Buza is a traditional Tatar refreshing drink; buzit, buzoter, buzachi, buznya, buzluk, bashi-buzuk. Buza drink health benefits and harm Buza characteristics
Buza is a traditional Bashkir drink made from oats and rolled oats. Oats are washed, dried, grinded and brought to the state of a mushy mass, and then dry oat flakes are added to it. The output is a thick drink of the color of baked milk, sweet, but sour. If the buza is allowed to ferment, then it will turn into a low-alcohol drink with a strength of 4-6%.
Buza played a huge role in the folk Bashkir culture. According to legends, warriors always took a supply of drink with them when they went on a campaign or to a war. Due to its nutritional value and tonic effect, the booze reinforced healthy fighters and could save the lives of the wounded. In peacetime, buza is a constant treat on holidays, for example, on Novruz-Bayram.
Find a niche
Buzovarka Gulnaz Azatova was born and raised in Stary Sibay - a small village in the Baimaksky district of Bashkortostan, where the traditions of buzovka are still preserved. As a child, Gulnaz did not really like booze because of the sour taste, but she was convinced from personal experience how useful it can be for health.
“When I was sick as a child, my mother was advised to give me a booze. It perfectly removes toxic substances from the body, normalizes metabolism, has a good effect on the stomach and increases immunity in general, ”says Gulnaz.
While studying at the Sibai Institute, Gulnaz dreamed of opening her own business. There was a desire to launch not just a commercial project, but also something socially significant, developing the national culture of Bashkortostan - this is how the idea of starting the production of booze appeared. Having defended her thesis on the topic "Business plan - Bashkir national drink" Buza "", Gulnaz moved from theory to practice.
Test demand
Having learned the recipe and cooking technology from an elderly neighbor, Gulnaz prepared a dozen liter bottles of bouza with her own hands, and then went to the bazaar. True, the first day was a failure.
“I sold only two out of ten bottles. I came home terribly upset and thought to quit all this. When my mother found out, she said - come on again, don't give up. If you want to become an entrepreneur, you have to be persistent, love your business and go towards your goal. If you can’t do that, then you’d better work in accounting, ”says Gulnaz.
The success of the enterprise was due to Gulnaz's hard work and support from parents, owners of several retail stores, and her husband Dim. As Gulnaz says: “It's funny, but my husband was never a fan of booze, but he always helped me and never doubted. Loves!"
In 2012, her parents gave Gulnaz 100 thousand rubles, which she invested in the purchase of a small cafe selling hot drinks and pastries. A few years later, Gulnaz had three catering points, through which she also sold a bouza of her own production. In addition to these points, other sales channels were found - shops in neighboring villages, restaurants and cooperatives in Sibay and Ufa. To meet the demand, uninterrupted production is necessary, which Gulnaz could no longer cope with alone.
Scale your business
To start production, it was necessary to obtain a certificate of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station (SES), which turned out to be not so easy. Employees of the local SES did not believe in the possibility of creating such a business.
“They told me so - why do you need a certificate, cook without it, no one will buy your booze anyway! I didn’t tolerate such rudeness, I went to a neighboring SES and received a certificate there, ”says Gulnaz.
This was the first certificate allocated for buzovaniem in Baymaksky region. Despite the skepticism, Gulnaz's customers were already waiting for deliveries, it was necessary to urgently organize a production line.
The first step was to rent premises and purchase equipment. From childhood, her parents taught Gulnaz not to borrow under any circumstances, so she basically did not take a loan for business development, preferring to do with her own savings and the support of her relatives. The cost of the equipment was 700 thousand rubles.
The line consists of several structural elements - cooking, decanting, filling and sealing. There are two employees at the production site, Gulnaz evaluates the received products herself, and Dim delivers the finished product to the points of sale. Now there are six of them in Sibay, four in the surrounding villages and two more in Ufa.
The monthly production of bouza is 2,000 liters in the summer months and just over 1,000 liters in the winter, when the demand for soft drinks falls. With the wholesale purchase price of 70 rubles per liter of buza, the net profit is 30 rubles, which allows us to speak of 42.8% production margin.
Do not undermine your reputation
Gulnaz explains the success of his bouza by the naturalness of production and ingredients. Some recipes use oil, flour or yeast, and sometimes even flavorings and dyes - Gulnaz is categorically against this. There are only 4 ingredients in her booze - oats, rolled oats, water and sugar.
The buza also has its own storage characteristics. For example, if the temperature regime is violated, the sealed buza can foam and even explode. The correct container is also required - bottles with a large neck. When opening, it is recommended to very slowly fold the lid, letting the gas escape slightly, then substitute the glass and slowly pour the bouza into it, without unscrewing the lid completely.
If you do not follow the method of storing and opening the bottle, then curious cases are inevitable. One of them took place at the Ufa forum, where a major official from the government of Bashkortostan became interested in the buza. The tasting bottle was opened too abruptly, and the jacket was swiftly flooded with the escaped drink. However, the official was not upset, only laughed that this is a good reminder that rushing does not lead to anything good. Everything ended well - the booze turned out to be delicious, and there was a spare suit waiting in the car.
Now Gulnaz plans to expand production to several tons per day and create a distribution network in Bashkortostan. One of the largest retail chains made her an offer to include Gulnaz bouza in its assortment. And then, who knows, suddenly buza will go beyond the region and become a popular drink among all Russians.
As you know, the word "booze" in Russian is a synonym for the words "nonsense", "nonsense", "nonsense". Why it happened so is not clear. After all, buza is a traditional drink of the Turkic peoples, the original analogue of our kvass is not only quite troublesome to prepare, but also tasty, and also extremely useful for the body. But another one-rooted Russian word - "buzz" - already better reflects the essence of things, because under this tonic and slightly alcoholic potion it just tends to poke around! In general, we read the recipes and start buzzing!
Now on the Internet you can find a lot of ways to make booze at home, but these recipes mainly include yeast and refined sugar - ingredients that were hardly available to the ancient Bashkirs or Kyrgyz. Unless it was possible to capture some Ashan in a raid, and in the Middle Ages there were still not so many of them as now.
In fact, buza is a drink that is initially quite low-alcoholic, similar to Russian kvass, that is, it is a product of double, alcoholic and lactic acid fermentation (you can read about the correct yeast-free kvass in articles and). Hence, the beneficial properties of booze follow - a beneficial effect on the intestines and stomach, aid in the digestion of fatty foods, a calming and anti-stress effect - all this applies only to a drink prepared without the participation of bakery or alcohol yeast. As soon as "Saf-Levyur" and sugar are used, the healing properties immediately disappear. But on the other hand, the invigorating and amusing properties sharply increase, which, in general, is also not bad.
Today we will consider four recipes for buza at once - three of them are modern, with the use of yeast, and one is an old Turkestan one, without yeast, with saccharification of rice flour with millet malt - almost like in beer. By the way, in all recipes, yeast can be replaced with ordinary rye sourdough (its detailed recipe is described in the malt kvass recipe), getting not just a traditional, but quite authentic drink - at least using the double fermentation technology. Well, let's move on to the recipes - but first, a little theory.
When exactly the drink "Buza" appeared and who invented it is a mystery. Historians are inclined to think that it was prepared by the Mongols even before the Iga, and together with the dashing slanting horsemen, the buza spread among the peoples of Central Asia - the Turkmen, Bashkirs, Kirghiz, Tatars - then it "moved" to the Caucasus and Crimea, penetrated into Turkey, where has gained immense popularity. The Turks brought their drink to the Balkans and Eastern Europe, where many peoples also fell in love with it - especially the Albanians and Bulgarians. Buza is also popular in Romania, only here it is called differently - "Bragă". Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
The debate about whether the booze should contain alcohol or not has not subsided for more than one hundred years. How - after all, this drink is used, first of all, in Islamic countries. For example, many Turks associate the spread of boza with the name of the legendary dervish Sara Saltyk, others dispute this theory, arguing that, well, a righteous person, a devout Muslim, could not popularize an alcoholic drink, albeit weakly. So, most likely, the very first booze, like kvass, almost did not contain alcohol. Later, stronger versions of the drink began to be prepared, which from them, back in the Middle Ages, were distilled into arak - strong vodka, because, as you know, the distillation technology was invented in Asia. In the 16th century, Sultan Selim II banned the bouza altogether, since ... opium was added to it! Yes, here's an invigorating drink for you. I must say right away that we will not have such a recipe today.
