Easter. Traditional recipes for Easter cake, Easter and other festive dishes. Easter table: traditional menu and recipes

by Notes of the Wild Mistress

Easter is the most important and joyful Christian holiday, which in 2015 we will celebrate the day after tomorrow, April 12th. There is very little time left before the end of Lent, so you should already think about the festive menu and stock up on delicious, original and proven recipes.

By tradition, the main symbols and treats of Orthodox Easter are Easter cake, Curd Easter and colored eggs. However, every year the menu of this holiday increases and becomes more modern. cookbook"wild" hostesses offers original selection traditional and modern dishes to celebrate the brightest holiday of the year - Easter.

Traditional Easter dishes

kulich

Easter cake is a special kind of ceremonial festive bread, which is traditionally baked from yeast dough on Maundy Thursday, and on Saturday it is consecrated in the church. Cooking Easter cake is akin to a certain sacrament. Its main feature is not the ingredients, but the correct cooking technology. For the preparation of Easter cake should be taken exclusively with good mood, then the cake will turn out to be successful, and next year everything will be fine in the house.

The dough for Easter cake requires a careful attitude and is kneaded in several stages, between which it fits. The dough is very capricious - it does not like drafts, sudden changes in temperature, loud sounds, and does not tolerate haste. Easter cakes can only be baked in a well-heated oven, and during this process they should not be disturbed. The readiness of Easter cakes can be checked with a wooden toothpick, on which the dough should not remain. The finished cake is not taken out of the mold immediately, but allowed to cool. These are, perhaps, all the basic rules that should be followed when preparing Easter cakes.

Cooking a traditional cake

1 sachet (11-12 g) dry or 50 g conventional yeast mix with 500 ml of warm milk and 500 g of flour. Knead the dough and let it rise. Pound the yolks with 300 g of white sugar, and beat the whites into a tight foam. Add yolks, proteins to the approached dough, enter 200 g of softened butter and mix thoroughly. Then add 500 g of flour, finally knead the dough, cover it and put it in heat for 1 hour until it doubles in volume.

During this time, rinse the raisins, dry them, sprinkle with flour and add to the risen dough. Mix everything again and set aside for 10 minutes. Grease the forms with butter, sprinkle with flour and spread the dough, filling the form by 1/3 of the volume. Leave the filled forms for 10 minutes so that the dough rises in them, then send them to a preheated oven to 180 ° C for 45-50 minutes.

Prepare the glaze by whipping with a mixer into a tight foam 2 egg whites with 100 g of sugar, which cover the finished hot cakes.

Cooking royal cake

Dissolve 50 g of yeast in 200 g of cream room temperature. Add 600 g of flour, mix and leave the dough to rise. When the dough rises, add 15 egg yolks pounded with 200 g of sugar and 200 g of soft butter. Pour in 400 ml of cream and put 600 g of flour, 10 crushed cardamom grains, 50 g of almonds and 100 g of washed raisins and candied fruit. Knead the dough well and leave to rise for two hours in a warm place. Then knead it again, place it in the molds, filling them 1/3 of the volume, pre-lubricated with oil and sprinkled with breadcrumbs. Let the dough rise, then put them in a preheated oven to 180 ° C for 45 minutes.

Easter cottage cheese preparation

Cottage cheese Easter, along with Easter cakes, is considered the main dish of the festive Easter table. For its preparation, a special detachable pastry box in the form of a truncated pyramid, consisting of 4 planks, is traditionally used. Squeezed in her curd takes the form of a truncated pyramid, which symbolizes the place of the crucifixion and death of Christ.

In addition to the fact that cottage cheese Easter is a symbol of Easter, it also serves as a very delicious dessert. It can be cooked in three ways: chilled and pressed, custard and baked in the oven.

Cooking curd custard Easter

Rub 1 kg of cottage cheese through a sieve, add 200 g of soft butter and the same amount of sugar, 5 eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanillin and mix. Pour 400 ml of cream into the resulting mass and mix again. Put everything on fire, and after boiling, cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly until thickened. Combine the curd mass with candied fruits, nuts and raisins - each additive should be 100 grams. Put the dough under the load (to drain the whey) into the pasochnik covered with gauze, which is sent to the refrigerator for 12 hours. When the serum drains, remove the gauze and decorate the Easter.

Preparation of curd pressed Easter

Beat 200 g of cottage cheese with a blender or rub through a sieve, add 2 egg yolks, 100 g of grated butter, 0.5 teaspoon of vanillin and 100 g of sugar. Mix everything, put it in a mold, and set it for a day under the load.

Cooking baked cottage cheese Easter in the oven

Put 600 g of cottage cheese under a press so that all excess liquid is gone from it, then wipe it through a sieve. Rinse 50 g of raisins, mix with 40 g of starch and add to the curd. Pounded 6 yolks with 5 tablespoons of sugar, add to the curd and mix. Gradually add 6 egg whites whipped to a stable dry foam with 5 tablespoons of sugar. Grease a baking dish with butter, sprinkle breadcrumbs, lay out the curd mass and send to bake at 190 ° C for 1 hour.

How to paint eggs for Easter

The egg is one of the main Easter symbols. Biblical legend says that Mary Magdalene approached Emperor Tiberius and declared that Jesus had risen! Stretching out her hand with an ordinary egg, she said: "Now it will turn red before your eyes, which will testify to the miracle of the resurrection." In a moment, the egg turned red. Since that time, one of the main ritual attributes of Easter has been a painted red egg, which later began to be painted in other shades with iconographic and other images.

By tradition, plain colored eggs are called krashenka, with spots applied on them - stripes, specks - speckles, painted with patterns - pysanky.

natural egg colors

Traditional onion skins will turn the eggs brown, red cabbage soaked in vinegar - blue, turmeric - a golden hue, spinach leaves and birch buds - green, infused with lemon juice dried violet flowers or dark grape juice - lavender shade. And the boiled eggs natural coffee will turn pink to dark brown in color.

Festive dishes for the Easter table

In addition to ritual and traditional dishes, a wide variety of meat, fish and other dishes that could not be consumed during Lent are served on the Easter table. Therefore, all kinds of sausages, boiled pork, hams and other meat delicacies are an integral part of the festive Easter table.

Bouzhenina

Boiled pork can be prepared with pork, beef, chicken, and any type of meat that you like. To do this, rinse the meat, blot with a paper towel, rub with salt and pepper. Make cuts in the meat, stuff them with chopped garlic and send it to the refrigerator for 12 hours. Then tightly wrap the meat with foil and bake in an oven preheated to 190 ° C for 1-1.5 hours. Cut the chilled pork into thin slices and serve on a dish.

Baked pork with mustard crust

Pork chop on the rib is one of the most valuable parts of the pork carcass, so you should not forget to cook it for the table on Holy holiday Easter. To do this, coat the pork with the rib part with spices prepared from finely chopped parsley, green basil, mustard, oregano, coriander seeds, garlic, olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Make punctures in the meat, put it in a mold and refrigerate for one hour. Then wrap with foil and send for 50 minutes in an oven preheated to 180ºC.

Jelly eggs

Jelly eggs are a unique Easter treat. To prepare them, prepare eggshells in advance. To do this, do not break the eggs, but make a small hole at the blunt end, through which you carefully remove the contents. Then the shell must be thoroughly washed and dried, setting the hole down.

Further, everything is very simple: cook jelly according to your favorite recipe. Finely chop the meat with vegetables and pour it not into traditional plates, but into an egg shell. Then set the filled eggs on the stands with the hole up and put in the refrigerator to set. Before serving, peel the shells and decorate the jelly eggs with herbs and vegetables.

Grilled red fish

Delicious meat of red fish diversifies the festive Easter menu. In addition, many celebrate this holiday in nature, and grilled baked fish will be an excellent treat. To do this, cut the fish into portions and marinate it for 10 minutes in finely chopped dill and squeezed lime juice. Then salt, pepper, sprinkle olive oil, place on a wire rack and bake for 15 minutes.

These are the recipes you can cook on Christ's Sunday. A more extensive list of traditional and modern Easter dishes can be found on our website.

