Makitra

A ridged clay bowl: poppy seed, garlic, and holiday pastes ground for an Eastern European table.

Also called makitra bowl · From Ukraine and Eastern Europe

A ridged clay makitra with a wooden masher, poppy seeds, and a linen cloth.

The journey

A makitra is a Ukrainian and wider Slavic mixing bowl with inner ridges, used with a wooden masher. Poppy-seed fillings, garlic sauces, and holiday pastes still start here so they stay coarse and fragrant.

A smooth bowl and a spoon make batter. The ridges make a paste.

An 1818 map of Poland and neighboring lands — bowls that still grind a holiday paste. — John Pinkerton, map of Poland (1818) · Public domain. Source

In the kitchen

Work the seed or garlic with sugar or salt first. Add fat last. Stop before it becomes a puree.

Eastern European pages in the series assume this bowl whenever a holiday filling is named.

Used in these ComidaTime kitchens

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