In general, there are several main types of buza, depending on the national and agricultural traditions of the region where it is prepared. The most common type of drink in our country is "Buza" - Bashkir, made from oatmeal. The second popular buza is the Crimean Tatar one made from millet. In Turkestan and Uzbekistan, rice flour is used for its production (that's right!), And in Asia Minor, the Balkans and in Eastern Europe - corn, rye and wheat, only they call it "boza" here. In general, you can make a bouza from any cereal, just like beer - if you wish.
Making booze at home - oatmeal recipe
The simplest, most affordable and common recipe for making a Bashkir bouza. Initially, whole oats were used in the recipe, which was steamed, fried and chopped in a special way, but now it is quite possible to do with oatmeal - all the preparatory work for us has already been done by the manufacturer.
Grind the oatmeal in a blender or coffee grinder into fine flour. Add wheat flour. Melt the butter over high heat, pour boiling into the dry mixture, pour in two cups of boiling water. Mix everything thoroughly until a homogeneous gruel is formed, wrap and leave for half an hour. After that, open and add another 2 liters of warm water, mix the sugar thoroughly again and add yeast. After two to four hours, the mass should begin to "show signs of life" - to foam, exude a sour smell. When this happened, add the rest of the water to the drink, mix, cover with gauze and move it to a warm place for 24-32 hours. After that, the booze must be separated from the grain - the remains of flour, by spilling it through cheesecloth or dense cloth, and rearranged in a cold place to stop fermentation. You can add sugar to taste. If you pour bouza into sealed bottles, it will become slightly carbonated, like kvass. Ready!
How to make a booza drink from bulgur
A more complex and interesting version of the buza, whose homeland is the Balkans and Turkey, something similar is being prepared by the Albanians to this day. The recipe uses yogurt - you need to take extremely unsweetened and not pasteurized, best of all - homemade, with sourdough, since this ingredient should start fermented milk fermentation in the drink.
There is also nothing particularly complicated in the recipe. We take 2.5 liters of pure water and soak the bulgur overnight, for 10 hours. After that, we put it on the fire and slowly cook for 2 hours. Now the mixture needs to be crushed with a smaller immersion blender and filtered in any convenient way, and the grains - that is, strained cereals - are poured with all the remaining water and put back on the stove, boiling for another hour, after which - strain again. We no longer need a fraction; nothing of value is left in it.
We make a primitive sourdough from wheat flour - boil it with a little water to a creamy consistency, dissolve the sugar, let it cool to 30 degrees and add the yeast. Half an hour later, when the yeast started working, we pour the whole thing into bulgur broth, send yogurt and vanilla sugar there. After two days at room temperature, you're done! It is best to store the bouza in the refrigerator so that it does not continue to "buzz", that is to say, wander.
Millet Buza recipe - Crimean version
A modern recipe for the drink "Buza", which is still used by the Azov Greeks, who were evicted from the Crimean peninsula in the 18th century. By the way, the word "buza" itself most likely comes from the ancient Iranian name for millet, and this is precisely millet. So this option is probably the most correct one in terms of the composition of cereals.
Pour millet with three liters of water, put on low heat and cook until the porridge is boiled down. In the process, we take flour and pour a couple of liters of boiling water, mix and cool. We dilute the yeast in half a liter of water with a couple of tablespoons of sugar, mix and pour into the flour mixture, again stir everything thoroughly and leave at room temperature for 4 hours, after which we pour it into the cooked and cooled millet porridge. We put the whole thing on fermentation for another 12 hours.
We transfer the fermented mass to a sieve or a large colander and rinse with the remaining water according to the recipe to wash everything out of it except for hard grain. We squeeze out the grain additionally and then discard it. Add sugar to the liquid to taste, leave it to ferment in a warm place for another 12-18 hours, after which we move it to a cold place. Ready!
Turkestan buza made of millet malt and rice flour - without yeast
The only recipe for booze made from millet and rice that does not use yeast. I doubt that you will be sprouting millet malt on purpose before making bouza, so just take whatever green, unfermented malt you can find.
First, the rice flour should be diluted with three liters of water and boiled until a thickish "paste" is formed. The mass must be cooled, covered with a towel and kept at room temperature for three days. After that, a saucepan or cauldron is taken, the walls of which are thoroughly greased with butter - this must be done, firstly, for the correct consistency and taste of the future booze, and secondly, so that the rice does not burn. Add to the container all the rice "porridge" and another three liters of water, bring it to a boil again and, stirring thoroughly, cook for another hour.
