{"id":8536,"date":"2026-10-26T18:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T09:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/?post_type=sweetlore&p=8536"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:51:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T09:51:06","slug":"sumalak","status":"publish","type":"sweetlore","link":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/en\/sweetlore\/sumalak\/","title":{"rendered":"Sumalak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sumalak is a Central Asian sweet made by combining an extract of sprouted wheat with wheat flour and other ingredients and cooking it for a long time in a large pot. It is a thick, glossy brown paste eaten with a spoon. It is called sumalak in Uzbekistan, sumanak (\u0441\u0443\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0430\u043a) in Tajikistan and samanu (\u0633\u0645\u0646\u0648) in Iran, among other names, and it graces the table at Nawruz, the spring New Year.<\/p>\n

Sweetness created by sprouting<\/h2>\n

Preparation for sumalak begins many days before the fire is lit under the pot. Wheat is soaked in water, spread out thinly and kept moist so that it sprouts. The sprouted wheat is crushed, mixed with water and kneaded, then strained through cloth to collect the liquid. Rather than cooking the leaves as they are in the pot, the liquid extracted from the wheat is used.<\/p>\n

During sprouting, the activity of enzymes that break down starch increases inside the wheat. Sweetness arises as the starch stored in the seed is broken down into smaller sugars. This is why sumalak becomes sweet even in recipes (the proportions of ingredients and the method) that add no sugar. Long cooking alone is not what creates the sweetness. Sprouting and extraction are important steps that come before the heating.<\/p>\n

In some forms, wheat flour is added to the strained liquid and cooked with fat. Uzbek methods include examples using vegetable oil, and Tajikistan\u2019s official inventory of traditional culture also records a form combining sprouted-wheat juice, oil and wheat flour. The regions listed in that inventory are Sughd, Khatlon, and the Hisor and Rasht valleys. Besides deg\u012b, cooked in a pot, the inventory also records tan\u016br\u012b, finished in a tandoor oven; atolag\u012b, a porridge-like form; and biry\u014dn\u012b, a fried form. The thick paste from a large pot is one of the representative forms of sumanak in this region.<\/p>\n

In Hamadoni District in Khatlon, southern Tajikistan, two forms are commonly made: a porridge-like one and a baked form called kulchag\u012b. A 2020 field survey recorded a method in which sprouted-wheat juice is combined with a small amount of sugar, along with oil and flour, to make a dough about as firm as bread, which is placed on a plate and baked in a tandoor oven. In one way of eating it, cow\u2019s butter is mixed in while it is still hot from the oven, and it is broken up with a wooden spoon. Although sprouted wheat is common to all of these, the texture and the way it is served change depending on whether sugar is added and whether it is cooked in a pot or baked in an oven.<\/p>\n

A night of stirring the great pot<\/h2>\n

Large cooking pots called kazan, among others, are used. As the flour-containing liquid thickens, it tends to stick to the bottom, so it is stirred for a long time. In Uzbekistan, smooth pebbles or walnuts are sometimes placed in the pot. The stones are said to be added to keep the mixture from scorching on the bottom of the pot.<\/p>\n

The cooking continues through the night as neighbors gather, mainly women, singing and talking while taking turns stirring the pot. Even after it is done, it is left covered to rest for a while and portioned out in the morning. What begins as a thin liquid ends up as a thick brown paste. Food research on samanu has also examined how its color deepens during heating and its viscous property of flowing more easily when stirred.<\/p>\n

Sumalak portioned out from the pot is distributed to relatives, neighbors and friends. Rather than simply serving plates for those present and ending the feast there, people also deliver it to households that were not at the cooking, sharing the spring sweet. There is also a saying that whoever finds a pebble in their serving will have good fortune. Finding a stone becomes a small act of fortune-telling at the table.<\/p>\n

\n\"Samanu\n
Samanu set out on the New Year haft-sin (March 20, 2011; location unknown). It has been portioned into large and small dishes, with decorated surfaces. Photo: Myone63 \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>. Full-size image obtained. No content alterations or cropping on our part.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Spring celebrations and local names<\/h2>\n

In Tajikistan and Afghanistan, sumanak songs sung in front of the cooking pot are well known. Iran\u2019s samanu is also one of the items on the haft-sin, the New Year display of items whose names begin with the sound \u201csin.\u201d In Iran, too, there is a custom of women cooking it through the night and sharing the finished sweet with neighbors. It is a sweet made and shared communally, and it is also placed on the table as a New Year decoration.<\/p>\n

