Kazakhstan Food
Kazakhstan cuisine is rooted in the country’s nomadic background. For centuries, the Kazakhs were herders who owned camels, horses, and sheep, using them as their main source of food.
Recipes and cooking techniques have been passed down through the generations, with meat and dairy remaining prominent.
As the cuisine of Kazakhstan is heavily based on a nomadic way of life, cooking techniques such as salting and drying meat are common. These techniques were used by the nomads to preserve ingredients, making it last longer.
Most Popular Kazakhstan Dishes:
- Baursak – is a unique fried with a puffy appearance consisting of flour, milk, salt, sugar, eggs, butter, and yeast. It is prepared only for special occasions such as birthdays, weddings etc.
- Beshbarmak – is probably the most Kazakh dish. The name of the dish can be translated as five fingers, referring to the nomadic tribes who lived in Central Asia and would eat the dish with hands. Cooked horse, mutton, beef, or a combination of those three types of meat are served along traditionally prepared thin pasta squares.
- Kazy – is a horse sausage made with meat and fat taken from the ribs. It is usually seasoned with garlic, pepper, and salt before being stuffed into natural casings. It is usually boiled and served sliced.
- Karta – is a horse meat dish popular in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It consists of boiled and pan-fried rectum; specially the last section of the digestive tract, not including the sphincter. It is usually served as a side dish.
- Mypalau – is sheep’s brain wich is typically placed in a wooden bowl and combined with pieces of meat, hip bones’ marrow, broth with salted fat, and garlic.
- Kuurdak – is made from fried mutton, fat, onion, liver, kidney, heart and lungs.
- Kurut – salty cheese balls based on barley broth, bread, cereals combined with curled milk.
- Kumis – is a fermented dairy product traditionally made from mare’s milk. It is similar to kefir but contains more sugar than cow’s or goat’s milk, when fermented, kumis has a higher, through still mild, alcohol content compared to kefir.
