On a big cloth, several rounds of freshly baked bread are piled up. The family sits in a circle and tears them by hand into small pieces. Beside them, in a big pot, lamb has been simmering since morning. Thinly sliced onions and shredded meat are mixed into the torn bread and plenty of hot broth is poured over. Dograma is the bread-and-lamb soup made on celebration days in Turkmenistan.
The name comes from "to chop fine"
According to One Turkmen Kitchen, a site introducing the cooking of Turkmenistan, the name dograma comes from the Turkmen dogramak, "to chop fine." It refers to the work of tearing bread into small pieces. The same site calls dograma the most traditional Turkmen dish and writes that it is a dish for special days.
The leading one of those special days is Gurbanlyk. At the Feast of Sacrifice, which lasts three days from the 10th of the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah, family, friends, and neighbors visit each other's homes and share meals. The custom for dograma on this day is to make it with flat bread baked in a clay oven and a broth of simmered fresh lamb. The tearing of the bread is usually done by the whole family dividing the work.
The Turkmen news site Turkmenportal also introduces dograma as a national Turkmen dish made from lamb, flat bread, and onion. That is all there is to the ingredients. The cooking site whats4eats describes the dish as "simplicity sometimes works culinary miracles." Because it is made in large quantity on celebration days, the preparation can sometimes take a whole day.
In the One Turkmen Kitchen recipe, the torn bread and meat are mixed with just a little of the fatty broth and wrapped in a cloth to meld. Besides the way of spooning it into a bowl at the table and pouring hot broth over, it is also written that you can eat it without broth, with tea.
Ingredients (serves 4)
The ingredients are based on the whats4eats recipe (serves 4). It is a method easy to make at home, using store-bought naan or pita in place of bread baked in an oven. Amounts given there in pounds and quarts have been converted to grams and liters.
For the lamb, using fatty cuts is traditional. whats4eats says it can also be made with leaner cuts, and that using ribs or adding bones makes the broth taste richer. Lamb or mutton stewing cuts can be found at a butcher or import shop. If you cannot get lamb, make it with beef stewing cuts.
For bread, choose a flat bread such as naan or pita. In Turkmenistan flat bread baked in an oven is used, so a bread with some thickness and chew will probably keep its shape better after soaking up broth than a thin, soft one. Black pepper decides the aroma of the finished dish, so grinding whole peppercorns in a spice mill brings the aroma up.
The meat takes a while to cook, so prepare the bread and onion while it simmers. According to whats4eats, using a pressure cooker cuts the cooking time to about half, and the meat comes out more tender and the broth richer.
How to make dograma
Simmering the meat takes 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, and pouring on the broth and letting it meld takes 20 to 30 minutes. Prepare the bread and onions while the meat simmers.
When pouring boiling broth into a large bowl, set the bowl in a stable place and pour a little at a time. Tilting a heavy pot can make hot broth splash or the pot slip. When shredding the meat, wait until it has cooled to a temperature you can touch, to avoid burns.
Once the bread is in, do not stir too much after pouring the broth. Stirring many times breaks the bread down into a porridge. Pour, cover with a cloth, and wait is the knack for keeping the shape of the bread.
Piping hot, with plenty of broth
In a bowl of dograma, the plump texture of bread that has soaked up the broth, the sweetness of lamb fat, and the crisp bite of raw onion all come into the mouth at once. The travel agency Ayan Travel's site introduces eating it by putting about half a bowl of dry dograma in a deep bowl, pouring boiling lamb broth over, and sprinkling black pepper and red chili. If you like heat, a sprinkle of red chili at the end is also the Turkmen way.
If you want to know more about Central Asian lamb dishes, try making Kazakhstan's beshbarmak, which combines boiled meat with a wheat dough, or Uzbekistan's cooked-rice dish plov.
Frequently asked questions
What can I make it with if I have no lamb?
The whats4eats recipe says beef stewing cuts can be used in place of lamb. Using a cut with bone makes the broth taste richer.
May I add vegetables?
whats4eats writes that, though not traditional, soft leafy greens such as chopped spinach or chard may be added to the bread and onion. If you add them, enjoy it as a variation apart from the traditional method.
What do I do with leftovers?
Bread after the broth has been poured breaks down with time, so it is best to pour broth only over the amount you can finish. Cool leftover broth a little, then refrigerate and use it up soon. When reheating, heat it in a pot until it is thoroughly boiling.
How long does it take with a pressure cooker?
According to whats4eats, using a pressure cooker cuts the time to simmer the meat to about half. For the specific pressure time, follow your pressure cooker's manual and check that the meat has become tender.
Sources
- One Turkmen Kitchen, "Dograma." Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://turkmenkitchen.com/en/recipe/dograma
- whats4eats, "Dograma (Turkmen shredded meat and bread stew) Recipe." Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://www.whats4eats.com/soups/dograma-recipe
- Turkmenportal, "Turkmen dograma recognized as the best dish at an international festival in China," 2 October 2023. Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://www.turkmenportal.com/en/news/67892-turkmen-dograma-recognized-as-the-best-dish-at-an-international-festival-in-china
- Ayan Travel Agency, "Dograma: 'the visiting card' of Turkmen cuisine." Accessed and checked 22 October 2026. https://ayan-turkmenistan.travel/dograma.html
