Baursak

Homemade boortsog
Alternative names	Boorsoq, bauyrsaq, baursak
Type	Fried dough
Course	Dessert
Main ingredients	Butter, salt water, milk, yeast, flour
Media: Baursak

Boortsog or bawïrsaq (Bashkir: бауырһаҡ, Kazakh: бауырсақ; bauyrsaq [bɑwərˈsɑq], Kyrgyz: боорсок [boːrˈsoq], Mongolian: боорцог [ˈpɔːrtsʰəɡ], Uzbek: boʻgʻirsoq [bɒʁɨrˈsɒq], Turkish: kabarcık, pişi, bişi, tuzlu lokma, halka, Turkmen: pişme) is a type of fried dough food found in the cuisines of Central Asia, Idel-Ural, Mongolia and the Middle East.^[1] It is shaped into either triangles or sometimes spheres.^[2] The dough consists of flour, yeast, milk, eggs, butter, salt, sugar, and margarine.^[3] 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.

Boortsog is often eaten as a dessert, with syrup or jam or honey. They may be thought of as cookies or biscuits, and since they are fried, they are sometimes compared to doughnuts. Mongolians and Turkic peoples sometimes dip boortsog in tea. In Central Asia, baursaki are often eaten alongside chorba.^[4]

Uštipci (Serbian Cyrillic: Уштипци, pronounced [uʃtɪpt͡sɪ]) are doughnut-like fried dough balls popular in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, especially in Vojvodina, Srem district and Slovenia 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.^[5][6][7][8]

World records

The biggest (179 kg) baursak was cooked 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.^[9] A Guinness record was made in Almaty, 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.^[10]

Gallery

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  Kyrgyz boorsoq being fried in a stove-top qazan
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  Kazakh baursaks
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  Kazakh baursaks with kaymak
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  Turkish pişi