From the History of Kyustendil

Bread

At the end of the 19th century, bread in the Kyustendil region was kneaded from pure wheat flour, rye flour, or a mix of rye, corn and barley, as well as of rye and wheat. The grain was ground in watermills ("karadzheyki"), which existed in almost every village until around the middle of the 20th century. Women usually baked bread once a week, or every few days – or even more often – in larger families. It was universally referred to as leb or lebo.

It was made either with or without leaven, and the technique required time and long experience:

• Fresh unleavened bread (turta, pogacha, kolach, presenets): Traditionally kneaded with warm water, salt and flour, then baked.
• Leavened bread (kisel, "somun"): Kneaded in the noshtvi (a wooden trough) and left to rise.

Composition and Preparation of the Starter

The starter (kvasets) varied in composition and was prepared in several ways:

• From previous dough: The best-known method was to use dough left over from the previous batch that had already risen.
• From chickpeas: From crushed and scalded chickpeas, left to "bubble up", then strained and kneaded with a little flour.
• With a decoction of chickpeas, barley, beans and hot pepper: To ferment, the mixture rested in a warm place for two days and nights in a pot called a "kvasecharnik", wrapped in cloths. When ready, a few boiled and mashed potatoes were added, along with lukewarm water from their boiling and as much flour as needed to obtain a soft dough (the starter). It was covered with flour to keep it from drying out and, well wrapped, left to rest for another night.
• From chickpeas and pafit blossom: The decoction was strained, mixed with corn flour, and two small cakes of old starter – previously soaked in water to soften – were added. The finished dough stood by the hearth and rose twice. Small cakes were formed, dusted with flour, dried in a well-ventilated place and stored.
• With hops: From the 1930s onward, hops and other agents also came into use.

Baking: The finished bread was baked in a podnitsa (clay dish) covered with a vrashnik (metal lid), in an oven or a furnace.

Kachamak

A local dish prepared at least once a week was kachamak (polenta), made mainly with corn flour. Depending on the technique, it was either "vrien" (boiled) or "varten" (stirred).

Preparation For the boiled kachamak, the flour is poured into a kettle of boiling salted water, a hole is made in it, and it is boiled, being stirred only at the end. For the second kind (stirred), it is stirred constantly until the dough begins to come away from the sides of the pot.

Seasoning and Serving The finished kachamak is turned out into a baking pan, dimpled with a wooden spoon and drizzled with melted butter or lard. Urda (curd cheese), white cheese or pork cracklings may be added. If desired, the dish is eaten with yogurt, buttermilk or razsolnitsa (sauerkraut juice).

Zelnik

A pastry typical of the Kyustendil region is the zelnik. A dough of wheat flour is kneaded and rolled out into thin sheets with a sukalkya (rolling pin).

• Main ingredients: Various fillings are prepared from sauerkraut and leeks, and in springtime – patience dock, sorrel, spinach and nettles.
• Additions: In some places hot peppers, rice, and also eggs and a little white cheese are added.
• Variations: The traditional versions of zelnik are lenten, or rich, with "zhmerki" (cracklings) on the top crust.

How It Is Assembled

First, one large sheet of dough is laid in the baking pan, its edges hanging over the sides. The filling is arranged in the middle, and around it the sheets, sprinkled with lard, are folded in pleats. The edges of the bottom sheet are then folded in toward the center.

Serving: The finished zelnik is eaten with buttermilk or yogurt.

TARANA

Tarana (treanitsa) is made from white flour; corn flour is also used (the village of Babino, Bobov Dol area). The dough has to be dry; it is rubbed between the palms into small balls, which are dried for 2-3 days. In winter they are boiled with milk. Yufka is an unleavened pasta. It is made from wheat flour, with or without eggs. Thin sheets are rolled out and dried in the sun, then broken into pieces and stored. Yufka can be boiled all year round.

MACHKAN

Machkan is made from crumbled stale bread. The morsels are lightly fried in fat. Before it is taken off the fire, the popara (bread mash) is sprinkled with water to soften. White cheese may be added to taste before eating. Another kind of popara is made with bread and butter or fat, steeped in warm water or milk. White cheese or curd is added, or it is sweetened with honey or petmez (fruit molasses).

Banitsa

Among the rich assortment of widely eaten pastries is the banitsa. Each of its varieties was a favorite dish both in everyday life and on festive occasions.

