[Sca-cooks] SCA-Period Ottoman Cookbook

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

(apologies, first, for the cross posting but it seemed relevant)

I'd heard on some SCA-Middle Eastern e-mail lists that a possibly 
period Ottoman Turkish cookbook had been published. I had read the 
title "At the Sultan's Table". Further research showed that the 
original was published in modern Greek, which is, well, Greek to me. 
I mean, i can read the alphabet and make the sounds, but i won't 
understand most of the words.

So i poked around on the internet and discovered that the same author 
had a book with a similar title in *French*, which i *can* read:
A la table du Grand Turc
(literally "At the table of the Sultan")
by Stephane Yerasimos
L'Orient gourmand series from Sindbad/Editions Actes Sud
Arles (France), 2001
ISBN 2-7427-3443-0
(price 22.80 Euros)

So eleven days ago (March 31) i ordered it from a French bookseller. 
On Friday (4/7), it was sent from France and arrived here Tuesday 
morning!

It is a slim volume - 136 pages. It is clearly not a reproduction of 
a complete actual Ottoman Turkish cookbook (unhappy sigh). Pages 9-53 
are essays by the author about finding real 15th/16th c. Ottoman 
recipes, about documents that listed the Topkapi's food purchases, 
about documents that list what Sultan Suleyman ate, about what 
ordinary people ate every day - all of which which i look forward to 
reading.

The opening essay mentions that the author found the earliest 
published Ottoman cookbook to be from the 18th century, after the 
introduction of tomatoes, bell peppers, and other ingredients from 
the Americas, with recipes too similar to those of today. He was 
disappointed because he wanted to find authentic Ottoman food.

Then he found a copy of the Arabic cookbook by al-Baghdadi translated 
into Turkish. He was at first disappointed, because this book is 
already familiar and he was looking for genuine Ottoman cuisine. But 
he remembered that other copied cookbooks often contain additional 
recipes from other sources. And when he began translating it, it 
became clear that while the first 160 recipes or so were from 
al-Baghdadi, there were also 82 different recipes written by the 
translator, Mehmed ibn Mahmoud al-Chirvani, an Azerbaijani from the 
city of Chirvan. The modern author then verified that these recipes 
were not merely copied from some other cookbook but were actually 
eaten in the Topkapi when he found another text that listed 
everything the Sultan had eaten over a period of two years. The list 
included recipes from al-Baghdadi and recipes written down by 
al-Chirvani.

The main body of this French book, pages 56-134, is recipes, 
frustratingly, not all 82 of al-Chirvani's recipes. Rather there are 
a total of 40 recipes, 38 are from al-Chirvani; one reconstructed 
from period descriptions and a recipe from 1844; and one 
reconstructed from period descriptions and modern recipes. The modern 
worked out versions, along with a paragraph or more discussing the 
dish, its source, etc., face the original Turkish recipe in French 
translation.

I was disappointed to see so few of al-Chirvani's recipes (only 46 
per cent, pout pout), but i'm excited about having nearly half of 
them. In addition, several are clearly of Persian origin!

Here's a list of recipes with *my* brief descriptions - the meat is 
always lamb or mutton:
* Salma - meat with noodles
* Tuffahiyya - apples stuffed with meat
* Mujazza'a - burani of chard and meat with yogurt sauce
* Dane-i Richte - noodles with meat and pulses
* Herise (harissa) - meat & grain cooked together
* Tuffahiyya - candied apples and meat in sugar syrup
* Rahaniyya - Kalye of spinach - meat with spinach and spices
* Herise - harissa of rice - whoa! This is medieval blancmange
* Tchechidiyya - meat cooked with fruit
* Kavurma - (kurma?) - Breaded fried chicken on sops with sweet and sour sauce
* Merserem - Meat with vegetables in herbed yogurt sauce
* Zirva - sweet-and-sour lamb or chicken
* [[Estouffade of gourd (Turkish name not given) - casserole of meat 
and gourds with verjus (from an 1844 recipe - but in 16th c. lists of 
dishes)]]
* Medfune - stewed meat served with eggplants stuffed with chopped lamb
* Mersmuye - stewed meat and meatballs cooked in apples and rice
* Hintayye - stewed meat cooked with wheat
* Piyaziyye - Onions stuffed with rice and chopped meat
* Kabuni / Dane-i Kabuniyye - meat, onions, chick peas and rice cooked together
* Rummaniyye - meat, eggplant, and gourd with spices and sour pomegranate juice
* Nirbadj - meat and carrots with grapes and nuts
* Rachidiyye - a "pudding" of starch, honey, rosewater, cinnamon, and 
cloves, served topped with apricots and ground almonds, and with 
pieces of cooked chicken coated with a syrup of honey, butter and 
saffron
* Buraniyye al-kar' - meat, meatballs, and gourds in yogurt sauce
* Hazariyye - meat, meatballs, and fresh favas
* Kachkul-i kabak - meat, gourd, and chick peas with carrot jam and spices
* Bakuliyye - meat, leeks, and meatballs made with leeks with yogurt
* Buyressiye - meat, meatballs cooked with barberries, fresh fruit, 
almonds, and rice
* Mu'amiyye - meat, meatballs, chick peas, lemon or orange juice, 
yogurt, spinach, rice, and dried mint
* Mahmudiyye - chicken with honey, almonds, grapes, apricots, and noodles
* Masusa - chicken cooked, cut up and fried, seasoned with spices and 
topped with egg yolks
* Manti - dough wrappers filled with crushed chick peas and with 
chopped meat seasoned with cinnamon and vinegar, boiled and served 
with sauce of yogurt and garlic, then sprinkled with sumac
* Muhassin - Condiment of eggplants, boiled in salt water, then 
chopped and seasoned, then covered with vinegar and pomegranate 
juice, with the addition of walnuts, almonds, sesame seeds, and chick 
peas fried in sesame oil, then aged a few days
* Left muhallel muhella - turnips in vinegar and honey
* Mastave - Silk be-laban - Cooked chopped chard in garlic yogurt sauce
* Ma'muniyye - sugar or honey, butter, rice flour, milk, chicken, almonds
* Mukallele - Senbuse (sambusek - samosa) filled with almonds ground 
with sugar, musk, and rosewater, fried, then plunged in sugar syrup, 
then dipped in powdered sugar flavored with musk or camphor
* Helva - a cooked sweet made of sesame oil or sweet butter, white 
flour, water, saffron, rose water, honey, poppy seed and pistachios, 
poured in layers with powdered sugar
* Cheker Borek - dough of tail fat, butter, flour, water, yeast, and 
saffron; filled with finely ground almonds and sugar, rosewater, and 
musk - put in a pan with plenty of melted butter, then baked, then 
rolled in sugar
* Helva-i Sabuni - a cooked sweet made of honey, starch, almonds, and 
sesame oil
* Muhallebi - a cooked sweet made of rice flour, sugar, milk, salt, 
butter, rosewater
* [[Zerde - a cooked sweet made of rice, sugar, starch, saffron, 
almonds and pistachios - mentioned in Suleyman's food lists, but no 
recipe given - this is based on period descriptions and modern 
recipes]]

So, i'll be reading it more carefully over the next couple days. And 
reporting back, if i don't float away (so much rain here in NoCal)
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita