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Türkiye-Macaristan Ortak Mutfak Etkileşimi Projesi, 2016

2016, Türk-Macar Ortak Yemek Kültürü

Ocak 2016 ile Aralık 2016 tarihleri arasında UNESCO Türkiye Millî Komisyonu ve UNESCO Macaristan Millî Komisyonu'nun desteğiyle yapılan uluslararası bir projedir.

World of Smilar Tastes : Comparison of the Turkish and Hungarian Culinary Culture Ankara 2016 Editors Prof. Dr. Mihály Hoppál Prof. Dr. M. Öcal Oğuz Assoc. Prof. Dr. Evrim Ölçer Özünel Translator Ellen Yazar ISBN: 978-605-66617-0-9 Publishing Puplications of Turkish National Commission for UNESCO Printed and Bound By Grafiker Publishing Grafik-Ofset Matbaacılık Reklamcılık Sanayi ve Ticaret Ltd. Şti. 1. Cadde 1396. Sokak No: 6 06520 (Oğuzlar Mahallesi) Balgat-ANKARA Tel : 0 312. 284 16 39 Pbx Faks : 0 312. 284 37 27 E-mail : [email protected] Web : grafiker.com.tr The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion of Turkish National Commission for UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontier or boundaries. The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily of Turkish National Commission for UNESCO. Contents Opening Speeches The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Interaction Project on the Shared Cuisine of Turkey and Hungary ............................................................................3 M. Öcal Oğuz The History of a Joint Project ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................7 Mihály Hoppál Proceedings Semiotics of Hungarian Wedding Meals...................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Mihály Hoppál Edible Heritages: Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and Multinational Cuisine Policies............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 27 Evrim Ölçer Özünel The Taste of Entertainment: Religious Festivals/National Holidays and Festival Dishes in the Turkish and Hungarian Cultures ................................................................................................................... 35 Dilek Türkyılmaz Points of Connection Between Turkish and Hungarian Dietary Culture .................................................... 45 Júlia Bartha Food, Culture and Identity: On Turkish and Hungarian Cuisine ................................................................................... 69 Adem Koç ‘Djanfeda, Chincha, Goher’ Turkish Aspects in the Past of Viniculture at Jászberény ........ 81 Edit Bathó iii “Traditionality” and Sustainability of Foods in Turkish and Hungarian Cuisines .......................... 93 Selcan Gürçayır Teke Cuisines United with Photographs: To Follow the Cuisine Cultures in Visual Texts ......... 103 Ezgi Metin Basat The Role of Herbs and Spices in Turkish Cuisine in Hungary ........................................................................................ 115 Andrea Bán The Drinking Culture in the Shared Turkish and Hungarian Cuisine: Health, Rituals, Traditions ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 135 Tuna Yıldız The Language of Food by Seasons: Preparations for Winter ......................................................................................... 141 Zeynep Safiye Baki Nalcıoğlu Nogays of Turkey: Their Ethnic Identity and Acculturation ............................................................................................... 147 David Somfai Kara Photographs ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 157 iv Opening Speeches The Convention For the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Interaction Project on the Shared Cuisine of Turkey and Hungary M. Öcal Oğuz* Mankind understood the value of the cultural heritage transferred by its ancestors from generation to generation for thousands of years up until the present-day when confronted with the threat of losing it. Especially, the Second World War was the cause of the disappearance of countless tangible or intangible cultural heritage items together with millions of persons. The establishment of the UNESCO is significant after this extremely painful and expensive experience of humanity. Naturally, at first, the “Tangible Heritages” were conspicuous, especially, in the states, which experienced the destruction created by the war and that expended efforts for bringing the means for the protection of the cultures under the framework of the UNESCO as well as friendship, brotherhood and peace. The historical works, statues and monuments destroyed, the site areas that were turned into ruins, the libraries burned down, the handwritten manuscripts that disappeared and places of natural wonder came into the forefront in the process of heritages that should be preserved. The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was signed in 1972, was defining what was tangible, in other words, those that are “material” and it was targeted