Murom Kalach

A kalach is a wheat loaf shaped like a padlock or a purse with a thick lip and a thinner handle, and Murom was the town most associated with it - it appears on the town's coat of arms, granted in 1781, with three kalachi on it. The handle existed because the bread was eaten in the street with dirty hands: you held it by the handle, ate the body, and threw the handle away or gave it to a beggar, which is where the Russian phrase about having reached the handle, meaning to have sunk as low as possible, comes from. The dough was worked long and hard, sometimes on ice to keep it cool, and the expression for a much-grated kalach means an experienced and hardened person. Production died out and has been revived in the town, where a bakery makes them to old method and sells them hot, and the museum covers the history. They are best eaten within the hour.

What you actually see

• The shape - a thick-lipped loaf with a handle made to be held and discarded.
• The phrases - two common Russian expressions that come from this bread.
• The coat of arms - three kalachi on the arms granted to Murom in 1781.
• The revived bakery - loaves made to the old method and sold hot.

When to go

All year. One hour. Buy in the morning; they are best within the hour of baking.

Honest expectations

The revived bakery has limited hours and sells out. What is sold as kalach in supermarkets elsewhere is a different and softer product. Murom is a modest provincial town reached by a slow train. The museum is small and Russian-labelled.

Nearby

The Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery and the Oka embankment are in the town.