Congratulations to everyone on the upcoming bright holiday of the Resurrection of Christ! May a piece of joy that all Christian people experience on Easter stay with you for the whole year and support you in difficult times!

Easter is the main holiday for Christians. It is customary to meet her in the family circle, next to relatives and loving people. On Bright Sunday they set the table and decorate it with various Easter decorations. Let's look at what the Easter table menu could be, traditional dishes and their recipes.

Traditional dishes

The main attributes of Easter are Easter cake, cottage cheese Easter and painted eggs, which are blessed in the church and served at the festive Easter table.

Kulich can be prepared from various products, for example, from cottage cheese, oat flour, ordinary wheat and even pumpkin. Easter cake is not just a traditional pastry. It has a sacred meaning and symbolizes Jesus Christ, who, after his resurrection, ate food with the apostles.

Colored eggs (chicken, goose or duck) are also important. As a rule, symbols with different meanings are applied to them. For example, among such symbols there are: a cross, a spiral, rhombuses and squares, floral and animal ornaments.

There are several types of Easter eggs:

Easter cake

This is a traditional recipe for making Easter cake, which was used in the times of Russia. Yeast baked goods made from wheat flour premium.

Ingredients:

Cooking:

Curd Easter

This is an incredibly tasty, delicate and airy delicacy, which is traditionally prepared for the Easter table. To prepare it, you will need some free time and effort. However, the result will be worth it.

Ingredients:

Cooking:

Easter eggs

Today there are a large number of recipes for cooking Easter eggs. They can simply be dyed with food or natural dyes, decorate with elegant painting or various decorative elements.

Let's look at several ways to prepare Easter eggs:

You can pick beautiful dish for Easter eggs, so that they look presentable and attractive on the festive table. Place a church candle or a willow twig in the center of it. Sometimes sprouted wheat is placed in the center, which is a symbol of new life.

Traditionally, 12 colored eggs are placed on a dish, each of which symbolizes an apostle. In addition, one unpainted testicle is added to them, which will symbolize Jesus Christ. The dyed consecrated egg must be the first to be eaten for breakfast on Easter Sunday morning.

In 2017 Orthodox Easter falls on May 1st. This religious holiday is preceded by a forty-day Easter fast, which helps to cleanse not only the body, but also the soul. During this period, there are many restrictions on food. Therefore, after fasting on Easter, fatty and heavy meals for the stomach should not be served, as they can negatively affect the well-being and health of the person who fasted.

Easter dishes served at the festive table should be light. They can be made from fruits and vegetables, lean fish and meats. Dishes decorate green onions, dill and parsley. Since Easter symbolizes the end of Lent, the dishes should be varied.

Preparation for Easter should be done well in advance. Until this day, they choose recipes for dishes, carefully think over the festive table, bake Easter cakes and paint eggs. Below we will consider the recipes for preparing the most interesting dishes.

For the Easter table, you can serve the following dishes:

Cooking:

Easter table setting

In addition to preparing delicious Easter dishes, you should also take care of serving the festive table itself. We set Easter cake in the center and put a dish with colored eggs and church candles.

It is desirable to decorate the table with a composition of fresh spring flowers. You can also install figurines of Easter bunnies and hares. A linen tablecloth embroidered with various symbols will look beautiful and appropriate. Included with it are desirable embroidered napkins.

Near each plate, you can put a small souvenir, which will consist of a colorful pysanka, an Easter animal figurine and a small Easter.

It is advisable to start preparing Easter dishes in advance, since most of them require considerable time and effort. The main dishes of the festive table are: cottage cheese Easter, Easter cake and colored eggs. The table can also be modified snacks, salads, fish and meat dishes.

