[Sca-cooks] Battered Fried Chicken and Spices

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I'm a little late, but i was at Pennsic during the "deep fried" discussion.

Among the circa 1430 recipes Mehmet bin Mahmoud Shirvani added to his translation of al-Baghdadi's cookbook, which he made at the request of Sultan Murad II, is Tavuk Chevirmesi, a recipe for fried chicken. Note, i'm substituting "ch" for the "c-cedilla" in the modern Turkish transliteration, since special characters don't come thru on this list.

In this case the chicken is not *deep* fried, but i know there have been discussions of when was the first batter fried chicken recipe, and i think this one is quite early...

Chicken Chevirmesi. This is the way to make it. The chicken is cleaned, it is cleared of refuse, and cooked in water as necessary. After cooking, it is removed from the water, and salted with salted water. For three chickens fifteen eggs are beaten, sifted flour is put in, and beaten with the eggs so that it becomes like porridge, and salt is added to the eggs. Each chicken is divided in four pieces, immersed in the beaten egg, and sauteed in pure sweet butter [probably clarified] in a pan. When it has browned, a chopped onion is cooked in the fat in the pan where the chicken was cooked [the chicken having been set aside], [112 recto] into it some honey and vinegar are put. Attention is paid so that it is tasty [i.e., not too sweet, not too sour]. Into the ingredients spices are thrown, the chicken is arranged in the pan on bread soaked in broth, the fire reduced, left on the hot embers, When requested it is arranged on trays, piled on top the sops, then it is served, and it is eaten.

My translation for the modern Turkish translation. I have a CD of the original manuscript, and i can read the "Arabic" letters, but i could never find anyone to teach me Eski Osmanli Turkchesi and i haven't found any Eski Osmanli to English dictionaries.

I've made this a number of times, including teaching it at some events. The batter is more egg than flour,

As for which spices to put in, i noted that the Ottomans used surprisingly few spices and surprisingly rarely in their food. The most likely spices are cinnamon, black pepper, and cloves.

_SPICES in *87* recipes_
[36 meats, 36 sweets, 2 meatless, 2 pickles, 1 condiment, 3 fermented drinks, 7 drugs]
1. Cinnamon - 11 savories + 4 drugs
2. Black Pepper - 10 savories + 3 drugs
3. Saffron - 10 savories + 3 sweets + 2 drugs
4. Cloves - 5 savories + 4 drugs
5. Cumin - 2 savories
6. Mustard - 1 savory + 2 pickles + 1 condiment
7. Sumac - 2 savories + 1 sweet
8. Ginger - 1 savory + 2 drugs
9. Gum Mastic - 1 savory
10. Spikenard - 1 drug
Spices Unspecified - 4 savories

HERBS
1. Mint - 4 savories
2. Parsley - 3 savories

The most any spice is used is in 17.5% of all the recipes and less than 1/3 of all the savory recipes.

In contrast al-Baghdadi, in just his 112 savory recipes, uses many more spices and herbs and more often. I didn't count his sweets because they use no spices or herbs other than saffron, camphor, and musk.

I'm using -N% to indicate that the number is a little less than N, because i'm not sure if the "less than" sign will come thru in the text.

SPICES
1. Coriander seeds = 91 recipes, 87%
2. Cinnamon = 87 recipes, 78%
3. Cumin = 68 recipes, 61%
4. Gum Mastic = 50 recipes, 45%
5. Black Pepper = 46 recipes, 41.0%
6. Saffron = 34 recipes, 30%
7. Ginger = 23 recipes, 21%
8. Sumac = 11 recipes, -10%
9. Nigella = 4 recipes, 3.5%
10. Mustard = 4 recipes, 3.5%
11. Caraway = 3 recipes, -3%
12. Cloves = 2 recipes, -2%
13. Anise seeds = 1 recipe, -1%
14. Asafoetida leaves = 1 recipe, -1%
15. Camphor (edible, from the tree) = 1 recipe, -1%
16. Cardamom = 1 recipe, -1%
17. Musk (an animal product) = 1 recipe, -1%
18. atraf al-tib, a complex spice blend = 8 recipes, 7.%
Seasonings, unspecified = 20 recipes, -18%

HERBS
1. Mint = 26 recipes, -26%
2. Cilantro/green coriander = 12 recipes, -11%
3. Celery leaves [possibly parsley] = 8 recipes, 7%
4. Dill weed = 8 recipes, 7%
5. Zaatar (related to thyme and marjoram) = 3 recipes, -3%
6. Citron leaves = 1 recipe, -1%
7. Fennel stalks = 1 recipe, -1%
Herbs unspecified = 4 recipes, -4%

Clearly al-Baghdadi used far more spices and herbs and used them far more often than the Ottomans.

I doubt very much that if the Ottomans cooked recipes from al-Baghdadi's book they used all the spices called for, and i am extremely doubtful that the Ottomans had any idea what atraf al-tib was.

There are notes of sweet recipes in Ottoman account books of the 16th century that indicate they used cinnamon and cloves in some sweets. Also based on account books and feast menus, the Ottomans used a wide range of fruits in their sweets. This is absolutely not the case in Arabic-language recipes, in which pretty much the only fruit used is dates, even tho they had many fruits and used them in savory recipes.