Pour water into the mass until it reaches the consistency of thick sour cream - about 3 more liters will be needed. The mixture should cool down to a temperature of 60-70 degrees, after which you can add crushed malt to it. Mix everything thoroughly, wrap it up and leave for another hour, then cool, cover with gauze and leave for two days to ferment. Now the almost finished booze needs to be filtered from the grain and moved to the refrigerator. Lightly carbonated, this drink will taste even better!
As we can see, all of today's homemade buza recipes are quite reproducible; in fact, it is something in between and kvass. The thing is, if you are taking your first steps towards brewing, you can practice working with grain crops, gain invaluable experience, and besides, a “by-product” - a tasty, healthy, tonic drink!
Buza is a slightly intoxicating fizzy drink made from millet or rice. For centuries it was distributed in the Crimea, sold in shops, shops, eateries. -
Source - http://www.crimea.edu/crimea/etno/vocab with additions and notes by Igor Rusanov.
In 1890 in St. Petersburg Konstantin Konstantinovich Kazansky
defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Medicine on the topic “ Determination of the constituent parts of the bouza and its position in the row of alcoholic beverages«.
Brief excerpts from this work, dedicated to the Crimean Buza are given in the anthology Crimean Tatars.
In short, Kazansky considered the Turkestan rice buza to be the strongest, and millet (which was made by Kazan, Ryazan and Caucasian Tatars) - less strong.
Fermentation produced carbonic acid, lactic acid and fats.
Compound- millet, millet, wheat flour in equal parts is added to 5 parts of water.
all this is cooked to a kind of mushy mass, which is then cooled and sour in a wooden bowl (bowl).
Then this sour batter is taken in parts, as needed, poured over with hot water and poured through a sieve into the kettle.
Sugar, honey or raisins, as I understand it, was already added to this liquid.
And just at this stage you need ice to quickly bring it into marketable condition!
The master who prepares the bouza - buzachi.
On a sieve, the dough for booze had to be rubbed so that it mixes well with the water.
From here boozer maybe?
The work, in principle, is not very tiring.
If, for example, a Russian prisoner got a job on such a "hard labor" job - probably he did not want to be a soldier or a serf? type to freedom with a clear conscience ...
it's better to rub a booze in terrible Tatar captivity ...
Further in his dissertation prof. Kazansky points out that buza is more ancient in origin drink than beer based on fermentation malt.
Buza, like some of the oldest Belgian beers, is based on the lactic acid fermentation of the starch found in wheat flour.
He further writes that fermentation could be enhanced by adding cane sugar already to the flour (that is, in the first stage).
Probably through Chumakov the word booze has penetrated into the Russian language.
I think that the Chumaks managed to get in full swing in the Crimea :)
Without them, there was no mediation in the sale and exchange of prisoners, no profitable deliveries from Crimea of salt, morocco, apples and other things.
Chumaks are a kind of analogue of truckers and wholesalers in one bottle.
I think the guys could break away from business as an adult in pauses :)
For the classic Crimean buza, Kazansky gives the following temperature standards:
souring for 2 days at a temperature of 17 degrees C - this can be the temperature of a traditional Crimean stone basement (that is, a part of a house that is buried in the ground on one side, into a slope, and on one side goes to street level), then cooked through a sieve the drink is bottled or jugs and stored at 12 degrees C - this is the usual temperature for the Crimea in the cellars below 1.5 meters from the surface of the earth. In fact, this is the average annual temperature for the Piedmont Crimea. Such a buza retains excellent quality for up to 9 days, and is suitable for drinking for 14 days (alcohol reaches 1% by weight).
on my own I will add:
When it comes to making bouza quickly and commercially directly on bazaar, then the arrangement of basements there is doubtful.
The bazaars were not set up on a slope, like residential buildings, but on a flat place, so that the summer temperature in the busny could be 25 or all 42.
In this way, ice for profitable production, bouza is simply a must.
- modern recipe for buza among the Greeks of the Azov region(descendants of the Crimean Greeks, deported in 1778)
Buza
A drink specially prepared for the national holiday " Panair"(Ecclesiastical patronal).
3 liters of water (boiled), a liter can of washed millet. Cook all this until porridge is cooked, without salt and sugar. Note that it is cooked for a very long time, over low heat.
Separately: pour 0.5 kg of flour with boiled water, stir to cool (during cooling, you can stir it two or three times).
