Where does the name bird's milk come from. The history of the bird's milk cake. Where does this name come from?

This dessert is surely adored by everyone who remembers the times of the Union. Fortunately, modern sweet tooths also have the opportunity to taste "Bird's Milk". Everything is perfect in this dessert: the most delicate soufflé, chocolate icing with an expressive taste, appetizing appearance, and in the case of the cake - also a soft biscuit. The name itself is associated not just with a treat, for many it is a symbol of the era.

But why is "Bird's milk" called "bird's milk"? Surely this question puzzled everyone at least once.

The first swallows

Many people know that the Poles were the pioneers. It was in Poland, at the E. Wedel factory, that these sweets were first produced back in 1936. The filling was similar in composition to marshmallows, but did not contain eggs.

Once Polish sweets "Bird's Milk" were tasted by the Minister of Light Industry of the USSR. He liked them so much that the country's leadership set the task for the confectioners to develop an analogue.

The origins of the name

Answering the question of why "Bird's milk" is called "bird's milk", it is worth looking not even in 1936, but in even earlier times. In medieval European folklore, a plot is very common in which an insidious beauty sends an unlucky boyfriend in search of bird milk. Drawing analogies, we can mention the Slavic image of the fern flower and the fabulous "then, I don't know what." Of course, the gentleman had to either return with nothing, or disappear, because there is no bird's milk in nature. In any case, in medieval Europe, it certainly did not exist.

But there are even more ancient references. They will also help us understand why "Bird's milk" is called "bird's". The ancient Greeks believed that birds of paradise fed their babies with milk. If a person happens to taste this delicacy, he will become invincible, strong and healthy, and will keep his youth for many years.

In Russia, there was a proverb that the rich man has everything except bird's milk. It was understood that some things (friendship, health, love) cannot be bought for money, no matter how rich a person is.

As you can see, in many cultures there were legends that birds can give milk. And everywhere it was associated with unearthly pleasure, blessings, treasure. Not surprisingly, Polish pastry chefs gave their creation this tempting name.

Since 1967, the production of sweets began in the USSR. It was decided to keep the unusual name. By that time, it had already gained fame and popular love. Why "Bird's milk" is called "bird's milk", the Soviet people may have thought, but certainly not surprised. Apparently, the memory of generations worked: the dessert evoked persistent associations with an outlandish delicacy, a fabulous pleasure, a holiday of taste.

The production technology and composition of "Bird's Milk" were kept secret by Polish producers. Therefore, their Soviet colleagues had to work hard to create something similar in taste. The most interesting thing in this story is that the name misled the Soviet technologists: they were sure that it was due to the presence of eggs in the candy filling. In fact, eggs have nothing to do with the name. But if they were not in Polish sweets, then today they are present in many desserts of the same name.

Unique component

But the confectioners did not set the task of completely repeating the recipe. On the contrary, they went their own way. The factory's specialists in Vladivostok used not only their professionalism, but also the wealth of their native land. Instead of gelatin, it was decided to use agar-agar obtained from Far Eastern algae. It was this factory that was the first to launch a novelty. The recipe has been registered.

The second factory was Rot Front. And after a while, other confectionery enterprises in all parts of the country, including the famous "Red October", joined in the implementation of the plan.

Today Vladivostok's "Bird's Milk" sweets are considered the best. In a three-hundred-gram box, the buyer will find sweets with three different flavors (chocolate, lemon and cream), which can be stored for no more than 15 days. They still contain useful agar-agar.

Legendary cake from the restaurant "Prague"

The success of the sweets has inspired chefs as well. Vladimir Guralnik forever inscribed his name in the history of sweets, because it was he who developed the recipe for the bird's milk cake in the early 80s. Conjuring over the ingredients, the master initially decided that he would also use agar-agar. The composition also included egg whites, powdered sugar, water. And the basis was an airy biscuit.

The number of orders grew exponentially. If at the very beginning only visitors of the Moscow restaurant "Praga" could taste the delicacy, then after a few months the shop was also open to take away.

It was difficult to scare a Soviet person with a line, and therefore the workers calmly lined up behind the secret cake, taking their places even before dark. Eyewitnesses of those times remember that the tail of the queue often turned to the neighboring Old Arbat. The recipe for the bird's milk cake has been officially approved. Violation of the recommended norms was prosecuted by law.

