prianik

plural prianiks · plural prianiki

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of pryanik.

   Honey entered largely Into the preparation of favourite national dishes, and also for the innumerable varieties of prianiki (gingerbread cakes) so extensively used.

   1910, “Bee-keeping in Russia”, in Natal Department of Agriculture, The Natal Agricultural Journal, The “Times” Printing and Publishing Company, Limited, page 188

   5 more examples

   Masha opened the grey bundle and taking out a prianik stuffed it into her mouth. It smelled of honey and spices and was surprisingly fresh, considering that it had been baked several days ago.

   1968, Mara Kay, Masha, Swanley, Kent: Margin Notes Books, published 2014, →ISBN, page 113

   From Petticoat Lane came small round cakes called Prianiki, in appearance rather like parkin but tasting quite differently, a subtle mixture of honey and all the spices under the sun.

   1972, Audrey Earle, “Nursery Memories”, in Claude Morny, compiler, A Wine and Food Bedside Book, London: The International Wine and Food Publishing Company, David & Charles, →ISBN, part 3 (Food), page 193

   The ornamentation, fundamental to Mitrokhin’s graphic art in the years after 1910, is based on an excellent knowledge of nature motifs: trees, grasses, flowers and fruits; and of their treatment in the works of Russian decorative folk art: printed cloth, carved moulding boards for prianiks, and painted tiles.

   1977, Dmitry Mitrokhin, Aurora Art Publishers

   Skill was also required to make boards for stamping designs on cakes (prianiks), which were baked for Christmas feasts, given as presents to guests at wedding celebrations, and dispensed at funerals.

   1990, Tatyana Razina, Natalia Cherkasova, Alexander Kantsedikas, translated by Ruslan Smirnov, “[Folk Art in the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic] Russian Folk Art”, in Folk Art in the Soviet Union, New York, N.Y.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.; Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers, →ISBN, page 29

   As to why Stravinsky thought to begin the tableau in this way, we need only cite the cries of the prianiki vendor hawking his pastries at the beginning of the Shrovetide Fair in Serov’s opera The Power of the Fiend (ex. 1a).

   1998, Richard Taruskin, “Stravinsky’s Petrushka”, in Andrew Wachtel, editor, Petrushka: Sources and Contexts, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, →ISBN, pages 71–72