Baked and breads
Adjarian khachapuri
Georgia's boat-shaped cheese bread from Adjara, filled with molten cheese and finished with egg yolk and butter.
Adjarian khachapuri, or adjaruli, is a boat of leavened dough filled with sulguni and imeruli cheese and baked until the cheese bubbles. At the end a raw egg and a knob of butter go into the centre, and the diner stirs them into the hot cheese, then tears off pieces of the crust to dip. It comes from Adjara, on Georgia's Black Sea coast.
What goes in
- Sulguni528%, Stretchy brined cheese.
- Imeruli317%, Fresh, sour Imeretian cheese.
- Yeast dough633%, Soft and rich.
- Egg211%, Added at the end.
- Butter211%, Stirred in.
Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.
Made step by step
Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.
Step 1: Knead Knead a soft yeast dough with milk and let it rise. Step 2: Grate Grate the sulguni and crumble the imeruli together. Step 3: Layer Roll an oval of dough, roll the long edges in and pinch the ends to form a boat. Step 4: Fill Fill the centre with cheese. Step 5: Bake Bake in a very hot oven until the crust is golden and the cheese bubbles. Step 6: Bake Crack an egg into the centre and return briefly to the oven. Step 7: Serve Add butter and serve at once, to be stirred at the table. Finished Adjarian khachapuri, by share.
A boat by the sea
The boat shape is often said to echo the sea and the sun of the Adjarian coast, though that is local lore. Khachapuri itself, from khacho (curd) and puri (bread), is the national dish of Georgia, and the tradition of making it was added to the country's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2019. Each region has its own shape, and adjaruli is the most theatrical.
How to eat it
The bread arrives very hot. Using a fork, the diner mixes the egg and butter into the cheese, where the heat cooks the egg into a rich sauce. Then pieces of the crust are torn from the ends and dipped in. Restaurants in Batumi serve it in sizes from small to enormous. The cheese mixture usually combines stretchy sulguni with sharper, crumbly imeruli.
Where it is used
The cheeses in it
Also part of it, and being written: Imeruli (Fresh Imeretian cheese mixed in.).
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Sources and further reading
Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.