Jurma (cooking)

Jurma, like a Russian dish, comes from the ancient dishes of peoples engaged in hunting and fishing. Initially, apparently, it was just a mixture of fish stock and game stock. Similar dishes are included, for example, in the cuisine of Khanty and Mansi - brew from taimen or nelma and game: partridge , grouse . In addition, reindeer stomach reindeer were added to this soup. According to the reviews of European travelers and in their opinion, it is difficult to imagine something even this dish is.

In the future, the principle of combining fish and poultry in one dish was borrowed by Russian pioneers who settled in the Urals and spread to Russia - moreover, the dish was improved by using onions and spices

However, the dish was not preserved in Russian cuisine. The last known mention of it is in the "Mural of the royal dishes" in 1610 ^[1] . The reasons for the disappearance of the dish are partly due to the fact that yurma was the main dish, served to the royal and patriarchal tables, and already in the 18th century, it passed on to the borrowed West European table. In addition, religious reasons played a role: jurma contradicts the principle of dividing any food into lean and fasting.

The last known person to use jurma was Patriarch Nikon .

The antiquity of the dish and its origin is indicated by the Komi-Permyak root of the word "yur", translated as "bowler", "pot". In addition, there is the Komi-Permyak word "ursa", which translates as "artel", and in ancient times had the meaning of "many," "full." Most likely, in ancient times the dish was called "yur-uma" , which can be translated as "a pot full" or "full-in a pot". Russian settlers reduced the name to the word "jurma".

This recipe is reconstructed because the recipe was not preserved and it is reliably known that fish , chicken and saffron were part of the jurma.

First you need to cook fish and chicken broths. As for the fish broth, pike perch , whitefish , taimen , grayling , nelma , that is, varieties of fish with tender white or slightly pinkish meat, are suitable for the broth. Of marine fish, navaga , notothenia , haddock are suitable . As for the chicken, it should be non-greasy (it is better to remove excess fat) and cleaned of skin.

Broths are cooked in different pots, each with peeled onions, bay leaves and black peppercorns . It is important to achieve transparency of both broths, for which they resort to clarification procedures: they collect fat from the surface, pour 1-2 tablespoons of ice water before draining the broth.

Fish broth should be cooked for no more than 20 minutes, then the fish cut into large pieces should be removed and set aside. Boil the chicken stock until the chicken is ready, then remove the chicken and chop the white meat (not in the meat grinder) into small pieces, mix with green onions and a spoon of other semolina, beaten raw egg and form walnut-sized chunks from the resulting mass.

Connect the broths, guided by two rules: the chicken broth should be slightly larger than the fish and pour the hot chicken broth into the hot fish. After combining the broths, it is necessary to warm the mixture for several minutes over low heat, then add fire and boil the knives (in case the knels are loose, it is better to boil them in portions in a soup ladle immersed in soup). Remove the dumplings, put finely chopped dill , parsley , celery , green onions in the soup, sprinkle with saffron. You can also put two or three cloves of garlic . In addition, chopped young horseradish leaves, spoon grass can be used. Instead of greens, you can pour a glass of chopped young nettles . Boil for 1-2 minutes, put in the broth the dumplings and pieces of fish, heat on fire for several minutes.

The taste of jurma is interesting: the fish becomes neutral in taste, and the chicken acquires a pronounced fish aroma. The broth is tart and astringent. Jurma is poured into a plate, 1-2 pieces of fish and 3-4 knels are put, eaten with sandwiches or soft white bread.

An eaten plate of jurma causes an attack of intense thirst. This is probably due to the astringent properties of the broth.

• Pokhlebkin V.V. Secrets of good cuisine. - Yekaterinburg: Middle Ural Book Publishing House, Association of Ural Publishers, 1994. - 352 p.