Son illər erməni təcavüzünə məruz qalmış bütün Azərbaycan xalqı

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on a saj. To this end, chopped greens and various fillings (with cheese, cottage 
cheese, potatoes, etc.) are spread on half of a thinly rolled yukha. The other 
half covers the staffing. The edges of the dough are stuck and baked on both 
sides on a saj. When it is served, a piece of butter is placed inside and gatig 
(yogurt) is served alongside. Another type of kata is gutab. It is smaller in size. 
Gutabs are cooked with herbs, meat, pumpkin, etc. They look like Azerbaijani 
chebureks (chiy borak, borak with raw meat), but unlike chebureks, they are 
not fried, but baked without oil. Such products are common to all Turkic peop-
les. In Turkey, they are called "ay (lunar - T. A.) borek", in Borchali - "taycha-
rig" and in Bashkortostan and Tatarstan - "kystybyy".
Armenians have also learned to cook this dish in Karabakh and only in 
recent years. The Armenians present this dish under the name of "zhingalov 
hats".
For example, in this connection, we read on the website analitika.at.ua: 
"On April 21 at 2000, the opening of the festival 'Zhingalov Hats' will be held 
on the stairs of the City Cafe (in Moscow – T. A.). 'Zhingalov Hats' is an ori-
ginally Karabakh dish, which is not found in the cuisine of all other regions of 
Armenia." But this dish is cooked in all areas of Azerbaijan and almost by all 
the Turkic peoples "in general". So neither the saj nor kata have anything to do 
with Armenian cuisine, whatever they call it, and consequently, this Karabakh 
dish and Karabakh itself have no relation to the Armenians.
Hats in Armenian (ats, khats) derives from the Turkic word has (khas, as, 
khash, ash) and means bread or food. Zhingal derives from the word khingal 
or khangal – a Turkic dish made of thinly rolled dough.
In the Karabakh zone, dairy cuisine is the same as in other regions of 
Azerbaijan. Cow, sheep and goat milk is used. Buffalo and goat milk is consi-
dered medicinal.
The first milk, which is received after the birth of a calf, is called "agiz". In 
the cooked form, it is a tasty dish called katamaz. As a ritual meal, it is divided 
between neighbors (usually 7 families). Sometimes artificial katamaz is coo-
ked, for which one egg yolk is added to 1 liter of milk and cooked. If you put 
a raw beaten egg wholly and carefully, so it does not curdle, and boil it, adding 
honey, you will get a drink called "bulama" (beestlings).
Milk produced during the first 2-5 days is also called "bulama". In additi-
on, sulug was made from "agiz" and "bulama" milk. To this end, the membrane 
of the placenta is thoroughly washed, filled with milk, then buried in warm as-
hes and kindled from above, or is placed in a hot tandir. After 1.5-2 hours, it is 
Karabakh cuisine 

