Turkish delight is originally a honey/grape molasses, hazelnuts and flour based jelly-like candy. It has been produced in Turkey for more than 600 years, and gained popularity for the past 200 years. Throughout the years, refined sugar replaced honey or grape molasses as the sweetener, and corn starch replaced flour as the binder.
When we are talking about middleeastern food Greeks, Armenians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Persians and Arabs would always come forward to claim that it is originally their recipe. For instance, in this book the author claims that Turkish delight is originally a Persian desert called, "abhisa".[1] Whatever the case is, the real story of Turkish Delight starts in Istanbul of 1777.
The first well-known Turkish delight maker Haci Bekir moved from a small town called Kastamonu to Istanbul in 1777. [2] Haci Bekir set up a shop much the same way first chocolatiers did in Europe with their innovative recipes and became an instant hit. According to one legend, the Sultan of the Turkish Empire picked Haci Bekir’s lokum among hundreds of deserts to placate to his Harem and gave him the title of Chief Confectioner of the Palace which his family retained for generations. Haci Bekir’s reputation only increases with time and his business expends within the empire.
The capital of the empire Istanbul occasionally hosted several western european visitors, especially during the Crimean War between Turkish-British allies against the Russians. Considering that Turkish delight has a shelf life of one year, it was the perfect oriental gift to take back to their host country. Lokum gained popularity in Britain more than any other place mostly because there were more British people taking it back to Britain than anywhere else. In 1878, according to an article in in the Sunday Times dated March 24th, 1878, Armenian Krikorian Brothers, traders from İzmir (Smyrna) opened a whosales shop on Great Towers Street in London and started to sell their recipe of lokum in the British market. Since the original name lokum does not have a vibe to it and does not really tell about the origin of this desert, the name was changed to a more delightful one: “Turkish Delight”.[3]
In 1914 British chocolate producer Fry’s (Cadbury’s today) brought “Turkish Delight” into the main stream with the slogan “full of Eastern promise”.[3] As always media played a big role in promoting Turkish Delight as a Christmas treat in Britain. In ““The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis, Turkish Delight was presented as an addictive exotic confection. Turkish Delight became popular once again following the release of the film version named The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
References:
1. Turkish Cuisine in Historical Perspective, by Deniz Gursoy, accessed on 12-31-2009
2. Haci Bekir Corporate Website,accessed on 12-31-2009
3. Bir Türk, Bir İngiliz ve 3 Kuruşluk Dünya, accessed on 12-31-2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
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