The Museum of Disappearing Taste is the most intimate and sympathetic place not only in Kolomna, but, perhaps, in the entire Moscow region .In the ancient wooden house of merchant Suranov, located in the heart of ancient Posada, for two years now there is a unique museum of the Kolomna pastila, and in the neighborhood a unique museum factory has just opened .Here you can find a lot of useful information about the history and technology of the famous apple lozenges, in the 18-19th centuries glorified modest town near Moscow, personally participate in the appetizing process and take away a couple of boxes, say, Dostoevsky's pastillas or fragrant bonbon marquise de Pompadour .
A little "sweet" history
Pastila - delicious business card Kolomna .Like Tula gingerbreads or Suzdal mead, she owned the minds and hearts of not only gourmets and sweethearts in the Moscow region, but also occupied an honorary place on the tables of the powerful of this world - the brilliant favorite of Louis XV, Antoinette de Pompadour, for example, regularly received the best varieties of this sweet food and, how to know if the monarch would have been attached to her, had he not been enjoying refined pastilles in the company of his sophisticated lady !Kolomenskaya pastila was traditionally made from apple puree with the addition of honey, sugar, nuts and berries The production technology consisted of several important stages: washing apples in a special apparatus and taking out the cores, rubbing apple pulp in a puree, boiling this puree in a special boiler (in spite of the name, this was done to increase the volume), whipping the herb into a pastry dough, forms and finally drying in a Russian oven !So pastila was made more than two hundred years !Changes in Russian reality at the beginning of the 20th century affected sweet production (as well as in general on all delicate matters) very sadly: factories for the production of ephemeral pleasure were closed, and art itself was lost !And the once-famous taste of Kolomna pastilles vanished into the air !The revival of ancient technology occurred in 2009: according to the drawings of a century and a half, "pastel" apparatuses were restored, archives contained ancient recipes - and the pastilla received a second life !And in the autumn of 2011 the museum factory "sweet" Kolomna has started working !
How to get here
The Museum of the Pastille in Kolomna is located at 13a house along Posadskaya Street. The address of the museum factory is Polyanskaya street, house 4. It is better to start the inspection with the Pastilla Museum, and only then go to the factory. Going out of the courtyard of the museum, you need to turn left and walk about 300 meters to the old Milk Square. Here is the building of the museum factory.
If you get to Kolomna by bus, it's better to get off at the stop "Old Town", then walk on the old city to the museum (about 10 minutes). As a guide, you can choose the Resurrection Church. From the railway station "Kolomna" the way for their own two will also take no more than 15 minutes.
What to see
The museum of the Kolomna pastilla, which is located in the Suranovs' estate, presents an extensive exposition devoted to history, traditions and production technologies: pastry handwritten recipes and facsimiles of "textbooks" for pastry confectioners, advertising posters and packaging of the 18-19th centuries. The elegant ma'am ladies, dressed according to the fashion of the time, will conduct an interesting excursion, at the end of which guests are invited to taste different varieties of Kolomna pastille.
In addition, the museum can see objects of ancient life - kitchen utensils and hardware, vases and candy bars, irons, bells and locks. The situation here is very pleasant - lace starched tablecloths, windows with clypeus, creaky chairs, to which the term "ergonomics", openwork parasols, tile stove, chests and cupboards with carved grape bunches and killed snipe and woodcocks are not applicable.
Also the museum offers seasonal themed programs-excursions with tasting - for example, spring "Cupids": heart-rending love stories, backed up by "thematic" tastes of Pompadour pastilles and pastel from pink petals.
The museum factory of the pastille operates in the building of the confectionery and pastel establishment of the merchant Petr Chuprikov - once the best "sweet" factory in Kolomna .Thanks to the discovered drawings and plans of the old production, it was possible to recreate the exact interior of the factory, to restore the ancient apparatuses (which is worth at least the Reys washing drum or the reputable cauldron of Tsemsha - sounds almost like the Large andron collider!) And start the process of manufacturing the Kolomna pastilla after a century oblivion .The factory has its own garden, where special varieties of pastel apples grow, as well as a capacious storage facility .
Visitors of the factory are invited to take a direct part in the production of pastilles - to personally grind the fruit in puree, whisk it with special mixers (stir akin to extracting fire with a dry twig), boil in a cauldron under the strict guidance of a pastilles and put it in parchment-covered forms, then put on dry in The oven, by the way, also folded according to archival drawings. And of course, the tasting of the pastille awaits you.
What to take with you
And at the museum, and at the factory there are firm stores where you can buy different varieties of real Kolomna pastille. All sweets are packed in old boxes - not ashamed to put on a table or to give. Prices - from 100-150 RUR for small packages of marshmallow, cranberry or honey pastille to 500 RUR for the notorious "Sobriety" and 600 RUR for a pastry cake.
In addition, the museum factory opened a horticultural store. Here are sold replicas of old garden tools and other useful in the economy and pretty little things.
Address: st. Polyanskaya, 4, Kolomna