When one handles honey, one also licks one's fingers. Hunger is the best cook. Two meals won't do any harm, two beatings do. Spring water is so good when you put just a drop into a quart of wine. If it rains in May, there'll be plenty of maize.
All year round people store food to have from one season to another.
In autumn the preparation of pickles and zacusca is almost a ritual performed in each Romanian kitchen. Cauliflower, gherkins, bell peppers, young watermelons or cabbage are pickled in brine or diluted vinegar, with carrots, celery, pepper, garlic or dill as spices. Zacusca is made from aubergines, bell peppers, onions and tomato juice either according to a classical recipe or according to the housewife's taste, with other ingredients added. Sealed and sterilized in order to keep, the jars with zacusca then take their due place on the cellar's shelves, until the time comes for them to delight the palate during winter holidays. The slaughtering of swine for Christmas is another ritual preserved by the Romanians since ancient times.