Description of Challenge
Nutrition in winter season. Ceremonial cooking uniting the community.Kashkek is a ceremonial mutton/chicken, and wheat/barley stew found in Turkish, Iranian and Greek cuisines. It is documented in Iran and Greater Syria as early as the 15th century, and it is still consumed by many people around these regions. In both Turkey and Iran, it is a common dish and frequently consumed during religious festivals, weddings, or funerals.
Solution
As a collaborative social practice, the preparation and cooking of kashkek requires a joint workforce. Before the cooking process, wheat is threshed jointly with a common rhthym in a special large stone mortar called ‘dibek’. It is soaked in water over night, then boiled in big vessels. Together with the boiled mutton or chicken, it is smashed with thick sticks jointly until it reaches a special stiffness which determines its degree of taste. Then it is served with fried butter and tomato paste.
Kashkek, whether a product of milk (Iran), a product of cereals (mainly barley) or a product using both (Middle East, Turkey, Egypt), is, in most cases, a popular preserved food for winter use among many of the agropastoral societies of these regions. It is also much valued by city dwellers, who regard it as a strong condiment that “is hot, good in winter” for use as a thickening agent.
The ‘ceremonial keşkek tradition’ was listed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in November 2011.
