SC - A Turkish recipe...

[RButler96@aol.com]

<< ... a Turkish dish called "whiskeyed chicken livers" or "drunken
chicken livers".  (...) I have been wondering if it, or any variation of
it, may be documentable in period anywhere in Europe or Asia. (...) Any
one out there heard of this dish, and could you point me to a source? >>

I just went through an article about the social history of the Turkish
cuisine, where a certain number of 15th and 16th century dishes are
mentioned mostly from travelogues and kitchen rolls,  but I could not
find such a dish there. However, the sources quoted in the footnotes
might be of some help; the article is: Reindl-Kiel, H.: Wesirfinger und
Frauenschenkel. Zur Sozialgeschichte der türkischen Küche. In: Archiv
für Kulturgeschichte 77 (1995) 57-84. The article is in German, the
sources quoted are in a variety of languages.

Looking at one of the sources quoted, I could not find it in Hans
Dernschwam's description of Turkish food in his diary of a travel to
Constantinople (1555; seven pages on food and dishes!). However, he says
that chicken was sold frequently and: "Aber gemainiglich findt man gutte
huner zw 6 aspern, darzw gibt man ainem die lebern vnd magen" 'But
usually, you can find good chicken for 6 aspers, and in addition you are
given the liver(s) and the stomach(s)'. At least there should be dishes
from chicken livers.

Instead of the recipe you are looking for, here is a different one:

"Hollow out young pumpkins or eggplants, fill them with chopped sheep
meat and garlic, add spices and salt, cook them without anything else in
water. They pour common yogurt, i.e. sour salted milk (like _compos_),
over this and kindred dishes. In the same way, they hollow out carrots
and fill them in the abovementioned manner".

Original: "Die jungen kyrbis auch podliczschan holert man aus, dorein
fultt man klain gehagt schaffen flaisch auch knoblach, gewurczt vnd
gesalczen, sieden sy, schlechtz im wasser ab. Vber solche vnd
dergleichen gerichte schutten sy schlecht jugurt, das ist sawer
gesalczene milich, wie compos. Also hoelern sy auch die gelben ruben aus
vnd fullen sy, wie obstatt" (Dernschwam, ed. Babinger 124; Reindl-Kiel
says that this dish, karniyarik, and others described by Dernschwam,
yaprak dolmasi, muhallebi, are still eaten today).

Th.
- -- Paviot, J.: Cuisine grecque et cuisine turque selon l'expérience des
voyageurs (XVe-XVIe siècles) [Greek and Turkish cuisine according to the
experience of the travellers of the 15th and 16th centuries]. In: Bryer,
A./ Ursinus, M. (eds.): Manzikert to Lepanto. The Byzantine World and
the Turks 1071-1571. Amsterdam 1991 (Byzantinische Forschungen 16).