[Sca-cooks] Anyone know modern Turkish?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

After translating Stephane Yerasimos's "A la table du Grand Turc" from French into English, I continue to work on translating the mid-15th c. recipes added by Muhammed bin Mahmud Shirvani, court physician to Ottoman Sultan Murad II, to his translation of al-Baghdadi's early 13th c. cookbook. Note that Shirvani altered Baghdadi's recipes somewhat - adding directions, changing ingredients, etc.

Since i have been unable to find anyone locally to help me with Eski Osmanli - which VERY unlike modern Turkish, being close to 12th c. Seljuk Turkish - i have been translating them from a modern Turkish translation.
Muhammed bin Mahmud Shirvani, original author
Mustafa Argunshah, author & translator
Mujgan Chakır, author & translator
15. Yuzyil Osmanli Mutfaghi [= 15th Century Ottoman Cuisine]
Gokkubbe, Istanbul: 2005
ISBN-10: 975-6223-84-7
(non-American letters transliterated)

I don't know modern Turkish, but i don't see why that should be an obstacle :-) Sure, my translations are a little rough to begin with, but most are comprehensible and useable. And as i work with them, i'm smoothing them out. I realize there are problems inherent in translating a translation. But even so, this has to be more informative about something formerly unavailable in English, than not having them at all.

I have found that there are 85 recipes:
 2 - Turnip Pickles
 1 - Mustard-Yogurt Sauce for meat
35 - Savory Dishes (3 still to translate) - not all are meat
 5 - Sweet Meat Dishes (chicken or lamb plus a lot of sugar or honey, often as a puree)
30 - Sweets (9 still to translate)
 3 - Beverages, lightly fermented (all still to translate)
 9 - Medicaments (4 still to translate - tricky since i can't find names of all ingredients)
85 recipes - Total

However, a meaningful translation of one recipe is eluding me. It is relatively short, just a few sentences. Its ingredients are wheat starch, lots of egg whites, butter, and warm honey.

Modern Turkish is written using our familiar Roman alphabet, but also uses many letters we don't have - for example, s-cedilla, undotted i, g-breve, and more - which won't show up in e-mail. Converting some letters into more English forms, the title is "Nishastali achma" ("nishasta" is starch, "achma" gets translated as "opening"). I've found a variety of modern Turkish recipes, but they are QUITE different from the mid-15th c. one.

If anyone knows modern Turkish or has a friend or co-worker who does and who is willing to take a look, i'll send you the recipe in a text document. I use a Mac - it's possible that the mapping for the unusual characters will differ in MSOS, but it's worth a shot.

Someone sometimes called Urtatim