Easter is coming, which means that many are wondering what to cook for Easter 2019, and what to make the Easter menu 2019. The Easter table 2019 will be the same as it has always been. In addition to the obligatory, sacral dishes, there will be ordinary festive ones, which you can choose yourself. With the advent of Easter, Lent ends, so the dishes for the Easter table are very diverse. This and meat dishes, and pastries for Easter, and salads for Easter. But the most important Easter dishes, of course, Easter or Easter cake, and Easter eggs. This is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about what to cook for the Easter table. Without these dishes, a festive table for Easter is unthinkable. Recipes boiled eggs there is no point in discussing, but Easter baking, these are the recipes for the Easter table, which are worth talking about separately. Those who know how to cook delicious Easter dishes probably learned the recipes for Easter dishes from their grandmothers, because in the Soviet years the questions were how to cook the Easter table, recipes for Easter, how to bake Easter cakes, how to bake Easter cake, Easter recipes, Easter recipes, Easter cake easter (curd recipe), how to prepare custard cottage cheese Easter cake, Easter cake recipe for Easter in the oven, cottage cheese Easter recipe, how tasty cheese Easter is prepared, icing recipe for Easter cake, royal cake, Easter salad recipe, baked cottage cheese Easter, cottage cheese Easter recipes raisins and candied fruits, could hardly be found in the “Book of Tasty and healthy food". Baking Easter or baking Easter cakes is the most responsible task in preparing the Easter table. Easter dough is made with yeast, milk and eggs. According to the technology of preparation Easter or Easter cake is very similar to bread, so you can find recipes for Easter cake in a bread machine, a recipe for Easter cake for a bread machine, Easter cake in a bread machine, a recipe for Easter cake in a bread machine, an Easter recipe in a bread machine. Everyone wants to cook not only tasty, but also beautiful easter, so they try to decorate it, for this, icing for Easter cake is used. There are three types of icing recipe for Easter cake: it is protein, fruit and chocolate glaze. If you are not friends with yeast dough, Easter cake is for you, the recipe of which is used for many European Easter dishes. In addition, Easter is prepared from cottage cheese, Easter from sour cream. Easter recipe from sour cream and cottage cheese Easter - recipes that can be combined, often called royal Easter. Royal Easter is a recipe that is prepared not by baking, but by brewing. The recipe for royal curd Easter is simple: after mixing all the ingredients in a saucepan, they are stirred and brewed. Hence the name custard easter, boiled easter recipe, royal custard easter recipe, custard curd easter. To get the royal curd Easter of the correct form, it is advisable to stock up on a special form.

Easter recipes from cottage cheese are just as traditional for this holiday. There are three types of Easter cottage cheese recipes: custard, pressed and baked. Cooking Easter from cottage cheese is chosen by those who do not like to mess with the dough. Cottage cheese Easter, the recipe can be very different, it greatly depends on the quality of the cottage cheese. Cottage cheese for cheese Easter is allowed to drain. Curd Easter baked is usually cooked in the oven. Cottage cheese Easter is a recipe that gives scope to your imagination and tastes, it is prepared with candied fruits, raisins, fruits, cognac or rum. We suggest you use Easter cottage cheese recipe with photo, Easter cottage cheese recipes with photo, Easter cottage cheese recipe with photo, Easter cottage cheese recipes with photo, Easter cottage cheese recipes with photos, Easter dishes recipes with photos, because the illustrations really help to prepare a beautiful and delicious Easter.

From ancient times in Russia solemnly prepared for the Holy Day. From Monday of the last - Holy - week of Great Lent, a general cleaning of the entire house began, which ended on Maundy Thursday. After that, they began to prepare the Easter festive table. According to tradition, ritual dishes must have been present on the Easter table: cottage cheese Easter, Easter cake, Easter lamb and painted eggs. These dishes are deeply symbolic. For example, Easter cake symbolizes the presence of God in the world and in human life. The sweetness and beauty of the Easter cake express the care of the Lord for every human being. Cottage cheese Easter traditionally has the shape of a truncated pyramid. And this is not accidental: this form symbolizes the Holy Sepulcher. The Easter lamb (lamb) is a reminder of the sacrificial death of Christ to atone for the sins of all mankind. Colored eggs are always red! - a symbol of the blood of Christ and His Resurrection. But even in pre-Christian times, the egg has always been a symbol of peace and the triumph of life.

An especially rich festive Easter table was always prepared for Easter. In wealthy families, the number festive dishes reached 48 - according to the number of days of the past post. The basis of the meal these days was meat: baked hams, lamb or ham, stuffed geese, ducks, turkeys, suckling pigs and homemade sausage. Moreover, all Easter dishes were served cold. More precisely, they did this: the first meal took place at night, upon arrival from the church. First they drank a spoonful of vegetable oil, then they ate oatmeal jelly, broke the fast with a piece of Easter, a slice of Easter cake and an egg. And in the morning they decorated the table, put out pre-prepared dishes and did not clear the table all day, since these days it was customary to visit without an invitation and try everything your heart desires.

In the center of the Easter table was a dish with sprouted grains of wheat, oats or watercress. You need to germinate grains and seeds about a week before Easter: pour some earth and well-moistened seeds on a flat dish, mix and leave in a warm place. By Easter the grass will grow. Just don't forget to water. Put the colored eggs in the grass and put in the center of the table.

Eggs can still be laid in a special one.

Ingredients:
500 g flour
10 g pressed yeast
2 tbsp. l. Sahara,
100 ml milk
½ st. l. salt,
1 tsp citric acid,
75 g melted plums. oils,
2 eggs,
poppy, raisins, dried apricots, nuts - a handful.

Cooking:
Sift flour, make a well in the middle. Put the crumbled yeast, add a little sugar and warm milk, knead the dough. Cover and put in a warm place for 15-20 minutes, until the dough begins to bubble. Add to it the remaining milk, sugar, salt, citric acid, butter, 1 whole egg and 1 protein (leave the yolk for lubrication). Knead elastic dough. Roll into a ball and leave for 30-40 minutes. come up. When the dough has doubled in size, knead it thoroughly. Divide into three parts and roll out each in the form of long strips 10-15 cm wide. Spread the filling on each strip: poppy seeds mixed with sugar, finely chopped dried apricots, chopped nuts or washed and dried raisins - if desired, and wrap in tow rolls (by lenght). The main thing is that you get three rolls with different fillings. Weave a braid from the bundles and put on a baking sheet in the form of a wreath (around). Let go, grease with yolk and put in the oven. Cool the baked wreath, put it on a flat dish, put the colored eggs in the center.

Eggs are usually eaten with mayonnaise. This is fundamentally wrong, and it’s not even about the dubious benefits of mayonnaise. Traditionally, eggs and all Easter dishes were eaten, sprinkled with Thursday salt - this is salt burned in an oven with kvass wort, herbs or cabbage leaves. Thursday salt, prepared only on Maundy Thursday in Holy Week, p curative and even magical properties. Putting magic aside, we can say that such salt is indeed very useful product. It is enriched with potassium, calcium, magnesium ions, selenium elements. Besides, thursday salt is an "absorber" of all kinds of toxins. This salt was prepared only once a year - on Maundy Thursday, before sunset, and brought to consecrate together in Easter cakes, eggs and Easter. By the way, this salt is still prepared in Kostroma.

Mix 1 kg of coarse (precisely coarse!) salt with 5 kg of soaked black Borodino bread. Place the mixture in an oven heated to 250ºС and bake until the bread turns black. Grind the resulting mixture and sift through a sieve. Pour the remaining salt in the sieve into a jar and use instead of regular salt.

Easter was prepared from fresh, dry cottage cheese. To do this, the cottage cheese was laid out in advance in gauze and placed under a slight oppression so that the whey was glass. There is an opinion that in ancient times, Easter was prepared not from cottage cheese, but from settled yogurt, so it was very tender, airy and fragrant. But you can also cook a wonderful Easter from cottage cheese. Only cottage cheese should never be passed through a meat grinder. Only through a sieve! So the recipe Easter with pistachios.

Ingredients:
1.2 kg of cottage cheese,
1 l heavy cream(at least 33%),
200 g sugar (preferably powdered sugar),
4 eggs,
200 g butter,
250 g pistachios,
Vanilla to taste.

Cooking:
Rub cottage cheese through a sieve, mix with sugar, vanilla and eggs. Add softened butter and chopped pistachios. Grind the whole mass as best as possible, gradually adding cream. Put in a pasochnik, covered with slightly damp gauze, put under oppression and leave in the cold. In a day or two Easter will be ready. If you don't have a bean bag, then you can use a plastic bucket, in which you first make holes with a hot nail (so that the whey can drain).

