The history of bird's milk cake. Why is "Bird's milk" called "bird"? The history of the legendary dessert Who invented bird's milk

11.02.2017 11:35 2241

Is there bird's milk and why candy was called that.

Perhaps you have ever heard adults say about someone "he just doesn't have bird's milk." This means that a person has even more than he can wish for.

Sweets with an unusual name "Bird's milk" are loved by more than one generation of sweet teeth. But how many people know where such an original name for these sweets came from and does bird's milk actually exist in nature?

Birds are not mammals and do not feed their chicks with milk. Therefore, the expression "bird's milk" began to mean something unprecedented, which in reality does not exist and cannot be, the impossible, the limit of desires.

However, oddly enough, ornithologists have proven that bird's milk still exists, although not in all bird species. For example, pigeons, goldfinches, crossbills, emperor penguins, flamingos have it.

True, the milk of birds is not at all like the cow or goat that is familiar to us, but rather resembles liquid cottage cheese, but its purpose is the same as that of the usual one. These birds feed their chicks for a very short time - no more than a month. So in the feathered world, bird's milk is a rarity.

Pigeons, for example, feed their chicks with a special gruel secreted from the goiter, which is sometimes called pigeon milk. This so-called milk is formed from a whitish liquid secreted from the goiter of the pigeon, which is mixed with a thick porridge that the dove burps from the stomach into the goiter.

Emperor penguins also feed their chicks with a mushy substance that they produce in the walls of the esophagus and stomach. These penguins hatch chicks in the midst of the Antarctic winter, when the air temperature reaches -80 degrees. The birds keep their only egg on their paws, covering it from above with a fold of skin on the belly.

Well, is there really bird's milk, we found out. Now let's answer the question why the well-known sweets are so named, which are a delicate, sweet soufflé covered with chocolate.

The inventors of this delicacy are Polish confectioners, who first produced a batch of unusually tasty and sweet soufflé in chocolate in 1936. Most likely, they chose such a name for their sweet creation to show its peculiarity and, of course, to attract the attention of those with a sweet tooth.

In Russia (or rather, back then in the Soviet Union), the Bird's Milk soufflé appeared in the 60s of the last century and became so popular that 10 years later, Soviet confectioners came up with a recipe for a cake with the same name, based on the famous soufflé.

This dessert is surely adored by everyone who remembers the times of the Union. Fortunately, today's sweet tooth has the opportunity to taste "Bird's milk". Everything is perfect in this dessert: the most delicate soufflé, chocolate icing with an expressive taste, appetizing look, and in the case of a cake, also a soft biscuit. The name itself is associated not just with a treat, for many it is a symbol of the era.

But why is "Bird's milk" called "bird"? Surely this question at least once puzzled everyone.

The first swallows

Many people know that the Poles were the pioneers. It was in Poland, at the E. Wedel factory, back in 1936, that these sweets were first produced. The filling was similar in composition to marshmallows, but did not contain eggs.

Once the Minister of Light Industry of the USSR tried the Polish sweets "Ptichye Moloko". He liked them so much that the country's leadership set the task for confectioners to develop an analogue.

Origins of the name

When answering the question of why "Bird's milk" is called "bird's milk", it is worth looking even not at 1936, but at even earlier times. In medieval European folklore, a plot is very common in which an insidious beauty sends an unlucky boyfriend in search of bird's milk. Drawing analogies, we can mention the Slavic image of a fern flower and the fabulous “I don’t know what”. Of course, the cavalier had to either return with nothing, or disappear, because there is no bird's milk in nature. In any case, it definitely did not exist in medieval Europe.

But there are even more ancient references. They will also help us figure out why "Bird's milk" is called "bird's milk". The ancient Greeks believed that the birds of paradise nursed their babies with milk. If a person happens to try this delicacy, he will become invincible, strong and healthy, and will retain his youth for many years.

In Russia, there was a proverb saying that the rich man has everything except bird's milk. It was understood that some things (friendship, health, love) cannot be bought with money, no matter how rich a person is.

As you can see, in many cultures there were legends that birds can give milk. And everywhere it was associated with unearthly pleasure, blessings, treasure. No wonder Polish confectioners gave their creation this alluring name.

Since 1967, the production of sweets began in the USSR. It was decided to keep the unusual name. By that time, it had already gained fame and popular love. Why "Bird's milk" is called "bird's", the Soviet people may have wondered, but they were definitely not surprised. Apparently, the memory of generations worked: the dessert evoked persistent associations with an outlandish delicacy, a fabulous pleasure, a feast of taste.

The Polish manufacturers kept the manufacturing technology and composition of "Bird's Milk" a secret. Therefore, their Soviet colleagues had to work hard to create something similar to taste. The most interesting thing about this story is that the name misled Soviet technologists: they were sure that it was due to the presence of eggs in the candy filling. In fact, eggs have nothing to do with the name. But if they were not in Polish sweets, today they are present in many desserts of the same name.

Unique Component

But the confectioners did not set the task of completely repeating the recipe. On the contrary, they went their own way. The specialists of the factory in Vladivostok used not only their professionalism, but also the wealth of their native land. Instead of gelatin, it was decided to use agar-agar, extracted from Far Eastern algae. It was this factory that first launched the production of new items. The recipe has been registered.

The second factory was Rot Front. And after some time, other confectionery enterprises in all parts of the country, including the famous Red October, joined the implementation of the plan.

Today Vladivostok sweets "Ptichye Moloko" are considered the best. In a 300-gram box, the buyer will find sweets with three different flavors (chocolate, lemon and cream), which can be stored for no more than 15 days. They still contain useful agar-agar.

Legendary cake from the restaurant "Prague"

The success of the sweets inspired culinary specialists as well. Vladimir Guralnik forever inscribed his name in the history of sweets, because it was he who developed the recipe for the Bird's Milk cake in the early 80s. Conjuring over the ingredients, the master initially decided that he would also use agar-agar. The composition also included egg whites, powdered sugar, water. And the basis was an air biscuit.

The number of orders grew exponentially. If at the very beginning only visitors to the Moscow restaurant "Prague" could taste the delicacy, then after a few months the shop also worked to take away.

It was difficult to scare a Soviet person with a queue, and therefore the workers calmly lined up behind a secret cake, taking their places before dark. Eyewitnesses of those times recall that the tail of the queue often turned to the neighboring Stary Arbat. The recipe for the "Bird's Milk" cake has been officially approved. Violation of the recommended norms was prosecuted by law.

"Bird's milk" today

Sweets "Bird's milk" are produced today. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, not all manufacturers adhere to the original Far Eastern recipe. Expensive agar-agar is often replaced with gelatin; preservatives are used to extend the shelf life. But there is a plus in this: the price of some types of "Bird's milk" is very low. You can find both loose sweets and packaged in beautiful boxes.

No less popular are cakes, pastries, soufflé "Bird's Milk", which today many hostesses have learned to cook on their own.

There are ancient legends where the birds of paradise fed their chicks with milk, and if a person is lucky enough to taste this milk, he will become invulnerable to any weapon and ailments.

The expression "bird's milk" in many nations means something desirable, unattainable. A Russian proverb says: "The rich have everything, like bird's milk." A similar turnover went back to ancient Greece. Thus, in Aristophanes' comedy The Birds, the choir promises happiness in the form of milk, "not heifers, but birds."
The culinary history of "Bird's Milk" began with sweets.
Back in 1936, Jan Wedel - the owner of the Polish confectionery factory E. Wedel - developed a recipe for amazing sweets, unlike any confectionery product produced before. These sweets were prepared according to the marshmallow recipe, only without the addition of eggs: sugar, gelatin, dextrose and flavorings were whipped to the state of a “sponge”. After that, sweets were formed from the sweet mass and glazed with chocolate. Contemporaries gave the dessert an unambiguous assessment: “He is divine!” and Jan Wedel, listening to these sincere delights, called his culinary creation "ptasie mleczko" ("bird's milk"). The confectioner reasoned simply: “What else could a person who has everything want? Indeed, only bird's milk.

The domestic history of "Bird's Milk" began with a trip in 1967 by the Minister of Food Industry of the USSR to Czechoslovakia, where at one of the receptions he was presented with sweets with an original filling. Returning to the Soviet Union, the minister gathered representatives of all the country's confectionery industries at the Rot-Front Moscow factory and ordered to develop their own technology for making Czechoslovak sweets as soon as possible.
The first who managed to get as close as possible to the original recipe was confectioner Anna Chulkova, who at that time was the chief technologist of the Vladivostok confectionery factory. The technology for making new sweets, called "Bird's Milk", was transferred to other confectionery factories of the Soviet Union.