Among the stories of sumalak\u2019s origin is one featuring Fatima, the Prophet\u2019s daughter, and her two sons, Hasan and Husayn. Because the children were hungry, Fatima gathered sprouted grass and cooked it in a pot. In the morning, it is said, the pot held sumalak, the food of angels. In another version, the people gathered around the pot fell asleep from exhaustion toward dawn, and angels came and adjusted the flavor, making it sweet. Linking an explanation about thirty angels to the name is also part of the storytelling within this tradition. It cannot be considered an established etymology of the name. In Surkhandarya, in southern Uzbekistan, a custom has been recorded of eating the finished sweet as \u201cthe food of angels\u201d and \u201cthe food of Hasan and Husayn.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another version told in Uzbekistan, the protagonist is a widow with seven children living in a village on the Jayhun River. After a crop failure, she had nothing to feed her children, so she cooked sprouted wheat in a large pot. Pretending to add meat, she dropped in pebbles, and as she stirred through the night she fell asleep; in the morning, it is said, the pot was full of a brown sweet finished by angels. She shared it with neighboring households. The characters and events differ from the story of Fatima and her sons, but the storylines overlap: a hungry family, a great pot, angels and a sweet that is shared.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People making sumalak for Nawruz in Uzbekistan (March 21, 2011). Two people are stirring the same pot with long wooden tools. Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalb\u00e9ra, Source<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>. Unaltered.<\/p>\n

\"Sumalak<\/p>\n

Sumalak being served from a large pot into cups at a Nawruz festival in Uzbekistan (March 21, 2025). Photo: Miss Kamola, Source<\/a>, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Unaltered.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Tajikistan\u2019s sumanak cooking was inscribed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, as a culture of growing sprouted wheat for spring Nowruz and making and sharing sumanak in a large pot.<\/p>\n

Glossary<\/h2>\n

Sprouting<\/strong>: The emergence of a shoot from a seed when it receives water and other necessary conditions. For sumalak, it is an important preparatory step for creating sweetness.<\/p>

Enzymes<\/strong>: Substances that assist reactions such as the breakdown of food components. In sprouted wheat, the activity that breaks down starch increases.<\/p>

Kulchag\u012b<\/strong>: A form recorded in Hamadoni District and elsewhere, in which a dough made with sprouted-wheat juice is baked in an oven.<\/p>

Deg\u012b, tan\u016br\u012b, atolag\u012b, biry\u014dn\u012b<\/strong>: Forms of sumanak recorded in the Tajik cultural inventory. In the main text they are described as the pot, oven, porridge-like and fried forms, respectively.<\/p>

Kazan<\/strong>: A cooking pot used in Central Asia and elsewhere. Large pots are used for communal cooking.<\/p>

Nawruz<\/strong>: The New Year festival held around the spring equinox. In Iran it is also written Nowruz.<\/p>

Haft-sin<\/strong>: An Iranian New Year display of items whose names begin with the sound \u201csin.\u201d<\/p>

Fatima<\/strong>: The daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. She is the protagonist of one of the legends about the origin of sumalak.<\/p>

Hasan, Husayn<\/strong>: Fatima\u2019s sons. In the legend of sumalak\u2019s origin, they appear as hungry children.<\/p>

Surkhandarya<\/strong>: A region in southern Uzbekistan. The origin legends and eating customs described in the main text have been recorded there through ethnographic research.<\/p>

Jayhun River<\/strong>: Another name for the Amu Darya. In the main text it appears as the setting of another Uzbek origin legend.<\/p>

Recipe<\/strong>: The full set of ingredient proportions and method. The use of fat and sugar differs by region and by cook.<\/p>

