Knowledge about the food and eating habits of the early normad Turks in Central Asia is rather limited and based on conjecture. It is likely that in common with the other nomad tribes, they relied on mutton and horse meat, unleavened pastry or bread made with wheat flour, milk, and milk products such as yoghurt. Koumiss a liquor, and ayran are known to have been drunk.
Evidence from communities of Kazan Turks and Tatars in Anatolia, who still observe many Central Asian Customs, indicates that a number of foods from the Central Asian period survive today. Manti, corek, various pies and tarhana, all originated in Central Asia.
One of the earliest written sources on pre-Islamic Turks, the Turkic inscriptions of the Orhun Relics, show that deer and hare were the principal meats of the hunters.
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