It was the Soviet Ptichye Moloko sweets from the Krasny Oktyabr factory that became the basis for the cake recipe with the same name.
A whole team of well-known confectioners of the capital worked on the creation of the most delicate dessert - Vladimir Guralnik, who worked in the Moscow restaurant "Prague", Nikolai Panfilov and Margarita Golova.
A group of confectioners under the leadership of the head of the confectionery shop of the restaurant "Prague" Vladimir Mikhailovich Guralnik


We experimented for six months, using instead of gelatin agar-agar, a jelly-like product obtained from red and brown algae. Confectioners sought to ensure that the soufflé hardened, but remained airy. After a persistent search for the perfect recipe, we finally managed to find the combination of ingredients that is still considered a classic - a cake filling richly poured with chocolate, decorated on top, also with a chocolate little bird.

Initially, the novelty could only be purchased at the Prague restaurant. “At first they made 30 pieces a day, then 60, then 600,” recalls Vladimir Guralnik.
This was sorely lacking for Muscovites and guests of the capital. The delicacy was quickly tasted and it made a splash. Such queues lined up behind the cake that they had to be turned around so that people would not block traffic between Kalinin Avenue (now Novy Arbat) and the Arbat. Buyers stood for hours by appointment; the smaller queue was made up of holders of coupons, which the restaurant sold to the “chosen ones” for 3 rubles. (The Bird's Milk cake itself cost 6 rubles 16 kopecks then.)
The queue in the confectionery department of the restaurant "Prague"


The first experimental industrial batches of "bird's milk" have been produced since 1968 at the Rot-Front factory. But due to the complex technology, the batches were small, the recipe documentation was not approved by the Ministry of the Food Industry of the USSR.
In September 1980, an Application for Invention was filed, and in 1982, the developers of the recipe were issued a copyright certificate for the Bird's Milk cake, No. 925285, where the method for producing the dessert was registered, which became an unprecedented precedent for that time. "Bird's milk" became the first domestic cake patented by the chefs who invented it.
Since that time, the Bird's Milk cake has been produced in other cities of the country. The “Bird's Milk” cakes produced in different places had different designs, but they corresponded to the original recipe, recorded by GOST of the USSR.








Cake "Bird's milk" from Soviet times to the present is considered the hallmark of Moscow. Delicate soufflé, a thick layer of dark chocolate and very thin cakes made this miracle of culinary skill a sought-after and desired delicacy. Childhood memories have preserved the warmth of the hearth and delight over a luxurious dessert.










In 2006, Vladimir Guralnik became a nominee for the Public Recognition 2006 award and received an award in the Legend Man nomination.
In addition to creating the legendary "bird", he has developed and introduced into production 35 branded confectionery products over 50 years of work.
Many of them are now produced in all confectionery shops in Moscow.

Like many "airy" desserts, "Bird's milk" has existed for no more than a century. It was created in 1936 in Poland, at the Warsaw confectionery factory "E. Wedel" and released in the form of sweets. They became popular not only at home, but also in other countries.

The creator of the recipe, Jan Wedel, said that they are so airy and tasty, like something inaccessible, which is very small, like bird's milk. The recipe for sweets, by the way, is very simple: it is a milk soufflé based on whole condensed milk, sugar syrup and gelatin.

In Poland "Ptasie mleczko"- pride and the most popular sweets for which the country has exclusive rights, therefore, under this name they are produced only there. The technology is also exclusive and kept secret.

To the Soviet Union sweets "Bird's milk" came 20 years later, in 1967, after a government trip to Czechoslovakia. Returning from it with a sample of sweets, the Minister of Food Industry in Moscow gathered confectioners from the country's leading factories with the task of unraveling the secret of this miracle.

Across the country, work began to boil: confectioners experimented, studied, compared. As a result, one of the best was the version of the Vladivostok confectionery factory. There, under the guidance of technologist Anna Chulkova, special conditions were developed: whipping technology, manufacturing temperature.

In 1968, the Moscow confectionery factory "Rot-Front" began to produce them. And mass production was launched in 1975 at the Krasny Luch factory in Moscow.

Interesting Facts:

• Sweets - a source of inspiration for the creation of the cake "Bird's milk"
• The first batches of sweets were 35 tons per month!

Creating a fabulous cake "Bird's milk"

This cake is the first in the USSR for which a patent was issued to its creator, a confectioner Vladimir Mikhailovich Guralnik. A hereditary confectioner, at the age of 16 he came to work in an elite Moscow restaurant "Prague".

We can say that Vladimir Guralnik wanted to go beyond the usual and create something special. Having visited the Krasny Luch factory, the confectioner was impressed by the taste of Bird's Milk. He wanted to create a "big candy", a whole cake with this most delicate and lush soufflé.

