Sakha cuisine ( sah, Саха аһа, r=Saqa aha, p=) encompasses the customary and traditional

cooking Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science and craft of using heat to Outline of food preparation, prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric ...

techniques and

culinary arts Culinary arts are the cuisine arts of food preparation, cooking and presentation of food, usually in the form of meals. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as restaurants – are commonly called chefs or ...

Sakha Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far Eas ...

. It is influenced by the area's northern climate and the traditional

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

lifestyle of the

people, as well as

Russian cuisine Russian cuisine is a collection of the different dishes and cooking traditions of the Russian people as well as a list of culinary products popular in Russia, with most names being known since pre-Soviet times, coming from all kinds of social ...

. Sakha cuisine generally relies heavily on

dairy products Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are Food product, food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, dairy goat, nanny goat, and Sheep, ewe. Dairy products include commo ...

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

, and foraged goods. Dish Stroganina

One of the best-known Sakha dishes is ''

stroganina 300px, Prepared ''stroganina'' on a table ''Stroganina'' (Russian строганина, literally "shavings") is a dish of the northern Russians and indigenous people of northern Arctic Siberia consisting of raw, thin, long-sliced frozen fish. ...

'', thin slices of raw, frozen fish. However, ''stroganina'' is also prepared using foal meat and liver. This is eaten with a spicy seasoning from a flask. Another popular fish dish is ''indigirka'', consisting of frozen fish cubes seasoned with onions, salt, pepper, and more. Milk is drunk and also used to make butter, curds, and a thick yogurt called '' suorat''. A popular dish is ''khaan'', a type of

blood sausage A blood sausage is a sausage filled with blood that is cooked or dried and mixed with a filler until it is thick enough to solidify when cooled. Most commonly, the blood of pigs, sheep, lamb, cow, chicken, or goose is used. In Europe and the A ...

made from horse or beef blood and intestines.

Kumis ''Kumis'' (also spelled ''kumiss'' or ''koumiss'' or ''kumys'', see other transliterations and cognate words below under terminology and etymology – otk, airag kk, қымыз, ''qymyz'') mn, айраг, ''ääryg'') is a fermented dairy p ...

widely drunk among the Sakha.

One of the most popular desserts is ''kierchekh'', a sweet dish made with cream, berries, and sugar, to which milk can also be added.

History

Although cows could be milked only during the beginning of summer, dairy products historically made up the most important part of the Sakha people's diet. In addition to drinking milk, the Sakha also used it to make butter, curds, kumis, and '' suorat''. Meat, which was prepared boiled and without salt, was a luxury and usually reserved for feasts. Only sick animals were slaughtered and it was often consumed ceremonially. The Sakha also relied heavily on foraged goods. Traditionally, the Sakha ate pine sapwood, which was ground and then mixed with milk to form a sort of flour. Women gathered wild onions, berries, wild garlic, lilies, and various roots. Russian brought with it bread, sugar, tea, vodka, and cultivated grains. Mushrooms were consumed as food only after the arrival of the Russians, being previously used for only hallucinogenic purposes.

References

Yakuts Russian cuisine Cuisine by ethnicity Siberian cuisine {{Siberia-cuisine-stub