Hot cross buns are ubiquitous throughout Britain come Easter time and bakeries in England have been churning them out since the 13th century. — JASMINE WAHEED/Unsplash
Today marks Easter Sunday, one of the most important days for Christians across the globe.
Most families will tuck into an Easter meal of some sort, but what’s on the table will be dramatically different around the planet. Here’s a sample of Easter Sunday global fare:
Also called Italian Easter meat pie, pizza rustica is thought to date back to 17th-century Naples when it was crafted as a reward for Christians who had observed the 40 days of Lent by fasting or abstaining from certain sumptuous foods like meat and cheese.
The southern Italian peasant food gained popularity and has since become an Easter must-have throughout Italy as well as among Italian-Americans.
Pizza rustica is a decadent Italian Easter meat pie made up of a pie crust with a filling packed with cured meats like salami and ham as well as ricotta cheese and eggs. — Dinner Then Dessert/Instagram
The basic premise of pizza rustica is that it symbolises abundance – basically everything that is abstained from during Lent is utilised in making the pie. At its core is a pastry dough made using flour, butter, water and salt. The filling for the pie often incorporates a range of Italian cured meats like salami, prosciutto and ham, which are interspersed with cheeses like ricotta, mozzarella and Pecorino Romano as well as hard-boiled eggs.
The pizza is normally cooked a day before Easter, left to cool and then sliced and eaten on the day.
In Italy, no Easter spread is complete without pizza rustica, which tastes a little like a pie and a tad like a quiche but is all-round divine.
Capirotada is one of those dishes that has had a true metamorphosis of sorts. Originating during the Middle Ages, it was originally devised as a savoury dish, whose inception was meant to make use of leftover bread.
And yet, today it is an Easter staple in Mexico, where it graces not the main table but the dessert table.
The reasons for this dramatic shift in taste are manifold but probably directly relate to cost and availability. Sugar used to be in short supply and was often the domain of the ultra-rich, so old variations of the dish often called for ingredients like mutton broth and partridge breasts, to name a few.
Capirotada is a Mexican Easter staple that was once a savoury dish that has transformed into a dessert over the centuries. — You.ariencinas/Instagram
According to an article in Epicurious, modern versions of capirotada now call for a few key ingredients.
Epicurious describes capirotada as a dish that fundamentally involves dried bread, typically bolillo rolls, soaked in a mulled syrup made from unrefined piloncillo sugar. This base is then enhanced with a mix of nuts, dried fruit, and fresh cheese like salty Cotija or mild queso fresco.
Variations among families include incorporating a custard base of milk, cream, and eggs with the syrup; using a mix of fresh and dried fruits; choosing between pecans, almonds, or peanuts; and finishing with brightly coloured sprinkles.
Even with all this evolution, there are still some old-school home cooks in Mexico that flavour their traditional capirotada dessert with tomatoes and onions – a throwback to the dish’s savoury past.
In Poland, an ancient dish presides over the Easter Sunday table. Called ‘zurek’, this sour rye soup is thought to be the oldest soup in existence in Poland, with the first mention of the dish dating back to the 13th century.
Legend has it that it was invented by an old lady whose poverty meant that she only had leftover sourdough bread to eat with water. She left the two things to stew together and went out. When she returned, the smell was so intoxicating that she added garlic, some smoked bacon and old mushrooms to it and soon, a new dish was born.
In Poland, the milky, sour-ish zurek soup is a mainstay on the Easter table. — RAFAL NAWROCKI/Pexels
Even its usage has deviated – while it was originally food meant for the poorest people in Poland, it eventually gained favour among nobility.
In modern iterations, the soup is typically made with a starter consisting of rye bread, flour, water and garlic, which is prepared a few days in advance.
To this, a vegetable stock is added as well as herbs and spices like marjoram and horseradish and vegetables like carrots and celery.
The soup, which is sour-ish and milky – is then typically topped with sausages and hard-boiled eggs and eaten on Easter Sunday.
There are few food items as inextricably linked with Easter as hot cross buns. And yet, surprisingly, the buns themselves seem to predate Christianity and were actually crafted by Anglo Saxons to honour Eostre, the goddess of light who gave her name to the word ‘Easter’. Even the word ‘bun’ takes its root from the original Greek word ‘boun’.
Early Christians tried to dispel these pagan beliefs but found it to be futile. And so they adapted the meaning and symbolism behind the traditional hot cross buns, according to a 1947 article in the Evening Star, which detailed how the sacrificial oxen horns on the original iteration of hot cross buns grew to symbolise the cross of Jesus Christ and ultimately Christian faith.
Hot cross buns are ubiquitous throughout Britain come Easter time and bakeries in England have been churning them out since the 13th century. — JASMINE WAHEED/Unsplash
According to the same article, bakeries in England have been churning out hot cross buns since as far back as 1252. The practice was banned in the 16th century when the English broke their ties with the Catholic church. This regulation was eased eventually, as Queen Elizabeth I allowed the buns to be baked for funerals, Christmas and Easter.
