Roots of Anatolian Culinary Culture Seminar at Yesam

In the month of November, YESAM hosted Asst. Prof. Ahmet Uhri, from 9 Eylül University head of Archeology - Prehistory Department . Asst. Prof. Uhri shared some interesting facts with his audience regarding the roots of Anatolian culinary culture.

“The art form of balancing the sweet, sour, bitter and savoury tastes, the nutritional values and health benefits of food was not of importance in the beginnings. Food was just used as a means to survive. Mixing various plants and animal based products with different spices, started to take on importance during the Neolithic age. This mainly took place in the Mesopotamia and Anatolian regions.

Göbeklitepe is one of the oldest settlements, now a very important archeological site that is found at the top of a mountain ridge, on southeastern Anatolian region, near the city of Sanliurfa. Göbeklitepe, was still a hunter and gatherer society. When neolithic reform took place, the hunter and gatherer society discovered consious production of farming, and changed their life style. This discovery marked the end of an era.

Based on the excavations, farming and taming of animals first took place on Anatolian soil. Among the first food products that was produced were wheat, barley, lentils, peas, bitter vetch, cotton and cannabis. The first animal that were tamed were; dog, sheep, goat, and pigs.

The first food product that were cooked before eaten were meat followed by plants, mostly grains. To cook the meat, two types of methods were used. Dry heat method, which were frying, roasting and slow cooking in the oven. The other method was wet cooking method which was boiling.” Later on Asst. Prof. Uhri spoke about the Kaltolithic and early bronze ages.

At the end of the seminar the participants got to taste some meat dishes and several types of bread from the Hitite civilization.

14 November 2013

Lecture video is in Turkish.