The ethnic features of the Kryzes are relatively well preserved in their cuisine, which is justified by traditional farming. Since the main part of the traditional economy was animal husbandry, dairy and meat dishes formed the basis of the Kryz cuisine.
Fatty sheep’s cheese and cream played an important role in the daily diet. Lamb brisket yeast and special herbs were used to make the cheese. In poor families, the basis of the kitchen was “Shor”, i.e. cottage cheese derived from buttermilk.
The oil is usually cooked in leather nehra (“chalkhara”), salted, stored in a peeled veal or sheep stomach, and consumed mainly for lunch.
And later, due to a sedentary lifestyle, the gnaws began to extract butter using nekhre (dishes in the form of a large jug) made of clay.
Among the meat dishes of the Kryz cuisine there are both the first – fasting dishes (soups, roasts), and the second – dry dishes (govurma, shish kebab, portlama, firlama), made from fresh, dried or smoked meat.
Dishes prepared from dried meat and beans “dzhurbur”, “dzhirim”, from boiled meat – “birgan”, kumba and other dishes are given special importance. Meat for long-term storage – lamb or beef, salted and dried.
Another period of meat harvesting for the cold winter falls on autumn, when there is a shortage of animal feed. The slaughtered carcasses are fried in their own fat and collected in large pottery and stored for the snowy winter.
On holidays and various festivities, purely Azerbaijani dishes are also served at the tables – various kebabs, piti, bozbash, dolma, pilaf, etc.
Of the Kryz desserts, it is worth noting “cheineme”, which is prepared by mixing crushed rice, nuts, fried wheat grains and boiled beef hooves.
Many plant products – wheat, rice, fruits, sugar, tea, etc. – are bought or exchanged.
However, almost all flour dishes and products related to Azerbaijani cuisine can be seen in the cuisine of the Kryz.
In the traditional Kryz cuisine, vegetables are partially replaced by wild plants – thyme, dried cherry plum, pitted dogwood, plum and others. It is impossible to get enough of the aroma of kutab, made from flour and herbs collected from forests and mountains.
Previously, instead of tea, kryztsy brewed medlar with wild herbs from the bark of a tree. Unlike the Kryztsy living in the mountains, the Kryztsy, who moved to the Mushkur Plain (Khachmassy region), like the Azerbaijanis, prepared bekmez (thick grape juice), jam from figs, mulberry jam (the fruit of the mulberry tree) and cherries, and instead of sugar they used dried mulberries.
If the mountain kryztsy used ayran as a soft drink, then on the plains they used mainly medlar juice.
Azerbaijani cuisine is one of the richest and most delicious cuisines in the world, and Kryz cuisine is one of the factors indicating that it has a very ancient history.
