B. was jumping up and down in his felt books and then he took off his fur hat and threw it on the ground and then jumped up and down on the hat. I should point out that this was in the middle of a hot summer day.
It took Mr. B. a week to round up his milch cows; however, I never had to drive them from any of our fields again.
They, Mr. B. and his family, had build this massive wooden structure fro a home in among a grove of trees. The trees seemed very tall and massive to me at the age of eleven. I remember the bark as being smooth and white. I, also, remember the trees as being very beautiful.
Their house was very dark wood and very Russian in design. Their Russian tea times were really great and of course they had their sugar cubes which we sucked our tea through and into our mouths.
The B. family children and the children in our family went together to school which was a two room country school. Mr. B's son was a great artists. He loved to draw horses, knights, etc. etc. etc..
Our teacher brought Mr. B's son a large roll of art paper and he drew a wonderful mural on the history of knights and all of us got to help him. He did all the drawings while the rest of us, grave five through eight, got to color his art work. I remember accidentally going over the line and I felt so bad about it. The mural was put up all around the sides of the room and it was beautiful.
I loved their Russian style weddings and when the daughter of some very good friends married, the B's eldest son invited my family.
Their weddings were a three day affair. The first two days were spent preparing food by the women while the men drank vodka and told stories.
I and Mr. B's eleven year, who was my friend, didn't miss much if anything that was occurring during the three days.
Of the stacks of food the women prepared my favorite was their chicken noodle soup with the butter glaze [balls].
To defeather the hens for the soup, the women used a large container of boiling water into which they dipped the hens so the feathers came off easily as they stripped them with their hands. They used only the older hens because the young chicken didn't make good broth. This was occurring on the first day and the kitchen smelled terrible of hot wet chicken feathers.
Because all weddings were in the late fall or early winter after the harvest, the weather in Montana was quite cool; even very cold sometimes. This meant they could lay the defeathered hens outside the kitchens to be cooled and scrubbed clean.
On the second day wonderful smells emittted from the kitchen as chicken brother was being prepared, noddles made, butter glazed ball prepared, tiny fruit pies were deep friend in fat and stacked with sprinkling of powder sugar. Bread was baked. By the evening of the second day, all food was ready accept for the finishing touches.
My how I wish I had all those wonderful recipes to share. i will share some recipes which I know, at the end of this article, however, the touch of these wonderful women just can't be matched.
On Sunday morning some of the women stayed behind [at the B's family house] to finish preparing the dinner while everyone else, who were dressed in their finest, went to the little old church called the German Community Church. There was only one German church so all demoninations attended there.
There was Mrs. K. with her woolen hose over her long johns tucked securely in her high top shoes. She said she'd never be cold again as she had been when living in Russia.
There was Mrs. S. with her lovely white hair stacked high on her head with this little black hat perched on top. She had worn that same hat as long as I could remember.
The boys sat in the front two pews and if the boys got restless Mr. R. would tap them on the head.
The women and the girls sat on the left, the men and boys on the right.
When the morning service was over, the wedding began. The bride and groom marched in followed by the brides maids and ushers while Miss P. played the wedding march. Miss P. could play the piano louder than anyone I've ever known. to a kind like me it always seemed she was beating the piano to death.
The wedding service over, the people, who were invited, went to the B.'s family house food was served on tables in the long room [living room). The bride and groom sat at the head table.
Us kids were served in the kitchen which was fun because we got extra butter glaze [balls] for our soup.
After dinner, in a room from which all furniture had been removed, had become the dance floor. The band struck up Russian music and the first to dance were the cooks. they formed a circle and each woman carried a china platter. Their dance was very ritualistic and as they danced they smashed the china platters for good luck to the bride and groom.
Next the bride and groom danced then then everyone could dance. Anyone who wanted to dance with the bride had to pin money her her gown.
I remember Mr. and Mrs. B. doing this wonderful Russian Dance. Their feet hardly touched the floor.
By midnight the brides gown was covered with the green [paper money] and I'm sure the bride must have been completely exhausted.
As I grew older I learned many of these dances and enjoyed them very much.
What a great much of people they were and still are!
with
Butter Balls, also, Khvorost (Twigs)"
Chicken Broth
The chicken broth was made by placing a chicken (large hen) into a large kettle with very cold water to cover. Several kettles and hens were used to make enough broth. The water was fresh from the well or from a spring. Preferably a spring. Never use chlorinated water for soup broth. Into each kettle went 1 tablespoon salt (not iondized), 12 peppercorns, 4 bay leaves (unbroken), and a medium onion quartered. The broth was left to simmer for several hours.
Now I strain my broth and skim off the fat; however, the older women did neither as they believed the fat is what made the broth rich and flavorful.
Noodles
While the broth was simmering, noodle dough was made with 1 cup of flour per large egg, 1 teaspoon salt to each 4 coups of flour. Water was added as needed and the dough was hand mixed and kneaded until it was elastic and formed a perfect ball.
I used my food processor for this job.
Then it was divided into equal size pieces and rolled paper thin. It was rolled and pulled until it was almost transparent.
Clean white sheets were spread on beds or any reasonable large surface upon which the sheets of dough were placed to dry.
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Now the breads, cakes and pies were made. I will add the recipe for khvorost (twigs) later. |
When the noodle dough sheets were dry they were rolled rightly and placed on cutting boards and with razor sharp knives were cut very fine. Children with spotlessly scrubbed hands would take the cut circles apart and they were again placed on sheets to continue to dry... The women were extremely proud of their expertise in cutting very fine noodles.
Now, it was time for the butter balls.
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Butter Balls (Glaze Balls)
4 cups of bread crumbs 4 cups of browned bread crumbs..................... 1/2 cup melted butter 1/2 cup sweet cream 4 large eggs 1 1/2 teaspoon of allspice 1/2 teaspoon of salt |
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Their measurements were 8 cups of bread crumbs to a batch.
They rubbed bread crumbs by rolling the bread between their hands.
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,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, I use the fine blade of my meat grinder to grind the bread. For the browned crumbs I slice the bread and brown it in the oven until nicely browned and quite dry and then grind it. A large loaf of sweet French bread crust and all usually makes about 8 cups of crumbs. Using 1/2 loaf for the plain crumbs, and the other 1/2 loaf for the toasted crumbs. |
| They used 4 cups oven browned bread crumbs, 1/2/ cup melted butter, 1/2 cup sweet cream, 4 large eggs, 1 1/2 teaspoon allspice and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Then in a large bowl they poured the butter, cream, slightly beaten eggs, allspice and salt over the bread crumbs and mixed them very througly by hand and rolled them into balls the size of a small walnut. Depending on the type of bread used you made need to add more cream. |
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The butter balls were placed on buttered cookie type baking sheets, covered with snow white tea towels (dish towels) and placed in the cold to be used the next day.
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On Wedding Day just before the guests arrived, the soup broth was heated to boiling, the chicken removed to platters to keep warm, and the noodles and the butter balls added to the boiling broth. At this point the broth was tasted and more salt was added if needed. The finishing of the soup took about 20 minutes and then the soup was placed in large deep serving bowls for people to pass around and help themselves. |
For desert there were apple and rhubarb pies, sour cream cake and kvorost (twigs).
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