to protect them. Undoubtedly, this restrictive definition of the 1972 Convention, constituted a significant consciousness for the protection of the tangible cultural heritage, but since it did not contain the intangible cultural heritage, it was criticized, starting from the date it was accepted. These criticisms produced results in the UNESCO circles and the UNESCO laws were constituted related to the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage by preparing * Prof. Dr., Chairman of the Department of Turkish Folklore, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey; Chairman of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Expert Committee of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO; and Administratior of the Interaction Project on the Shared Cuisine of Turkey and Hungary. 3 the Bolivia Declaration in 1973, the Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore, which was accepted by the UNESCO in 1989, the 1994 Living Human Treasures’ Program, the 1997/1998 Proclamation of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity and finally, the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which was signed in 2003. A record was obtained in the international arena with 171 of the states becoming a party to the Convention in a very short period at the UNESCO, which has 195 member states and 10 partner member states. Turkey became a party to this convention in 2006. The Intergovernmental Committee having the attribute of an executive committee of the convention was selected. In 2008 the Intergovernmental Committee hosted the Third Regular Meeting. The Sub-organ, which examined carefully the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind, engaged in duties between 2008 and 2010 and provided contributions by examining carefully and making decisions on hundreds of files. Even if it is expected that the states, which are a party themselves to the Convention, to safeguard the cultural heritage on “the lands on which they are sovereign”, it is especially encouraged as well to expend efforts to engage in international cooperation and to help one another, to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage, to transfer it to the future generations and to have reciprocal recognition of value and to strengthen friendship and brotherhood. Turkey and Hungary, as two friendly countries, have the potential and opportunity to put into practice in the best manner the spirit and this aspect of the Convention and to be an example to other countries. This project, which has been realized with the cooperation of both countries, is of extreme importance from the aspect of both the friendship and cooperation of Turkey and Hungary and of forming the culture and experience of working together in the scientific fields. Cuisine culture, both for the traditions, arts and rituals formed around it, and for the experiences with nature and the environment, is an effective place from the aspect of transforming to cultural spaces and is an important field of intangible cultural heritage. The experience formed between the international society and experts around the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage showed that there is an important place for the cuisine traditions in the transferring of the cultural heritage from generation to generation. In fact, the cuisine-themed heritages presented to the UNESCO lists by the party states are being examined carefully from this aspect by the related committees and are taken onto the List of ICH in Need of Urgent Safeguarding or Representative Lists, which provide contributions to the transfer of culture. 4 Turkey and Hungary are two countries that have shared experiences within cultural exchanges and interactions and that have constituted shared heritages. This project, that has studied the reciprocal forms and aspects of interactions in the field of cuisine, just as it could be a means for strengthening the existing friendship and cooperation, it would also be an initiator in the researching and learning and the sharing and safeguarding of the cultural assets, which enter under the threat of disappearing from day to day and which are not known by the young generations. I hope that this study we have carried out within the scope of the principles of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage with the folklore collection and research techniques and that studies like these, which we have realized previously with Macedonia and Romania, will be a source of inspiration for new projects. At this meeting, where the papers, which emerged with the field studies realized by the coming together of the Turkish and Hungarian cuisine and intangible cultural heritage experts under the cooperation of the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO and the UNESCO National Commission of Hungary, have been presented and