An experience of comparing Karachay-Balkar cuisine with Robert Burns’ culinary ode

B.A. Berberov

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Abstract: The article is a comparative-contrastive analysis of Karachay-Balkar and Scottish gastronomic traditions within the context of folklore and literature. The study is motivated by the need to draw parallels between two mountain cultures in order to identify both local and universal aspects of culinary art.
Aim. The study aims to compare and contrast the typologically similar gastronomic traditions of the Karachay-Balkars and the Scots, as reflected in literary texts.
Materials and methods. The following works served as the basis for the study: “Zhalbaur algysh” (“Good wishes with zhalbaur”) and “Boza algysh” (“Good wishes with buza”), as well as their Scottish counterparts – “To a Haggis” (Ode to the Scottish pudding “Haggis”) and “Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut ” (“Our Willie brewed beer”). To solve the tasks set in the work, a set of complementary research methods was used: retrospective, comparative-historical and intertextual. To solve the tasks set in the paper, a range of complementary research methods were used: retrospective, comparative-historical, and intertextual analysis.
Results. The research allows to discover several similarities between the traditional dishes from the North Caucasus and Scotland – zhabaur and haggis, as well as buza and Scottish beer. The main sources of ethnocultural information were Karachay-Balkar folklore texts and the culinary odes of Robert Burns.

Keywords: comparative studies, Karachay-Balkar folklore, ethnoculture, Robert Burns, Scottish folklore, good wishes, ode, philosophy of national food, universal, local

For citation. Berberov B.A. An experience of comparing Karachay-Balkar cuisine with Robert Burns’ culinary ode. News of the Kabardino-Balkarian Scientific Center of RAS. 2025. Vol. 27. No. 5. Pp. 305–315. DOI: 10.35330/1991-6639-2025-27-5-305-315

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Information about the author

Burkhan A. Berberov, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Leading Researcher, Head of the KarachayBalkar Folklore Sector, Institute of Humanitarian Researches – branch of the Kabardino-Balkarian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
18 Pushkin street, Nalchik, 360000, Russia;
burhan_berberov@mail.ru, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5417-8144, SPIN-code: 6335-7118