History And Thought
Pepper In Ottoman Cooking: The Page Opened By Arnavut Biberi
Arnavut biberi: this name appears sparsely in the Melceü’t-Tabbâhîn of 1844, one trace of ground red pepper in Istanbul cooking. Özge Samancı’s research also leads to an earlier pickle recipe and a later record of vegetables sent to the palace. Moving from a recipe margin to a provisioning ledger, we follow pepper finding a place in another cuisine.
1844: The Printed Vocabulary Of A Cuisine
Mehmed Kâmil’s Melceü’t-Tabbâhîn, meaning Refuge of Cooks, is studied as the first printed Turkish cookbook, dated 1260/1844. An ingredient named in a kitchen leaves a trace on the printed page that can travel to other kitchens. Surviving copies and reprints offer further places to follow it.
The book’s arrangement also shapes where we look for an ingredient. Acar Tek and Sürücüoğlu describe twelve main sections and a derkenar section containing recipes added in the page margins. Salads, tarator and pickles appear there. Tracing an ingredient therefore means reading these marginal recipes alongside the headings of the main text.
Samancı’s 2019 research identifies ground red pepper under the book’s name Arnavut biberi and notes its sparse use. That scarcity belongs to the history too. An ingredient familiar today need not have held the same place within this book’s repertoire.
Identifying Pepper In An Old Recipe
It is easy to read pepper on an old page through present-day habit. Black pepper and Capsicum peppers, however, are different plants. Adjectives of colour, form and origin matter: a name such as Arnavut biberi narrows the possibilities around an otherwise ambiguous word.
The eighteenth-century pickle recipe discussed by Samancı places red pepper before the 1844 book. Her research also describes wider consumption of new ingredients in Istanbul and palace kitchens, especially during the nineteenth century. An early recipe catches one moment in that longer adoption; it does not show an entire city beginning to use an ingredient at once.
Samancı’s account of a palace kitchen ledger from 1854 shows another aspect of this development. Peppers and green peppers were among the produce sent to the palace from the gardens of Feriye, Beylerbeyi, Çırağan, Ortaköy and Aynalı Kavak. A recipe page describes the preparation of a dish; this record places the ingredient within palace provisioning.
Sources For This Section
From A Library Record To A Production Document
A defined pepper product of today can prompt another question about this past, provided we do not skip the intervening centuries. A geographical-indication specification describes a present-day product’s place, characteristics and production. Continuity from an old recipe name would need evidence of production and use across the interval.
The document numbered 33 for Şanlıurfa Biberi is an example of a geographical-indication record. It carries Publication Date: 29 April 2001; the current TÜRKPATENT register gives 26 February 2002 as the registration date. The designation-of-origin document defines Biber (isot) and the processing of the pepper. Place name, product characteristics and production information meet within the same official record.
Looking At An Ingredient Through Three Records
| Type Of Record | Question It Illuminates |
|---|---|
| Recipe text | By what name and in what way is pepper used in a particular dish? |
| Historical research | Where does the record belong in time and culinary setting, and how is wider adoption traced? |
| Registration document | How are a named present-day product’s geography, characteristics and production framework recorded? |
Returning to Melceü’t-Tabbâhîn, Arnavut biberi becomes more than a small ingredient detail. Its scarcity, the earlier pickle recipe and the 1854 supply record invite us to consider how long an apparently familiar pepper took to become established in a cuisine. The story opens by noticing that one name on an old page.
Sources And Further Reading
- Acar Tek and Sürücüoğlu · The first printed Turkish cookbook, Melceü't-Tabbâhîn, 2014
Reading area: Book identity and 1260/1844 edition; [full text](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/76857), pp. 226–228: twelve sections and recipes in the page margins.
Accessed:
- Özge Samancı · New World flavours in Istanbul cuisine: tomato, pepper, 2019
Reading area: Samancı 2019, pp. 88–89: an 18th-century red-pepper pickle, Arnavut biberi in the 1844 cookbook and wider use in the 19th century. Page 88, note 5: gardens and produce in 1854 palace kitchen ledgers (BOA, Cevdet Saray, no. 257), as reported by the researcher.
Accessed:
- TÜRKPATENT · Şanlıurfa Biberi, geographical-indication document no. 33
Reading area: Designation of origin, Biber (isot), Şanlıurfa province and its production framework. The publication date of 29 April 2001 on the scanned document and registration date of 26 February 2002 in the current register are separate fields.
Accessed:
- TÜRKPATENT · Current Şanlıurfa Biberi register entry
Reading area: Şanlıurfa Biberi: designation of origin, registration no. 33, registration date 26 February 2002.
Accessed: