Kazakhstan cuisine and traditions
Traditional Kazakh bread
The Republic of Kazakhstan is located in a very rough and raw part of the globe, even though it is the ninth largest country by surface area, its population is only a bit over sixteen million. The country has been inhabited by nomadic tribes for most of its history, only in the past century has a true state emerged; the result of this history means that present-day country is home to over 130 different ethnicities and over forty different religious teachings which in turn reflect heavily onto the Kazakh cuisine and traditions.
A large part of traditional Kazakh cuisine focuses on a plethora of milk products as well as mutton and horse meat, and while the horse meat may be a bit strange to most Western travelers, the milk almost never comes from cows, it usually comes from sheep or goats, as these are more hardy animals who can survive the local climate better.
Both the cooking techniques as well as the main ingredients in Kazakh cuisine have been heavily influenced by the nomadic life style that has characterised the inhabitants for hundreds if not thousands of years. As such sheep, camels and horses were herded and used for transportation and clothing as well as food.
The culture of the various Kazakh peoples means that they have always regarded meat as their main food, and the preferred way of cooking it being boiling, a technique that they’ve perfected being able to precisely boil their meats in order to preserve a lot of delicate tastes and softness.
Another large part of their food tradition is based around long-term storage of their food, with a large amount of met always being prepared for future consumption by salting and drying.
In a similar vein, considering the importance than milk would obviously have in their ancient nomadic lifestyles, sour milk products were the preferred way of storing milk for future use.
The traditional bread products of the region are very cookie-like with the most popular baked product being baursaki, a type of fried donut.
There’s a lot more to say about the custom of dastarkhan, which is a feast meant for visiting guests and special occasions, but we’ll talk about that in a future article.