So what are hot cross buns? The sweet buns are essentially fashioned out of bread flour and all-purpose flour, sugar, butter, yeast, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon and often raisins or currants too. A cross is often made across each bun, either slashed through the dough or piped in icing.
These days, hot cross buns are ubiquitous throughout Britain and sold in most bakeries and supermarkets to commemorate Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
In Ukraine, paska is an Easter staple that actually has roots in paganism. Originally the creation of the dish revolved around worship of the sun and the celebration of the agrarian year.
According to an article on idler.co.uk, the preparation of paska itself was considered sacred, so the entire house would have to be cleaned before paska was prepared.
How is paska made? Paska is essentially bread that is made using a starter (often made using potato and flour) or simply yeast, sugar and water which is left to rise overnight.
Some recipes call for egg whites and yolks to be separated, the yolks to be beaten with sugar, and the whites to be mixed until they reach a stiff peak.
The next morning, good-quality flour is mixed in alongside egg yolks, yeast, milk, butter, and raisins and then baked in the oven. The texture is often akin to a fluffy brioche with raisins interspersed.
Although this traditional way of doing things can be expedited, many Ukrainian homes still maintain traditional practices. For instance, when the paska is rising, there must be silence in the house and the dough must be covered using a rushynk or old-fashioned embroidered cloth.
Also, the bread is often covered in dough-shaped symbols like oak leaves, birds and stars, which all have significant meanings. Even in modern times, the paska is taken to church, where it is blessed on Easter Sunday and eating it before it is blessed is considered sacrilegious to many Ukrainians.
Today, paska in Ukraine can be eaten as is or, more often, is iced and decorated with sprinkles so that it is the centrepiece of the Easter table.
Throughout Finland, Easter wouldn’t be Easter without mammi, a traditional Finnish dessert.
The dish is made from water, rye flour, powdered malt, dark molasses, salt and orange zest. When about to be served, it is often mixed with milk and can be eaten cold.
Mammi is a Finnish dessert that has evolved over the centuries and is now sold by the millions during Easter. — Finbeaa/Instagram
Although it is difficult to ascertain its roots, it is believed to have been eaten in Finland from as far back as the 13th century.
In earlier iterations of the dish, all the ingredients (except molasses) were left to sit together and sweeten naturally, as sugar was difficult to obtain then. Over time, molasses was added and most commercial variants now typically use molasses in their recipe.
In Finland, ready-made mammi has become increasingly popular and every year, 1.7 million kg of commercial mammi is sold, most of it during Easter time.
Throughout Greece, a braided or knotted bread, commonly called tsoureki is a historic staple come Easter Sunday.
As with many foods that involve a religious celebration, there is a lot of symbolism attached to the dish. Tsoureki is said to symbolise resurrection and rebirth as the dough rises and takes on a new form.
The three braids of the fluffy, doughy bread meanwhile are meant to reflect the holy trinity revered in Christianity.
Tsoureki is a centuries-old Greek bread that is rife with symbolism. — Grecian Purveyor/Instagram
The word “tsoureki” is thought to be rooted in the Turkish word “corek” which refers to any bread made with yeasted dough.
The word is purported to have been adopted during the Turkish occupation of Greece, which began in the mid-15th century and ended in the early 19th century and is today made with yeast, milk, butter and eggs, as well as two crucial ingredients that give it its distinctive taste: mahlepi (ground cherry seeds) and mastiha (pine resin natural gum). Often almond slivers are used to top the bread.
In most Greek homes, the women in the family start making the dough on the Thursday before Easter and then serve it on Easter Sunday. Interestingly, tsoureki is also known by different names, including ‘kofinia’ and ‘doksaria’.
Advocaat is a drink that is popular in Holland for festive occasions like Christmas and Easter Sunday. Its origins are murky at best, but it is believed to have been inspired by South American forays during the Dutch colonial heyday.
The first belief is that 17th- century Dutch colonists were treated to a Brazilian drink fashioned out of avocados, cane sugar and rum, with the avocados eventually being substituted with egg yolk.
The creamy, eggy Advocaat is popular in the Netherlands for festivities like Christmas and Easter. — JONATHAN RAUTENBERG/Unsplash
Others argue that the drink’s name is an ode to advocates (lawyers) and that it is thought to have been created as a lawyer’s drink and social lubricant meant for gatherings as well as to ensure lawyers had a drink that oiled their throats well so they could speak up in court, something that was confirmed in the 1882 publication The Dictionary of the Dutch Language.
A traditional creamy, custardy Dutch advocaat now contains egg yolks, eggs, sugar, vanilla and brandy and can be had throughout the year in Holland, although the vast quantity of eggs in supermarkets during Easter means it has since become an Easter favourite too.