discussed, materialized at the end of a long preparation and the field studies carried out in both countries. The field studies were realized with the participation of the country experts at Ankara, Eskişehir, Kütahya, İzmit, Tekirdağ and İstanbul Provinces in Turkey between 17 and 23 April 2016 and with the participation of the country experts at Karcag (Karsak), Kisujszallas (Kişiyusalaş), Jaszbereny (Yasberin), Jaszfenyszaru (Yasfensaru) and Budapest in Hungary between 9 and 18 May 2016 and the papers presented today have been written by analyzing the data obtained in these studies. A total of 60 source persons, with 35 from Turkey and 25 from Hungary were consulted with throughout the period of the study. Mihály Hoppál, Júlia Bartha, János Sıpos, Edit Bathó, Andrea Bán, Dávid Somfaı Kara and Éva Deák participated in the field studies as folklore and intangible cultural heritage experts from Hungary. Whereas, Evrim Ölçer Özünel, Dilek Türkyılmaz, Adem Koç, Selcan Gürçayır Teke, Ezgi Metin Basat, Tuna Yıldız and Zeynep Safiye Baki Nalcıoğlu participated as folklore and intangible cultural experts from Turkey. The Turkish and Hungarian offices, which provided for the realization of this valuable cooperation, have left a strong door ajar about strengthening the cultural and academic relations between the two countries by this project and by developing shared projects as well on other subjects in the future. I extend my gratitude to the experts and administrative team of this important project, which I believe will lay the groundwork for larger projects in the future, and to our Turkish and Hungarian source persons, who have shared with our heritage research team what they experienced by transferring from generation to generation. 5 The History of a Joint Project Turkish-Hungarian Cooperation Mihály Hoppál* When the opportunity first arose whereby the Turkish UNESCO Committee wished to do research in Hungary and was looking for a Hungarian partner for this project, I instantly saw it as a chance to bring some improvement into the generally negative view of the historic connections of the two nations. Over the past few decades, whenever I came in contact with members of the Turkish delegation at occasions such as the UNESCO General Assembly in Paris or other international conventions, we always greeted each other most cordially, the more so as we found that our opinions practically always converged, no matter what subject was being discussed, even though we had not previously aligned our views. This was particularly true at discussions regarding issues of the intangible cultural heritage. Such like-mindedness was, in all probability, due to the fact that over the past centuries the two countries had produced a highly similar cultural super-structure. To put it simply, rural and peasant culture had retained in an analogous manner the cultural traditions which UNESCO was planning to safeguard. We noted with pleasure that in spite of the past historical events the cultures of the two nations had retained the identical and similar traits which lay in the deep layers of their cultures. Therefore we were delighted to hear of the strivings and plans proposed by the Turkish party in 2014 which so clearly fitted the previous plans of the European Folklore Centre. We saw it as a chance for laying the foundations for a kind of popular diplomacy based on the striving to explore the effects of Turkish culture in the areas which formerly belonged to the great Turkish Empire, because this had meant, beyond a position of power, a line of cultural influences. These cultural borrowings always took place on the level of the common people – something that may be influenced but cannot be entirely transformed or determined. To use the terms of cultural anthropology, a culture will only borrow things from another culture if these traits are not just attractive but can be easily fitted into the system of the other, the borrowing culture. If we highlight these positive examples and make them visible, or if * Prof. Mihály Hoppál DSc, senior research fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Arts Research Institute). [email protected] 7 we even go as far as to add a scholarly explanation, then we have taken a step toward the mutual respect, understanding and acceptance of different cultures. These are the basic building blocks of the peaceful coexistence of cultures. In June 2014 I gave a talk in Ankara; next, then Hungarian Ambassador to Ankara, János Óvári organised a meeting with Mr. Öcal Oğuz, head of the Turkish UNESCO Committee so that we can discuss prospects of future cooperation. As a result of this discussion a small Turkish delegation arrived in Hungary the same summer. The delegation visited the Karcag Festival, because the famous traditional dishes of the local Kun population had preserved a significant Turkish influence