.JPG) Strawberry varenye | |
| Course | Dessert |
|---|---|
| Region or state | Eastern Europe,Baltic region |
| Main ingredients | berries or other fruits, sugar |
Varenye[a] is a popularwhole-fruit preserve, widespread inEastern Europe (Russia,Ukraine,Belarus), as well as theBaltic region. It is made bycooking berries, other fruits, or more rarelynuts,vegetables, orflowers, in sugar syrup.[1][2][3] In some traditional recipes, other sweeteners such ashoney ortreacle are used instead of or in addition to sugar.[1][2]
Varenye is similar tojam except the fruits are notmacerated, and nogelling agent is added. It is characterized by a thick but transparent syrup having the natural colour of the fruits.
Varenye is an old Slavic word which is used inEast Slavic languages in a more general sense to refer to any type of sweet fruit preserve. The word has common etymological roots with the verbs denoting cooking, boiling, brewing, or stewing (Russian:варить,Belarusian:варыць,Ukrainian:варити).
Inliterary translations, especially of children's books, into Russian, the term is often used to replace less-common loanwords, such asjam,confiture ormarmalade. Examples are the translations ofAlice's Adventures in Wonderland,Harry Potter,The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the animated movies aboutKarlsson-on-the-Roof.
The same is true when translating from Russian. For instance, the making ofraspberry varenye is described inLeo Tolstoy's novelAnna Karenina (VI-2). In her classic translation,Constance Garnett refers to the activity as "jam-making".[4]
In the popularSoviet children's bookA Tale About a War Secret, About the Boy Nipper-Pipper, and His Word of Honour byArkady Gaidar theantihero Little Baddun betrays his friends for "a barrel of varenye and a basket of biscuits" (Russian:бочка варенья и корзина печенья; again, in English translationjam is used instead of varenye).[5] This phrase became anidiomatic expression for betrayal orselling out in Russian, similar tothirty pieces of silver.
The making of varenye requires a careful balance between cooking, or sometimes steeping in the hot sugar mixture for just enough time to allow the flavor to be extracted from the fruit, and sugar to penetrate the fruit, and cooking too long that fruit will break down and liquefy. Some fruits with tough skins require cooking for many hours, while others are suitable for making "five-minute varenye" (Russian:варенье-пятиминутка,varenye-pyatiminutka). For the latter, dry sugar is spread over raw fruit in layers and left for several hours to steep into the fruit. The resulting mixture is then heated for just about five minutes.
Varenye is enjoyed as a dessert and condiment, in particular as a topping for pancakes (bliny,oladyi,syrniki), as a filling for pies (pirogi andpirozhki), dumplings (vareniki), cakes and cookies, and as a sweetener for tea. It is also used as aspread on bread, though due to its liquid consistency it is not well suited for that. Finally, it is eaten on its own as a sweet.
The more general usage of the term varenye in Eastern Europe includes a number of related local specialties.
In the preparation of "raw varenye" (Russian:сырое варенье,syroye varenye) the heating is omitted completely. The recipes usually include grating of raw berries or other fruits and mixing them with sugar.[citation needed]
Inpre-revolutionary Russia, "dry varenye" (Russian:сухое варенье,sukhoye varenye;Ukrainian:сухе варення,sukhe varennia) referred to a local variety ofcandied fruits (fruit confit) obtained by extracting fruits from varenye syrup and drying them.Kyiv (today the capital of Ukraine) was particularly famous for this delicacy,[1][6][7] and it regained its popularity in the city in 2016.[8]
Similar sweets are also made inTranscaucasia and in some regions ofCentral andSouth Asia, where they are calledmurabba. InBulgarian,Macedonian, andSerbian cuisines, these kinds of confections are calledslatko, and inGreece andCyprus, they are known asspoon sweets. InFrench cuisine, they are referred to asconfitures or fruitsconfits.