An indispensable attribute of the Easter table is a lamb made of dough. In the old days, it was baked in special forms, and in our time, housewives have come up with a new original way cooking Easter lamb.

Ingredients:
Opara:
3 art. spoons of flour
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon pressed yeast (or sachet of dry),
½ glass of water.

Dough:
6 cups flour
1 glass of milk
1 teaspoon salt
5 st. spoons of sugar
2 eggs,
150 g butter.

Filling: poppy, dried apricots, thick jam(taste).

Cooking:
Mix the products for the dough, stir until smooth, leave in a warm place. When it bubbles, pour in the melted butter, milk, eggs, sugar and salt. Mix well, add 4 cups of flour, mix thoroughly. Gradually adding flour, stir until it becomes impossible to stir the dough with a spoon. Then pour flour on the table, lay out the dough and knead, adding a little flour until it becomes smooth and soft. Place in a bowl, cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size. Punch down and leave until re-rise.

In the meantime, draw and cut out a lamb on paper. Ready dough roll out, apply a template, cut a lamb on it and put it on a baking sheet. Leave a piece of dough for the ear. Fold the remaining dough, roll it into a layer, put the filling on it and roll it up. Cut the roll into pieces 1-1.5 cm wide, grease the lamb with water, lay out the pieces of the roll in the form of a skin. Form an ear out of the dough and glue it to the head. Lubricate the lamb with sweet tea and bake in the oven at 200-220ºС.

And finally, the cake. It was prepared only for Easter and the Easter table, and they did not spare butter, sugar and eggs in the dough. The dough for the cake is very sweet. Therefore, it was kneaded for a long time, at least an hour. It was believed that you need to hit the dough 300 times in order for the guests to praise the cake 300 times. Of course, a recipe that uses 40-60 egg yolks is very fatty even for a non-hungry modern ... Especially since old recipes designed for a large number of Easter cakes. Indeed, on Easter, Easter cakes were shared not only with relatives and friends, they were distributed to the poor, taken to shelters and hospitals ... Modern recipes Easter cakes are not so plentiful. But no less delicious. For example, kulich "Citric".

Ingredients:
Opara:
40 g pressed yeast
1 hour a spoonful of sugar,
½ cup warm water
2 tbsp. spoons of flour.

Dough:
4 eggs,
¾ cup sugar
150 g butter,
3 cups flour
1 cup raisins
½ cup nuts
2 tbsp. spoons of cognac
zest of 1 lemon,
1 teaspoon turmeric
vanillin,
salt.

glaze:
1 protein
100 g of powdered sugar.

Cooking:
Prepare the raisins (wash thoroughly and pour cognac), nuts (grind with a rolling pin), wipe the zest from the lemon. Brew turmeric 2 tsp. boiling water. Separate the yolk from one egg. Set aside the white for icing. Prepare the dough, leave in a warm place for fermentation. Beat the yolk, eggs and sugar with a mixer in a fluffy foam. Add 1 cup flour and stir. Stir in softened butter, zest, vanilla, turmeric, a pinch of salt. Whisk well until evenly colored. Pour in the broth, stir. Add 1.5 cups of flour, beat well with a mixer. The dough will be runny and sticky. Cover the bowl and leave to rise in a warm place. The dough should rise at least 2 times.

Put the raisins and nuts into the dough. Grease your hand with vegetable oil and mix the dough. Add ½ cup of flour and fold it into the dough, using your hands in a circle in one direction until all the flour is distributed in the dough. Put in oiled and sprinkled with breadcrumbs forms (put an oiled circle of paper on the bottom). Put on proofing in a warm place. Bake as usual. Beat protein with powdered sugar and pour the cakes with the resulting icing.

On our website you can always find step by step Easter recipes with photos.

Bright joy to you, fun, hope and truly Christian love!