over the centuries. We also visited the city of Pécs and its region, meaning the Southern parts of Hungary, including Mohács and its area. This tour included visiting the spot where Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Great died, as is commonly known, during the siege of Szigetvár. During this trip the Turkish delegation became acquainted with a number of dishes which are believed to have become widespread in Southern Hungary due to Turkish influence. Based on all of these experiences we went on to start outlining the work plan of future co-operation in which we first wished to explore the shared traits of culinary culture, but naturally also targeted other elements of popular culture. Thus we made it our goal to also turn our attention to folk music and study those analogies in melody-lines and other parallel traits of folk music which Béla Bartók had already identified; as well as to study folk customs, burial rites, motifs of folk art and similarities in folk costumes. The first phase of this work plan was carried out when, in 2016, Hungarian researchers set out to Turkey where, between April 16-24, we and the Turkish participants of the project visited several Turkish communities including the Nogay Tatars. Next, the Turkish researchers came to Hungary and acquainted themselves with the culture of the Kunság and Jászság regions which have preserved a whole line of traditions from the period in question. In early October 2016 researchers held a short symposium together where they discussed the interesting parallels they had identified and analysed. We wish to publish these proceedings in a joint volume. Hopefully this cooperation will continue in the coming years as the first stage was dedicated almost solely to exploring the parallels in culinary culture. 8 Proceedings Semiotics of Hungarian Wedding Meals Mihály Hoppál The Semiotics of Eating At the beginning of the 60s, in the first really important studies of the structuralist and semiotic investigations, when the analysis of everyday events became an expressed task, the interpretation of food ways and eating habits as systems of symbols came into the centre of scholarly interests. Roland Barthes, for instance, easily found the Saussurean categories of langue and parole within this systems of signs. According to him, the language of eating contains: “1. excluding rules (taboos of eating); 2. the meaningful oppositions of the units to be determined (e.g. salty/sweet type); 3. the rules of composition which can be either simultaneous (within level of one course) or successive (on the level of a menu); 4. the etiquette of eating habits which work as the rhetorics of eating. The very rich ‘parole’ of eating habits contains all the individual or familiar varieties of preparing and composing of foods (the way cooking within a family which is determined by certain family customs and which can be regarded as the idiolect of a family). A menu can, e.g., very well show the functioning of language and parole: each menu is closely related to a (national or regional and social) structure, but can be differently realized depending on the given occasion or users.” It is very characteristic that this work was published in 1964. It is worth continuing the quotation: “… similarly to it, a linguistic ‘form’ contains free variations and combinations which one needs to express his own thoughts. The relation of language and speech of eating in quite similar to that connection which we find in spoken languages.- The language of eating is based on usage i.e. the different strata of speech: the individual innovations (new recipes made-up) can always gain established values. Contrary to the system of dressing, here the activity of a decisive group is lacking: the language of eating can come into being only by wide and collective usage or by individual ‘speech”” (Barthes 1976: 26). It is worth extending the French scholar’s statement adding that one of the main characteristics of food (and eating) is that in can be interpreted as a sign which * Prof. Mihály Hoppál DSc, senior research fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Arts Research Institute). [email protected] 11 operates in the sphere of social usage. The most famous ethno-culinar theory is not progressing along this path after all. This trend deals with the contrasting element of another – namely the intellectual – sphere of culture expressing them with the terms of fundamental material oppositions. These basic categories are: raw, cooked and rotten (Lévi-Strauss 1977: 221–228). Claude Lévi-Strauss published his “culinary triangle” (see below) first in 1965, and its further versions show that the food-code contains other meanings too (Leach 1974: 30). state of material ––– transformed (élaboré) natural condition (non élaboré) cooked ––– rotten raw culture –––nature He found these meanings in