Ways of Preparation The traditional ways of making it are with sheets of dough layered one on top of another – the layered banitsa "prekornik" (with curd and cracklings – the village of Dlahchevo Sablyar), or with rolled sheets – viena, sukana. The sheets (of flour, water, salt and eggs) are rolled out with a rolling pin or stretched by hand (setsana banitsa). The top sheet is brushed with melted butter and beaten egg.

Varieties by Filling Depending on the filling between the sheets, there are tikvenitsi (with pumpkin), baklava (with walnuts and syrup-soaked sheets), zelnitsi and banitsi with leeks. Also popular are the tutmanitsi (kiya pogacha, sour banitsa, boden dedo).

For the kiya pogacha, 6-8 sheets are made, layered one on top of another and brushed with butter or lard and crumbled white cheese or curd. The "katmeritsa" is made the same way (the village of Polska Skakavitsa – the Kotlovina area). In some places yogurt and cracklings are also placed between the sheets (the villages of Bagrentsi and Shipochano – the Kotlovina area).

The tutmanik is cut into diamond shapes and baked, and is eaten with buttermilk or razsolnitsa. A kind of pogacha with urda and butter or lard is the "urdenik".

Skrob

Even in the poorest families, the so-called skrob was served at the table. It is a thin porridge of white, corn or other flour, poured over crumbled morsels (bites) of bread. Quick to prepare is the miane – the flour is fried in fat, then red pepper, salt and water are added. The finished porridge is scooped up with bread.

Poparnik

A favorite food in summer, in the fields and at harvest time, was the poparnik. To make it, corn dough is kneaded in a cauldron and left to "sour", to rise. When ready, it is poured into a baking pan, pricked with a fork and baked. Finally, it is broken up into small pieces and drizzled with butter or lard; cracklings or white cheese are added as well. It can be eaten with yogurt or buttermilk.

DAIRY FOODS

Alongside bread and baked goods, the local cuisine of the Kyustendil population featured dairy foods made from sheep's, goat's and cow's milk. The basic products were fresh and cultured milk. Fresh milk was often eaten as popara, with bread crumbled into it.

Butter was extracted by "churning" the milk in wooden churns. It was skimmed off the surface with a wooden spoon and stored in small clay pots. The remaining liquid is known as matenitsa (buttermilk) – a pleasant drink. When boiled, it curdles and yields izvara (curd cheese). For long-term storage it was pressed and salted in clay pots, small casks and jars. In some places it was layered with peppers (the village of Granitsa – the Kotlovina area); or cheese and curd were arranged in layers and covered with a damp, salted cloth (the village of Dlahchevo Sablyar – the Piyanets area).

Part of the unboiled fresh milk, gently warmed without letting it boil, was curdled with rennet, strained and salted to make white cheese. The undrained fresh cheese is called strigle. An old curdling method used rennet from the stomach of a suckling lamb or kid, kept dried.

Until the wars, dairies – bachii – operated in the mountainous and semi-mountainous areas of the Kyustendil region. Brined white cheese was made from sheep's milk and kept in a brine of water and salt in wooden casks. Other kinds were the full-fat and the churned, skimmed cheese.

A culinary specialty of the Kamenitsa and Kraishte areas is the so-called "bel mazh" or "kutmach" (in the Piyanets area) – a porridge of fresh sheep's cheese, fresh milk, corn flour and salt.

COOKED DISHES, LENTEN AND RICH

Popular everyday dishes were the soups, legume dishes, stews and casseroles. The most commonly cooked meatless dishes in the Kyustendil region were bean soup with onions (leeks or bulb onions) and hot pepper; thick beans with rice and dried peppers; lentils; "meshanitsa" – dried beans with sauerkraut; peppers stuffed with rice or beans; cabbage or vine-leaf sarmi; stews with potatoes or with rice, onions and vegetables, and others.

An easily prepared dish is the klin-chorba. Dried peppers and leeks are boiled and seasoned with salt, vinegar and a little oil. Soups of nettles, sorrel, beets and leeks were also eaten. A handful of rice or green wild plums, for a sour taste, could be added. In another version, leeks are stewed in lard, then a little water, tomatoes, rice and dried peppers are added, making a tasty lenten dish (the village of Tsarvenyano – the Kotlovina area).

Harvesters' soup is made of water, salt, crushed garlic and vinegar. During harvesting, mowing and threshing, people would also bring along yogurt, zelnik, and "kiselo" made from boiled dried peppers, adding garlic, finely chopped cucumber and salt to the water (the village of Polska Skakavitsa). "Kiselo" could also be made simply from dried peppers soaked in water overnight, with salt, vinegar and garlic (the village of Dragovishtitsa – the Kotlovina area).