"Bird's milk" today

"Bird's Milk" sweets are still produced today. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, not all manufacturers adhere to the original Far Eastern recipe. Expensive agar-agar is often replaced with gelatin; preservatives are used to extend the shelf life. But there is a plus in this: the price of some types of "Bird's milk" is very low. You can find both loose weighed candies and packed in beautiful boxes.

No less popular are cakes, pastries, "Bird's milk" soufflé, which today many hostesses have learned to cook on their own.

11.02.2017 11:35 2233

Is there a bird's milk and why the candy was named so.

Perhaps you have ever heard an adult say about someone "he only has no bird's milk." This means that a person has even more than he can wish for.

Sweets with the unusual name "Bird's Milk" are loved by more than one generation of sweet tooths. But how many people know where this original name of these sweets came from and does bird's milk actually exist in nature?

Birds are not mammals and do not feed their chicks with milk. Therefore, the expression "bird's milk" began to denote something unseen, which in reality does not exist and cannot be, the impossible, the limit of desires.

However, oddly enough, ornithologists have proven that bird milk still exists, although not in all bird species. For example, pigeons, goldfinches, crossbills, emperor penguins, flamingos have it.

True, the milk of birds does not at all resemble the usual cow or goat milk, but rather resembles liquid cottage cheese, but its purpose is the same as that of the usual one. These birds feed their chicks for a very short time - no more than a month. So in the feathered world, bird's milk is very rare.

Pigeons, for example, feed their chicks with a special gruel from the goiter, which is sometimes called pigeon milk. This so-called milk is formed from a whitish liquid escaping from the goiter of a pigeon, which is mixed with a thick gruel that the pigeon regurgitates from the stomach into the goiter.

Emperor penguins also feed their chicks with a mushy substance that is produced in the walls of the esophagus and stomach. These penguins hatch chicks in the midst of the Antarctic winter, when the air temperature reaches -80 degrees. Birds keep their only egg on their paws, covering it from above with a fold of skin on the belly.

Well, is there really bird milk, we found out. Now let's answer the question why the well-known sweets are so named, which are a delicate, sweet soufflé covered with chocolate.

The inventors of this delicacy are considered to be Polish confectioners, who for the first time released in 1936 a batch of unusually tasty and sweet soufflé in chocolate. Most likely, they chose this name for their sweet creation to show its peculiarity and, of course, to attract the attention of those with a sweet tooth.

In Russia (or rather, back then in the Soviet Union) the Bird's Milk soufflé appeared in the 60s of the last century and became so popular that 10 years later Soviet confectioners came up with a cake recipe with the same name, based on the famous soufflé.

We continue to acquaint you with the history of famous dishes, and our next "hero" is the Bird's Milk cake. Where did everyone get such an unusual name for the delicacy so beloved in Soviet times? Why did they stand in line for a day for dessert, and not every housewife still manages to repeat the original recipe? You will learn all this and much more from our material.

A tender dough cake with an airy biscuit layer was released in 1978 and became a real legend of the Prague restaurant. The prototype of "Bird's Milk" was the Czechoslovak sweets "Ptasje Mlechko", which were once tasted by the Minister of Food Industry of the USSR during a business trip. "To do something similar, but according to the original recipe," the minister commanded, after which numerous experiments began to find the ideal composition of a new domestic delicacy. Following the sweets, first prepared in the 60s, it was decided to "conjure" also over the cake. The merit of its creation belongs to confectioner Vladimir Guralnik. The name of this man has forever gone down in the history of culinary, and, it would seem, with such a rich past, now he could work in any, the most expensive confectionery in Moscow. However, Guralnik remains loyal to "Prague" to this day - in the confectionery department he works for the sake of preserving long-term traditions and creating new culinary masterpieces.

Together with the team, we have been working on the recipe for "Bird's Milk" for over 6 months. I wanted the bottom to be from an unusual dough: not biscuit, not shortbread, not flaky. So a new type of dough was created - a butter-whipped semi-finished product, it is somewhat similar to a cupcake. The filling had to be boiled for a long time: agar-agar has a melting temperature of about 120 degrees, in contrast to gelatin, which curls up already at 100 degrees. The secret of our recipe is precisely in agar-agar - a more expensive and rich substitute for gelatin. They experimented for a long time: they added some ingredients, removed others, brought them to different temperatures - then the syrup turns out, then the viscous mass. Until they found the right consistency, 6 months have passed,

Once Guralnik told the newspaper "Evening Moscow". In the Soviet years, the "Bird's Milk" cake was a real "king of the tables". For the original cake, sold only in the restaurant "Prague", people stood in line for several hours - a line of those wishing to treat themselves could fill half of the Old Arbat. What real success is, Guralnikov learned when at the metro he was furtively offered coupons for his own creation.