the course of the analysis of some myths by connecting the raw-cooked – and, in the second volume of “Mythologiques” (Lévi-Strauss 1973: 20) the honey-tobacco, or rather honey-ashes opposites with culture-nature opposition. In social anthropology it was mainly the members of the “London school of symbolic anthropology” (Newall 1976) who, dealt with the examination of the symbolic meaning of food. Raymond Firth deals with the language of eating in his work titled “Symbols: Public and Private” and in one of its chapters he summarizes his experience gained in Tikopia (Poynesia). He said: “The Tikopia use of food as a symbolic instruments to express ideas of social cooperation and social status” (Firth 1973: 253). In the social sphere of culture, cooperation is brought about by the equality of the participants while hierarchy originates from social inequality and these relations can also be expressed in the language of materials or food we can speak about social phenomena. In the book of Mary Douglas’ “Implicit Meanings” a whole chapter deals with the analysis of the hidden but actually very well articulated meanings of eating habits (Douglas 1975: 249–279). Decoding the meanings of eating, her starting point should be the fact that food and eating are partly biological, partly social phenomena. In other words it means that eating, beside performing biological functions, also fulfills certain social needs. Douglas enumerates the elements of the system as well as the possible paradigms. It is worth mentioning some of her interesting statements; according to her opinion, a meal usually incorporates a number of contrasts, such as hot and cold, bland and spiced, liquid and solid, and of course, cooked and raw elements arranged in varied forms. 12 She calls our attention to the importance of drinks before, during and after meals which can well express the degree of intimacy (see also Frake 1979). Broadly speaking, the choice of different foods dished up can show whether it is served on an everyday, a festive or a family occasion, and in the latter case – whether we welcome a close friend or a respectable guest whose social rank is higher than ours. The menu of a festive meals has its strict, “official” order as is was particularly true in the past. The menu as a carefully arranged order of dishes has a symbolic meaning: “… the meaning of a meal is found in a system of repeated analogies. Each meal carries something of the meaning of the other meals; each meal is a structured social event which structures others in its own image. The upper limit of its meaning is set by the range incorporated in the most important member of its series “carries a message for a given community” (Douglas 1975: 260). Lévi-Strauss, writing an introduction to Marcell Mauss’ study “The Gift” rightly stated that if we want to understand a social fact – and a meal can be regarded as one – we have to consider it as an integral part of a larger unit. “To understand a social fact correctly must understand it completely that is to say from ‘without’ as a thing, but as a thing of which is an integral part…” (Lévi-Strauss in Mauss 1960: XXVIII). The case is quite similar if we examine dressing and its system of symbols – with a special regard to national costume – where a single piece of clothes can have a special symbolic meaning while another meaning is carried by the whole dress. This latter one gains its real meaning in the context of feasts, and is continuously reinforced by the recurrent series of significant occasions, exactly by the perpetual recurrence. The above-mentioned tried to find out the symbolic meanings of material qualities which come into being during the preparation of meals and they also tried to connect them with the different types of cultural and of social facts. Now, instead of the examination of the individual dishes, we are trying to find out the meaning of that oppositions which can be found between the first and the last courses. Wedding Feast and its Courses Let us see now some examples and some descriptions. Now we are going to deal with wedding feast which is one of the main events of human life. It can be easily noticed that such festive occasions have preserved a lot of customs (their elements, or some fragments of old rites) which, in everyday practice, quickly conformed to new situations. Several studies have already dealt with the symbolic meaning of certain elements of wedding – e. g. the ostentation of plenty and wealth, the motifs of magical fertility rites the ‘language’ of different wedding insignia and even with the sexual symbolics of certain foods (e.g. cockscomb, shell-shaped noodles, pigtail, egg, apple, etc.). We could mention many further examples to show that such a social event, exactly because of its importance within a little community, is full of symbolic element. We can notice the condensation of meanings in each ‘code’ that takes part in the wedding, which is a typical pluricodally performed social event (Hoppál 1979). 