The history of Azerbaijani cuisine is as ancient as its people are.  Azerbaijani culinary is quite different from the others by its historical roots and originality. Azerbaijani meals are famous world-wide by their high quality and taste and savour. They may not be mixed up with others. Azerbaijani meals are mainly close to the Eastern cuisine for their taste and method of preparation, as well as adding strong species and savoury additions.

Currently, the requirements of up-to-date culinary are widely regarded in Azerbaijani culinary, in addition to keeping the specific features of ancient methods of preparing meals.

In the past, Azerbaijani national meals had been cooked in a copper pot. And nowadays, meals prepared in a copper pot in a number of villages are more delicious. Therefore, items of Azerbaijani national cuisine (pot, colander, frying-pan, tray, and skimmer) are mainly made from copper. We need to mention that, as it was in the past, now too copper pots and dishes are regularly tinned in order to prevent from excessive entering copper the meal and also the organism. Piti, one of the national meals, is served directly in a pot, in which it was cooked.

The majority of our national meals are cooked from beef, mutton and chicken. Meals made from forcemeat have spread more.

The sea, lakes and rivers of the republic are rich in various types of fishes, especially beluga and sturgeon. Mostly sturgeon and scaly fish types are used in preparation of the national foods.

Our meal is rich in various herbs and vegetables such as eggplants, tomato, sweet pepper, cabbage, spinach, sorrel, beetroot, turnip, onion, cucumber, green beans etc. Various types of culinary products prepared from rice and flour are used in the national meals.

Spices such as saffron, caraway, anise, bay leaf, seeds of coriander, mint, dill, parsley, celery, tarragon, basil, thyme etc. are widely used in our dishes. Saffron, which is an aromatic vegetable, is cultivated only in Absheron Peninsula of Azerbaijan in former USSR. More than 50 various dishes and more than 10 sweets are prepared by adding saffron.