[Sca-cooks] Sixteenth Century Turkish

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

emilio wrote:
>During the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, several people from Italy,
>Germany, France etc. travelled to the Holy Land, at least some of them passed
>by Turkey and reported on lokal customs. It is these sources I had in mind.
>In addition, there are soldiers, who were captured by the turks and who later
>on wrote books on what they saw and what they experienced.
>Their reports now and then include snippets on food.

One example was Albertus Bobovius aka Woyciech Bobowski, who spent 19 
years, 1638 to 1657, renamed Ali Ufki Bey, serving as a page to three 
sultans.

I wrote:
><< Second, since most ambassadors, etc. were (a) not usually
>particularly excited about eating foreign food, (b) not familiar with
>what they were eating, and often gave faulty descriptions, and (c)
>not necessarily particularly interested in talking about food in
>detail and gave sketchy reports. >>

Emilio remarked:
>Thanks for pointing to the dangers of using these reports. However, do we
>acually have a picture of what these reports say about food habits?
>Please let me know.

I will include some of my own poor miserable translations in another e-mail.

Emilio translated:
>On the morning of the 23rd of May the Veziers and all the officers 
>of the court
>came together in order to eat / for Patscha (these are goat and 
>sheep trotters/ the
>Turks eat them like we at home eat ?Eyer im Schmaltz?. The groom has sent
>this dish to his future mother in law, the wife of the Sultan, as 
>well, who again
>sent 150 different dishes to the groom and the bride ...

Thank you for the better translation than my own feeble initial attempts.

Katherine translated:
>The 23rd of May in the morning did the Vizier and Court officer come
>together to the Pasha (there was goat and sheep feet/ and eaten by the
>Turks as by us an egg in fat) such a dish did the bridegroom to his in-law
>the Sultana himself also gave / while the Bridegroom and the Bride had
>around 150 other dishes brought...

This makes even more sense.

Katherine continued:
>The question marks are 'geyss' and 'fuss'.  That funny character is an
>s-set.

I suspected as much, but wanted confirmation.

>The last little bit not given above tells that the cost was a
>purse of 1500 Ducats.

That's a lot of food :)

Emilio also wrote:
>The word is not "Pasha", it is "Patscha".

I still think it refers to the Pasha (cf. Katherine's translation)

Emilio continued:
>Some sources I have found in the
>meantime suggest, that it might mean something like 'trotter, paw', in some
>more modern sources there is also "patscha gueni", a day in the wedding
>ceremony. But from the text it seem clear that "Patscha" is a dish.

Katherine wrote further:
>Does this dish of hooves make any sense?  Was it
>perhaps a gelatinized dish?

A dish of a sheep's head and its four trotters (lower legs or 
"feet"), often with vinegar and garlic sauce, was perhaps the most 
common dish eaten by the common people in Ottoman Constantinople 
(Kostantiniyye) and also quite often appeared on the dining tables of 
the sultans, their family, and upper level employees. There were 
*many* cook stalls that prepared and sold sheep's heads and feet. 
They show up in multiple documents, including the various market 
regulations.

Katherine speculated:
>Perhaps the reference to an egg in fat meant that it was common as fried
>eggs to the German people.

Ah! Perhaps that is the intention... But as i mentioned, it was also 
not an uncommon dish in 15th and 16th c. Kostantiniyye.

I wrote:
><< Plus he begins his discussion of food in Kostantiniyye by
>saying, "The Turks eat poor miserable food..."

And Emilio commented:
>The consequence is not, to leave these sources aside, but rather
>to try to take into account their specific point of view and to compare
>different sources.

Of course not. Every bit of information is precious. I include 
accounts by Dernschwam, those of embassies to the capital, and other 
visitors in my class notes. But one needs to be cautious, and not 
take them literally or fail to check other sources. It is still 
important to compare them to surviving menus, kitchen account books, 
records of feasts, etc. from the Ottoman archives.
-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita