Udi-Caucasian Albanian cuisine: An ethnogastronomic research on towns of Nij and Oghuz

The Udi culture primarily descends from the ancient Caucasian Albanian one, visible in culinary culture and food-related rituals. Another component of Udi culture is the Azerbaijani Turkish, resulting from Turco-Islamic campaigns in the Caucasus. Udi-Albanian people were neighbors of Christian Caucasian and Transcaucasian people like Georgians and Armenians. Christianity also caused cultural interaction with them. The last layer is the Russian-Soviet influence. Therefore, Udi culture was shaped through history and hence took the final shape of itself. Azerbaijan is an archeologically rich country where human history started in prehistoric eras. The Caucasian Albanians are among the oldest people in the Caucasus and Transcaucasus region, whose history traces back to the V. century BC. The Udi people are only direct ethno-linguistic descendants of the Caucasian Albanians. The Udi culture is multilayered, with the base layer being Caucasian Albanian. The Udi culture carries influences from Caucasian, Turkic, and, recently, Russian cultures. Despite the Udi culture being unique, it is similar to people of contemporary Azerbaijan, especially Azerbaijani Turks. Being from the Caucasus, the Udi culinary culture reflects the climate of the Caucasus and uses nuts such as hazelnuts and chestnuts. Meals with flour and butter in the shape of porridge are also widespread, like in the cuisines of most Caucasian folks in a colossal area, from the Eastern Black Sea to Dagestan. Udis are into gardening and winery, like Christian and native Caucasian Georgians. Tandoor also has a great place in folk culture, just like Azerbaijani Turks and other neighboring people of the Caucasus and Iranian Plateau. Therewithal, they do not use pork in public feasts since they have Muslim Turks and Lezgins as neighbors. Insomuch that they even used to attend sacrificial feasts with their Muslim neighbors. Those facts display that even though they are Christians, they partially belong to the Islamic cultural sphere. Their preference for alcoholic beverages during festivals and celebrations of Soviet-era feasts exemplify Russian influence. Public rituals are primary cultural sources of information for small-numbered and rarely researched Udi people. Wedding and funeral feasts, called the "Table of the blessing and affliction" in Azerbaijani sources, constitute a crucial part of Udi culinary culture. Udi-populated towns of Nidj and Oghuz were visited four times for ethnographical fieldwork. A literature search was done on gastronomy, ethnography, and folklore. Along with scanning historical sources, archeological sites related to the subject were visited, and archeological publications were scanned for the thesis. Keywords: Udi, Caucasian Albania, Azerbaijan, gastronomy, gastro-archeology