The etymology of the Bashkir word «koimak» goes back to the root koyow – «to pour», which is associated with the cooking process when liquid dough is poured into a hot frying pan. There are other ways of cooking flour dishes – they are called differently. For example, when the dough is cooked in a stove or in ashes it is called «kyolse ikmek» – «bread on ashes» or simply «kyolse».

Koimak is probably one of the first dishes that nomadic peoples began to cook during the transition to a sedentary lifestyle. The Soviet philologist, historian of antiquity Solomon Yakovlevich Lur'e expressed a version that the Bashkirs, who baked cakes from the juice of the fruit of the pontik tree, which is called «askhi», are also mentioned in the «Histories» of the ancient Greek scientist Herodotus.

Housewives distinguish three main types of pancakes:

syosyo koimak – unleavened pancakes;

ese koimak – pancakes on hops or on yeast;

iuyz koimagy – pancakes on colostrum.

Pancakes are baked from wheat flour of coarse grinding. Being cooked using milk or fermented milk products, Bashkir pancakes have distinctive feature – they are abundantly greased with butter.

A special ingredient of ese koimak is a fermentation starter on hops, which was used by housewives almost to the present.

Ingredients: 1⁄2 liters of water, 3 tablespoons of hops, 1 teaspoon of honey or sugar, flour.

Bring the water to a boil, add the hops and boil for 15 minutes over low heat. Strain, cool to 40 degrees, then add honey or sugar, stir. Add flour, bringing to a state of thick sour cream, cover with a lid and put in a warm place for a day.