Larisa Shuftaykina

The most important spring holiday, which joyfully celebrates the entire Orthodox world, is Great Easter. It means the rebirth and renewal of all life in nature. With the advent of Easter comes the end of Lent, which lasted 40 long days, and festive Easter dishes appear on our tables, each of which is filled with a certain meaning. Traditional treats that appear on the table once a year symbolize the victory of eternal life over death.

The last, fasting week before Easter is considered the most strict, completely excluding meat, dairy foods, as well as fish and vegetable oil. However, starting from the middle of the week, experienced housewives begin to prepare for a bright holiday. These days, everything you need to prepare the main Easter dishes is bought - eggs, flour, cottage cheese, meat, etc. Immediately before Easter Sunday, the traditional dishes of the Easter table should already be ready for their solemn consecration in the church, which takes place on Saturday evening. Early in the morning, you can start breaking the fast, which will mark the end of strict fasting and the beginning of the holiday.

To create a cheerful Easter mood, you should think in advance how to decorate the Easter table.

With such decorations, the Easter table will look fun and festive.

You can make bright artificial flowers in advance with your own hands, which are traditionally decorated with Easter cakes and Easter. Having shown imagination, it is easy to make such flowers from colored paper, the remnants of bright fabrics. Children love to participate in the preparation for the holiday, for whom there is always something to do. For example, cut openwork paper napkins that will decorate the festive table, or paint eggs with beautiful patterns.

Prepare for table setting the most elegant dishes, a snow-white tablecloth. The table can also be decorated with fresh spring flowers. The whole atmosphere should create a special, light mood.

Images of an elegant Easter table can be seen from famous artists. Makovsky "Easter table"

Traditional Easter dishes

It is impossible to imagine the Easter menu without its main dishes, which appear on the table only once a year. This, of course, is Easter cake, curd Easter and colored eggs. Also on the festive table there should be animal figurines, among which the Easter lamb is a must. Carved from a piece of butter, simply laid out with colored icing on top of the cake, or baked in a special mold, the lamb is a symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus, who gave his life to save people.

Easter lamb always has a place on the Easter table

In addition, various meat dishes are traditionally placed on the Easter table, among which the baked ham always takes the first place. also in holiday menu includes turkey, veal, roast lamb, ham, various salads and cold appetizers. Among the variety of Easter treats, there is no fish and hot dishes.

An interesting fact: in ancient times, in rich families, it was customary to put forty dishes on the table, according to the number of days of Lent. Such an amount of treats is not a strict requirement for the Easter table. The main thing is that the symbols of Easter consecrated in the church be present on it.

Easter cake

A real miracle of culinary art, Easter cake is the center of the festive table, without which it is impossible to imagine this bright holiday. A symbol of the presence of God in our world, which takes care of every living being, the Easter cake stays fresh for several weeks. Fragrant, rich, sweet cake should be tall, covered on top sugar icing, which is sprinkled with multi-colored crumbs or chopped candied fruit. Also, on the top of the Easter cake, capital letters ХВ or a figurine of an Easter lamb can be laid out. It is customary to treat slices of the consecrated Easter cake to all acquaintances and strangers, being in the temple and at home.

Kulich is a real miracle and a symbol of Easter

The dough for Easter cake is the subject of vigilant care of every housewife preparing for Bright Sunday. Starting from the night of Maundy Thursday, put butter dough for Easter cakes, in which a piece of soul is lovingly invested in order to start baking on Good Friday. In order for Easter cakes to turn out especially tasty, you must follow some rules:

start preparing the dough with a good mood, with a pure soul, because it is known that the dough perfectly feels the emotions of the cook, and may not be suitable if you are out of sorts;
for testing use only fresh yeast, old or dried are completely unsuitable for delicious baking;
to make the cake airy, be sure to sift the premium flour several times, the secret is simple - as a result of oxygen saturation, the flour will make the cake more magnificent, and, of course, it must be dry;
fill the form with dough halfway, then the cake will come out looser;
Sprinkle the finished cake with water and cover with a clean towel.

If desired, you can add candied fruits, nuts, dried fruits or marshmallows to the dough for Easter cake, in general, what you like.

Curd Easter

Especially for the holiday of Bright Sunday, a special dish is prepared - curd Easter, which also has its own symbolism, rooted in the Holy Scriptures. The shape of Easter cottage cheese is a truncated tetrahedral pyramid, which is a symbol of the Holy Sepulcher. To prepare it, you definitely need a special wooden form - a pastor, on the inside of which the letters XB are carved, as well as various symbols associated with the suffering that Christ endured. These are a cross, a spear, flowers, sprouts, etc. After the curd mass is taken out of the paster, all these images will be clearly printed on the sides of the Easter. Keep in mind that raw easter cooks faster, but does not last long. Custard Easter has a longer shelf life, but it will take longer to tinker with it.

Cottage cheese Easter - the crown of the Easter table

Cooking cottage cheese Easter also has its own characteristics and secrets:

raw Easter is best done in small forms, such as bowls or plastic glasses;
custard Easter is cooked in a water bath;
you need to cook Easter only from fresh, well-pressed cottage cheese, rubbed through a sieve, or whipped with a blender;
if you add raisins to Easter, then it is preferable to take light varieties, and it would be better if you grind it with cottage cheese;
nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts) are best chopped with a knife.

Cottage cheese Easter prepared in advance will become the center of the Easter table. It can be decorated on top with icing and bright paper flowers.

colored eggs

Multi-colored painted eggs - krashenki, or painted with fancy patterns - pysanky, decorate the Easter table, making it festive and bright. The old custom of exchanging colored eggs has been known since the 1st century AD. Symbolizing the beginning of a new life, painted eggs are consecrated during the Easter Liturgy and distributed to relatives and friends. Traditionally, eggs were dyed red, which means the joy of rebirth and the triumph of the Christian faith. The correct saturated red color of the hostess is achieved using the usual onion peel. Today, with the help of various, natural dyes, as well as conventional store paints, eggs can be painted in all colors of the rainbow. Plain, unpatterned eggs are called eggs. These eggs have always been boiled; they are one of the main dishes for breaking the fast after a church, festive service.

Multi-colored krashenki create a special festive mood

Traditional pysanky, which are turned into real works of art by the hands of the artist, have always been raw before. The patterns on them had to correspond to the solemn vestments of the clergy, and were made only in certain colors. Today, coloring Easter eggs has become a fascinating process in which adults and children take part with pleasure. Easter eggs take pride of place on the festive table next to Easter cake, unlike krashenka, which are displayed on a separate dish.

An interesting fact: earlier in Russia, grains of wheat or oats were specially germinated on Easter Sunday in order to lay Easter eggs on green sprouts.

Making an Easter menu

The Easter table, the traditions and customs of which every Orthodox family tries to observe, should be plentiful, varied, with ritual dishes necessarily present on it. In addition to the three most important symbols, without which the Easter table is impossible, it should contain various types of meat, vegetables and herbs.

To put traditional dishes on the Easter table, each housewife collects and cherishes recipes throughout her life, passing them on by inheritance. The main dish of the festive menu can be boiled pork, baked pig or stuffed poultry.

The basis of the festive table is boiled pork

These snacks can be decorated with Easter paper flowers. Many housewives put jelly on the table, cooked from several varieties of meat and poultry. Various light salads, vegetables and desserts will also perfectly complement the main dishes. Desserts can be fruits, sweet pastries- Easter cakes, buns, pancakes, pies, etc. Every year there are more and more fine dining that are placed on the festive table. Do not forget about drinks, without which there is also no celebration. Various types of mead are considered classic Russian drinks, which must be prepared in advance. Fruit drinks, jelly, compotes, sbitni - all these drinks are enjoyed by adults and children. Cahors red wine, which is consecrated in the church and symbolizes the blood of Christ in church rites, also occupies an honorable place among the festive dishes.

Bright Sunday is one of the few holidays that does not leave any person indifferent, even inveterate atheists are imbued with the bright spirit of this cheerful day. Festive table for Easter is so unusual and beautiful that it cannot be compared with any other table, even the most magnificent and bursting with all kinds of dishes. Our people were able to carry through the centuries all the traditions and symbols of this wonderful holiday.