[Sca-cooks] Turkish Meatballs (not Scotch eggs)

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Here's one of the recipes i translated from among those added by Shirvani to his translation of al-Baghdadi's cookbook in the mid-15th c.

[131r] Meatballs
Grind some meat as for meatballs, continue to beat in a mortar. Put in plenty of pepper, onions and a little sifted starch and knead. Insert some cooked egg peeled of their shells, into the center of the meat patties, then form all into meatballs. The meatballs are released into a large pot [131v] of thoroughly boiling water, turning occasionally to cook. [my translation]

Similar meatballs were made in late 16th c. Persia. There isn't a detailed recipe for them, but they are mentioned in a recipe for the very complex dish called qobuli-ye murassa' (jeweled qobuli) in "Maddat al-hayat, resala dar 'elm-e tabbaki" (The substance of life, a treatise on the art of cooking) by Master Nurollah, chef to Shah 'Abbas I, written in 1594/95:
"...Fill large meat balls each with an egg cooked in meat stock and cook them separately. Then cut in half and arrange on the dish in such a way that they show the inside of the eggs." [excerpted from the long recipe - my translation]

The Ottoman recipe does not say to cut the meatballs in half to show off the eggs, but it's possible they did - while some of the recipes are very very detailed and specific, others are very sketchy in terms of details,.

In modern times, a spicy meat mixture is formed into balls with hard cooked eggs inside, then cut in half just before serving. They are called Nargisi Kofta, that is, daffodil meatballs.

So the concept has a long history. Unlike Scotch eggs, they do not appear to have been served as snacks, but as part of a larger meal.

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM)