Recipes from El-kerim and ‘One Thousand and One Nights’

The 13th century cookery manuscript named Kitâbü’t-Tabih was left languishing on the dusty shelves of the Süleymaniye library for several centuries. Food scholar Charles Perry started to examine the book in the mid 1990s and published the English translation in 2005. The translated version of the book which includes recipes for food mentioned in the fairytales attracted attention from all over the world. Nazlı Pişkin translated the book from English to Turkish. Printed by the Kitap publishing house, the book offers interesting details on the food culture of the Abbasi period.

Muhammed el-Kerim divided his book into 10 sections of which some are titled sour foods, simple foods, fried foods served without sauce, fresh and salty fish dishes, and sweet dishes and variety. Known as Baghdadi by his contemporaries, El-Kerim began his book with the words “Bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim,” which means “In the name of Allah, the most compassionate, the most merciful.” He provided examples from the Quran about the different foods. In the beginning section of the book, the author divided the pleasures of the world into six and said the closest to him was cooking food and enjoying the food he’s cooked. He explained that the reason why he wrote the book was because he was concerned by cookbooks that contained recipes featuring prohibited ingredients. “I came across many cook books that mention odd and unusual things and include prohibited ingredients. The heart does not rest when these are put together.”

The names of the different dishes were inspired by the color of the food, its resemblance to an animal or plant, famous names, main ingredients and cooking methods. The book does not indicate the amounts of the ingredients that need to be used in the recipes and some of the steps in the cooking process are skipped. Therefore, the book was not written for people who do not know how to cook but for experts who are familiar with cooking techniques, methods, timings and quantities.

Some recipes from the Kitâbü’t-Tabih

Semek ve Akrâs (Fish and loaf): Take 600 grams of sugar and 200 grams of pealed sweet almonds, pound well and spice with musk. Boil 200 grams of honey with 33 grams of rosewater. Clean off foam after it boils. Then knead 33 grams of starch with rosewater and add on top of the honey. Mix until batter is thick. Pounded sugar and almond is added and mixed together with a metal skewer. Remove from heat and pour over a flat stone surface for cooling. Then cut with metal fish and loaf-shaped cutters. Those shaped like fish are placed on a plate and those shaped like a loaf are placed next to the fish. Different shaped cutters such as chicken-shaped and lamb-shaped cutters can also be used. Pealed pistachios can be placed on top of the loaf-shaped ones. The fish shaped ones can be dyed in saffron melted in rosewater.

Maklube (means flipped): Take and chop lean red meat. Put into the mortar and pound as small as possible. Take fresh sumac, boil in water, wring out and strain. Add sumac water to pounded meat. Boil meat until it absorbs sumac water, which should be enough to cover twice as much as the meat. Then remove meat from the saucepan and spray with a little lemon juice. Lay out to dry. Then sprinkle with finely ground seasonings such as dried coriander, cumin, pepper and cinnamon, and rub a few sprigs of dried mint over it. Add coarsely ground walnuts on top of it. Break a few eggs and pour it on top of the meat and mix thoroughly with other ingredients. Fry in fresh sesame oil, in a fine iron or copper frying pan. Remove when both sides are completely fried.

Sweet turnip pickle: Take medium-sized turnips and cut into small pieces. After adding a bit of salt, sprinkle spice mixes and nice-smelling herbs and mix well with turnips. Take the necessary amount of vinegar and add 65 grams of honey per half a kilogram of turnip and dye with a bit of saffron. There must be enough vinegar and honey to cover the turnips. Then place in glass jar and keep tightly closed until ready. To make non-sweet turnip pickle, boil turnips in salty water and then add spice mix. Then add enough vinegar to cover the top of the turnips. Use when ready.

Dîkebrîke (earthenware on top of coal): Chop meat and throw into earthenware. Add some salt, a handful of peeled chickpeas, coriander herbs, coriander seed, peeled onion and leek. Pour enough water to cover the top of ingredients and boil. Remove foam and mix in grape vinegar, murri (a condiment made of fermented barley or fish) and finely ground pepper. Cook until flavor comes out. Sugar can be added to sweeten the dish. After it is cooked, spice is mixed into the earthenware. The food is left to rest on top of the coal.