Beshbarmak

the steppe's boiled horse or lamb laid over sheets of hand-cut wheat noodle, with the onion broth poured over and eaten with the fingers

Origin: The Kazakh Steppe & Central Asia

From the journey of Wheat.

The name means five fingers and it is a description of the method rather than a flourish: beshbarmak is eaten with the hand from a communal platter, and the name is what settled Russian speakers called it when they saw it being done. Kazakhs more often call it simply et, meat, which tells you where the emphasis lies. The construction is three things layered. Horse or lamb is boiled slowly for hours in nothing but water and salt until it slides off the bone. Sheets of unleavened wheat dough, rolled thin and cut into rough squares the size of a hand, are boiled in that same broth so they take up the fat. And tuzdyk, sliced onion softened in ladles of the hot skimmed fat from the surface, goes over the top. The meat is laid on the noodles, the tuzdyk over the meat, and the remaining broth, sorpa, is drunk from bowls afterwards. There is a protocol and it is taken seriously. The head of a boiled sheep goes to the most honoured guest, who carves it and distributes particular parts to particular people around the table according to age and standing; specific cuts belong to specific relatives. A beshbarmak is a formal occasion as much as a meal, and the seating and the serving order carry a good deal of information about a family. Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan both hold it as the national dish and neither concedes anything to the other. The differences are real but small: Kyrgyz versions lean towards lamb and beef where Kazakh ones prize horse, and Kyrgyz naryn, in which the meat and noodles are shredded and tossed together rather than layered, is a close relative served cold or warm. The dish belongs to the steppe rather than to either border, both of which are a great deal younger than the cooking.

Ingredients

Meat

2 kg lamb or beef on the bone, or horse meat with kazy if available
4 litres water
2 onions, halved
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp black peppercorns
2.5 tsp salt, or to taste

Noodles

500 g plain flour
2 eggs
180 ml water, approximately
1 tsp salt

Tuzdyk

3 large onions, finely sliced into rings
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

To serve

1 small bunch parsley or dill, chopped

Method

Cover the meat with the cold water, bring slowly to the boil, and skim the grey foam patiently until the surface runs clear.
Add the halved onions, bay, peppercorns, and salt, and simmer very gently, half covered, for two and a half to three hours until the meat is falling from the bone.
Meanwhile make the dough: flour, eggs, salt, and water worked into a firm dough, kneaded ten minutes and rested, covered, for an hour.
When the meat is done, lift it out and keep it warm. Strain the broth and skim the fat off the top into a bowl, keeping it: this is what makes the tuzdyk.
Roll the rested dough out very thin, in batches, and cut it into rough squares about 8cm across. They are meant to be irregular.
Make the tuzdyk: put the sliced onion rings in a wide bowl, pour over two or three ladles of the hot skimmed fat and a ladle of hot broth, add the pepper, cover, and leave to soften for ten minutes.
Bring about two litres of the strained broth to a gentle boil in a wide pan and cook the dough squares in batches for three or four minutes each, until they float and turn silky.
Lift them out with a slotted spoon and lay them flat on a large warmed platter, overlapping. Do not pile them into a heap or they will stick into a mass.
Pull the meat off the bones in large pieces and lay it over the noodles.
Spoon the tuzdyk onions and their liquid over the meat and scatter the herbs across.
Ladle the remaining hot broth into bowls to be drunk alongside, and serve the platter in the middle of the table to be eaten with the hands.

Notes

The noodles are boiled in the meat broth rather than in water, which is where they get their flavour and their slippery texture; keep the broth at a gentle boil so they do not tear. Roll the dough as thin as you can and lay the cooked sheets out flat rather than heaping them. The skimmed fat is not something to discard: the tuzdyk depends on it, and a beshbarmak made with plain fried onion is missing the point. Horse meat and kazy sausage are what a Kazakh table would carry and are sold by Central Asian butchers; lamb and beef are entirely standard substitutes. Do not let the broth boil hard at any stage, since the sorpa is drunk and wants to be clear.

The Gastrographer

Name: Beshbarmak
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 4 h
Yield: 8
Cuisine: The Kazakh Steppe & Central Asia
Ingredients: 2 kg lamb or beef on the bone, or horse meat with kazy if available; 4 litres water; 2 onions, halved; 2 bay leaves; 1 tbsp black peppercorns; 2.5 tsp salt, or to taste; 500 g plain flour; 2 eggs; 180 ml water, approximately; 1 tsp salt; 3 large onions, finely sliced into rings; 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper; 1 small bunch parsley or dill, chopped

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control