A dish also served as a salad is the so-called "salo" – finely chopped cucumbers in water with vinegar. We should also mention the "tarlyanitsa" – crushed ripe tomatoes and roasted peppers, seasoned with a little oil, salt and, optionally, garlic. The same ingredients make up the summer lyutenitsa, often eaten by the villagers of Kamenitsa. It is seasoned with salt, crushed garlic and vinegar.

Also delicious are the przhenitsi (pan-fried dishes) – spring onions with patience dock, nettles, spinach or the like; bulb onions with peppers and tomatoes. When the przhenitsa is made rich, a few eggs are cracked in and curd is added. Fresh and dried fruits were widely used as well.

PICKLES

For the winter, pickles were prepared from various vegetables and stored in clay vessels and small casks; sauerkraut was kept in barrels. In the villages of Kamenitsa, the favorites were hot peppers, green tomatoes and shredded cabbage, packed in water and salt.

Every household stocked up on dried beans, potatoes, dried peppers (sweet and hot), strings of onions and garlic, leeks buried in the ground, and fruit kept in the cellars. The fruit was eaten dried or boiled into oshav (dried-fruit compote); plums, apples and pumpkin were baked, and preserves and marmalade were made. Cut into small pieces in a baking pan, the pumpkin was covered with fresh milk and baked until it thickened.

A favorite delicacy were the strings of prunes. The stones are removed and replaced with a walnut kernel. The plums are then threaded onto a hemp string and baked. Finally, they are dried in a well-ventilated place and eaten in winter.

FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN

Pork was eaten boiled, roasted, salted and smoked. From the ears, feet and tail, pacha (jellied meat) was made – they are cut into small pieces and boiled, then crushed garlic is added. The result is a cold, jellied dish. A culinary specialty is the sprzha, prepared from offal, leeks and dried peppers. Part of the lard was melted down into cooking fat, while the rest, along with the meat and bones, was salted and preserved in small casks. Intestines were stuffed with a mixture of pork and veal, salt and spices (red pepper, savory and others) to make sudzhutsi (dried sausages), which were hung in a well-ventilated place to dry.

Sudzhutsi were also made from goat meat, which was likewise used for pastarma (dried cured meat). The traditional production process combines salting with prolonged drying of the meat, cut into thin strips. Smoking could also be applied, giving the specialty a more piquant flavor (the village of Dlahchevo Sablyar). Another local delicacy is sazdarma, prepared from goat or sheep meat.

Some dishes that gained renown in the Kyustendil region include varivo (pork with sauerkraut), beans with bones cooked in a clay pot, meat fried with leeks and dried peppers, with onions and tomato sauce, or with potatoes, and pastarma with beans. Lamb and mutton were usually roasted, mostly on holidays. The animal's intestines and tripe were boiled and made into a heavily spiced soup. For the sheep kurban (ritual feast), the meat is boiled. The main ingredients are peppers, tomatoes, carrots, leeks, onions, rice, parsley, savory, black pepper and celery (the village of Tavalichevo – the Kotlovina area). Some kurbans are made without rice.

Beef was eaten less often. Eggs and poultry were festive, rich fare. Chicken porridges were prepared, as were soups thickened with egg and yogurt or vinegar, stews with rice or onions, and fried eggs. A przhenitsa was made from boiled potatoes, peppers and eggs (the village of Golema Fucha – Bobov Dol area). Boiled, mashed potatoes were mixed with roasted peppers, oil or butter and white cheese; 2-3 eggs were cracked in and the mixture was baked.

Fish (barbel, chub and others) was caught in the Struma River and its tributaries, while in the mountain streams the catch of choice was trout. Bees provided honey, present on both the everyday and the festive table, and also used as a remedy.

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS

The traditional Bulgarian alcoholic drinks are rakia and wine. Most households in the Kyustendil region distilled plum rakia (the famous Kyustendil slivovitsa), as well as grape and other fruit rakia. It is usually drunk before a meal.

The strongest is the first rakia to flow from the still, the "parvotok", while the weakest and sourest is the last, the so-called "protsoka" or "patoka". According to Grandpa Vasil from the village of Shishkovtsi, good drinking rakia is up to 48% ABV.

Wine is produced mostly from the Pamid, Bolgar, Cabernet and Dimyat grape varieties.

NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS

Milk, buttermilk, razsolnitsa, boza. A thick syrup called "retsel" ("rachel") is made from plums.