Azerbaijani cuisine

Shish kebabs and tandoor dishes were widely used in Azerbaijani cuisine. There are various drinks and sweets. A distinctive feature of Azerbaijani cuisine is the use of lamb for the preparation of various dishes. To a much lesser extent, Azerbaijanis consume beef , poultry , and fish . The requirements of Islam influenced the formation of Azerbaijani cuisine - as a result, pork dishes and dishes containing alcohol are not traditionally presented in it. Another feature of Azerbaijani cooking is its spicy taste and unique aroma, which give the dishes all kinds of spices and herbs: bitter and allspice, basil , cinnamon, cloves, dill, parsley, cilantro, mint, caraway seeds and many others. Especially worth stopping at saffron and sumac.

The first of them is an indispensable component for the preparation of numerous pilafs. Sumy is usually served with various meat dishes. The Azerbaijani cuisine uses vegetables ( tomatoes , cucumbers , eggplant and others), fruits ( apples , pears , quinces , oranges , lemons ), and stone fruits ( plums , cherry plum , apricots , peaches ). Various types of eggplant, tomato and pepper dolma are also available.

Some dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine are prepared in special dishes. For example, piti soup - in the nursery houses, pilafs - in cauldrons, special boilers with a thickened bottom and special lids in which hot coals are placed so that the pilaf "bothers" evenly. For a special kind of cold cuts - sajah - use the pan of the same name with a tiny roasting pan installed under it ^[2] . For the preparation of kebab and kebab , various skewers are used, for the first dishes - cups - kasa, for stewing meat - tas - small pots and more ^[3] .

One of the most famous dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine is pilaf . There are several varieties of Azerbaijani pilaf ^[4] : kaurma-pilaf (with lamb), turkish-kaurma-pilaf (with lamb and sour fruits), chiy-dosamya-kaurma-pilaf (with lamb, pumpkin and chestnuts), toukh-pilaf ( with chicken fried in pieces), tachylo-pilaf (with chicken or stuffed chicken), chigyrtma-pilaf (with chicken, beaten with beaten egg), fisinjan-pilaf (with game, nuts, sour fruits and cinnamon), sheshryanch-pilaf (egg ), syudlu-pilaf (milk) and breadth-pilaf (fruit sweet). Unlike other cuisines, rice is cooked separately here and separately pilaf basis (tare) - meat , fruits, etc. - combining all this in one dish only when served. Serving and food of Azerbaijani pilafs have their own traditions ^[5] .

The culinary of Azerbaijan has a lot of sweets peculiar to taste, which are divided into three subgroups - flour, caramel and candy. They contain a significant amount of additives and spices: poppy seeds, nuts, almonds, sesame seeds, ginger, cardamom, vanillin and others. The flour products include shekurbur , baklava , sheker-churek, Baku kurabye , kyat Karabakh ^{[6] [7] [8] [9]} , Baku ^[10] , Nakhichevan ^[11] and Ganja ^[12] , shemakha mutaki, baklava Nakhchivan . National flour products have more than 30 items, and each region has its own special products. A special place is occupied by Sheki sweets. These are Sheki baklava, peshvenk, tel (terhalva), girmabad, which are used in the production of rice flour, sugar, kernel kernels, butter , egg whites and spices.

In March 2009, Ganja culinary specialists made a miracle baklava. This pastry, baked in honor of the Novruz holiday, is 12 meters long and four wide. The weight of sweets is about three tons. These indicators allowed the Azerbaijani baklava to set a record and get into the CIS record book. In addition, this product from puff pastry claims to be in the Guinness Book of Records.

Sherbets have a different purpose. Unlike Tajik and Central Asian (here they are primarily sweet, dessert), Azerbaijani sorbets are soft drinks, and also play the role of a drink that accompanies pilaf. In addition to fruit and berry juices, the main component in them is also used infusions and distillates of the aromatic parts of plants - seeds, buds, and the like, and the fruit base consists of sour fruit and berry juices ^[5] .

Cold Appetizer

• Kyukyu ^[13]
  • Green Kyukyu
  • Kutum Kyukyu
  • Walnut Kyukyu
• Fisinjan of Lobio ^[14]
• Beetroot Fisinjan ^[14]
• Khafta-bejager ^[15]
• Adjika
• Adjabsandal

Soups and broths

• Arishta ^[16]
• Bozbash
  • Kourma bozbash
  • Kufta-Bozbash ^[4]
  • Brocade bozbash ^[4]
• Dovga ^[4] - yogurt soup with rice
• Dogramadzh (ovdug) - airan vegetable cold soup
• Dyushbara ^[17] - soup with small dumplings (8-10 dumplings are placed on a tablespoon)
• Kalapyr ^[18]
• Kelle-pacha - broth from the head and legs of a ram, as well as a mutton scar
• Ovdukh ^[4]
• Pity ^[4] - lamb, potato and lamb pea soup
• Soyutma
  • Beef Soyutma ^[19]
  • Lamb soyutma
• Sulu Hingal ^[20]
• Toyug Shorbasy ^[21] - chicken soup with rice and dried fruits
• Turshu-kourma
• Turshu-syyig
• Umach
• Hamrashi ^[4] - noodle soup
• Shilya - a porridge made of chicken and rice
• Khash - beef broth

Hot meals

Pilaf

Distribution in Azerbaijan have rice dishes, which are mainly used for cooking pilaf , numbering up to 50 species ^[1] .

• Guillem-pilaf
• Lobia-pilaf
• Maeve pilaf
• Brocade dosheme
• Pilaf-chyhyrtma
• Sabzikourma-pilaf
• Südlü-pilaf
• Toyug-pilaf
• Fisinjan pilaf
• Dosheme pilaf
• Sheshryanch-pilaf
• Shirin-pilaf
• Joke pilaf

Meat Dishes

Meat dishes are very diverse. The most favorite meat is lamb. Basdyrma is prepared from fresh mutton and beef, from which barbecue is then made. The most common dish is piti and bozbash (thick lamb soups). The kufte bozbash (balls the size of an apple from chopped meat) are popular. Chopped lamb seasoned with rice and spices is wrapped in cabbage (this dish is called dolmas quel ), in salty and fresh grape leaves ( yarpag dolmas ), eggplant and tomatoes are stuffed. Kabab lule is prepared from finely chopped lamb mixed with onions and spices. The most common poultry dish is chygartma ^[1] .

• Cherry plum
• Basturma - beef jerky
• Boz Kourma ^[22]
• Buglama
  • Lamb booglama
  • Beef Buglama
• Gyzartma ^[23]
• Dana Bastirmas
• Jizz-byz - lamb entrails fried with potatoes
• Dolma
  • Eggplant, tomato and pepper dolma (Badymjan dolmasy)
    • Eggplant dolma with rice, peas and mint ("Delhi-dolma")
  • Dolma from grape leaves (Yarpag dolmasy)
  • Cabbage Leaf Dolma (Calam Dolmas)
  • Dolma from linden leaves (Pib Dolmas)
  • Onion Dolma (Sogan Dolmas)
  • Dolma from fruits: quince and apple (“ Quince dolmasy” and “Alma dolmasy”)
  • Cucumber Dolma (“Hiyar Dolmasy”)
• Chihyrtma
  • Guiyma-chyhyrtma
  • Toyug chyhyrtmasy
  • Lobia chyhyrtmasy
• Kebab ( BBQ ) ^[4]
  • Juje kebab
  • Potato kebabs
  • Vegetable kebab
  • Lula Kebab ^[4]
  • Tike kebab
  • Guyrug kebab - from pieces of cherduk
• Kufta - stuffed meatballs
  • Arzuman-kufta - meatballs from the back leg of lamb stuffed with a steep egg or butter
  • Tava kyuftasi - beef meatballs fried in a pan
  • Tabriz kyufta - lamb and beef meatballs stuffed with rice, dried apricots, albuhara, raw eggs, herbs and peas
  • Ordubad Kufta ^[24]
• Laviangi ^{[25] [26]}
• Nar kourma
• Sabzi Kourma ^[4]
• Tava Kebab ^[27]
• Tendir Toyug

Fish Dishes

Azerbaijani cuisine uses fish species found in the Caspian Sea , especially kutum ( kütüm ), salmon ( qızılbalıq ), sturgeon ( nərə ) and herring ( siyənək ). Prior to the introduction of a moratorium on sturgeon fishing and production restrictions, Azerbaijan produced more than 20 thousand tons of black caviar per year. ^[28]