References<\/h2>\n
  1. References (added in this revision)<\/li>
  2. Uzbekistan Travel, \u201cNavro\u2018z bayrami va bahorgi tengkunlik\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Communal cooking through the night and distribution; the origin story of the widow with seven children on the Jayhun River. The legend is not treated as a contemporaneous record of the dish\u2019s creation. In addition to the reading record of 2026-10-25, B reread lines 103\u2013113 this time.<\/li>
  3. Davlatova and Fayzullaeva, \u201cUzbek Ceremonial Dishes and Traditions of Eating Them,\u201d IJMMU 8(5), 2021, pp.578\u2013588<\/a> \u2014 Survey in Surkhandarya; Fatima and her sons; differing versions involving angels; pebbles and night-time rituals. Restored based on the existing actual reading of pp.578\u2013581. Speculation about etymology or ancient origins is not adopted as historical fact.<\/li>
  4. Shaimerdenova et al., \u201cPhysicochemical, microbiological, and microstructural changes in germinated wheat grain,\u201d PLOS One, 2025<\/a> \u2014 The general mechanism by which amylase acts in sprouted wheat and starch is broken down. The parent reread lines 247\u2013248 of the current Introduction. It does not indicate specific sugar ratios or temperatures in a sumalak pot.<\/li>
  5. Amiryousefi and Razavi, \u201cViscous Flow Behavior, Microstructure and Physicochemical Characteristics of a Sweet Paste Functional Dessert (Samanu) Made from Germinated Wheat\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The color change of samanu during heating and its property of flowing more easily when stirred. Published online in 2012 and in print in 2013. Restored based on the existing actual reading of the abstract and practical applications section; the paywalled full text has not been read in full.<\/li>
  6. Alireza Shapur Shahbazi, \u201cHAFT SIN,\u201d Encyclopaedia Iranica<\/a> \u2014 Iranian samanu, haft-sin, women\u2019s night-time cooking, and distribution to neighbors. The parent reread lines 31\u201350 on page 2 of the PDF. Central Asian communal cooking and the Iranian display are not treated as mutually exclusive.<\/li>
  7. National Inventory of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Tajikistan, 2023 edition, F011 \u201c\u0421\u0423\u041c\u0410\u041d\u0410\u041a\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Regions; sprouted-wheat juice, oil and flour; the pot, oven, porridge-like and fried forms. The 2020 in the file name is distinguished from the 2023 on the cover. Restored from existing actual-reading records of PDF pp.154\u2013155 and English p.397.<\/li>
  8. \u0423. \u0422\u0430\u0493\u0430\u0439, \u201c\u0411\u0430\u044a\u0437\u0435 \u0432\u0438\u0436\u0430\u0433\u0438\u04b3\u043e\u0438 \u043f\u0443\u0445\u0442\u0430\u043d\u0438 \u0441\u0443\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0430\u043a \u0434\u0430\u0440 \u043d\u043e\u04b3\u0438\u044f\u0438 \u041c\u0438\u0440 \u0421\u0430\u0439\u0438\u0434 \u0410\u043b\u0438\u0438 \u04b2\u0430\u043c\u0430\u0434\u043e\u043d\u04e3,\u201d \u041c\u0435\u0440\u043e\u0441\u0438 \u0444\u0430\u0440\u04b3\u0430\u043d\u0433\u04e3, 2020, \u21162(50)<\/a> \u2014 Field survey in Hamadoni. The porridge-like and oven-baked forms, a dough with a small amount of sugar added, and an example of mixing cow\u2019s butter into the hot baked result. Restored from existing records of a full actual reading of printed pp.12\u201314. The regional method is not generalized to the whole area.<\/li>

  9. Editorial reference mapping<\/h3><\/li>

  10. Restored from \u8ffd\u52a0100\u8a18\u4e8b_2026-10-25\/\u8cc7\u6599\/058-sumalak\/\u8aad\u53d6\u8a18\u9332.md<\/code>. Today\u2019s rereads are noted individually above and are not to be confused with the existing actual readings of 2026-10-25. This restores mappings that were missing from the references section; it does not mean that every original book or original paper was newly read in full.<\/p><\/li>

  11. UNESCO, \u201cCulture of Sumanak\/Sumalak cooking\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Spring communal cooking in Tajikistan and the 2025 inscription.<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sumalak is a Central Asian sweet made by combining an extract of sprouted wheat with wheat flour and other ingredients and cooking it for a long time in a large pot. It is a thick, glossy brown paste eaten with a spoon. It is called sumalak in Uzbekistan, sumanak (\u0441\u0443\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0430\u043a) in Tajikistan and samanu (\u0633\u0645\u0646\u0648) in Iran, among other names, and it graces the table at Nawruz, the spring New Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7654,"menu_order":307,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_parade_sweetlore_meta":{"en":"Sumalak\u30fbSamanu\u30fbSumanak","subtitle":"A spring sweet of sprouted wheat, cooked through the night","topics":"Sweetness drawn from sprouted wheat \/ A night of long stirring in a great pot \/ A Central Asian spring celebration","country":"Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iran and elsewhere","show_toc":true,"ingredients":["grain"],"texture":[],"occasion":[],"method":["cooked"],"season":[]},"footnotes":""},"sweetlore_category":[164],"class_list":["post-8536","sweetlore","type-sweetlore","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"sweetlore_related_products":null,"sweetlore_related_faqs":null,"sweetlore_related_voices":null,"sweetlore_related_mode":"auto","sweetlore_related_articles":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t