Syrna paska

The story

Syrna paska is the Easter dish that needs no oven: fresh curd cheese beaten with butter, sugar and egg yolks, studded with raisins and nuts, and pressed in a mold until it holds its shape. Its traditional form is a truncated pyramid, and a UNIAN article on the dish notes that the shape stands for the Holy Sepulchre. Cooks press it in a special mold called a pasochnytsia, lined with cloth and set under a weight in the cold to press out excess moisture. Dairy has its own place in the Ukrainian Easter basket. In a 2010 UNIAN piece, Father Mykhailo Dymyd described the cheese and butter carried to the Easter blessing as signs of God's sacrifice and tenderness. In 2027 Ukrainian Easter falls on Sunday, May 2. Recipes differ from house to house: a version published by Vikna grinds the yolks with honey and butter without cooking them, while recipes on Zaxid.net and UNIAN first heat the yolks or eggs with cream. Start it two days before Easter, keep it chilled, and slice it thin to eat with the yeast paska.