In 1978 work began on the creation of the famous Soviet cake "Bird's Milk" in the restaurant "Prague". Together with Margarita Golova and Nikolai Panfilov, Guralnik searched for the perfect recipe and technology for half a year.

These were sleepless nights and intense search: cakes were prepared, tasted, thrown away and all over again, so many times. The standard recipe did not fit, according to V. Guralnik, “on a large volume - marshmallow marshmallow, it gets stuck in the teeth!”. And I wanted the same airiness.

Success came: ideal proportions and new components were found. For a cake, unlike sweets, you need whole condensed milk, sugar syrup, agar-agar instead of gelatin, protein mass and butter. The optimum cooking temperature is 117 ° C, so agar-agar is ideal for boiling the filling. Only in this way will the soufflé harden and remain airy!

For the cake, Guralnik chose a semi-cupcake dough, tender, light and at the same time thin. And they decorated it laconically - covered it with hard chocolate icing and decorated it with an ornament with birds. The cake was even outrageous at the suggestion of the creator: the rectangular shape at that time was unsettled and attracted attention.

The Firebird, a character from primordially Russian fairy tales, adorned a box with the Soviet Bird's Milk cake. There was something native and truly fabulous in this.

The popularity of the cake "Bird's Milk"

The workshop of the Prague restaurant at first produced test batches of 20-30 pieces, but after six months the volumes increased to 500 pieces, and the lines for the "bird" lined up at 6 in the morning. It was possible to get a cake by appointment or by famous coupons.

Vladimir Guralnik did not make a secret out of the recipe, on the contrary, he generously shared his achievements. It was a real sensation, so by the end of the 80s other shops across the country were also preparing the cake, only about 30 enterprises, but it still remained in short supply for residents outside the capital of the USSR.

Today, the cake can be bought in a store or pastry shop. But if you want to feel the same taste, you should still cook this miracle yourself. Moreover, it is not difficult. Try the Bird's Milk cake recipe: checked, everything will work out!

In childhood, many asked this question when they first tried the Bird's Milk sweets. But how is it really: do birds have milk, how is it obtained, and where do sweets get their name from? We will answer these questions and tell you about other interesting facts in our article. Believe me, you will learn a lot for yourself!

Why was the candy called "Bird's Milk"?

Children often wonder what kind of milk birds give. Adults know for sure that birds don’t give any milk, and it’s definitely not in the composition of sweets. But it is difficult to answer where such a name comes from. A treat appeared in Poland in 1936 under the name “Ptasie Mleczko”. And only in the 1960s, the Rot Front factory launched production in the USSR, simply by translating Bird's Milk into Russian. Many then thought that the name was metaphorical and associated with something very rare and valuable, since such sweets were in a terrible shortage. In fact, the creators were based on old legends and works of ancient Greece. They mention the milk of birds of paradise, which gives almost immortality and is considered a delicacy (ambrosia) of the Gods.

For example, in the old days, when young men wooed girls, they were asked to bring unheard-of gifts as a token of love. The more incredible the gift was, the more likely it was to win the heart of the beauty. But, if the girl did not like the groom, then she asked to get her bird's milk. Thus, she made it clear that he had no chance of becoming her chosen one. This tradition is found in many peoples. There is even such a proverb: "The rich have everything, especially bird's milk." In this way, candy producers wanted to attract the attention of consumers, thereby emphasizing the value and sophistication of taste.

But how much do we know about birds to say with certainty that they cannot produce milk? Let's figure out this difficult issue together!

The whole truth about bird milk

In fact, scientists have proven that some birds can produce milk that is completely different from what we are used to. Bird's milk consists of protein (about 60%), fat (up to 36%), a small amount of carbohydrates (up to 3%), a number of minerals and antibodies, but does not contain lactose and calcium. But like mammalian milk, it contains antioxidants and immunomodulatory proteins that are important for the growth and development of young animals.

Such milk is also called goiter, or pigeon. This secret is secreted by the cells of the goiter or special glands of the esophagus and stomach (depending on the type), it resembles a yellowish curd mass. It is noteworthy that goiter cells react to hormones during lactation in a similar way to the mammary gland. Curd is created from fat-filled cells (at the site of the crop where food is usually stored to soften before digestion) that break open and regurgitate this substance to feed offspring. Birds differ from other animals in that they do not have sweat glands, but they do have the ability to store fat in their outer skin cells (keratinocytes), which act as sweat glands. It has been found that the “lactation” of birds is related to this ability to divide fat cells. Interestingly, both males and females can feed offspring with "bird's milk". Milk is characteristic of representatives of the pigeon family, a number of parrots, flamingos and imperial penguins.