• Buglama from fish
• Dolma from fish
• Fish kebab
• Fish Lyavanga

Flour Dishes

• Guimagh - sweet porridge made from fried wheat flour
• Gyurza - "dumplings" elongated
  • Gyurza classic ^[4]
  • Gyurza round
  • Gyurza in Nakhchivan style
• Kutaby - stuffed cakes
  • Kutaby with herbs
  • Kutaby with meat ^[29]
  • Kutaby from the udder
  • Kutaby with pumpkin
• Halva
  • Halvas seeds - halva cooked on the juice of sprouted wheat grains
  • Umach Halva
• Hingal
  • Guillem-hingal ^[4]
  • Guru Hingal
  • Sulu Hingal
• Hashil - porridge made from wheat flour with doshab (boiled grape juice syrup)
• Firni - rice flour porridge
• Yayma - fresh rice porridge

Vegetarian dishes

• Eggplant Chyhyrtma
• Spinach Chyhyrtma
• Yalanchi Dolma

Sweet foods and pastries

• Badambura
• Zeyran - a large roll with yellow sugar filling from flour
• Kyata - bread with sweet flour filling
• Kurabye - butter cookies with jam
• Mutaki - bagels with nut filling
• Nan Azerbaijan - Butter Cookies
• Azerbaijani baklava
  • Baku baklava
  • Ganja baklava
  • Nakhichevan baklava
  • Sheki baklava
• Fesely
• Shekerbour - sweet cakes with nut filling
• Shekherkurek
• Sheki halva
• Shor-gogal - salty roll of puff pastry stuffed with spices. It is also sweetened. Symbolizes the sun ^[30] .

Dairy products

• Aguz
• Katyk
• Kurut
• Cheese
  • Motal
  • Sachah
  • Chanah
  • Shore
• Suzma

Bread Products

A significant place in the diet of Azerbaijanis is bread. It is baked in various ways. In rural areas, it was mostly baked on an iron slightly convex sheet of sage . Bread bread was widely spread in tenders , which still exist in districts and even urban centers of the republic. Mostly churek was baked in the tenir, often pita bread . In spring and autumn, gutab is prepared - a kind of pies stuffed with meat and herbs ^[1] .

• Pharmacy
• Pita
• Chendi Tendir
• Felt
• Juha (bread)

Various aromatic additives are present in many Azerbaijani dishes, but they do not dominate, adding the necessary shade to the taste of the dish ^[31] . Some of them are also used in traditional drinks (see below) ^[32] .

• Cumin ( cirə )
• Saffron ( zəfəran )
• Peppermint ( nanə )
• Fennel ( razyana )
• Turmeric ( sarıkök )
• Ginger ( zəncəfil )
• Cardamom ( hil )
• Cinnamon ( darçın )
• Clove ( mıxək )
• Sumah ( sumaq )

• Ayran
• Handab
• Doshab
• Iskanjebi
• Koremez
• Ovshala
• Khoshab
• Tea
• Sorbet

• “The best cuisine I know in the world is Azerbaijani” ^[33] . On April 11, 2013, on the air of Ekho Moskvy radio, the well-known film director and KVN worker Yu. S. Gusman stated: “Azerbaijani cuisine is the best cuisine. Chinese , Japanese , French , Georgian - many good cuisines. But the Azerbaijani ... ” ^[34] .
• Поклонником азербайджанской кухни также является популярный российский актёр театра и кино Андрей Чернышов ^{[35] [36]} . «Я за свою гастрольную жизнь попробовал много разных национальных блюд, но именно эта кухня произвела на меня сильное впечатление. Никто так вкусно не умеет готовить баранину, как это делают азербайджанцы» ^[37] .

• Гата (блюдо)
• Кавказская кухня

• Pokhlebkin V.V. Азербайджанская кухня // Национальные кухни наших народов. — М. : Лёгкая и пищевая промышленность, 1983. — С. 160—177. - 304 p.
• Титюнник А.И., Новоженов Ю.М. Азербайджанская кухня // Советская национальная и зарубежная кухня. — М. : Высшая школа, 1981. — С. 137—154. - 479 p.
• Бабаева Р.И., Атакишиева М.И. Азербайджанцы. Пища // Народы Кавказа. Том 2 / Под ред. Б.А. Гарданова и др. — М. : АН СССР, 1962. — С. 127—131. — 684 с.