SPRING 2005 ETHNIC COOKING NOTES

Middle East Cooking

History

Mesopotamia Development of Bread and Beer (or Beer and Bread)

• First wheat, einkorn, needed to be parched to separate wheat from hulls (chaff.) This pre-cooking leads to bulghur wheat, not to be confused with cracked wheat.
• Wild yeasts difficult to exclude. Stored wet mash fermented, leading to beer. Wine/beer yeasts closely related to bread yeasts, but able to survive higher alcohol levels.

• Incrediby fertile, self-fertilizing river valley. Stable food supply
• Emmer wheat AKA farro was threshable without parching, making possible gluten development that led to raised bread.

Persia First Multi-Cultural Empire. Incredible Riches Drew Best and Brightest to Court, Culinary Innovation

Greece Eleusinian Mysteries and the Worship of Baking

Alexander the Great Adopted Persian Ways and Fancy Foods<

Rome Earliest Cookbooks (Apicius) Frustrated Polical Activity Channeled into Cooking.

• Emphasis on Sanitation Key to Roman Expansion. Unfortunate Common Use of Lead in Cooking.
  
• Ostentatious cooking using lots of spices (different than Italian) Fish Sauce, Concentrated Wine, Very Strong Herbs (Rue) (Lovage)
  Islam Empire Expansion Fueled by Scientific and Agricultural Advances and Respect for Farmers
  • Many new varieties of foods: Hard (Durum) Wheat (Pasta), Lemons, Eggplants, Artichokes, Cheap Sugar
    
  • Political activity channeled into Cooking,

Crusades Exposed Europe to Superior Civilization and Cooking, Minor impact on Islam

Mongols: Total Disaster, Genocide in Baghdad (1258), Religious Backlash Aimed at Explaining Cataclysm Extinguished Free & Open Spirit of Times

Ottoman Empire Richest and Most Powerful of Time (Until Spanish Exploitation of New World)

European Colonialism As Ottoman Empire Spun Apart, Europe and US Carved it Up. High Status Food Western.

Foods Cooked

• Pita Bread
  
• Tabouli Salad
  
• Hummus
  
• Baba Ghanoosch
  
• Cicer et elixati, sumpto
  
• Felafel Balls
  
• Hilbeh Yemeni Hot Sauce
• Youghurt-Tahina Sauce
  
• Lubyi
  
• Roz bi Dfeen
  

Technique Stuff

• Cooking with Fire. Direct cooking in ashes or over flame for eggplants and onions
  

  Resources

  
  Mediterranean Feast, Clifford Wright, c.1999. Very detailed discussion of history of foods and cooking practices in the area with dependable recipes.
  Mediterranean Cookery, Claudia Roden, c.1968. Even better than her newer edition, with more historically accurate recipes (in some cases). She splits the region, reasonably enough, into Turkish, Arabic, Persian and North African areas.
  

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