Ancient Dish

Pre-12th Century Cooking (Turkish)

DISH: Tϋrkçe Pazar Salat (Turkish Sunday Salad)

Period: 2000 BC to present
- greatest family shopping use was 600 BC - 1030 AD (pre-Seljuk period)

Notes: Families went to the bazaar on the seventh day (non-work) for shopping, games and socialization. They typically took a cold mixed vegetable salad. Other items like şış kebab, şış köfte, dolma (stuffed meat pies), etc. were purchased at the bazaar. Salad was often carried in a gourd wrapped in an evaporative cooling cloth.


Ingredients: rice, cici peas, grass seeds, tomatoes (seeded)^, squash, green pepper, onion, nuts*, dill weed, ripe olives, green olives.

*the common nut was a type of long, skinny pine-nut (yeni fıştıc) that died out during the dark famines of 1335-1343 AD. I have substituted slivered almonds.

^tomatoes as we know them are claimed to have entered Europe in the 15th century from South America, yet four strains of tomatoes exist in Turkey that do not exist there. Possibly, some other similar fruit/vegitable use used in ancient times and replaced with the more versitile tomatoe of today.

Dressing: scant olive oil, marinated vinegar
(hot peppers, garlic, rosemary)

Eating: spoon, or gathered in a grape leaf (yaprak)

Taken from the bowl with a phrase - ellınez Saĝlık (may your hands be blessed)
(Ell-en-ez saw-aw-lick)

This recipe was prepared and given to me in 1968 by a Turkish Language Professor, together with much verbal history. I have documented several parts of the story of origin, use and ingredients. The Turkish saying "Never mind what you ate and drank, tell me where you have been and what you have seen", shows it was considered bad manners to talk about food and this is why there is little culinary literature in Turkish, though it is considered one of three great cuisines of the world. Poems which contained recipes were passed down verbatim for thousands of years.

Items about eating habits and picnic practices are found in Divanu Lugat-i Turk, a dictionary compiled by Kasgarli Mahmut in 1072-1073 to teach Turkish to the Arabs.

The use of cold rice dishes with tomatoes(sic), and the use of all the listed ingredients, is documented in the literary works of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, a philosopher who lived in the 13th century.

The idea of taking part of a meal to a bazaar and purchasing the rest on-site is referenced in stories in Dede Korkut Hikayeleri (The Tales of Dede Korkut) compiled towards the end of the 14th century.

The mysterious nut called Yeni Fıştıc (new nut) is used in many recipes in Kutadgu Bilig (The Book of Knowledge), by Yusuf Has Hacip in the 11th century. The dark famine has now been attributed to a volcanic eruption (Krakatoa?) in 1334 that blanketed the earth with ash and destroyed hundreds of plant types.

faucon