The dastarkhan (a cloth spread on the floor) is the heart of the Central Asian meal. First, nan (bread), dried fruits, and sharbat (drink) are laid out, then come shorba (soup), osh (pilaf), or grilled meats, and finally shirinlik (sweets). Everything is shared, served in communal dishes. At Babur's Timurid court, this ritual oscillated between the frugality of a military camp and the abundance of royal banquets in Kabul or Agra.

Dumba, the fat from the tail of the Central Asian fat-tailed sheep, is the fundamental cooking fat of Timurid cuisine. It flavors pilaf, coats samsa, enriches soups. Its round, slightly sweet taste is irreplaceable in osh — Babur, raised in the Ferghana Valley, would never have conceived a pilaf without it.