13 Our first example is a description of a wedding in Felsőtárkány, in the 1950s, which we quoted from the collection of Ferenc Bakó: “Each meal the best man announced and greeted with a poem, and the dish arriving first he always put before the young couple. The women in attendance on the bride, who stood behind her, always put a dish where “there was a lack of it” i.e. where the table was “empty”. The first course was always meat soup with shell-noodles called “ribbed noodle soup” and it was followed by stuffed cabbage. The third course was either roast beef or fried chicken with rice or noodles. The fourth dish, which was roast pork, was served only in well-to-do families. … At the end of dinner, after different confectionery were served, the bride herself offered a round cake to the guests.” In connection with the preparations he tells in that among the first events of wedding the taking over of the guests’ and relatives present is very important. From the point of view of some further questions it is important that he also mentions some data about how much and what kind of cakes the invited families brought to the young couple. For instance, it was quite usual that they brought three big round wedding cakes called “morván kalács” together with two, three or four so-called ‘with hand’ cakes that meant two, three of four plates full of different sweet bisquits’ (Bakó 1955: 391). (Italics are mime, M. H. István Tari described the customs of old weddings in an other Hungarian village Heréd: “For dinner they serve roast meat and sausage, and finish it with cakes and gateau repeating the greeting words of midday-dinner … When the cakes are served the best man recites the following little verse: Here is a lovely cake baked from flour, clean and white Mix it with some sugar: it won’t be hard to bite, Even virgin-honey could not be much sweeter, If you just look at it you’ll be heavy-enter. It is loved very much by all kinds of women, Even girls, pretty girls could not stop eating, And as men also like such delicious sweeties, So just please, help yourself, start at once and east it!” (Tari 1978: 11, 20). 14 The courses of the wedding feast in Galgamácsa were described by Juli Dudás, a peasant woman and naive painter, in her autobiography: They were merrily eating the meals of all kinds that had just been made in the kitchen. There were several courses: boiled meat with horse radish, paprika hen with small dumplings, stuffed chicken with delicious cucumber, Székely stuffed cabbage with rib-roast, strudel filled with curd or poppy and different cakes (Valkóné Dudás 1976: 201). The wedding diner in Kötegyán, in Békés county, we can show by another peasant autobiography: “After the ceremony they go home and have dinner: chicken-soup, shell-noodles, roast meat with paprika, gateau or cakes.” From the autobiography of Mihály Bujdosó. From another peasant autobiography we can describe the dishes of the best men who were called together: “In the appointed evening the best men came together. First they had dinner; it was stewed meat with paprika, strudel and cakes.” Selection from the writing of János Balla, a peasant from Visonta (Hoppál – Küllős – Manga 1974: 287). In the first decades of the century, the dishes of a wedding feast in Diósgyőr were the followings: “During dinner the best man greeted each other with wine in rhymes. The courses usually served up were: 1. chicken-broth with shell-noddles 2. boiled meat with red beet 3. meat with sauce and macaroni 4. stuffed meat with cucumber or compote 5. stuffed cabbage 6. gruel. They put clarified butter, honey or cinnamon on it. That is the time of the so-called gruel-money collecting: a funny lad, with his arm tied up, walks to the guests saying: “I’ ve burnt it, I’ve burnt it” 7. cakes 8. The present of the women in attendance on the bride and the bridesmaids: a Hungarian speciality called “fonott kalács” which is a kind of brioche, and pretzel. 9. At last they put a bucket of sweet wine on the table. It is served by a woman after she has mulled in with sugar and cinnamon. Everyone drinks from it then they continue it with ordinary wine.” (Madai 1966: 329). 