Cattle breeding of the semi-nomadic type associated with migration of the population and its sheep flocks and herds of herds between the pastures was for the Bashkirs an occupation that determines the way of their life. It is not surprising that this way of life influenced the formation of a unique culture: customs, traditions and original national cuisine.
The basis of national Bashkir cooking is a constant combination of cereals, flour, dairy products and meat. Variety also gave the use of domestic or wild honey, forest grasses, berries and roots, as well as fish and meat of wild animals and birds.
Meat is the basis of the Bashkir national cuisine
The basis of the diet of representatives of the Bashkir people was meat, both domestic( cows, sheep, horses), and wild animals caught on the hunt( bears, moose, hares) animals. One of the most common traditional dishes, including prepared for dear guests, was bishbarmak. Only fresh meat: horse meat or lamb, was used for this dish. The bishboumk was prepared as follows: the meat was boiled for several hours, then finely chopped, lowered back into the cauldron, in which were added pieces of dough or large noodles. The name of this dish from Bashkir is translated as "five fingers", since it was taken by hand, washed down with broth - shurpa.
A considerable part of the diet of Bashkirs was also taken up by poultry meat. As a domestic bred mainly geese. In addition, the hunters extracted forest grouse, grouse, grouse, partridge and wild ducks.
The problem of storing meat and products from it, for example, divided into four parts of goose carcasses, small strips and pieces of salt meat, as well as saline layers of fat with a layer of meat, Bashkirs solved mainly by smoking, drying or salting. A kind of delicacy "specialty" was smoked and dried sausages made of horsemeat - kazy or kazylyk, and the ones most valued for which were meat and fat, taken from the ribs.
Milk and kumis
The Bashkir dishes from dairy products differed a great variety. As an additive to porridge and tea, cream was used, taken from melted milk. Of the fermented milk, the Eremsek was made-the Bashkir cottage cheese, which they ate, mixing it with honey immediately after pressing. From sour cream, fatty oil, necessary for full nutrition, was knocked down, especially in winter.
Extremely important for nomadic Bashkirs product was short - dry cheese. It was prepared in autumn in huge quantities - from tens to several hundred heads - from milk left to sour in tubs for a long time. This cheese was smoked, salted and dried in the sun so that it could survive long-term storage. Korota was an extremely nutritious product, capable at any time to supplement the lack of protein food in the Bashkir diet. In grated form, the cheese was mixed into broth or hot tea, and a fresh short was consumed with cream.
Widely known for its healing properties rightfully received koumiss - a drink that was prepared from mare's milk. Treated koumiss in the Bashkir steppes came and famous figures of Russian culture, in particular Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy. The technology of making koumiss, long known to nomadic peoples, as well as the chemical and biological properties of the drink, was studied in scientific institutes.
Vegetable products in the Bashkir cuisine
The nature of the Bashkir lands inhabited the nomads with various edible plants: cowwort, locust, sorrel, sorrel, field garlic, forest and lake onions. Often, berries appeared on the tables: strawberries, currants, raspberries, blackberries, viburnum, bird cherries, cherries, field strawberries. For the winter they were dried, and also canned in honey, dried cottage cheese and melted butter. Of some berries, in particular, mountain ash, viburnum, currant and field strawberries, made thin pastille. It was prepared as follows: the berries were squeezed through a piece of rare material or wiped through a sieve, then the squeezed mushroom juice was evenly distributed over an oiled smooth board, and allowed to dry in the sun for two to three days. After drying, sheets of pastilles were removed from the board and rolled into rolls.
Another famous sweet is the famous Bashkir honey, which has been the pride of the Bashkir since ancient times. Without it, almost no tea drinking, and sandwiches with honey and rustic sour cream are a simple, but very tasty dessert.
Cereal crops occupy most of the diet of Bashkirs. First of all, they are used in the form of cereals, soup and soups, as well as noodles and other flour products, or baking from sour and unleavened dough. From rye, wheat, buckwheat, millet, or pea flour, pancakes and pancakes were made. From sweet unleavened pastry - pies and other pastries with berry or curd filling.
With the spread of wind ovens, the appearance in Bashkir cuisine of baleshes is associated - complex pies with a variety of compound stuffing: meat, onions, cereals, berries, potatoes and butter. Delicacy was balesh with rabbit or goose. Another national floury Bashkir dish is baursak - small pieces of egg-knotted rolled unleavened wheat flour brewed in boiling fat or oil.
Dishes of Bashkir cuisine are distinguished by the fact that they use the minimum amount of seasonings: only garlic and black or red pepper. However, the spiciness of the Bashkir dishes gives an abundance of fresh spicy greens: dill, onions, parsley. Also, the distinctive feature of the national cuisine is that the meat contains almost all hot snacks and dishes.
The nomadic way of life associated with permanent movements affected the formation of a large number of products that can withstand long-term storage. That is why the basis of many national Bashkir dishes is dried or dried lamb and horse meat, cereals, dried berries, cheese and honey.
Dishes of modern Bashkir cuisine were able to preserve the originality of traditional cooking, incorporating the advantages of a wide range of products available now and cooking technologies. At the same time, on a festive table, a special place will always be given to national dishes - baursaku, balesh and bishbarmak.