This process is best studied by example. pigeons. They usually lay two eggs. Soon after the chicks hatch from them, the parents begin to feed them with nutritious milk, which begins to be produced two days before the offspring appear. After that, after a week, the chicks switch to eating crushed "adult" food, such as seeds, fruits, insects and other invertebrates. However, if one of the eggs for some reason falls out of the nest, or one chick is born dead, then the remaining chick gets all the "bird's milk", and therefore it grows even faster. By the end of the first week after hatching, this chick will hardly differ in size from its parents. And here is the female penguin lays only one egg, which the male penguin warms with the heat of his body for a long two months until the long-awaited chick appears. After the appearance of the offspring, the caring father nurses him for another month and feeds him with milk along with the mother, who gets food. At flamingos The whole process of breastfeeding is amazing. Their nutritional secret also contains hemoglobin, which indicates the presence of bird blood in the milk, and this gives it a reddish color.

Interestingly, a number of studies were carried out in 1952, when chickens were fed pigeon milk, and their growth rate increased by as much as 38%! At the same time, attempts to reproduce goiter milk artificially did not lead to success. The chicks fed by the analogue either died or were too weak. Accordingly, this nutrient has also been shown to contain certain unique antibodies.

You did not even suspect that these animals also give milk

We know how important milk is for babies. It is a rich combination of nutrients that are necessary for the development of the child and his immunity. In the entire animal kingdom, only one group of animals produces milk for their offspring: the mammals, to which we belong. The milk of mammals is considered to be real milk. However, some living organisms have secretions that strongly resemble milk and are intended for feeding. This "false milk" is not like cow or human milk, and it is not produced in the same way. But it serves the same purpose: it feeds baby animals until they are old enough to take care of themselves.

cockroaches. Yes, you heard right: some cockroaches feed their young with milk. One such example is the beetle cockroach Diploptera punctata, or Pacific cockroach.
Most female cockroaches lay their eggs in a kind of sac that exits the body before the eggs hatch. After the young cockroaches hatch from their eggs, they fight to find food. But the female Pacific cockroach beetle takes a different approach to childcare. Instead of hatching from a clutch, the embryos develop fully inside her body. As soon as the embryos have fully formed digestive organs, they begin to drink "milk" produced by special crystals (cells), and quickly gain weight. Since young cockroaches get a lot of food while still in their mother's body, they are more developed and mature at the time of birth. Such an interesting feature of these cockroaches attracted the attention of Indian scientists. The crystals of these cockroaches, as it turned out, contain a complete set of nutrients: fats, proteins, carbohydrates and amino acids. This product has a high calorie content, so it would be useful in conditions of overpopulation and long-distance space flights. Researchers are now trying to reproduce the substance in the laboratory.

false scorpions, or false scorpions. Like Pacific beetle cockroaches, female pseudoscorpions produce a milky-like substance. But it does not come out of her womb, but out of her ovaries. The female carries her fertilized eggs in a special pouch attached to her abdomen. Once the babies hatch, they stay in the pouch and feed on their mother's milk. Even after they leave the pouches, they continue to ride on their mother's back until they are old enough to live on their own. Pseudoscorpions are 2-3 mm long. They are often found in rooms with dusty books, which is why they are sometimes referred to as "book scorpions".

Discus fish. Their milk is actually a mucus-based secretion that coats the bodies of both parents. It is rich in proteins and antibodies. A few days after the young fish hatch from their eggs, they attach themselves to their parents and feed on the slime secretions that cover their bodies. During the first two weeks, they spend most of their time feeding their offspring. Feeding lasts 5-10 minutes, after which one of the parents dumps the young on the other parent. From the third week, parents stop feeding. They swim for longer periods, forcing young fish to look for other sources of food. This example is very similar to how mammals take care of their children.

Legless African amphibians, or caecilians. Vertebrate amphibians are very similar to worms. Most species guard their eggs until they hatch and then leave them. But caecilians native to southeastern Kenya have developed a more sophisticated parenting style. When the offspring hatch from their eggs, they are completely immature and completely dependent on their mother. To feed her children, the female caecilian produces a thick layer of protein and fat on the top layer of her skin. Newborns clean this layer of skin with the help of special suction cups that look like small teeth. The layer of nutrients is so dense that in a week the young individual increases in length by about 11%. This greatly affects the mother. After one week of feeding, she loses about 14% of her body weight.

The world around us still holds many mysteries. It would seem that it is well studied, but something new always opens up. Did you know that some birds actually have milk?

Do birds give milk?