Fat, sweet, fried! The taste of Czech Masopust, or Carneval
Seasonality and festivity are two sides of the same coin, a constant in original Czech cuisine which follows the cycles of nature and the liturgical calendar. From Three Kings (6th January), to Ash Wednesday, Masopust - known in english as Carneval or Shrovetide - takes place, a ritual marking transition from winter to spring, differentiating ordinary life from the Christmas holidays, or upcoming Lent.
A celebration and prayer for the next harvest, Masopust translates to "meat fast" - a time when provisions and leftovers from the larder were finished. Today, Carneval brings families and neighbours to the table, with a calendar full of social events including pig slaughters or weddings to mark this phase of plenty.
Frying as ceremony
For generations, Czech customs and festivals have been characterised by typical dishes, and above all, ceremonial pastries, which is why the recipes of Masopust are also linked to regions, villages or households. In many of them, traditions lie in fried desserts. Historically, frying was saved for seasonal holidays, at least in rural cuisine, where butter was scarce or sold only to the townsfolk, and there was not enough lard left all year round. For this reason, even potato pancakes were fried dry before being greased.
Unsurprisingly, vegetable oils have gained popularity because of this - pastries were fried in cube (plum) oil, which, like other fats, had not yet undergone refining, so it quickly lost quality and durability. Our ancestors tried to process oils pressed after the autumn harvest in the oil mills, in so-called 'zabojny', before the end of winter, using rancid fat for lighting.
Not just one doughnut!
The selection of Carnival specialties is dominated by doughnuts and their regional equivalents, such as 'kreple', made of yeast dough, filled with poppy seeds, curd or jam. They were made both at Shrovetide and on other important occasions. The name was given to them by the German Krapfen (doughnut), but historians claim that as early as the 14th century the Czech language adopted the term krapl as an alternative to the Latin name for doughnut pastries.
However! Poppy seeds were also stuffed into fried doughnuts - rounds were cut out of well-risen dough, filled with poppy-seed filling, 'locked' into the shape of doughnuts, and, once they had risen under a cloth, fried in oil and generously dusted with sugar. Alternatively, doughnuts of unleavened curd-based dough were shaped like gnocchi with a spoon, fried, sliced and filled with jam.
With or without filling
For a long time, custard prevailed as a common filling for doughnuts in our country, while apricot preserves became popular in South Moravia, plum in Silesia and cherry or sour cherry in the towns. In the poorer parts of the country, cabbage was used as a filling.
In the 15th century, doughnuts were filled with a mixture of nuts, apples, almond milk and grape wine, while the first Czech recipe from the 16th century mentions mature curd cheese with eggs. In the 17th century, we know Spanihel doughnuts filled with stewed apples, wine, almonds and cinnamon, and in the 19th century, Anna Maria Neudecker's book described carnival doughnuts made of yeast dough, with cherry or wine filling, and Magdalena D. Rettigova advised to grate boiled potatoes into the dough and creating potato doughnuts with lemon zest and cloves.
Doughnuts without filling were offered with pea soup in regions such as Hlinecko, where sometimes the doughnut dough was mixed with grated almonds and rolled into rounds which were fried in butter. In the Middle Ages, doughnuts were also eaten salted, and resembled the sweet version perhaps only in their round shape. They were boiled, steamed or fried from a mixture of chopped meat or boiled peas and were more like meatballs.
Crunchy symbols of Shrovetide
Notable are zahorky, krupance or křehotiny, which have characterised selected Czech festivals since the Middle Ages. They come in various shapes, cut in a pleasing way and sometimes with a hole for hanging. Apart from the names, the dough also differs. Most recipes do not call for rising and instruct you to mix together flour, eggs, wine, butter, milk or cream, or even a little rum and sugar. The prepared pieces of dough are fried in lard and coated in sugar.
In the Znojmo region, the same dough and a ladle were used to make shnébale (snowballs). In the category of golden symbols of hope, sunshine and the early arrival of spring, there are also carnival cortouche - the dough is rolled out and cut into rounds, cut around the circumference like little suns, fried and, of course, sugared.
For such an occasion, charming fried roses are made of sour cream, white wine, egg yolks and salt. Using moulds, the soft dough is turned into five-petalled roses of three sizes, which are brushed with beaten egg in the centre and three 'flowers' are placed on top of each other from largest to smallest. The petals are pressed in the middle to form buds which, after being fried in hot lard, are decorated with jam and sprinkled lightly with sugar.
The trdelník has a Czech history!
The celebration of Shrovetide was locally enriched by trdelníky or trdláče, baked on a spit. The art of winding or pouring the initially unleavened, later leavened dough into a form called a trdlo was passed down on the border between Moravia and Slovakia, mainly in south-eastern and southern Moravia, including the Mikulov and Znojmo regions. Until recently, the tradition and ancient recipe were still alive at the 'Trdlování' event in Němčičky, and trdelníčky are not forgotten in Kobylí either.
Across the regions, trdelníky were wound in several ways. They were brushed with egg and milk, rolled in sugar or chopped nuts and toasted over a fire (made of beech wood) or on the edge of the oven. When finished, they were sometimes cut into rings. The Mardi Gras version was often larger, so trick-or-treaters could hang the 'rings' on sticks.
Turkey and cracklings
Winter adds richness to the menu, with recipes like yeast dough pagáče with pork crackling, or sauerkraut, which probably came to us from Hungary via Slovakia. In the wake of the January pig slaughters, it is also useful to bake sweet strudel with the addition of lard or freshly ground crackling to the dough, or to wrap the crackling in a strudel with sour, cranberry, currant or rosehip preserves.
Perhaps the perfect illustration of Masopust indulgence are buns according to Marie Úlehlová-Tilschová - made with slices of rolls briefly soaked in milk whisked with eggs and sugar, while in the bowl next to them, chopped morels are combined with raisins, the remaining sugar and orange zest. The pastry and morel mixture is then layered in a greased baking dish, and when the dish is full, the milk from soaking is poured over. The result is as rich and fragrant as Carnival itself - and carries a message about Czech cuisine, that some dishes were and are meant to remain festive.
Sources: Encyclopaedia of the Culinary Heritage of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, Podkrkonošská cookbook by Jiří Marhold, Taste Local History by Marie Úlehlová-Tilschová, Year in the Village by Kamila Skopová, Culinary Traditions of the Moravian and Silesian Regions, publication Bohemia - Moravia - Vienna
