Peculiarities of the Georgian cuisine

The Suram pass divides Georgia in two parts. Lands situated to the west from Suram is Western Georgia, smaller, but more richer in geographical, ethnographical and historical motley. To the East from the Suram pass in the other nature zone lays Central and Eastern Georgia.

Speaking about Georgian cuisine we must say about the main differences between Eastern and Western Georgia cuisines, which are caused not only by different nature conditions of these two big regions, but also by the certain Turkish influence on the Western Georgia cuisine and Iranian influence - on the Eastern Georgia cuisine. As the result there is an established difference in using some main products (grain and meat) and, partly, in the character of favorite aromatic- gustatory scale - difference kept up to our time.

For example, in Western Georgia prevail bread and special cakes made of corn flour - "mchady", at the same time, in the Eastern Georgia wheat bread is preferabble. In some parts of Western Georgia - Magrelia and Abkhazia - they use chumisa (a sort of millet), they cook a gruel-like paste from it - "gomy", eaten instead of bread with soups, meat and vegetable dishes. As to the meat, in the Eastern Georgia along with main for Georgians sort of meat - beef, they eat also mutton, use for food quite a few adipose; while in Western Georgia men eat far less meat, preferring poultry i.e. mainly hens and turkeys (gooses and ducks are not used for food in Georgia). Finally, in Western Georgia they use more pungent dishes, but somewhat different souses. All these, yet, doesn't give us the reason to draw the irresistible border between Western and Eastern Georgia cuisines, for it doesn't touch, doesn't change basic, characteristic features of Georgian national cookery. In the field of usage of overwhelming majority of the products and, particularly, in the field of technology, and in general in all Georgian cuisine there are it's own peculiarities.

For example, let's take meat dishes, so widely spread in Transcaucasia. The existence of the Georgian nation for such a long time at the turn of many cultures and influences resulted in the fact that in general in Georgian cuisine there is no predominant sort of meat. Georgian meat dishes can be made of pork (mugugy), mutton (chanahy), beef (harchou) and poultry (chahohbyly). Such a tolerance, usually is not peculiar to other nations of the East. It can be visually demonstrated with the help of the one age-old dish of Georgian cuisine, called "The bull on the spit". It's composition is quite simple: into the bull's carcass they put calf, inside the calf - a lamb, inside the lamb - a turkey, inside the turkey - a goose, inside the goose - a duck, inside the duck - a chicken. In the space between these animals and inside of them in every corner are put spicy herbs - coriander, basil, tarragon, leek, mint, spiced with red pepper, garlic, saffron, cinnamon and nuts. This entire giant roast is broiled on the spit, straight outside, over the coal heap during few hours. From the outside a rather thick upper layer of it becomes charred, so a part of meat is wasted. But inside there is such a plenty of juice, such a unique aroma, that this is the most succulent and delicate meat dish in the world. But tolerance towards all sorts of meat doesn't prevent Georgians from being fond of beef and poultry - turkey and hen.

The wide spread usage up to our days of open fire and spit for preparing not only meat but also vegetable, fish and even cheese dishes, and also using of earthenware pyxidate oven "torne" for baking buns, in general is typically, naturally, not only for Georgian, but also for other Transcaucasian cuisines. More specific are "ketsy" - not of very big size earthenware and other - big, made of stone, and "tapa"- wide metallic pans, used by Georgians for broiling poultry under the press. This method was borrowed from Armenians long time ago, but in Georgian cuisine it is more popular. All these technical methods are only one element of the Georgian national cuisine coloring.

Another, outwardly less attractive, but more important and really national peculiarity of the Georgian cookery is using special methods for creating different dishes. We must name two of such methods: using of sour, sour-rich and sour-egg medium for creating peculiar taste and consistence of Georgian soups and applying souses for enriching the assortment of second courses.

Georgian soups are almost lacking in the vegetable body. But their consistence is far squarer then of the usual soups. This is the result of putting in yolks of eggs or whole egg. For eggs not to curdle while heating there is such a method: eggs are previously mixed in emulsion with some sour medium - natural sour fruit juice, sour milk (fermented milk) or with vinegar. Very often for this purpose they use thickened and dried puree of the plump tkemal, called "tklapy". The sour medium is also used for preparing soups when there are no eggs, but they have plenty of grease and meat. This does not only refine and diversify the taste of the dishes, but also makes them more digestible.

The assortment of spicery in the Georgian cuisine, as at all the rest of Transcaucasian cuisines, is serve to produce not burning, but aromatic-spicy, dewy effect. From here comes the plenty of fresh, but not dry spices, not much classic but local, because fresh spicy herbs produce more soft effect. The only spice in Georgian cuisine that is really burning is red pepper, but it used by Georgians rather reasonably but regularly, just like garlic. Red pepper and garlic is always used as additional, but not main, component in the spicy mixtures, and, by the way, the products like grounded nuts and fermented milk always abate their causticity.

Indeed, there are some differences between different regions of Georgia concerning the usage of spices: in Western Georgia, especially in Abkhazia, which was under the rule of Turkey for about two and a half centuries (1578-1810), the usage of red pepper (Turkish) is much more wide spread then in Eastern Georgia. In Abkhazia they use the spicy mixture adgyka, which contains - part of red pepper. In the rest regions of Georgia the part of red pepper in spicy mixtures decreases (from west to east), reaching sometimes 5% (1/20), but as usual it is not higher then 1/10 part.