Despite the “African” name (Limpopo – a river and a province in South Africa), the lampopo drink is an exclusively Russian phenomenon, popular during the Russian Empire. The exotic name is just interchanged syllables in the word “in half”, and the product itself would be more correctly classified as a cocktail, although very peculiar.
The composition of the drink included the following ingredients:
- bread product (bread, croutons, crackers, etc.);
- sour component (lemon, brine, cabbage soup);
- sweetener (sugar, honey);
- alcohol base (beer, wine, champagne, rum, cognac, etc.).
There was no fixed lampopo recipe, everyone cooked it as they saw fit. The main thing was to mix all the liquid ingredients and sugar, pour dried or fried bread with this composition, let the mixture brew for at least half an hour, strain and only then drink.
Each tavern was famous for its method of preparing and serving lampopo, and special lovers (they were called lampopists) drank it both at home parties and during salon meetings.
In Moscow, it was customary to add or even simply dip still hot fried bread into the lampo ice mixture – this is how the drink acquired a special flavor of rye crust.
Origin of the name
The most common version says that the name is an anagram of the word “in half”, since, for example, one of the recipes is that champagne is mixed in half with sour soup.
However, there is another theory: the fact is that in Finland, which borders on Russia just from the side of the imperial capital, St. Petersburg, there is leipakeito bread soup, and its distorted name could well become lampopo. The original leipakeito is made with water, not beer, and even more so without the addition of stronger alcohol.
History
The first written mention of lampopo occurs in 1832, and the drink’s popularity peaked in the second half of the 1861th century. In particular, his recipe is given in an XNUMX cookbook. After the October Revolution, the drink disappeared – not least because in the USSR they stopped producing the sweet and sour bread necessary for its manufacture, similar to Karelian, only without raisins, or Borodino.
Today lampopo is prepared exclusively at home by a few history buffs. There are no exact ingredients and even more so the proportions of the drink.
lampopo recipe
One of the possible recipes for making a lampop at home (it can be taken as an example, but it is not necessary to follow everything exactly, the components can be replaced at your discretion).
Ingredients:
- light beer – 0,5 l;
- sugar – half a glass;
- lemon – 1 piece;
- Borodino bread – 1 loaf;
- dark rum – 30-35 ml (optional).
Technology of preparation
1. Add sugar to beer, stir.
2. Remove the zest from the lemon (yellow peel without white bitter pulp).
3. Squeeze the lemon juice into the beer, add the zest there.
4. Make croutons or crackers from Borodino bread, put them in a saucepan and pour beer over. Add rum if desired.
5. Leave the mixture to infuse for 30-60 minutes.
6. Strain the finished lampo through cheesecloth without squeezing.
The result is a weak carbonated alcohol, similar at the same time to kvass and lemonade, but with a distinct beer taste.
The bread left after straining can be eaten just like a snack, or you can make a dessert based on it, because the croutons are saturated with sweet alcohol.
Cult of Lampopo
The drink was so popular in the second half of the XNUMXth century that even a circle of its lovers appeared – “lampopists”. Since it consisted mainly of representatives of the creative intelligentsia – actors, writers, poets – it is not surprising that the cocktail is often mentioned in the literature of that time.