Eastern Europe & Caucasus

Beshbarmak: Kazakhstan's National Dish of Boiled Lamb and Flat Noodles

Name: Beshbarmak: Kazakhstan's National Dish of Boiled Lamb and Flat Noodles
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Total time: 3 h 10 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Kazakh
Ingredients: 800 g Lamb (bone-in shoulder or shank); 200 g Horse meat (kazy sausage); 2 L Water; 2 tsp Salt; 10 Black peppercorns; 2 Bay leaves; 1 Onion (whole); 300 g Bread flour; 1 Egg; 100 ml Water; 1/2 tsp Salt; 3 (400 g) Onions; 300 ml Meat cooking liquid; 1 tsp Salt; A pinch Black pepper; As needed Parsley or dill

A full recipe for beshbarmak, Kazakhstan's national dish of slow-boiled lamb over wide homemade noodles, traditionally eaten by hand. Covers the sorpa broth, diamond-cut noodles, tuzdyk onion sauce, variations and dastarkhan hospitality.

Published: October 22, 2026 · Updated: October 24, 2026Total: 3 hr 10 minLevel: Intermediate

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 7

Start boiling the meat

2 hr

Getting the meat ready to boil: bone-in lamb in a large pot with plenty of water — Start the bone-in lamb in cold water. Careful skimming gives you a clear sorpa

Put the lamb and 2 L cold water in a large pot and set it over high heat. When it boils, turn the heat down to medium and carefully skim off the scum that rises. The first 15 minutes of skimming make all the difference. Once the scum stops appearing, add 2 tsp salt, the peppercorns, the bay leaves and the halved onion. Cover and simmer over low heat for 2 hours. It's ready when the meat falls easily off the bone.

STEP 22 / 7

Remove the meat and pull it apart

10 min

Tender boiled lamb taken off the bone and pulled by hand into 3–4 cm pieces — Pull the meat, which falls apart when pressed with chopsticks, into large pieces along the grain

Lift the cooked meat out of the pot, let it cool for 5 minutes, then take it off the bone. It should be tender enough to fall apart when pressed with chopsticks. Working with the grain, pull it by hand into large bite-size pieces (3–4 cm, about 1 1/4–1 1/2 in). Pulling by hand gives a better texture than cutting with a knife, and it is also the traditional Kazakh way. Strain the cooking liquid and set it aside. This is your sorpa (meat broth).

STEP 33 / 7

Knead the dough

15 min + 30 min resting

Kneading beshbarmak noodle dough into a smooth disk to rest — Knead to a dough a little firmer than an earlobe, wrap in plastic and rest for 30 minutes

In a bowl, bring together 300 g bread flour, 1 egg, 100 ml water and 1/2 tsp salt by hand. Knead on the counter for 10 minutes until the surface is smooth and the dough is a little firmer than an earlobe. Shape it into a disk about 12 cm (4 3/4 in) across, wrap in plastic and rest for 30 minutes. This relaxes the gluten and makes it easier to roll out to 2 mm thick.

STEP 44 / 7

Roll out and cut

15 min

Rolling noodle dough thin on a floured counter and cutting it into diamonds — Roll the dough to 2 mm and cut into 8–10 cm diamonds, wider than flat noodles, close to lasagna sheets in size

Divide the rested dough into 4 pieces and roll each one out thinly with a rolling pin to 2 mm (about 1/16 in), dusting with flour as you go. Cut into diamonds 8–10 cm (3–4 in) across with a knife. They should be much wider than ordinary flat noodles, close to lasagna sheets in size and thinness.

STEP 55 / 7

Boil the noodles

5 min

Boiling diamond-shaped noodles in the meat broth and lifting them out once translucent — When the noodles float and turn translucent, lift them out before they overcook

Bring the meat cooking liquid back to a boil over high heat, add the 8–10 cm noodles and cook for 3–5 minutes. They are done when they float to the surface and turn translucent. Cooking them in the broth (sorpa) means the noodles soak up the flavor of the meat.

