Gubadiya

Gubadiya (Tatar: Гөбәдия) is a round Tatar pie in which several kinds of filling are layered and enclosed in dough above and below before baking. Sweet versions contain cooked rice, dried fruit such as raisins, hard-boiled eggs, and a dairy product called kort (корт). When it is cut, layer upon layer of fillings that differ in color and texture appear. Unlike a tart with fruit arranged over its whole surface, or a pie filled with a uniform cream, this pastry takes its shape from layering the fillings without mixing them.

Kort, Milk Cooked Down

Kort is the filling that characterizes gubadiya. When moisture is driven off from curdled milk and it is heated with added sugar and fat, it becomes dry and crumbly, and its color changes from golden to orange. It is sometimes eaten on its own with honey, but in the pie it forms a layer with a milky flavor between the rice and the dried fruit.

“Tatar Cuisine,” by the Tatar chef Yunus Akhmetzyanov, describes a method for preparing dry kort as a filling. It is crushed, sieved, combined with milk, sugar, butter and other ingredients, and heated again to make a soft filling. In other words, a dairy product that was dried for storage is reconstituted and adjusted at the stage when it is used in the pastry. This differs from pies that contain fresh white cottage cheese as it is, in both the moisture content of the milk and how it has been heated.

Rice Also Forms Layers That Separate the Fillings

The rice is cooked in advance until the grains are separate. The dried fruit is also softened, and the hard-boiled eggs are finely chopped. Rather than cooking raw rice inside the pie, this method combines separately prepared fillings before baking.

In one example of a fruit-filled version, a thin layer of rice is first spread over the bottom dough, then topped with kort, rice again, chopped hard-boiled eggs, and then more rice and dried fruit. The first layer of rice serves to keep the dough from becoming soggy from the moisture of the kort. Plenty of melted butter is poured over each layer, and the top dough is laid over it and the edges are pinched closed.

Some versions have fine crumbs of flour rubbed together with butter scattered over the top. Inside, grains of rice, fruit and the milk filling are layered; outside, the baked dough and the crumbly topping add their texture. However many fillings there are, they are not kneaded into a single mass, and layers visible in the cut surface are the sign of a well-made result.

A History Beyond Sweet Pies

Gubadiya also comes in versions with meat. The Tatar ethnographer Kayum Nasyri described gubadiya as a pie in which kort, a dried dairy product, hard-boiled eggs and butter are layered over finely chopped meat. His account preserves a picture of gubadiya as a meal, one that is hard to see from today’s sweet versions alone.

Today, too, versions with meat are served as a hot main course, while sweet versions centered on dried fruit are eaten with tea. The dough may be made either with or without yeast. Although it has a single name, gubadiya can be a main dish or a sweet, and there are both tall and thin versions, so they cannot all be regarded as cakes made to the same formula.

A Cut Surface Shown at Weddings

Gubadiya is a celebratory food and is strongly associated with weddings. It was prepared by the bride, and was sometimes carried from the groom’s side. It was sometimes served after the nikah, the Islamic marriage rite, and it is said that skill in layering the fillings evenly and baking the pie thoroughly while keeping its crumbly texture was highly valued. At Kazan Tatar weddings, gubadiya, chak-chak, baursak and other foods are set out on the table at the groom’s house. There is also a later ritual in which the gifts brought by the bride’s parents are carried out before the guests. The multilayered pie appears both in the meal and in the exchange of gifts between the two families.

The way it is cut also carries meaning. A custom has been recorded in which the pie is cut carefully so that the inner layers can be seen, and the groom’s father places a coin on the first piece, symbolically paying for the pie. There is also a tradition linking the number of layers to the number of days the groom stays at the bride’s home, and odd numbers were reportedly preferred. The layers were not only a visual decoration but also a structure to be read at the wedding.

In another wedding rite handed down among the Perm Tatars, guests who have been welcomed are invited to stay for as many days as the pie has layers. The custom of reading the layers varies by region, and regions differ in whose length of stay the number of layers is linked to.

Glossary