Gagauz cuisine

Gagauz cuisine is the culinary tradition of the Gagauz people, a Turkic-speaking Orthodox Christian community based mainly in Gagauzia, an autonomous region in southern Moldova. It is built around dairy, meat and bread, and around preservation techniques shaped by a pastoral way of life.

History

The heavy use of dairy and meat is often linked to the nomadic past of this people, while the central role of grain reflects their present farming life. Over time these two strands combined into a cuisine of herders who also work the land.

The Gagauz keep a distinctive way of processing milk and preserving meat, curds and sheep's milk cheese inside animal skins. The method shows how the cuisine adapted to conditions in which preservation was essential.

Culture

Bread sits at the heart of many family holidays and rituals, with wheat loaves known as kalaches and unleavened flatcakes. Pies are also common, including layered ones filled with sheep's milk cheese and soaked in sour cream before baking, pies with crumbled pumpkin, and sweet pies made from the first milk of a newly calved cow.

At the table, meat dishes are often served with peppered sauces, and red wine accompanies most meals. Dishes such as kurban, a bulgur porridge with meat from a ritually slaughtered ram, and the cold cuts in jelly made from the heads and feet of livestock, traditionally served at holidays, show how food expresses community identity.