Winter has come unexpectedly and the frock coat in the Gishpan fashion no longer warms the master’s bodies? Sugary mulled wine is disgusting, and grog no longer amuses? And even a krambambula with a soul park is not able to warm the noble gentlemen? If you please, taste the zhzhenki!
Zhzhonka is the most popular in the XNUMXth century and unfairly forgotten in our time, a hot cocktail similar to punch, only stronger and fairly flavored with caramel from burning sugar smut. Despite the composition – rum, French wine, champagne, pineapples – zhzhenka is considered an original Russian drink. For its peculiar taste, “stunning” action and a very spectacular way of cooking, the Russian nobility – hussars, students and other “golden youth” fell in love with it.
Today, everyone can cook zhzhenka – it will become a real decoration of the festive table and will appeal to all lovers of sweet, hot cocktails.
About the “poor” hussar
Sergey Sergeyevich, we will compose a walk across the Volga tonight. Gypsies are on one boat, we are on the other; we’ll come, sit down on the rug, cook the burnt.
N. Ostrovsky. “Dowry”
It is believed that it was the hussars who brought the burnt recipe to Russia. In the years 1812-1814, pursuing the retreating “musyu” throughout Europe, the cavalry warmed themselves in bivouacs with the “elite” captured from the enemy, which was boiled on fire to heighten the effect. Returning to their homeland and yearning for the romance of the march, the servicemen continued to prepare their favorite drink – but in more cultural conditions. Huge silver sauternes, skillfully inlaid ladles, were used, and the composition included only the best varieties of dark rum, French wines, real champagne.
Cooking zhzhenka was not just an ordinary event. It was a sacrament, a performance that invariably attracted the attention of the entire assembled public and served as the culmination of a festive evening at noble meetings. In “zhzhonkovary” they usually chose the oldest and most respected officers who knew a lot about this matter.
Such an important ritual as the adoption of new cornets into the hussar (and later – into the uhlan) regiments was associated with the zhzhenka. When the senior comrades had already looked closely at the recruit and recognized him as “their own”, a festive feast was held. At the very end of the evening, candles were extinguished in the room, and an elderly officer set two crossed sabers on a huge vat of hot wine. A sugar smut was placed on them, which was generously doused with rum and set on fire. When all the sugar burned and flowed into the drink, it was extinguished with champagne.
The young cornets were the first to taste the burnt, and then the adult hussars drank “on you” with them. After that, the initiation was considered to have taken place and the “salagas” began to be treated as equals.
In different regiments, the ritual had its own variations. Often, special songs were sung during preparation – for example, a regimental anthem, but more often – the traditional protracted “Where are the hussars of former years”, popular since the time of Denis Davydov. The officers of the Life Guards of the Hussar Regiment cooked zhzhenka right in the middle of the parade ground, in any weather. And in the Sumy regiment it was customary to put a red-hot horseshoe into wine.
Burn, Gogol, burn!
Later, the tradition spread to other segments of the population – of course, only to those who could afford rum, champagne and sugar. A ritual similar to that of the hussars existed among students, and zhzhenka was also cooked at ordinary friendly gatherings, family holidays, and even official events. But its preparation invariably caused considerable excitement, it was a memorable part of the feast.
The next day, my head hurts, I feel sick. This, obviously, from zhzhenka – a mixture! And here is a sincere decision to never drink zhzhenka in the future, it’s poison.
A. Herzen. “Past and thoughts”
Respected by the editor-in-chief of the Rum Diary, specialist in alcoholic beverages V.V. Pokhlebkin writes:
«This outwardly spectacular, uncomplicated, unreasonably expensive and unhealthy drink […] through the fiction of the XNUMXth century. received immoderately enthusiastic and not corresponding to the real content of advertising.»
Indeed, many Russian writers – Tolstoy, Herzen, Ostrovsky, Lermontov, Gogol, Pushkin – loved and sang zhzhenka (or, conversely, scolded, if it was in the morning).
Alexander Sergeyevich was so fond of this strong cocktail that once, after the third ladle, he challenged two of his best friends to a duel at once, and invited another one to be seconds. And if this drink had not knocked down and knocked off memory so much – you see, we would have parted with the poet long before the fatal shot of Dantes.
And Gogol loved to cook zhzhenka on his own: according to the recollections of his friends, he did it “with great diligence”, and in the process “said a lot of very funny jokes.” Nikolai Vasilich, apparently, generally liked to burn everything …
Only by the very end of the XNUMXth century, zhzhenka gave way to other drinks, and even at the beginning of the XNUMXth century it was completely forgotten – the noble gentlemen were not up to that. It is only now that old recipes are being remembered – and not only by mummery restorers, but also by ordinary people inspired by the mystery of preparing this amazing drink. Well, let’s try it too!
Modern recipe for females
Of course, many of the ingredients for the classic recipe described in Maria Pleshkova’s 1914 book Batman for the Cook are no longer available. The main problem arises with sugar smut – for some reason everyone is sure that in our time it is not available. But the all-knowing Google, on the simplest request, offered me several options for acquiring this product at once, and at a very reasonable price. I will not throw off the links, so that they do not count for advertising, but the seeker will find it.
If the authenticity of cooking is not so important to you – instead of a sugar head, you can take ordinary lump sugar – better not pressed sand, but refined sugar. And another interesting, in my opinion, replacement is cotton candy. It burns, of course, very quickly, but it looks impressive – you will have time to make photos on Instagram.
So, we will need:
- 2 bottles of champagne;
- 1 bottle of sweet white wine (originally French Sauternes);
- 900 grams of granulated sugar;
- Sugar smut (or pieces of refined sugar soaked in alcohol – as needed);
- 1 medium pineapple;
- Yo-ho-ho – and a bottle of rum.
Preparation:
- We take a wide large pan into which all our ingredients will fit.
- We put wine, one bottle of champagne, granulated sugar in it, cut the pineapple into small pieces and also send it to the pan.
- We heat the mixture over low heat, without bringing to a boil – like mulled wine, about 15 minutes.
- We install 2 crossed skewers above the pan – this is a common and complete replacement for hussar sabers. We put a sugar head on the resulting cross or lay out the refined sugar with a pyramid.
- Pour sugar with rum (it must certainly be strong, at room temperature) and set on fire.
- When the process has begun, we turn off the light and begin to sing White Guard songs: at least “Once upon a time”, at least “Lieutenant Golitsyn”. Without this, the burnt will not work!
- Gradually pour the rum over the sugar with a ladle so that the burning does not stop. Ideally, the entire bottle should be gone by the time the sugar melts.
- When the sugar has burned down, the second bottle of chilled champagne is poured into the pan.
Voila! Ready zhzhenka should be drunk immediately, best of all – standing up, realizing the identity of the moment, mentally giving praise to the Lord, the priest-colonel and the empress. And most importantly – do not forget to remove the skewers – suddenly one of the guests after the tasting will be drawn to a duel!
Bon appétit!
The article used materials from the sites: “Retrograd”, “Gastronom”, “Furfur” and A. Levchenko’s book “Ingermanland Hussars in Chuguev”.