The secret of such success lay not only in the taste of the dessert, but also in its name - in its, so to speak, sacred sense. According to ancient mythology, bird milk is an unprecedented miracle. That which does not really exist, that which the birds of paradise fed their children. "A person who has everything can only dream of bird's milk" - this expression again gained popularity in Europe of the XVIII century. And who didn’t want to have something fantastic and impossible during the years of deficit in the USSR!

According to one of the legends, once the girls, in order to get rid of annoying gentlemen, sent them to wander through the cities and villages in search of "bird milk". Those, of course, never came back.

Now, leaving for "Bird's Milk" and not returning is an incredible story. The delicacy is presented in almost all confectionery shops in the country. True, the original cake according to the recipe of Vladimir Guralnik is exclusively sold only in 10 stores in Moscow. As he himself says, the cakes are delivered there in special branded vans and the taste of this treat cannot be confused with anything.

Guralnik does not hide the secret of making the "Bird's Milk" cake:

We pour the whipped protein with agar-agar, then add butter and condensed milk, mix and cool to 80 degrees. Then pour this mass into a mold and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Then it is worthwhile to lay the layers correctly, because "Bird's milk" is a cake-constructor. The dough layer is alternated with an agar-agar layer, and so on again. The dessert is poured over with chocolate.

By the way, chocolate also has its own secret, - says the author. - It must have a certain melting point of 38 degrees, otherwise it will "turn gray" in the refrigerator. And also, to make it tasty, chocolate must be properly kneaded. We have a special machine that continuously interferes with the chocolate.

However, now each confectionery has its own, somewhat different from the original recipe for "Bird's milk". HELLO.RU decided to find out how "Bird's milk" is prepared in the restaurant of Odessa cuisine "Babel". You can definitely repeat this recipe at home!

"Bird's milk" from the restaurant "Babel"Ingredients:

wheat flour 200 gr.

egg yolk 7 gr.

butter 275 gr

soda 1 tsp

sugar 350 gr.

condensed milk

lemon acid

chocolate 150 gr

cream 38%

egg white 7 pcs.

Preparation:

1. Beat butter at room temperature with sugar, add yolks, soda and flour, beat everything with a mixer.

2. Bake the mass at 170 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

3. For the cream, soak the gelatin in half a glass of cold water. Add citric acid and sugar to water with swollen gelatin. Then beat the whites until firm foam.

4. Separately beat the butter with condensed milk and gradually add to the mixture with whipped egg whites and gelatin solution. Don't stop whisking.

5. For the glaze, melt the chocolate and add a little butter. Melt everything over low heat and bring to a homogeneous mass.

6. Lay the dessert in layers and pour over the chocolate.

Bon Appetit!

Sweets with an airy filling melting in your mouth were first produced in Poland in 1936. The novelty was named "bird milk" or "ptasie mleczko".

The most delicious confectionery products in the form of a cake or sweets with this strange name have probably not been tried only in Africa. Delicious, delicate, airy. Everyone always associates it with a carefree childhood and an eternal holiday of the soul! And certainly everyone is interested in why “Bird's milk” is bird's milk, and not cow's, because, as everyone knows, birds don't give milk. Far from it! In nature, "bird's milk" still exists.

Despite significant differences in physiology from mammals, some birds feed their chicks with "bird milk"! But it doesn't look the way we might imagine. In fact, it is a sticky nutritive mass formed in a bird's goiter, stimulating the immune system and increasing the resistance to stress of chicks at the biochemical level. "Bird's milk" is fed to their offspring by male emperor penguins, flamingos and, just think, pigeons!

But where does this mass of goiter and the name of confectionery products that are completely unrelated to it have to do with it? Sweets with an airy filling melting in your mouth were first produced in Poland in 1936. The novelty was named "bird milk" or "ptasie mleczko". They were made by the Warsaw confectionery factory E. Wedel. And the Poles called their sweets such a strange name, guided by the folklore of their country. According to him, birds of paradise feed their chicks with milk, which makes them invulnerable to any disease or weapon. At one time, ladies even sent annoying boyfriends in search of this bird's milk. True, only Polish confectioners managed to do this.