Separately: stir 0.5 liters of boiled water (cooled) with 100 grams of yeast (alcohol).
Then pour the yeast into the cooled flour - let it ferment for 4 hours. Then all this mixture, which fermented for 4 hours, is poured into the previously prepared porridge. All this wanders again for 12 hours. Boil a bucket of water (15 liters) and cool. Through a sieve, the mass that has fermented for 12 hours, rinse with this cooled boiled (slightly warm) water into another bucket.
Add sugar to the finished strained mass to taste. If you do it properly, you will get the “Buza” tonic drink, which can successfully replace beer and many modern exotic drinks. (The recipe is given for the preparation of 14-15 liters of ready-made "Buza"). Source www.greeks.ua/
- the holiday "Panair" (Panagiyon - all saints) corresponds to the common European Christian-pagan in early or mid-May, before the pasture of cattle on summer pastures. In Mountainous Crimea, the Islamic and Christian communities celebrated this holiday together, and girls and boys of different religions could agree on a wedding in the fall during this holiday. In such cases, the bride converted to the groom's faith.
Root booze probably of ancient Türkic origin.
In general, it means - chop, chop.
Thus a well-known toponym Buzluk-koba should be translated not just as the Ice Cave, but the cave where the ice was chopped.
It is a well-known historical fact that from this cave, crushed ice was delivered in huge quantities to bazaars, restaurants and shops to cool food and drinks.
Bashi-bouzouk(thug) - a special category of Turkish special forces, known in wars until the 19th century. Such a specialist is well shown in the film "Turkish Gambit".
Bashi-bouzouki hunted officers and other important persons of the enemy, fought alone, did not obey anyone, received payment for surrendering the severed ears or heads.
Well this is so - it is not said to the table.
It's just that the main meaning of the root of the buzz is still - to cut, prick. In the booze technology, it is important that layers must be cut off from the total mass to prepare a portion.
Currently in Crimea You can try buzu in only two places- in a cafe near the Karaite kenas in Evpatoria and in Firkovich's house on Chufut-kala.
Buza served karai
on Chufut-kale it insists on raisins.
There are slightly more degrees in it than in ordinary lemonade or kefir, and the point of fermentation is only to kill pathogens in the drink.
The booze looks like lemonade, only its color is not elegant, but unclear (from raisins), the consistency is about the same as lemonade (I mean homemade lemonade or lemonade, which is made in good bars), some play of bubbles from fermentation may appear.
The patron saint of the buzachi workshop, that is, the association of craftsmen for the manufacture of bouza, was considered a mythical giant Sal-sal.
If booze is technologically older than beer, then its intoxicating effect may well go back to the times cave bear cult.
Sal - slope, slope, runoff in the Aryan languages. Sal-sal is one of the names of the bear, that is, clubfoot. Sal-sal - waddling, drunk (oblique!).
During the 1941-45 war, circus performers took the bear for front-line performances on ordinary trains, gave him vodka to sleep. This is to say that booze once had ritual significance
, however, like all narcotic and alcoholic substances. Therefore, bouza is necessarily prepared for the ancient holidays.
Buza ("boza" or "bosa") is a fermented low-alcohol drink popular in Kazakhstan, Turkey, Albania, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Romania and Serbia. Depending on the country, buza can be made of flour or malted (germinated) grain of corn, wheat, barley, buckwheat, rice, millet and other cereals. The finished product has a thick consistency, milkshake color and sweet-sour taste. The alcohol content usually does not exceed 1%, but there are varieties of 4-6% alcohol.
Etymology
The term "buza" comes from the Turkish language. Probably formed from two words: the verb bozmak ("spoil", "ferment") and the adjective boz ("grayish", "whitish", "beige"). Quite possibly, the English word booze - "booze, booze" is associated with the same name.
The color depends on the raw material History reference
Fermented drinks made from grain and flour appeared in ancient Mesopotamia in the 9th millennium BC. In the IV century. BC. Greek historian and writer Xenophon described the technology of making a similar alcohol in earthen jugs dug into the ground. Drinks like buza are also mentioned in Sumerian and Akkadian texts. In the X century. n. e. Buza spread throughout all the countries of Central Asia, especially in the lands under Turkish rule.
The golden age of buza fell on the time of the Ottoman Empire, during the same period the drink was highly appreciated in the Caucasus and the Balkans. Buza was more popular among the Turks than tea and coffee.
