Green Bazaar Icon · Horse Meat Sausage

Qazy

Photo: Sara Yeomans / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

A dedicated horsemeat butchers' hall has traded at Almaty's Green Bazaar since its permanent stone market hall went up in 1875, and qazy is still stuffed exactly the way it was then — a whole horse rib packed into its own intestine casing.

Qazy is made by seasoning a horse rib still attached to its layer of fat, then stuffing it whole into a length of horse intestine and slow-simmering or air-curing it. Butchers at Almaty's Green Bazaar slice it into rounds to sell by weight alongside other horsemeat cuts, and it's served cold as a centerpiece at celebration tables.

Why it's made this way: Almaty's Zhetysu region sits at the edge of the old nomadic heartland, where horses were both transport and a primary meat source; qazy's rich, fatty cut was reserved for honored guests, a status it still holds at the Green Bazaar's meat counters today.