15 From the above-mentioned data we can point out the main opposite pairs or the courses, i.e. that the feast begins with meat course and ends with cakes. This opposition involved the contrast of further elements: the beginning of meals – the end of it meat (of animal origin) – pastry (of vegetable origin) boiled paste (which has only a secondary role) – baked pastry (which is a main dish) salty – sweet different pieces of ment – each piece is of the same quality having different quality the pieces are not equal in size – each piece is the same size it is hard to divide – it is easy to divide inequality – equality A certain change of meaning can be noticed in the structure of the meals: The dishes of other important feasts seem to be quite similar. “Pigkilling was immediately followed by dinner. This event shows that level in cooking that Őrség can produced in quantity and quality as well. The weddings, christening feasts and other festive occasions all represent this level, but while these occasions are rather incidental, dinner after pig-killing is an organic part or peasant life and nourishment. Let us see, for instance, what is a pig-killing feast like in a medium-sized peasant farm in Senyeháza. It is quite exclusive in number, but now we will deal, neither with the number of those present nor with the quantity of meals. Here we are going to describe its main characteristics only. Drinking before eating is quite usual as well as after each course and during eating as many times as people are inclined to do so. 1 course: meat soup from pork with vermicelli (noodles) 2nd course: boiled meat from pork with horse radish with cream, bread. 3rd course: boiled pock meat made with sauerkraut, bread 4th course: roast meat, roast liver, bread. With the meat they eat table beet and red cabbage. 5th course: tart, apple 6th course: black coffee with kalács 16 After meals carousing goes on. The dishes above more or less represent all kinds of meals (soup, meat vegetables, garnishment, cakes drinks, fruit, etc.) The order and gradualness of serving have a middle-class character. It partly contains the elements of old peasant order, partly shows some new achievements. The best materials are used and are prepared in all possible ways (boiling, roasting braising, etc.). As a matter of fact, these festive dishes – completed or narrowed down; made in an ordinary or in a new way are quite similar on the whole territory of Őrség” (Kardos 1943: 87). instead of the unequally divided, inequal qualities the participants are finally offered the feeling of equality by food of equal quality and distribution. If we accept these data on the level of a wedding-dinner then the data which refer to the end of the whole social event, i.e. the end of the wedding fest should be even more convincing. In 1972, we shot an ethnographic documentary film in Boldog, a village in Heves county. One of the most important motif of the wedding feast there which, for this very reason, became the last scene of our film – is in connection with a big, sweet, breadlike raised cake, a speciality which in Hungary is called “kalács”. This cake, the kalács, which is decorated with honey-cakes and is brought by the bride’s guests, is taken apart and together with other sweets and divided among those who are present. The title of the film is “Wedding in Boldog” (1973 – directed by József Kis). In Visonta, another village of the same region, “the bride’s dance did not begin until the present from the bride’s home arrived which contained cakes and roast meat. From these, after dance, everybody got a piece” (Hoppál – Küllős – Manga 1974: 292). The last phase of a wedding in Heréd is: “Music goes on as long as the bride’s godmother and godfather of the confirmee arrive accompanied by 10–15 persons bringing along the bridal kalács decorated in a special way with paper roses. (It is always the bride’s godmother of the confirmee who bakes the kalács decorated in a special way with paper roses. (It is always the bride’s godmother of the confirmee who bakes the kalács or has it baked by someone else.) When they arrive the music stops and the bride’s sponsors at confirmation take off the ornaments from the kalács. They cut it up and serve it round offering it both to the bride’s and the bridegroom’s guests. It is served in a special way: the bride’s godmother of the confirmee cuts down a slice and gives it to a guest while the bride’s godfather of the confirmee fills his glass with sweet and strong drink. When they cut into the kalács the best mand recites the following verse: Itt a fehér lisztből készült jóféle sütemény Cukorral vegyítve nem is olyan kemény, Olyan édes az, mint a csurgatott méz, Mindjárt megkívánja az ember, ha ránéz. Felvagdossák verge a szép nagy kalácsot, Asszonyok dicséretére vált adottságot. Mazsolával szeretik az itteni szüzek, 17 Annál is inkább öregek és őszek. Bátran lehet enni, gyomornak nem nehéz, Fogjon meg minden darabot kilencvenkilenc kéz. Here is a lovely cake baked from flour, clean and white Mix it with some sugar: it won’t be hard to bile, Even virgin-honey could not be much sweeter, If you just look at it you’ll be heavy-eater. the big kalács is at last cup up into pieces, The big loaf, milky loaf sings the women’s praises. Virgins of the village like it with sweet raisins, And the old and the bald also enjoy tasting. It’s not stodge for stomach, you just don’t be frightened, So let then every piece held by ninety-nine hand.” (Tari 1979: 25). The last line of the best man’s verse is particularly nice, as the “ninety-nine hand” actually means that everyone should be given a piece of kalács, of this sweet-bread. The wedding pretzel of the final ceremony in Csíkszentdomokos (Sindominic, Rumania) has an even more expressive symbolic meaning, so we should refer to it in more details: “The custom described below has slowly died out and has been missing from today’s wedding customs for years, but it still lives on in the memory of old and middle-aged generations of Csíkszentdomokos. So it still can be described with the help of concordant statements and recollections which can also complete each other. 