Types of baths and saunas: brief comparison and characteristics

Original design of a Finnish sauna
Warm greetings to all readers!

Today there are many types and designs of baths. Historically, the following types have developed - Roman, Eastern, Irish, Japanese, Finnish and of course Russian. Modern pundits distinguish the following types of baths and saunas:

— Russian (high humidity bath);
— Roman (dry with different temperatures in different rooms);
— Sauna – Finnish bath (very hot with dry air).

With this division, Russian and Finnish baths are practically antipodes. In fact, the original Russian bathhouse was dry. A real village bathhouse is usually equipped with such a powerful stove that obtaining high-temperature dry steam is not difficult. There is also the following division of baths into types:

Heater sauna (Russian or Finnish) with temperatures up to 120 degrees and humidity 5-20%;
Steam, with a humidity of 75-100% and a temperature of 60-70 degrees;
Water, according to the Japanese principle, with a temperature of 50-60 degrees.

To this division of baths by type, it is worth adding Turkish baths. Most likely, their prototype was one natural hot spring. The Russian and Finnish baths have a different origin - hot stones on which water splashed.

Russian steam bath is our people's favorite

Russian black bath

Traditionally, a log house with a powerful stove-heater is a true Russian bathhouse. In the ancient baths there was no room for changing clothes; the whole process took place in one large room - changing clothes, washing and a steam room.

The simplest modern bathhouse of this type consists of a vestibule, a changing room, a steam room, and is equipped with a stove, a water tank, a bench and stools. Sometimes the bathhouse is equipped with a steam room. It’s the 21st century, and two types of Russian baths have not lost their relevance, although the first option is very rare:

A) smoky Russian bathhouse,
B) smokeless Russian bathhouse.

The black sauna is one of the oldest structures. A smoky sauna is a log house with a heater stove that does not have a chimney. The smoke goes directly into the steam room. The walls of such a steam room are covered with a layer of soot and soot. Soot has an excellent ability to absorb foreign odors and the smell of sweat. The smoke coming out of the oven has disinfecting properties and contains substances that kill germs and bacteria.

Surprisingly, these substances are not harmful to humans. A bathhouse with this design was taken when it was ripe (the temperature of the walls and air was the same), by which time all the smoke had disappeared.

The smokeless sauna (“in white”) differs from the one described above in that the stove has a chimney. In a smokeless bathhouse you can provide all the amenities without which we simply cannot imagine a modern steam room.

How long after leaving the bath can you drink?

You should not drink alcohol immediately after a bath, as it is necessary to allow the body to recover - to cool down and replenish the water balance. Alcohol taken after a steam room will increase dehydration, and the body's reaction may be unpredictable. “It’s optimal if at least three days pass between visiting the bathhouse and drinking alcohol,” explains cardiologist Tatyana Chernushenko.

Going to the steam room immediately after a long feast is also a bad idea. A hangover usually causes your heart rate to increase, and vaping will only make it worse. There is no data on the delayed effect of such a process, so it is safer to avoid it.

Finnish dry sauna

A modern sauna is practically no different from a Russian steam room. The difference is that the steam room in the sauna is smaller, since the stoves used in the sauna are less powerful than the stoves for the Russian bath. To build a sauna you do not need a lot of building materials. If we talk about a classic sauna, you will need wood (aspen, linden or northern spruce), clay, brick, and stones for the stove.

When replacing the stove with an electric fireplace, only wood will remain what is needed. In modern construction, synthetic material is often used for thermal insulation, but the classics do not tolerate synthetics, only natural materials. A comfortable sauna consists of at least 7-8 rooms: a hall, a steam room, a dressing room, a bathroom, a locker room, a shower room and a swimming pool. The main difference between a sauna and other types of steam rooms is intense heat with a temperature of 110-120 degrees and a humidity of 5-15%.

Bathhouse, beer and food: discovering the secrets of the perfect light snack

If the thermometer does not deceive, summer has come. The most real thing, with sun and warmth.

It is, of course, difficult to believe this, but the fact is obvious.

The only thing that no one, including meteorologists, can say for sure is how long this happiness will last. The Urals are unpredictable in terms of weather, as is the final retirement age.

If you still didn’t have time to warm up or spent sunny days at work, don’t be upset.

There is at least one reliable way to stay warm.

Bathhouse!

First, of course, you need to choose a bathhouse. An image, an image, without citizens with reduced social responsibility and other excesses, but with the right service that maintains sterile cleanliness and comfort.

Photo: BC “Vysotsky” for 66.RU

If you don’t want to go far from the center, at the very top of Vysotsky there are bathhouses Bathhouse54; I’ve never seen such a view from a steam room.

Photo: BC “Vysotsky” for 66.RU

Coming out of the steam room, steam from your ears, wet and pink, like an Abakan tomato. Wrap yourself in a fluffy robe with soft, cool bristles. Sofa. There is something elusively woody-warm, natural, real in the air.

There is fresh beer in the mug, with a cool hop bitterness under a dense foam cap. It's still hot outside, but cooler inside. The first sip was taken. It floated by itself, like a light cloud, and rolled down, refreshing.

The second one follows - as a gift to yourself, your loved one, to correct the temperature balance.

If it was really hot in the steam room - or in the sauna, as you wish - it could take an entire glass to lower the internal temperature.

Be more thoughtful with the second pour. It already requires preparation and understanding. Companies require, finally, because of appetite.

And here the path of a real bath samurai goes away from the well-trodden folk paths.

An ordinary alcohol-based snack is prone to excess calories and excessive saltiness, forming a vicious circle of “drank, ate, washed down.”

Pure physiology, no spiritual flight. Although it’s delicious, of course, I won’t argue.

But there is another approach, pure uncomplicated pleasure, when the aroma and taste of the drink merges with the snack in a sensual dance. Let's try it.

Help came from afar and from unexpected places - from Portugal through Japan.

A long time ago, when trade routes to distant countries were just being established, the inhabitants of the West and the East knew about each other about as much as we now know about aliens.

Everything is different - language, appearance, culture and, of course, cuisine.

And now the first ships of the Portuguese merchant fleet entered Japanese ports. The journey was long, but a true Catholic never forgets about faith, therefore all religious orders, including fasting, were strictly observed.

There was even a special type of dish: “ad tempora cuaresma” - “during Lent”, and the cooks constantly exercised their ingenuity in order to somehow diversify the contents of the plates.

We take something that is allowed, but is already very boring, dip it in batter, fry it in oil - and now it turns out different, and therefore more interesting.

The Japanese were little concerned about the Catholic faith, but the Portuguese missionaries watched what was happening in the kitchen with great interest.

From a long and incomprehensible name, Asian friends chose a more sonorous word, and in the 16th century, in the city of Nagasaki, something that is absolutely associated only with the Land of the Rising Sun was born - tempura.

In addition to its lightness, elegant taste, and excellent compatibility with sauces, tempura seems to be born for beer.

That's what we'll check.

The philosophy of tempura seems to echo the brilliant brevity of Japanese haiku poetry. The recipe is simple, like everything truly great, and it seems paradoxical, like many things Japanese.

Let's get started.