Of the national cuisines of the peoples of the former Union, the youngest is considered to be Kazakh. This is due to the fact that it began to be formed only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and assumed its final shape with a global change in the national economy of Kazakhstan and the transition of residents to a settled way of life.
Meat and milk - the basis of Kazakh cuisine
For a long time, the basis of Kazakh cuisine was exclusively milk and meat. From the latter, mainly lamb and horse meat were used, whereas the range of milk was somewhat richer: sheep, cow, mare and camel went into food. It is logical to assume that in view of the scarcity of the variety of vegetables and cereals, even the most skilful chef could hardly come up with an extensive menu of only meat and milk.
Kumiss and other sour-milk products were prepared in leather bags, and meat was cooked in wooden tubs, as well as in sabas made of leather, in which the preheated stones descended. It is because of the absence among the Kazakh kitchen utensils of cast-iron pots that appeared only in the eighteenth century, there were no soups in the ancient Kazakh diet and practically no roast meat.
Kazakh cooking developed in the direction of development of dairy and meat semi-finished products for long-term storage in the conditions of permanent relocation from place to place - nomad. So gradually Kazakhs came to the preparation of semi-finished products from horse meat, sheep meat, mutton liver of different kind of smoking: ordinary, salted, boiled.
Traditional dishes of Kazakh cuisine
So by the beginning of the 20th century, a specific feature of the Kazakh cuisine was formed - the dominance of various combinations of meat and flour products, which formed the basis for classical national dishes, such as "beshbarmak" and "em."The use of products from sheep and mare's milk: ayran, kumys, kurt, sarsa, irimshika, in turn, has slightly receded into the background.
Another distinguishing feature of traditional Kazakh cooking is the widespread use of by-products and their combination with meat in various dishes. At present, Kazakhs use mainly lamb from meat, although horse meat is considered to be the national meat product in Kazakhstan. It is from it that they cook such traditional dishes for local cuisine as "shuzhuk", "kazy", "karta" and others.
Kazakh traditional dinner in the traditional style is very, very peculiar. Opens its koumiss, followed by tea with cream. It offers a variety of sweet snacks: raisins, dried cottage cheese, nuts, "baursaks" - small fried balls of dough. Then the guests are served a variety of meat appetizers from mutton and horse meat and "kuyrdak" - a very fatty roast, made from lamb liver. Next come pies with meat and samsa, and ends the lunch "em" - boiled meat, cut into narrow slices, with thick noodles and rich soup. Traditionally, "em" is washed down with koumiss, and the latter is again served tea, but in this case without cream and milk.
It's easy to see that Kazakh cuisine is not distinguished by a great variety of dishes, but representatives of this people are so used to them that it is unlikely that they will be able to take any other culinary order in the foreseeable future.