STEP 66 / 7

Simmer the onions

15 min

Thinly sliced onions simmered with broth in a skillet, soft and translucent — Tuzdyk. Simmering onions in meat broth concentrates their sweetness and savory flavor

Pour 300 ml of the meat cooking liquid into a skillet and add the 3 sliced onions. Add 1 tsp salt and black pepper and simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat once the onions are translucent and have soaked up the broth and gone soft. Simmering the onions in broth instead of frying them in oil is a well-known Kazakh home-cooking method.

STEP 77 / 7

Build the platter

5 min

Layering noodles, meat and onion sauce on a large platter to assemble beshbarmak — The order: noodles, meat, onion sauce, herbs. Traditionally everyone gathers around the platter and eats by hand

Spread the steaming boiled noodles across a large round platter (ideally 30 cm / 12 in or more across). Scatter the warm pulled meat over the top (if you are using kazy, the horse-meat sausage, slice it thinly and add it too) and spoon on plenty of onion sauce (tuzdyk). Sprinkle with chopped parsley or dill. It's ready when the noodles haven't dried out and everything looks glossy with the meat fat. Pour the sorpa into separate bowls to drink at the start and the end of the meal.

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Ingredients

1 / 3

Meat

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes & notes
Lamb (bone-in shoulder or shank)	800 g	Beef shank or beef short rib also works. Bones are the key to the broth. About 1 3/4 lb
Horse meat (kazy sausage)	200 g	Optional. Add horse-meat sausage if you can find it
Water	2 L	Enough to cover the meat completely. About 8 1/2 cups
Salt	2 tsp	—
Black peppercorns	10	—
Bay leaves	2	—
Onion (whole)	1	For the broth. Cut in half before adding

Finding lamb

Bone-in lamb shoulder is available from halal butchers, regular butchers and online meat suppliers. If you can't find bone-in cuts, boneless lamb trimmings will do, but the flavor the bones give the sorpa (broth) makes a big difference.

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Noodles

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes & notes
Bread flour	300 g	All-purpose flour also works. About 2 1/2 cups
Egg	1	—
Water	100 ml	About 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp
Salt	1/2 tsp	—

3 / 3

Onion sauce (tuzdyk)

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes & notes
Onions	3 (400 g)	Thinly sliced. About 14 oz
Meat cooking liquid	300 ml	About 1 1/4 cups
Salt	1 tsp	—
Black pepper	A pinch	—
Parsley or dill	As needed	For garnish

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Eaten with five fingers: a feast of the steppe

Kazakhstan sits at the heart of Central Asia's vast grasslands and is the ninth-largest country in the world by area. Out of its nomadic way of life came a dish reserved for celebration: beshbarmak (Beshbarmak / Besbarmaq). Wide, flat noodles are spread across a big platter, slow-boiled lamb (or horse meat) is piled on top, and the whole thing is blanketed in soft, sweet onions. It is Kazakhstan's national dish.

In Kazakh, "beshbarmak" means "five fingers." True to the name, it is traditionally eaten with the five fingers of the right hand, picking up noodles and meat together, with no fork or spoon. Born of a life on the move, the dish needs no utensils to carry around, and a single platter is all it takes to share a meal with family and guests.

What is beshbarmak?

In Kazakh, "bes" means five and "barmaq" means finger, a name that comes from eating with the hand. Besides Kazakhstan, it is eaten in Kyrgyzstan, northern Uzbekistan, Bashkortostan (Russian Federation) and western Mongolia.

In English, beshbarmak is widely described as "Kazakhstan's national dish" in books and on recipe sites, yet it is far less familiar to home cooks than other Central Asian classics such as Uzbek plov (in Japanese) and manti. This article walks through how beshbarmak is made in Kazakh homes, using ingredients you can find for a home kitchen.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Allergy note

The noodles contain wheat flour and egg. Take care if you have a wheat or egg allergy. The meat broth (sorpa) on its own contains few allergens, but the egg noodles are boiled in that broth.

Method

Boil the meat (make the sorpa)

Make the noodles

Make the onion sauce (tuzdyk)

Assemble

How to drink sorpa

In Kazakhstan, a beshbarmak meal begins with sorpa (broth) sipped from small bowls called piala. The clear broth drawn from the meat and bones is nourishing and warms the stomach before the meal. Drinking sorpa again at the end to close the meal is the proper etiquette.

Cooking tips

Don't skimp on skimming

The clarity of the sorpa makes a big difference to a good beshbarmak. For the first 15 minutes after it boils, stay by the pot and keep skimming off the scum as it rises, until no more gray foam appears. This keeps the sorpa from going cloudy and gives you a beautiful, clear golden broth.

Pull the meat by hand

Cutting with a knife inevitably severs the fibers and tends to leave the meat dry. Pulling it by hand splits it naturally along the grain, so it clings better to the noodles and sauce. The trick is to pull it while it's still warm, taking care not to burn yourself.

Boil the noodles in the meat broth

You can boil the noodles in plain water in a separate pot, but cooking them in the meat broth lets the flavor soak in, and the salt in the broth seasons the noodles too. This one extra step is what makes beshbarmak taste like a single, unified dish.

Variations

Meat variations

Horse-meat beshbarmak (with kazy) — In Kazakhstan horse meat is used as often as lamb, and for celebrations kazy, a horse-meat sausage with horse fat, is sometimes added. Look for horse meat at specialty butchers or online, where it is sold legally. It has a distinctive sweetness and a flavor quite different from lamb.

In Central Asian food culture, the meat you use changes with the region and the season.

Beef beshbarmak — Beshbarmak is also made with beef. Simmer 800 g beef shank for 2 1/2 hours. It is milder than lamb and easy for most people to enjoy.

Chicken beshbarmak — Economical and easy. Simmer 800 g bone-in chicken thighs for 1 hour. The sorpa isn't as rich as lamb broth, but it suits anyone who prefers a lighter result.

Noodle variations

Store-bought pasta — If you can't make or find flat noodles, use lasagna sheets or another wide, flat pasta. Cooked in the sorpa, they soak up the flavor too. Much like the thin flatbread (fatir) used in Tajik qurutob (in Japanese), it shows a glimpse of the Central Asian food system, where wheat dough plays the role of the staple.

You can capture the spirit of beshbarmak with everyday ingredients, too.

Udon beshbarmak — Warm cooked udon noodles in the meat broth, then top with the pulled meat and onion sauce. It works as a twist on a bowl of meat-and-noodle soup.

The story behind the dish: nomadic food culture

A traditional meal inside a Kazakh yurt, with dishes laid out on the dastarkhan — The dastarkhan (tablecloth) inside a yurt. A meal of sorpa and beshbarmak is the highest form of Kazakh hospitality

The wisdom of the nomads

Beshbarmak is tied to the food culture of the nomads who lived by moving across Kazakhstan's vast steppe (grasslands). Kazakh cooking centers on lamb, horse meat and dairy, and its many long-keeping foods, such as smoked meats and fermented milk, are said to be a legacy of nomadic life.

For nomads, livestock meat was a precious food, and the know-how to use every part of an animal was passed down. Beshbarmak boils bone-in meat for a long time to draw out all of its flavor. The cooking liquid (sorpa) is served separately as a nourishing broth. The noodles are made from flour, egg and water, which keep well. Bringing together meat, broth and carbohydrates in a single dish is nomadic practicality itself.

Dastarkhan and hospitality

Dastarkhan refers to the table or tablecloth laid with food to welcome guests. When a Kazakh family entertains, beshbarmak sits at the center. The boiled meat and noodles are served on a big platter, and the broth (sorpa) comes in separate bowls.

At feasts for special guests, a boiled sheep's head (koy bas) may be presented to the guest of honor. The guest takes a knife and carves the meat from the head, handing it out starting with the eldest. The travel guide Bradt notes that a foreign visitor may sometimes be treated as this guest of honor. There are also customs for handing out particular cuts, such as the thigh bone going to an older man and the tail portion to an older woman, though these are often simplified at everyday tables in the cities. Just as Uzbek plov (in Japanese) is a dish for feasts, in Central Asia a shared platter is a way of showing respect to guests.

