17. Century Ottoman Cuisine

Prof. Dr. Arif Bilgin, who teaches at Sakarya University’s History Department, was the guest of YESAM in the month of May, presented the “17th Century İstanbul Cuisine”. 

He started the seminar with a famous saying of Philip Mansel; “If you are looking for wealth go to India. If you are looking for information and science go to Europe. If you are looking for a magnificence of a Palace go to Ottoman Empire.”

17.Century has an important place in the history of Ottomans, because during this time period Ottoman Empire has reached the widest borders and had prospered with the land they have conquered over the years.  “One of the biggest results of this wide geography was, the abundance of foodstuff. 17th Century was also a time when money was used more frequently for trading especially with the arrival of American originated silver.  Trade between cities enabled for a lot of foodstuffs to be procured from their surrounding.

İstanbul cuisine is an extension of the changing cuisine that comes from Mid Asia to Anatolia, because of this reason, 17. Century dishes have names originated from Persian or Arabic language. Names of dishes such as... İbrahimiye, Cucaniye, Memuniye...” are examples of these names.

“In that time period, there were three main courses eaten during meals; soup, a meat dish and a rice dish. There was a very distinct correlation between eating and health benefits of food, which was an important aspect of eating in that time period. The food of İstanbul was much different than today’s food and use of fruits enabled dishes to have very complex tastes.”
Prof. Bilgin continued to explain various foodstuffs in detail, however the most interesting part of the seminar was when he shared the list of all the food traders and shops found in İstanbul in 17th century. He indicated that most of the food related information can be found in the travel journals of Evliya Çelebi, which is a very helpful source for researchers.

At the end of the seminar the participants  got to taste some of the specialty dishes of the 17th century such as; Sudiye Aşı (A lamb and meatball stew with slivered almonds and chickpeas), Dane-i Sebze (a rice pilaf dish consisting of green herbs and pistachios), Zerde (pudding flavoured with saffron) and Lemon sherbet with rose essence.

3 May 2014

Lecture video is in Turkish.