A sizzling Fergana Valley specialty of lamb liver, kidney, heart, and ribs flash-fried in tail fat in a kazan — its name imitates the hissing sound of the pan. Some chaikhanas thread the seasoned offal onto short skewers first, making it the offal cousin of shashlik.
Also known as jiz-biz kabob, Uzbek fried offal, zhiz-biz.
Ingredients
- 300 g lamb ribs, chopped small
- 200 g lamb liver
- 200 g lamb kidney
- 150 g lamb heart
- 100 g lamb tail fat, diced (or 3 tbsp oil)
- 2 onions, in half-rings
- 1.5 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- non bread, to serve
How to make it
- 1
Halve the kidneys, cut out the white core and soak the pieces in cold salted water 20 minutes; peel the liver's membrane and cut everything else into even 2 cm pieces.
- 2
Render the tail fat in a kazan or wok until the cracklings brown, then fry the ribs and heart hard for 8 minutes.
- 3
Add the kidney and stir-fry 4 minutes over the fiercest heat you have.
- 4
Drop in the liver and onions together and toss just 2-3 minutes, until the liver is barely firm.
- 5
Season with salt, pepper, cumin and coriander off the heat and rush the pan to the table with bread.
Pro tip: Salt only at the end — salted early, liver seizes into rubber. The Fergana test: a piece should still give like a ripe plum.
Where Jiz-Biz comes from
Jiz-biz is named after a sound. The word imitates the hiss of offal hitting hot tail fat in a kazan, and the dish is exactly that: lamb liver, kidney, heart and rib meat flash-fried together in a single pot. It belongs to the Fergana Valley and appears across Uzbekistan and into Azerbaijan under closely related names.
It is slaughter-day food in origin. When an animal is butchered, the offal must be used within hours, and jiz-biz is the fast, communal answer — everything cooked at once, eaten immediately, with the rest of the animal reserved for slower dishes. Chaikhanas now serve it year-round, some threading the seasoned offal onto short skewers first.
How Jiz-Biz is cooked
The order of the pot is the technique, because every organ has a different tolerance. Tail fat goes in first and renders. Then the pieces that need the longest — heart and rib meat — followed by kidney, and liver last, for two or three minutes at most, because liver is the ingredient that will ruin the dish if it is treated like the rest.
Onion goes in near the end, and potatoes are a common addition in the chaikhana version, fried in the same rendered fat. The heat stays high throughout; this is a fry, not a stew, and the finished dish should have crisped edges and no accumulated liquid in the bottom of the pot.
Ingredients and shopping
Fresh offal from a butcher who deals in it: lamb liver, kidney and heart, with some rib meat or fatty lamb for body. Freshness is not negotiable with offal. Kidney should be soaked in salted water or milk for twenty minutes and the core removed; liver needs its membrane peeled and tubes cut out.
Tail fat is the traditional cooking medium and gives the dish its character. Cumin, coriander, black pepper and salt are the seasoning, with a good deal of onion tossed in alongside the liver. A heavy kazan or cast-iron pot holds the heat needed to fry rather than steam.
How Jiz-Biz is served
Straight from the pot onto a communal plate with raw onion rings, fresh herbs, non bread and green tea. Vinegar or a squeeze of lemon at the table cuts the richness. It is eaten fast and hot; jiz-biz that has sat and cooled is not the same dish.
Common mistakes
Adding everything at once
Liver needs two or three minutes, heart and ribs eight. Cook in order — heart and ribs, then kidney, then liver last.
Not preparing the kidney
Un-soaked, un-cored kidney tastes of ammonia. Soak in salted water or milk and cut out the white core.
A pan that is not hot enough
It has to sizzle — that is literally the name. A cool pan steams the offal and turns it grey and rubbery.
Overcooking the liver
Two or three minutes at the very end, until barely firm. Past that it is grainy and bitter.
Jiz-Biz: questions and answers
What is in jiz-biz?
Lamb offal — liver, kidney, heart — with rib meat, all flash-fried in rendered tail fat with onion, cumin and coriander.
How do I stop the kidney tasting strong?
Soak it in salted water or milk for twenty minutes and cut out the white core before cooking.
Sources and further reading
- Geez Beez at Cupola Samarkanda II, Dish No. 59 — The Village Voice (Robert Sietsema)