In the late 1960s, similar sweets appeared on the shelves of shops in the USSR. And in 1978, a cake with a similar name appeared. But his recipe was slightly different from the candy recipe. However, the cake justified its name at that time of shortage. It was almost as difficult to reach as the feather of the firebird. For the first time, a delicious delicacy made from truly natural ingredients appeared in the Moscow restaurant "Prague" by Vladimir Guralnik.

Nowadays, sweets and cake "Bird's milk" have a completely different composition, sometimes as mythical as the legend of bird milk itself. Animal fat has been replaced with heat-resistant margarine and palm fat. Not without baking soda, emulsifiers, flavors, etc. Sorbic acid, designated E200, acts as a preservative. Therefore, it is better to eat a real bird's milk cake at home and cook it according to the original recipe. Safer for your health. And the composition will definitely not stress your stomach.

Loved by many. This is a combination of delicate soufflé and dark chocolate, a safe option - not too fatty and airy filling and chocolate that melts in your mouth. Great for tea, coffee or as a compliment. On their basis, a cake even appeared, which immediately fell in love with the sweet tooth.

Do birds give milk?

Children sometimes ask themselves the question: "Why is" Bird's milk "called that?" And do birds give milk at all? And adults know this for sure. The vast majority of birds, like reptiles and other amphibians, are not mammals, but oviparous. And those that feed chicks in a way similar to that existing in mammals, make it a viscous liquid for milk completely different... So, we can say that bird milk does not exist in nature, and even more so it is not in the composition of sweets.

But despite this obvious thing, not all adults know why "Bird's milk" is so called. And most likely they just do not think where such a strange and ridiculous name comes from.

Where does this name come from?

The fact is that the Poles borrowed this name from the legends about the healing milk of birds of paradise, with which they supposedly feed their chicks. Milk of birds is also mentioned in the comedy of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristophanes "Birds". It is described as a supreme delicacy, food of the gods, which gives unheard of strength and health.

In ancient times, it was customary to ask fans to give amazing gifts. The more amazing the gift, the more chances there are for the heart of a young beauty. And if the girl didn't like the guy at all, she asked him for bird's milk, probably knowing that this was just a legend, and he would not get it, which means there would be a reason to refuse. Poor young men died in search of this magic milk, but no one found it.

This legend, in one interpretation or another, is found among many peoples. Since ancient times, Russians even have a proverb: "The rich have everything, cut the bird's milk."

Thanks to such a variety of tales and legends, bird milk has become synonymous with something special and rare. That's why Bird's Milk is called that. To emphasize the divinity of the delicacy and compare it with the mythical milk of the birds of paradise.

Now, however, a small number of birds have been found that feed their chicks with something like milk. For example, flamingos and penguins. But the creators of the sweets clearly did not mean this, and even at the time of the invention of sweets, and even more so the birth of this legend, they could not know about this.

What are candies made of?

For the first time, such sweets began to be produced in 1936 in Poland, under the name Ptasie Mleczko, and there they had a resounding success. The famous Soviet factory Rot Front decided to repeat this success and in the 1960s began their production in the USSR. At the same time, they decided not to stand on ceremony with the name and translated literally. That's why "Bird's Milk" is called that way.

The composition of the sweets is very simple - no super rare ingredients. It is a mixture of egg white, sugar, gelatin and butter, drizzled with chocolate. Ingredients are clearly not why "Bird's Milk" is called that. But despite the simple composition, it is not so easy to prepare them, everything is important - the freshness of the products, and the speed of mixing, and the cooling temperature.

Therefore, candies were made in small batches, which were quickly sold out. In the days of the USSR, a shortage was a common thing, and these candies were especially difficult to get. This is how the Soviet people interpreted why with "Bird's milk". They believed that this was due to their scarcity and unusualness at that time.

GOST was strictly observed, and those who ate them then say that the delicacy was much tastier than today. Now, unfortunately, many ingredients are being replaced with cheaper and synthetic ones. Not every factory makes them equally well, and some have changed the recipe so much that the taste cannot be recognized. "Bird's Milk" sweets from "Rot Front" to this day are read by the standard.

How did the cake come about?

Later, in the 1980s, the pastry chefs of the then elite restaurant "Prague", headed by Vladimir Guralnik, invented a biscuit cake, which was named the same. It was a cake filled with the most delicate soufflé and, like the legendary sweets, poured over with chocolate. This is why the cake is called "Bird's Milk". Its uniqueness also lies in the fact that no other in the USSR was ever granted a patent, but this one was issued.

Now it is baked at home, as the recipe is not a secret. But due to the complexity in technology, it turns out only from the most skillful and experienced housewives.