Gijduvan shashlik
Most Uzbeks enjoy eating shashlik, especially the style from Gijduvan, but few know the secret to cooking it like the masters.
Text by Fatima Abdieva
Photos by Andrey Arakelyan
Shashlik is one of the most ancient dishes on Earth, though no one really knows where the dish originated. It seems easy to see how ancient people learned how to make fire and quickly deduced they could cook meat over it. Many centuries later, hunters and soldiers found they could easily roast meat using the ramrods of their muskets and pishchals (arquebus/long gun). Thus, the skewer was born.
Nowadays, almost any meat cooked over coals can be considered shashlik, but the dish goes far beyond just barbecued meat; it is a whole ritual with its own rules and etiquette. Shashlik is popular across Central Asia, but one of the most celebrated shashliks in Uzbekistan comes from Gijduvan – a small city 50km north of Bukhara.
It is difficult to say why exactly Gijduvan gave birth to this most famous Uzbek shashlik, but there are many legends about its origins. Some believe it was connected to Abdulkhalik Gijduvan, a Sufi from the Naqshbandi order who was born in Gijduvan. Others say one particular shashlik master from Gijduvan travelled to Tashkent and won everyone over with his Gijduvan-style shashlik. Others nod to the local butter plant for giving Gijduvan sheep their fat marbling, resulting in a particularly juicy shashlik.
Gijduvan kebabs are often made using young lamb or beef (less often chicken or pork). The fire is best when made with wood from fruit trees, which impart the meat with a special, aromatic flavour. The wood must burn for 30 minutes and be covered with a layer of ash before the meat is laid over the coals. There should be no flame left – the shashlik is cooked only over the hot coals. Shashlik is served with greens, usually cilantro and fresh vegetables, as well as tartar sauce.
There is one thing that’s certain: in Uzbekistan, around 99% of the adult population are Gijduvan shashlik devotees, but only 1% know the recipe and their families have been cooking this juicy dish for several generations.
Want to try making it yourself? You can certainly ask for the recipe and the chefs may even tell you their methods. But you’ll likely find that your version never turns out as tasty as the seasoned masters’. And that’s because the secret of the Gijduvan shashlik is carefully guarded and passed from generation to generation only to trusted friends and students of the craft.
