The past of our people will not be completely clear to us until his life is examined in all his ides. Chroniclers note that Serbs and Serbs of the Middle Ages were beautiful, straight-faced people, Slavs mixed with Illyrians and Romans, as well as Greeks. Like other Eastern European nations, they wore long beards and hair. The most numerous stock in old Serbia were the Sebris – peasants. They spent their lives in obedience to the church, the ruler, and the lords. They were not entitled to personal property, they lived in mountain villages, around mines, city fortifications, monasteries and rivers. In the time of Prince Lazar, there were also free peasants “Baštinici”, with the right of inheritance of property, but they were just as poor as the Seber.
In the squares around the mines, wooden huts were mostly built, and in the villages only wooden huts covered with straw were erected. In the karst villages stone houses were built without lime and the center of the house was a hearth everywhere. Kitchen is a major part of the home for all peoples, but nowhere for Serbs. In Serbian villages, the kitchen is called “house”, and only in cities – the kitchen. A hearth as central as any house is almost a cult place. Beside him, he slept, warmed, baked bread and prepared meals. The family gathered there in the evening and talked, planned, agreed on future jobs and individual commitments in addition to the flames. Here, children were told stories, relayed historical events and legends, taught home skills. Round, elliptical or square, the hearth is always carefully constructed, exactly – from generation to generation – proportions, construction method, material to be used. What was not original in nature, skillful peasant hands were parting, carving, kneading in brick … Everywhere (both in the monastery and in the fancy house) was eaten at a table covered with table mats. With the table sitting on benches, tripods or chairs. The cookware and dishes were “earthy” and wooden. Some of the richer farmhouses also had a copper, but it was kept only for special holidays – celebrations, weddings, and the passing of the deceased. Although the times in question are far, far behind us, the skill of those who make cookware is amazing. On a hot hearth, it had all the features of today’s express pots!
The Suvoborski and Uzice mines were widely known for their craftsmen who skillfully made “earthen” pots in which meat was cooked quickly but remained delicious. In the villages, bread was baked only on the hearth, made of cereal or corn flour. Grain was being prepared for grain, overcooked or ground, and cooked wheat and corn were – and are – frequently prepared meals. In the drylands, but also in many other parts of Serbia, the price was bungur, which was prepared everywhere in the same way, from barley or wheat, as it is today. Barley was cooked for a long time, but not in boiling water, but slowly boiling. He would process and dry, then stretch well in the avan. Wheat bungur was also cooked, dried as barley, but ground in a large mill, as a meal. Most peasants used both instead of rice, cooking it with meat, milk and fasting.
Dishes prepared according to the old recipe are healthier because they are on the water. In medieval Serbia, two meals were eaten and breakfast arrived later, influenced by the West. By the mid-twentieth century, we ate mostly stews, so it is not surprising that a spoon has long been the only cutlery. Today it is said that “a dish is not eaten if there is no meat.”
The Serb was never a carnivore. He called the cattle treasure. And the treasure is not wasted but kept. So we used a lot of milk and dairy products. It is incorrect that we ate the piglet the most. The peasant lived modestly, but always had bread, cheese, cream and vegetables.
Beef prosciutto and kajmak are mentioned as authentic Serbian foods. It’s not very healthy, but it’s delicious. It is not necessary to skip various specialties with plums, and the first association with the mention of Serbian cuisine is the barbecue.
The whole sumadija is characterized by herb pies, and for the central part of this region piglets are spit on the spit. The most specific dish of Western Serbia is dried meat, with Zlatibor and Zlatar indispensable lamb dishes. The only sweets in those parts were the roasted apples in honey for a long time and the juice that was prepared by boiling the dried fruit in a tray.
In Vranje, it is the perfect combination of Turkish-Macedonian-Kosovo cuisine, the stews are particularly tasty, and in Pirot there is a strong influence from Bulgaria. In Leskovac it is possible to order barbecue on turmeric and Leskovac shaker, where the dishes are rich in vegetables, especially peppers. Due to the large number of monasteries, Kosovo and Metohija are rich in hundreds of tasty lean and lean dishes: bingur, stews, various pies, baklava, lamb and mutton specialties.
Without bread and milk, decades ago, the Serbian table could not be conceived. In medieval Serbia, bread was made from a mixture of sorghum and sorghum, a mixture of wheat, barley and rye. In Belgrade alone, there were as many as 600 mills in 1660, powered by horses and watermills on the Danube. By coming mild