Boortsog, baursaki, borsok or boorsok is a type of fried dough food found in the cuisines of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, Idel-Ural,

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. It is shaped into either triangles or sometimes spheres. The dough consists of flour, yeast, milk, eggs, butter, salt, sugar, and margarine. Tajik boortsog are often decorated with a criss-cross pattern by pressing the bottom of a small strainer on the dough before it is fried. Adopted by Cossack cuisine as "bursak". Boortsog is often eaten as a dessert, with syrup, jam, or

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

. They may be thought of as cookies or biscuits; since they are fried, they are sometimes compared to

doughnut A doughnut or donut () is a type of pastry made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and fran ...

s. Mongolians and Turkic peoples sometimes dip boortsog in tea. In Central Asia, boorsok is often eaten alongside chorba. Uštipci ( sr-Cyrl, Уштипци, ) are doughnut-like fried dough balls popular in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, especially in Vojvodina, Srem district and

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

where they are known as "miške".

Preparation

Dough for boortsog ranges in ingredients from a simple dough to a sweeter, crispier dough. For example, a typical Kyrgyz recipe calls for one part butter, seven parts salt water, and six parts milk, along with yeast and flour, while more complex recipes add eggs and sugar. Also, the dough could be made with kaymak. Boortsog are made by cutting the flattened dough into pieces. While not usually done in Central Asia, these pieces may be bent and knotted into various shapes before being deep-fried. This is especially common among Mongolians. The dough is deep-fried golden brown. Mutton fat is traditionally used by Mongolians to give the boortsog extra flavor, but vegetable oil may be substituted.

World records

The biggest (179 kg) boorsok was cooked on April 20, 2014, in Ufa, Russia. 1,006 eggs, 25 kg of sugar, 70 kg of flour, 50 kg of Bashkir honey were used for its preparation. A Guinness record was made in Almaty, on September 7, 2014, during the celebration of Mother's Day, when 856 kilograms of baursaks were cooked in one place in one day. The celebration was held in the form of a culinary battle between teams of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. Seven teams participated in the competition.

Gallery

File:Frying boorsoq.jpg, Kyrgyz boorsoq being fried in a stove-top qazan File:BaursakKZ.JPG, Kazakh baursaks File:Kazakh Baursak.jpg, Kazakh baursaks with kaymak File:İkrama hazır pişi.jpg, Turkish pişi

Bibliography

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Notes

References

External links

Recipe

Kyrgyz frying boorsoq
{{Cuisine of Turkey Doughnuts Altai cuisine Buryat cuisine Bashkir cuisine Kalmyk cuisine Kazakh cuisine Kyrgyz cuisine Mongolian cuisine Russian cuisine Soviet cuisine Tajik cuisine Tatar cuisine Turkmen cuisine Tuvan cuisine Uzbekistani cuisine Yeast breads Milk dishes Turkish breads Central Asian desserts de:Mongolische Küche