Until the 16th century, any kind of grain brew could be drunk without restrictions, but over time, opium was added to the drink (the so-called "Tartar Bouza"). This caused dissatisfaction with the authorities and under Sultan Selim II (1566-1574) the buza was banned. Instead, it was suggested to drink a non-alcoholic variation of Albanian origin.
In the 17th century, restrictions were tightened: any alcohol was banned, and shops selling buzz were closed. However, over time, the situation changed: the famous Turkish traveler Evliya elebi noted that by the end of the 17th century, there were at least a thousand booze sellers in Istanbul, and the alcohol content could reach 5-6% (this was achieved by prolonged fermentation).
The drink was especially popular among the soldiers: due to its extremely low alcohol content, it did not intoxicate, but warmed and nourished. At the moment, buza is still quite widespread in Turkey and neighboring countries.
In the 19th century, two immigrants from Albania, the Hatzi brothers, founded a bouza shop in Istanbul. Their drink, which was distinguished by a thicker consistency than traditional counterparts, became a brand and a visiting card of Turkey. The production works to this day.
Buza production technology
Buza is made from different grains, so the taste and shade may vary. The selected grain is germinated and dried (optional stage), chopped malt or flour is boiled to a mushy consistency, rubbed, poured with boiling water, cooled to a warm state, yeast and sugar are added. Then the mixture is sent to ferment in a warm place, the whole process takes no more than 2 days. The finished drink is poured into bottles and left to "rise" for a few more days in the cold.
The strength depends on the duration of fermentation: the more the wort ferments, the higher the degree.
Sometimes honey, spices, milk and other ingredients to taste are added to the bouza. Buza contains about 12% sugar and 1% protein. The product quickly deteriorates in the heat (sour), so it should only be stored in the refrigerator.
Beneficial features
Buza has all the same beneficial properties as brewed cereals or oatmeal: it removes toxins, relieves hangovers, and normalizes bowel function. The drink contains protein, calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorus and other useful elements.
How to drink booze
The Albanian version of the drink - non-alcoholic, the only one allowed for consumption in Muslim countries - has a sweet taste, served with fried chickpeas, cinnamon. In Bulgaria, buza is eaten with hot banitsa - a puff pastry cake with feta cheese.
Some people like a very fresh drink - not older than two days after production, which is famous for the most "mild" taste, others like to keep the booze in a warm place for several hours so that it begins to ferment again and becomes a little carbonated.
Boza goes well with toasted chickpeas In principle, booze is so high in calories that it is not necessary to eat it. Fermented grain milk is rarely brewed in the summer, and is mostly a winter drink.
Buza, makhsyma
The wise came, and power came in the world,
The hurry came - a headache, booze.
The service of the kelda is the qadir of basta jahan,
Adzhel keldi - bash avyrsy, mahsymy.
Karaite proverb
The drinks are "twins". They differ somewhat in the starting products and cooking technology.
Dictionary meanings: 1. Buza, boza - a light intoxicating drink made from millet; 2. Makhsyma - buza (drink made from millet). The names of drinks are consonant among many Turkic peoples. Both drinks appear in the dictionaries of the Crimean Tatars - boza, mahsym and Kyrgyz - bozo, maksim. The names go back to the ancient Türkic “BUXSUM - a drink from millet, buza”.
The ancient Turks “for cooking buza, they took barley, specially sown in a remote place, not defiled by cattle, mixed with water, with the addition of milk and talkan (flour from roasted barley) ... the mixture was allowed to ferment for 24 hours ...”, then “araka was smoked out of it [vodka] for sacrificial dropping ”(Bezertinov, 2006).
The explanatory dictionary defines buzu as “a special drink, thick and cloudy, a kind of wheat kvass; They also make a drunken booze from mixed cereal porridge poured with boiling water: buckwheat, egg, oat and wheat, hanging it with hops ”(Dal, 1955, Vol. 1).
Reference literature indicates the Turkic origin and the preparation of buza from millet, barley, buckwheat, oat and wheat groats and flour (Brockhaus, Efron, 1894; Dal, 1955; BSE, 1971, etc.). Along with the movement of the Turks from the depths of Asia, the drink spread to the west, among the local population, and the geography of the buza became very extensive: Altai, Siberia, the Volga region, Central and Asia Minor, the Crimea, the Caucasus, the Black Sea region, the Balkans. Long ago, the drink even got to Egypt and Iraq.
