Horse-meat sausage from fatty rump and ribs — salt-cured, smoke-dried, sliced thin. The festival meat of Central Asia.
Steppe nomadic preservation method for horse meat; horse-rib-and-rump fat is what marbles the sausage. The word kazy originally referred to horse belly fat. Forbidden in some Islamic interpretations (Abu Hanifa held it makruh) but the Hanafi tradition of his students Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ash-Shaybani permits it, which is why Kazakhs and Kyrgyz eat it freely while Uzbeks and Tajiks of the same school largely do not.
Aktash village in Kyrgyzstan exports kazy across Central Asia; the Tashkent Chorsu Bazaar horse-meat row prices it at 180,000 som/kg for premium 6-month-aged. The sausage is the centerpiece of Norin and Beshbarmak; without it, neither dish counts.
Burgundy lean meat with white-pink fat in a ribbon pattern, sliced 3 mm and translucent. Bite is savory-fatty, faint sweet from rump, smoke at the edge. Served cold on a platter at weddings and Eid; paired with raw onion and bread.
Rib bones with attached intercostal meat plus rump fat packed into cleaned horse intestine, salted 2-3% by weight with garlic and black pepper. Smoke-dried over apple or apricot wood 5-7 days at 25-30°C until firm. Aged 3-6 weeks before sliced.
Variations
Kyrgyz Aktash kazy (apple-wood smoked, mildest), Karakalpak Aral region (heavier salt, sea-air dried), Bukharan Jewish kosher version (different cut, beef substitute called shilbe), modern uncured 'fresh kazy' boiled for soup.
On the Palate
Where Kazy sits in the Kazakh flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
5 steps · 38 min active + 17 days waiting
- 120 min
Take fatty horse rump + ribs; mix with 100 g salt + 1 tbsp ground black pepper + 2 tbsp garlic paste.
Watch outRub the salt and spice in until every surface is evenly coated and slightly tacky; even coverage is what cures it through.
- 215 min
Stuff into rinsed horse intestine; tie ends.
- 320160 min
Hang to air-dry in cool well-ventilated place 2 weeks.
Watch outAfter two weeks the casing should feel firm and dry to the touch with no soft or damp spots; that firmness means it has cured.
- 44320 min
Cold-smoke over wood 3 days for traditional flavor (optional).
- 53 min
Slice paper-thin to serve at festivals.