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taken out. A tasty cheese-like mass comes out. Sometimes "sulug" is placed in 
a large cauldron and boiled. Sulug is also made from normal milk, and it turns 
out very tasty like baked milk.
Katamaz and bulama in a cauldron with the addition of flour and butter is 
used to make "gaymag chorak" or "shan-shan" on a saj. The latter, in contrast 
to the "gaymag chorak", has many "holes" - shana.
Milk was also used as a standalone drink, especially with fresh bread, as 
the basis for cold (dogramaj - "okroshka" (cold soup with chopped vegetables 
and meat)) and hot soups, and for making pastry and bakery products.
Sheep milk was mainly used for making rennet cheese and was valued 
very highly. For fermentation, they used the abomasum of newborn lambs or 
grass "dalama otu" (rennet grass). But goat cheese was considered the most 
expensive, as well as medicinal cheese. Cheese from cow milk is considered to 
be of lower quality than sheep cheese.
Cow and buffalo milk was used mainly for cooking the fermented milk 
product "gatig" (yogurt). Buffalo gatig was especially valued: it is denser, fat-
ter and tastier.
Gaymag (the fat part of the gatig - thick cream) made from buffalo gatig is 
denser and more delicious than that cow gatig.
Gaymag is made from milk. To do this, it is poured with a thin layer in 
a broad and shallow dish (sini (tray), tapsi). A day later, a film (thick cream) 
appears on the surface – this is milk gaymag. If milk is not boiled and is po-
ured into the same dish immediately after milking, you get "chiya", i.e. "raw 
gaymag". "Sud gaymag" (milk gaymag) was obtained from boiled milk in the 
same kind of dish. "Gati gaymag" (thick cream) was obtained from evaporated 
milk. In Karabakh, such a product was also called "sudbashi". Sometimes milk 
was boiled on low heat in order to make it, periodically adding raw milk.
Gatig is used as a separate dish, but they also prepare various dishes (dov-
ga, dogramaj, ovdug, shirin gatig) and atlama (a soft drink made of water and 
sour clotted milk) from it.
Kasmik (cottage cheese) is made from ayran (liquid obtained by beating 
butter from gatig) sometimes from gatig by boiling. It is salted and dried a little 
bit to make shor - crumbly cheese. For storage and ripening, the shor is placed 
in a motal - sheep wineskin. They also make motal pendir – cheese in a motal. 
The cheese and cottage cheese, which ripen in a motal, have a special taste and 
are valued higher.
Takhir Amiraslanov, Aynura Amiraslanova

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The liquid remaining after cottage cheese is called zardab (whey) and after 
cheese – dalama (fresh cheese). Both are used for making drinks and for ba-
king bread. This bread lasts longer and tastes better than the one made in water. 
If dalama is boiled, it becomes "nor".
The dish "lor" is prepared by mixing fresh cottage cheese with boiled milk 
and salt. When milk is added to gatig, a dish called "karamaz" comes out.
Straining gatig or ayran through a cloth, they get a concentrated product 
called suzma (condensed sour milk), which is used as a separate dish and for 
cooking some foods.
From suzma with salt, they get "gurut" - dried cheese balls or cones. Gurut 
can be stored for several years and is used as a base for sauces and khangal 
(made from thin slices of dough).
If in Lankaran they mix fresh snow with bakmaz (boiled down juice of 
grapes, mulberry, etc.), families and shepherds of Karabakh, who climb mo-
untains with flocks in summer, mix a black sheep's fresh milk with mountain 
snow and call this dish "gar karamazi" (snow karamaz). Sometimes dishes 
with gar karamaz are buried in the snow or put on ice. The main difference 
from ice cream is that sugar is not added to the mixture. Interestingly, the "gar 
karamaz" is prepared only from the milk of a black sheep.
In Karabakh cuisine, meat, preferably lamb, is used more than any other 
ingredient. Local sheep are valued higher than other breeds. It is called "kasma 
goyun" (slaughtered sheep) or "atlik" (meat), i.e. "table or meat mutton". If 
other breeds yield "pure meat" - from 48 to 52 per cent, the Karabakh breed 
yields no less than 56 per cent.
The Karabakh breed of sheep has a very large guyrug (rump). Sometimes 
they have to place a trolley on wheels under the rump. In the bazaars of the 
Caucasus, experienced butchers preferred to buy Karabakh sheep as they were 
preferable to others. The meat of black animals was especially valued.
The lamb of the Karabakh breed is used to cook the best kebabs. Making a 
good kebab is a science, and kebab is a separate culinary specialty.
For kebabs, what matters is not only what sheep it is cooked from, but also 
what side of the sheep the meat is taken from, as well as the sex, age, feeding 
conditions, what firewood or charcoal are used and how the animal was killed. 
Kebab is served with fresh herbs, sumakh, narsharab (boiled pomegranate ju-
ice), etc. The finished meat is removed from the ramrod with a piece of bread, 
as if wrapping the finished dish it in. Yukha made on a saj and lavash from the 
tandir are more suitable for this. Kebab is sliced meat, while basdirma is kebab 
Karabakh cuisine 

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