After the "Expansion" period, the use of booze began to gradually decrease in time and space. This trend is evident in the example of the former Russian Empire. If at the end of the 19th century, buza was widespread in the Crimea, the Caucasus, Kazan, Ryazan, Turkestan (Brockhaus, Efron, 1894), then in the reference books of our time, Ryazan and Kazan are no longer mentioned (TSE, 1971, etc.).
Buza, buzadzhi - the manufacturer of the drink, buza-khane - the buznya (drinking establishment) were mentioned by the Turkish traveler Evliya elebi (1666-1667) who visited Crimea. The names of Bozaji and Maksimadzhi, derived from the profession, still remind of the former meaning of drinks.
In the twentieth century, the use of buza in Crimea fell sharply. If before the revolution there was a hamlet, like a coffee house, in all settlements of any significance, then in Soviet times they almost disappeared. Before the war, the buza was still sold at local bazaars, but after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars (1944), even that was gone. The drink continued to be prepared only in certain catering establishments. In Simferopol, for example, until the early 1970s, buza was served to chebureks in the Green Parrot (Chkalov Street, now Kirov Ave.) and was sold for bottling in a stall opposite, at the Green Snake (folk names).
In Crimea, the main initial ingredients of buza are: 1. Millet, less often - rice, barley, wheat; 2. Water; 3. Sugar; 4. Yeast. Sometimes raisins, honey, bekmez, milk, vanilla, hops, malt, etc. are also used. The main cooking principle is fermentation. Unlike buza, maksimu is prepared from pre-fried cereals or flour (talkan), often with the addition of fat, sugar, and spices. The starting products and the methods of making drinks differ slightly from one people to another and from one region to another.
The fortress of buza is usually not higher than two or three, and after a long exposure - up to five degrees. In the past, a stronger drink was also prepared. Intoxicating qualities are reflected in such meanings of the word "booze" as "scandal", "disorder". Let us recall the words "booze" and "booze". In these meanings, the word is often mentioned in folklore and literature. In M. Lermontoov, for example, in the stories of the Caucasian cycle we read: “as the booze gets drunk, so the felling started”; "... they drink bouza, then horse riding begins ..."; "... the booze pulled up and the massacre started!"
Perhaps the image of booze as an alcoholic drink is due to the fact that vodka has been made from it for a long time. At the end of the 19th century, the araku kara-kirghiz of the Issyk-Kul region were driven out of the buza. This method of obtaining vodka has survived to this day. But booza is a completely innocent drink compared to araka.
Old-timers Crimeans - people of different nationalities - retain a nostalgic and enthusiastic attitude towards Buza. “What could be more beautiful than an ice buza on a hot July day, when heels go deep into the asphalt, and when it’s hard to open your eyes from the heat and laziness?” - This is from the sketch "Buza" (Sedykh, 1999). And further: "... in our small seaside town, everyone was sincerely convinced that bouza is worth the best wines in the world, and that without such nectar life would be incomplete and devoid of any poetry."
T. Ormeli recalls that in their house they made a buza with a strength of up to 10є, and in the summer they lowered it into a well for coolness.
Nowadays, for the majority of Crimeans and visitors, the booze has become exotic. Among the indigenous peoples of Crimea - the Karais, Crimean Tatars and Krymchaks, it remains a national drink, although for many it has become a festive one from everyday in former times. Among the Crimean Karaites, buza invariably accompanies national meetings and is still preparing in families.
Buza recipe Taymaz N.B. :
Products: 1 kg of millet, 5 liters of boiling water, 0.5 kg of sugar, yeast.
Cook the millet until completely boiled down. Rub through a sieve and pour boiling water into it. When cool, pour in yeast, add sugar and stir well. Close the vessel with a lid and place in a warm place for 30-34 hours. Then stir the whole mass, pour into bottles and cork well with corks, preferably tied with a wire, and put in a dark place for 3 days (weak corks can fly out). Then put the bottles in the cold - the booze is ready.
Note: the preparation of yeast is that 5-6 g of it is ground in warm water (1.5 tablespoons), with the addition of 3 tsp. flour. Stir the whole mass well and when it comes up, pour into the prepared millet solution.
Kafeli N. writes that if you hold the buza for another 5-7 days, then it will already be a buza.
A.Polkanova (newspaper "Kyrymkaraylar")