The name and where it spread

"Beshbarmak" is a Turkic word meaning "five fingers," a name that comes from eating with the hand. Similar dishes are found wherever Turkic peoples live, including Kyrgyzstan, Bashkortostan and Tatarstan as well as Kazakhstan. Even after settlement in the Soviet era, it is still eaten as an essential dish for family celebrations and for welcoming guests.

Like Polish pierogi (in Japanese) and Bosnian burek (in Japanese), beshbarmak is inseparable from national identity. It belongs to a distinct tradition born of steppe nomadic culture, different from the Caucasus food culture covered in our introduction to Georgian cuisine (in Japanese).

Nutrition (per serving, 1 of 4)

Nutrient	Amount
Energy	620 kcal
Protein	45 g
Fat	24 g
Carbohydrates	52 g
Fiber	3 g
Sodium	680 mg

With meat and noodles, this plate gives you plenty of protein and carbohydrates. The sorpa contains salt as well, so drink as much as you like.

Dishes to make alongside

How to make plov (in Japanese) - Central Asia's feast dish of lamb and rice cooked in a big pot.
How to make manti - Central Asian steamed dumplings made with a similar dough and ground meat.
How to make piti (in Japanese) - An Azerbaijani soup of slowly simmered lamb.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about beshbarmak

For anyone trying Central Asian food for the first time, here are answers on everything from finding ingredients to table manners.

Q1. I'm worried about the gamy smell of lamb. What can I do?

If you don't like the smell of lamb, the most effective approach is to start it in cold water, bring it up slowly and skim off the scum thoroughly. Simmering it with 2 bay leaves, 10 black peppercorns and a halved onion also softens the smell. If it still bothers you, marinating the lamb in 200 g yogurt the day before reduces it considerably.

Q2. Is horse meat essential?

No. Lamb alone makes a delicious beshbarmak. Horse meat is used in Kazakhstan's most formal version, and most households make it with lamb or beef day to day. If you're curious about horse meat, horse-meat sausage (kazy) can sometimes be found online or at specialty shops.

Q3. Do people really eat it with their hands?

Traditionally, yes. You pick up noodles and meat with the five fingers of your right hand and bring them to your mouth. In homes today, forks and spoons are often used too, and whether people eat by hand depends on the occasion and the family. A fork is perfectly fine if it's your first time.

Q4. Do I have to drink the sorpa (broth)?

We strongly recommend it. Sorpa is an essential part of beshbarmak, full of the goodness drawn from the meat and bones. Serving the platter of meat and noodles together with bowls of sorpa is the basic form of beshbarmak. The clear golden broth is seasoned with just salt, black pepper and bay leaf, and has a simple, satisfying flavor.

Q5. How can I use leftover sorpa?

Drink it as soup the next day, use it as a broth for udon or soba, or make it the base of a risotto. All are good options. It keeps for 3 days in the refrigerator and 1 month in the freezer. The fat will rise and set on top, but it melts when reheated and can be used as is. It also works as a soup base for Ukrainian borscht (in Japanese).

Sources

Mack, Glenn R. and Surina, Asele. Food Culture in Russia and Central Asia. Greenwood Press, 2005. (Central Asian food history)
Bradt Guides, "Kazakhstan" (beshbarmak, koy bas hospitality, characteristics of Kazakh cuisine; accessed 22 October 2026)
Inside the Travel Lab, "Beshbarmak: The Best Thing to Do with Five Fingers in Kazakhstan" (origin of the name and how it is eaten; accessed 22 October 2026)
Wikipedia, "Beshbarmak" (name, distribution, how cuts are shared; accessed 22 October 2026)

In summary

Beshbarmak is a dish without waste, shaped by nomadic life. From a single sheep come meat, broth and carbohydrates, and nothing is left over. That wisdom, concentrated on one platter, gives the dish a depth you would never guess from its simple looks.

All you need is lamb and flour, and you can make it at home. Swap in lasagna sheets or udon and it gets even easier. One sip of the clear golden sorpa should bring you the wind of the steppe.

Pair it with Uzbek plov (in Japanese), Tajik qurutob (in Japanese) and Georgian khinkali (in Japanese) for a culinary journey through Central Asia and the Caucasus.