Kazakh cuisine traditionally revolves around mutton and
horse meatHorse meat is the culinary name for meat cut from a horse. It is a major meat in only a few countries, notably in Central Asia, but it forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many others, from Europe to South America to China. The top eight countries consume about 4.7 million horses...
and as well as various milk products. The cooking techniques and major ingredients have been strongly influenced by the nation's nomadic way of life. For example, most cooking techniques are aimed at long-term
preservation of foodFood preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or greatly slow down spoilage caused or accelerated by micro-organisms. Some methods, however, use benign bacteria, yeasts or fungi to add specific qualities and to preserve food...
.
Meat in various forms has always been the primary ingredient of Kazakh cuisine.
Besbarmak, a dish consisting of boiled horse or mutton meat, is the most popular Kazakh dish.
Kazakh cuisine traditionally revolves around mutton and
horse meatHorse meat is the culinary name for meat cut from a horse. It is a major meat in only a few countries, notably in Central Asia, but it forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many others, from Europe to South America to China. The top eight countries consume about 4.7 million horses...
and as well as various milk products. The cooking techniques and major ingredients have been strongly influenced by the nation's nomadic way of life. For example, most cooking techniques are aimed at long-term
preservation of foodFood preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or greatly slow down spoilage caused or accelerated by micro-organisms. Some methods, however, use benign bacteria, yeasts or fungi to add specific qualities and to preserve food...
.
Meat in various forms has always been the primary ingredient of Kazakh cuisine.
Besbarmak, a dish consisting of boiled horse or mutton meat, is the most popular Kazakh dish. Other popular meat dishes are
kazyKazy or kazi is a traditional sausage-like food of Kazakhs, Tatars, Kyrgyz, and other ethnic groups mainly of Central Asia, particularly those of Turkic origin...
and
shuzhuk (horsemeat sausages),
kuyrdak (also spelled
kuirdak, a dish made from roasted horse, sheep, or cow
offalOffal is a culinary term used to refer to the entrails and internal organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of organs, but includes most internal organs other than muscles or bones...
, such as heart, liver, kidneys, and other organs, diced and served with onions and peppers), and various horse delicacies, such as
zhal (smoked lard from horse's neck) and
zhaya (salted and smoked meat from horse's hip and hind leg).
The traditional drinks are
sheep milkSheep's milk is the milk of domestic sheep. Though not widely drunk in any modern culture, sheep's milk is commonly used to make cultured dairy products. Well-known cheeses made from sheep milk include the Feta of Bulgaria and Greece, Roquefort of France, Manchego from Spain, the Pecorino Romano ...
and its products –
kaymakKaymak, kajmak, or kaimak, also qaymar or qaimar, is a creamy dairy product, similar to clotted cream, made in the Balkans, Turkey, the Middle East, Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, and India...
(
sour cream Sour cream is a dairy product rich in fats obtained by fermenting a regular cream by certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, introduced either deliberately or naturally, sours and thickens the cream...
),
katyk or
ayranAyran or airan is a Turkish drink made of yoghurt and water, popular in Iraq ,Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Armenia, Bosnia, Azerbaijan, Syria, Lebanon and other parts of the Balkans, the Middle East, and Central Asia. It is similar to Armenian , Indian lassi, and Iranian doogh, though doogh can be...
(
buttermilkButtermilk refers to a number of deliciously tasting dairy drinks. Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cream. It also refers to a range of fermented milk drinks, common in warm climates where fresh milk would otherwise sour quickly. It is also popular in...
),
kurtQurut , qurt, or kurt , also aaruul , is a type of cheese eaten throughout Central Asia, often as a snack. In Turkey it is spelled as "kurut" and made from dried yoghurt. Qurut consists of hard, dried, sour milk. It can be made in a variety of forms, including rolled into balls, sliced into strips,...
,
irimshik (dried sour milk product similar to kurt, but not rolled into balls), fermented
mareA mare is an adult female horse or other equine.Most of the time, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse age three and younger. However, in Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four years old; in harness racing a mare is a...
's milk (
kumys), and camel's milk (
shubat).
The introduction of
flourFlour is a powder made of cereal grains or roots. It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many civilizations, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
to Kazakh cuisine brought about dishes such as
baursak (or
bauyrsaq, a ball-shaped doughnut fried in oil and sprinkled with sugar),
kuimak,
kattama and
oima – flat puff cakes fried in oil then covered in
creamCream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, over time, the lighter fat rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called "separators"...
.
Manti is another popular dough-based dish in Kazakh cuisine. It is a spiced mixture of ground lamb (or beef) spiced with black pepper, enclosed in a dough wrapper.
Manti are cooked in a multi-level steamer and served topped with butter, sour cream, or onion sauce.
In the summer,
chalChal, or shubat , is a Turkic drink, a fermented camel's milk, which is a white sparkling beverage that has a sour flavour and is popular in Central Asia, particularly in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. In Kazakhstan the drink is known as shubat. In the summer shubat is one of the staple foods of...
is one of the staple foods of the Adai Kazakhs.
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