Was This Turkish Dish Inspired by an Empress, or Is It Just Good?
By Yaren Fadiloglulari
Before you get to this week’s story, written by Yaren Fadiloglulari, please take the survey here! Answer as many or as few questions as you like. It’ll be a huge help to me and you’ll be entered into a raffle to win some prizes. Thank you! —Katherine
Was This Turkish Dish Inspired by an Empress, or Is It Just Good?
by Yaren Fadiloglulari
One of the most mysterious dishes in Turkish cuisine is of Ottoman origin, and it is called hünkar beğendi, which means “the Sultan liked it.” It consists of lamb served on top of crushed eggplant with butter, milk, and flour, similar to the French béchamel sauce.
But which sultan, of all 36 sultans that reigned for over 600 years, was the one who liked it?
Hünkar beğendi is mentioned in Urbain Dubois’ 1868 book “Cuisine de Tous les Pays” (Cuisine of All Countries), published during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz, who had the crown from 1861 to 1876. Abdülaziz was not a conventional sultan — he was the first Ottoman Sultan to visit Western Europe with the sole purpose of building good relations. His predecessors had never done this.
“Abdülaziz was a gourmet and a great admirer of French culture and cuisine,” says Mary Isin, Turkish food expert and author of food history book “Bountiful Empire.” “He also most likely admired Eugénie, the wife of Napoléon III.”
According to some rumors, the Sultan and the French empress fell in love in Paris. Then, Eugénie visited Abdülaziz in Istanbul. In the imperial kitchen, one of the Ottoman cooks saw how Eugénie’s cooks prepared béchamel, and had the idea to mix it with eggplant and meat. However, as romantic as it may sound, this story is not very credible.
“An almost identical recipe was published in 1844, long before Eugénie’s visit in 1869,” says Isin. From the 19th century onwards, the Ottoman elite hired European chefs. So a Catholic cook of Italian or French origin might be the one who came up with the recipe. In this case, it can be interpreted as a fusion of Ottoman-style meat and puréed vegetables common in European cuisine.
Ottoman writer Ali Rıza Bey (1842-1928) told another story. Abdülaziz, gourmet that he was, heard about some exceptional African cooks and hired them. One cooked a meat dish with crushed eggplant, and the rest was history.
Hünkar beğendi might be hiding a possible love story, the birth of fusion cuisine, or simply the adventurous palate of a traveling Sultan. But it’s good enough that it doesn’t matter who liked it first.
Eating Korean Food and Writing Books with Tien Nguyen
How to go from eating soup to writing a book about it.
Sohn-Mat: Recipes and Flavors of Korean Home Cooking
Listen to Smart Mouth: iTunes • Google Podcasts • Pandora • Spotify • RadioPublic • TuneIn • Libsyn • Amazon Music
More Food Reading:
There are so many more delivery apps than Postmates. Especially if you can read Chinese.
Building on my ruthless apple reporting, here’s the story of our preeminent apple hunter.
Putting it here too: please fill out the survey!
If you liked the newsletter today, please forward it to someone who’d enjoy it, and tap the heart icon above or below, which will help me reach more readers. I appreciate your help, y’all!
Please note: Smart Mouth is not accepting pitches at this time.
This newsletter is edited by Katherine Spiers, host of the podcast Smart Mouth.
A TableCakes Production.