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Ptasie mleczko

Ptasie mleczko
Ptasie mleczko 2007 by RaBoe 02.jpg
Place of origin Poland
Main ingredients Sugar, chocolate, powdered milk
 

Ptasie mleczko (Polish pronunciation: [ptaɕɛ mlɛtʂkɔ]) is a soft chocolate-covered candy filled with soft meringue or milk soufflé. It is called ptichye moloko (птичье молоко, [ˈptʲitɕjɪ məlɐˈko]) in Russian, lapte de pasăre ([ˈlapte de paˈsəre]) in Romanian, ptashyne moloko (пташине молоко) in Ukrainian, and linnupiim in Estonian. All these names literally mean "bird's milk" or crop milk, a substance somewhat resembling milk, produced by certain birds to feed their young. However, this is not the origin of the name; rather, "bird's milk" is an idiom of ancient Greek origin meaning "an unobtainable delicacy" (compare English: "hen's teeth").

It is one of the most recognized chocolate confectionery in Poland having exclusive rights for the name. Other confectionery producers also make similar candies but named differently (e.g. Alpejskie mleczko, "Alpine milk"). Nonetheless, Ptasie mleczko is often used to refer similar candies with vanilla, cream, lemon or chocolate taste.

In Russia ptichye moloko is both a popular candy and a famous soufflé cake. The brand was introduced in the Soviet times and is nowadays used by the companies operating the factories which produced these candies and cakes since that time. The candies are also produced in other post-Soviet states, in particular in Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Estonia.

The concept of avian milk (Ancient Greek: , ornithon gala) stretches back to ancient Greece. Aristophanes uses "the milk of the birds" in the plays The Birds and The Wasps as a proverbial rarity. The expression is also found in Strabo's Geographica where the island of Samos is described as a blest country to which those who praise it do not hesitate to apply the proverb that "it produces even bird's milk" (φέρει καί ὀρνίθων γάλα). A similar expression lac gallinaceum (Latin for "chicken's milk") was also later used by Petronius (38.1) and Pliny the Elder (Plin. Nat. pr. 24) as a term for a great rarity. The idiom became later common in many languages and appeared in Slavic folk tales. In one such tale the beautiful princess tests the ardor and resourcefulness of her suitor by sending him out into the wilderness to find and bring back the one fantastical luxury she does not have: bird's milk. In the fairy tale Little Hare by Aleksey Remizov (who wrote many imitations of traditional Slavic folk tales) the magic bird Gagana produces milk.


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