[Sca-cooks] Period Turkish food

[Patrick Levesque]

There was mention of Stephane Yerisamos' 'À la table du Grand Turc'
recently. I've just received my copy.

It's an excellent book. The only negative point is that it's so damn short!
There are 50 pages or so of background information on culinary habits and
expenses of the Ottoman court, and 40 recipes. Of these, 26 are translation
of period Turkish recipes added found at the end of a Turkish translation of
al-Baghdadi. 

(there are 82 of these recipes, however, so it's a bit frustrating to have
only 26 of then and to know the rest is out there, somewhere!!!)

Most of these recipes are for lamb, mutton or chicken (although some of them
can be adapted to camel, veal, or other...).

The background research is very thorough. Yerisamos went through official
records, account books and so forth to make as sure as possible that the
recipes presented were indeed the one used in period.

All recipes are presented in French translation, with a redaction and a
paragraph of background history, etymology, etc... Recipes, except for their
names, are never presented in their original language.

If you can read, or even just barely decipher French, buy it! Otherwise I
intend to try a couple recipes this long week-end (Canadian Thanksgiving) so
I'll post them afterwards.

Petru!