The heart of the house: the kitchen and the stove

            The house played a special role in the life of the Lasowiaks, it was a place of family life, a shelter from the outside world. A special place in the house was the room (kitchen) with a bread oven. Of course, the oven was used for cooking and baking bread, but also for heating the entire house. It was built of raw brick, and on its vault - the so-called children or the elderly were probably asleep. The furnace also consisted of the so-called thick, through which wood was placed and stored, for example, potatoes, wood, and sometimes poultry, especially chickens, were temporarily kept there. The place between the wall and the stove was called „zapiecek” - for example, groats, dried fruit and mushrooms were stored there.

            However, the bread oven was used primarily for baking bread, which had an almost ritual function. Bread was actually the most important food. He was held in high esteem. Before the loaf was cut, a sign of the cross was made on it. Each piece that fell to the ground was picked up and kissed. Only a woman could bake it, and baking was associated with many do's and don'ts. In the evening, the hostess prepared a leaven with flour, milk (or water or whey). Then she added the leaven - that is, a little dough left over from the previous baking, or the yeast later. The bread was made in a bowl where some sourdough dough was always left there. After adding to the leaven flour, knead the dough. After rising, they were placed in clay bowls, straw or wicker baskets. There, the dough was raised and then placed on a round wooden shovel and put into the oven. After inserting the last one, the hostess made the sign of the cross over the stove with a shovel. Bread was usually baked every week or two, depending on the size of the family.

            However, before the loaves grew well and the oven warmed up well, flatbreads were baked first - that is, small pancakes made of bread dough. The hostess put 2-3 such pancakes on a bread shovel right next to the door. Flatbreads were usually eaten while still warm, greased with butter. Sometimes they were sprinkled with sugar and blueberries in the summer.

SOURCE:

"Źródła kultury ludowej Puszczy Sandomierskiej" edited by Krzysztof Ruszel, Kolbuszów 2014.

Franciszek Kotula, "Z Sandomierskiej Puszczy", Krakow 1962.

Ruszel K., Leksykon kultury ludowej w Rzeszowskiem, Rzeszów 2004