Bread of Heaven, Feed Me Now and Evermore
It’s hungry work being a renowned expert (ok - in my household, at least … ) on Uzbekistan. Breaking news to follow, posts to write (ahem!), comments to rebut, books to read … pretty soon my tummy starts rumbling and thoughts of dinnner leap to the forefront of my mind. However, my thoughts were recently preoccupied with the phenomenon of Uzbek flat cakes (courtesy of fergana.ru):
Uzbeks’ daily ration inevitably includes what is known as issik-non or flat cakes. Baked in tandyrs or ovens of clay, they are famous for their unique nutritious properties and taste that never palls. Whoever has tasted flat cakes even once literally falls in love with them. Far away from home, Uzbeks miss flat cakes badly. What do we know of this bread save for its unforgettable flavor and the fact that “it cannot be had anywhere else?” What is its secret?
The story particularly intrigued me as once, a few years ago, I went through a phase of cooking my own bread, specifically pain au levain or sourdough bread, using my own ’starter’. Essentially, rather than using commercial yeast from a packet, you rely upon natural yeasts and bacteria in the air to work their magic on the starter dough. You can also, as Uzbeks seems to do, use yoghurt. In any case, the effect is the same - a loaf sourer and infinitely tastier than your run-of-the-mill pre-sliced supermarket stuff.
Therefore, the baker’s retort to the Emir of Bukhara, ‘It’s the Samarkand air that is missing’, makes perfect sense - it’s literally from the air that a sourdough loaf gets its flavour. This is how the process starts in Uzbekistan:
Making dough for Obi-Non, bakers use the special ferment bought in advance or make it with their own hands. Chopped onions and sour milk (this latter is made with its own special yeast) are added in thick meat broth with which dough is made. The dough is left alone then and diluted with warm water 16 hours later. All of it is left alone for between 4 and 6 hours again. Water is then added with some flour and the mass is permitted to ferment for another 40-minute period. It is only after this last fermentation period that cakes as such are formed by hand. Some of the ferment is left for later use. (Hamir-Kutush or a piece of dough is often used for the purpose.)
Me, I love bread. I could quite happily subsist on bread and cheese for eternity - and, after reading this article, it would probably have to be Uzbek bread.
on September 2nd, 2006 at 5:11 pm
Nick, thank you for posting this. The Ferghana.ru article is very interesting…
on September 20th, 2006 at 3:51 am
Ben, where you at? What’s wrong with everybody? The last post dated September 1st. Are you all on vacation or something like that? No emails from googlegroup. What’s going on?
on September 21st, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Rumil, good to see someone is concerned
This might explain things: http://neweurasia.net/?p=654
In the word of a famous Austrian: “I’ll be back”.
on September 27th, 2006 at 2:38 am
can anybody adjust this picture? make it 450 or less pixels wide. it ruined the whole blog, the sidebar is gone.
on September 27th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Hmmm. Seems to be a problem only in IE - Safari and Firefox are fine. If you scroll down the page the sidebar is there. I suppose one of the tecchies’ll sort it out.
on September 29th, 2006 at 1:04 am
Seem to have sorted it out. The next neweurasia-wide tech update should fix that problem. Thanks for telling us Rumil.
on September 29th, 2006 at 1:42 am
thank you, it looks much better now!
on November 8th, 2006 at 4:15 am
Hi,
I’m glad I found your article. I’m looking for information on Uzbek bread for a school project. Do you know much about the cultural traditions of Uzbeks concerning their bread? I read that Tashkent is known as the city of bread. Is that true? I know they have a bread festival once a year there. If you can give me first-hand info or point me to more sources I’d appreciate it.
Thanks,
JJ
on May 23rd, 2008 at 7:28 am
Hello…Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts ! it was a great Thursday .