Ričet (Austrian) (Croatian) (German-Bavarian)
pot barley, beans, potatoes, carrots, parsley, onions, garlic
Ricet is a traditional Slovenian, Croatian, Austrian and Bavarian dish. Ricet is a thick soup. It contains pot barley, beans, potatoes, carrots, parsley, celery, leeks, tomatoes, onions, and garlic. There is typically a substantial amount of cured pork in it.
Ričet (German: Ritschert; barley porridge boiled with beans) is a traditional Slovenian, Croatian, Austrian and Bavarian dish. It is a thick soup. It contains pot barley, beans, potatoes, carrots, parsley, celery, leeks, tomatoes, onions, and garlic. There is typically a substantial amount of cured pork in it. In essence it is a starchy dish, similar to a risotto. By adding more water it can be easily turned into a heavy soup dish.
Contents
Etymology[edit]
The word ričet is typical of central Slovenia, including Ljubljana, and derives from Styrian German ritschet or ritschert. Etymologists suggest that ričet is a derivation from two German expressions: rutschen, “to slip, slide”, and rutschig, “slippery”. In fact, ričet is a fairly greasy dish.[1]
It has a historical reputation of being served to prisoners.
//////////
The Hallstatt Age Ritschert
Above all, numerous finds of human excrement provide information about the type of food. There are far more excrement finds from the Iron Age mining areas than from those from the Bronze Age. Their botanical investigation revealed an almost stereotypical composition of barley, millet and broad bean. Finds of gnawed animal bones complete this menu: foot bones of pigs and sheep or goats as well as tail bones and ribs. Exactly these ingredients - “inferior” meat parts rich in rind, barley, legumes and, in the past, millet - are still cooked into a hearty stew that is one of the typical dishes of Eastern Alpine regional cuisine: the so-called Ritschert. The Hallstatt miners are likely to have prepared and ate a comparable stew in the pit.The “Hallstatt period Ritschert” offers clear nutritional advantages: barley and millet provide the necessary carbohydrates and fiber, the broad beans the protein and the meat rich in cartilage fat and gelatine, which are extremely beneficial for the joints and provide a lot of energy. The signs of wear in and on the wooden bowls from the mine suggest that the Ritschert was eaten from it. Cutlery has not yet been identified. You probably ate the Ritschert with your fingers or slurped it if it was very liquid.which have an extremely beneficial effect on the joints and give a lot of energy. The signs of wear in and on the wooden bowls from the mine suggest that the Ritschert was eaten from it. Cutlery has not yet been identified. You probably ate the Ritschert with your fingers or slurped it if it was very liquid.which have an extremely beneficial effect on the joints and give a lot of energy. The signs of wear in and on the wooden bowls from the mine suggest that the Ritschert was eaten from it. Cutlery has not yet been identified. You probably ate the Ritschert with your fingers or slurped it if it was very liquid.
In prehistoric mining, food and wood represent the most crucial aspects of resource consumption (O’Brien, 2015, Oeggl and Schwarz, 2015). In Hallstatt, insights into the miner’s diet stem from the human excrements found inside the mines as neither the Bronze Age nor the early Iron Age mining settlement are known (Kowarik et al., 2019). The excrements document a diet based on barley (Hordeum vulgare ) and millet (Setaria italica ) for the Bronze Age miners and on barley (Hordeum vulgare ), millet (Setaria italica ) and beans (Vicia faba ) for the early Iron Age (Hofmann, 1926, Barth, 1999). Low-grade meat with a high gelatine content from pig, goat, sheep and cow supplemented this diet in the early Iron Age (Pucher, 2009). The source of the plant-based foodstuffs consumed in Hallstatt has been a matter of debate for decades (Kowarik et al., 2019). The environmental context would have made a complete reliance on local food production difficult. One question that the palaeorecord might shed light on in this context, is whether a local production of crops took place at all.
///////////////
Ritschert
Traditional in Mom’s [Amish] family, they got over here in the 1640s and it definitely predates that in the Altekirchen area. Modified to be more diabetic friendly.
5 parts Shredded or chopped cabbage
1 part chopped turnip/rutabaga/parsnip/potato as available
1 part chopped onion
1 part chopped carrot
1 part chopped celery
1 part whole cloves of garlic
1 part barley
1 part beans – I prefer canneloni or great northern beans
1 bag = 1 part greens – I prefer baby spinach, Mom preferred mustard
1 bay leaf per gallon of soup
1 teaspoon black pepper coarse ground
1 tablespoon italian herbs – traditionally summer savory, thyme works also
1 gallon water [if you multiply, more water of course. I have made this successfully in my 25 gallon stock pot before]
animal protein note: Whatever you have on hand – had it with everythign from the usual domestic suspects to horse, venison, racoon, squirrel and salmon. I personally disliked salmon. I personally prefer pig. If made with loose sausage, I cheat and use mild italian and you do the fry it up starting in a bit of water and muddle it a lot to make tiny crumbles. If with side meat or muscle meat, just sort of chop it into small bites of perhaps half inch cubes. The country style boneless ribs work really well when chopped but tends to be fatty if fat content is a concern.
Pretty much dump everything into the pot, it it tries to escape you didn’t hit it hard enough.
This sort of non-recipe can be seen historically as far back as the original salt mining endeavors in Hallstatt as found in a dig – the bowl had root veggie, greens, barley, onion, cabbage, beans and herbs.
you do your bacon tolerance!