Jayloo Tamagy

Jayloo tamagy (Iradi, "summer-pasture food") is the regional cuisine of the mountains of Irad: the Talas Alatau, the Chatkal valleys and the Toktogul–Naryn basin. It is the cooking of the highland herding clans, one of the regional cuisines of Irad, built on mutton, milk and bread and shaped by the yearly migration between summer and winter pastures and by the devotion of the highland parishes. It includes the cooking of the Tat of the Khirnou valley.^[1]

Area and history

The region follows the herding year. In spring the families move their flocks and herds to the summer pastures (jayloo) after the migration blessing (köch batasy) with water, milk and juniper, and in September they come down to the winter quarters in the valleys. Food follows the same rhythm: a summer of milk, kymyz and fresh cheese on the pastures, and a winter of dried and smoked meat, dried curd and bread. The Toktogul–Naryn clans, who lost their villages under the reservoir in the 1970s, also grow apricots, grapes and walnuts on terraces such as those of Ozgörüsh.^[1][2]

Ingredients

Mountain mutton, valued for its flavour, is the main meat, with goat in the higher valleys. Milk comes from sheep, goats, cows and, in summer, mares. Flour is bought or traded from the valleys. Wild foods are gathered on the slopes: sea buckthorn, barberries, wild mountain cumin, oregano and thyme, wild onion and rhubarb. Trout come from the rivers, and smoked fish from the Toktogul reservoir.^[2]

Dishes

• Boiled meat: meat is boiled rather than fried. Beshbarmak of mountain mutton on hand-cut noodles is followed by the broth chyk; shorpo is served at memorials.
• Arshalangan et: feast mutton smoked over juniper before it is boiled, under the saying "smoked, not offered".
• Kuurdak: meat and offal fried in a cauldron in the summer camps.
• Kaktama: mutton salted and dried in strips in the autumn for the winter.
• Dairy: kurut, smoked in the Chatkal; kaymak; fresh curd; and the cheeses örmö panyr and tulup panyr (see Iradi Cheese).
• Bread: kümöch baked over embers, boorsok, at nan for name days and bread from the family sourdough, ene achytky.
• Tat dishes: the Tat bake flatbread on a hot stone of the hearth and make Khirnou panyry, a goat's cheese pressed in juniper-bark hoops.^[1][3]

Drinks

Kymyz is the drink of the summer, from the first kymyz of the season (kymyz muryndyk) in late May until September, and highland connoisseurs (kymyzchy) judge it by its pasture. Black tea is drunk with milk and a little butter. Airan cut with spring water and wild mint is drunk on hot days.^[1]

Customs

Weddings in the highlands serve only mutton, because cattle are kept out of sight at a wedding. The opening of the Kurultai on the Aksay Plateau is meatless: no animal is killed, and the elders share kymyz, milk and boorsok after the blessing. Chatkal families keep the leaven of their mothers' houses, and the Tat keep the fire customs of their hearths: they never blow out a flame, never pour water on the fire and do not lend the hearth fire after dark.^[1][4]

See also

• Iradi cuisine
• Bakcha Tamagy
• Kymyz (Iradi Beverage)

References

1. ^ Talas State University Press (2019). Kymyz and Kazy: Food, Faith and Identity in Irad, pp. 23–61.
2. ^ Talas State University Press (2020). Wild Plants and Fish of the Western Tian Shan: An Economic Survey. Talas.
3. ^ Talas State University Press (2012). The Iradi Table: Recipes and Customs of the Talas Valley. Talas.
4. ^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2018). Hospitality and Blessing in the Talas Valley. Talas State University Press.