Cesnica
Form: Ring-shaped
Country of origin: Serbia
What distinguishes it from other methods of bread making: Cooked twice
Category of bread: (10) Vast number of “distant relatives” in all corners of the world, everywhere where there are seafaring peoples
Particularity: Stands up to test of time, to the point that sailors often called it “molar breakers” or “tooth dullers”
Ingredients: Wheat flour; fat; water; salt
Serbia
Ordinarily, daily breads cut hunger, as compared to special breads, which each people make for key moments in their history. In Serbia, cesnica is made on January 7 for Orthodox Christmas. It is probably the one bread in the world that gets such fervent attention, and to which the preparation is subject to such a large number of rules and restrictions.
But let’s look more closely. The flour used must come from a bag or packet that has never been opened. The water must be taken from three different sources into which a handful of seeds have been thrown before the sunrise. The woman in charge of making cesnica must first take a bath. During kneading, when her hands all sticky with dough, she must go into the garden and touch the fruit of the trees and the beehive, and the cattle in the farmyard. This is to ensure fruitfulness and fertility.
When kneading, it is customary to hide a coin or any other object that is a special harbinger into the dough. The top of the cesnica is also decorated with figures and symbols, different depending on regions and customs. The one used most often is the Chi Ro, formed of the Greek letters X (chi) and P (rhô), the first two letters of the word Χριστός (Christ). This bread is so heavily laden with meaning that the head of the family walks around it three times in the counterclockwise direction before evenly sharing it among all the members of the household.