18 The pretzel is the best man’s generous and symbolic present, which can he prepares in honour of the bridegroom or rather the new couple… The most important part of the pretzel is a carefully selected, one and a half meter long white pine whose foot is stabbed through a holed, round ‘kalács’ of a bread size. Then, it is fixed in a bore which is in the middle of a handcart-like thing called ‘raba’. The big, round kalács is surrounded by smaller round ones. They also put here roast hen and roast pig. The hen is ornamented with garland, and the decoration of the pig requires even more care: they put a big carrot in his mouth and fasten a red apple to both of its ears. They do so to “pester the bride: what she’ll get is of that kind, that is what she has to expect.” Another hint of sexual life which can be found here is the figures of naked boy and girl kneaded from pastry. Their sexual organs are enlarged, stressed, and they are set against each other in order to show that the lad is “teasing the girl”. The branches of the pine were decorated similarly to a Christmas tree. The srung on a thread fritter-like pastry or other things that they kneaded in the shape of a heart, ring, etc. These strings they hung up on the branches. Sometimes strings of dried plums were also put on the pretzel… While singing, the boys put the pretzel… While singing, the boys put the pretzel on the main table before the bridegroom and the bride. They may not have touched it. The pretzel could be eaten just later when only parents and close relatives were present. It was the best man who told when to start eating: the bride and the bridegroom gave a piece to each and it was compulsory to eat it.” (Balázs 1976: 142). A similar round-shaped wedding kalács was described by Ádám Sebestyén, a chronicler of the Székely people who migrated from Bukovina (Andrásfalva) to Hungary. “The so-called ‘násznagykalács’ (the kalács of the best man) was not usual in Andrásfalva, and it was made only in well-to-do families where to role of the best man was taken by a rich godfather, sponsor at confirmation or uncle. It was made as follows: Into a round plate-like board 60–70 cm in diameter and smoothed with a plane, six candle-shaped stich were fixed. At the bottom, they winded the sticks round with a pretzel or rather a kalács, and on each stick they but pastry horns as many as they could up to a height of 50–60 cm. The empty spaces between the sticks were filled with bottles of honeyed strong drinks, and decorated with fruit (apple, plum, pear, etc), honey-cakes and garlands. This kalács weighed about 50–60 kilograms. It must have been a very strong man who could, on the top of his head, take it from the house of the best man to the house where the wedding was held… After dancing for a while, he started off at the head of the procession and walking along the street he danced ‘with the »kalács«’ to the nice music. Illés Mátyás (Matyi) tells us that once it was him who brought ‘násznagykalács’ on his head, but is was so heavy that a hunck appeared on his neck which has never disappeared. Usually one man was not able to bring it along alone and had to be relieved by somebody else… ‘Násznagykalács’ was cut kup at midnight. Everyone got a piece o fit so they could taste it. They ate it with pleasure because it tasted very good… That is how it is told by old people.” (Sebestyén 1972: 182–183). Here we are not going to deal with the sexual symbolism of the wedding cake kalács which had a magic role of fertility. We would like to emphasize only that the round “kalács” was divided among the two families and the relatives, and it also indicated the end of the ceremony. It can be quite important that the above description speaks about a “big, round cake ‘kalács’”. A round cake or gateau – as a consequence of its 19 form – can be easily divided into similar pieces. I think this feature has an important role at the end of the wedding feast for then – by the division of tasty, sweet cakes into pieces of the same size – the inequality among people (the disruptive forces within a community) is tried to be hidden behind an illusory, short-lived equality. In this way, the community – in the language of objects and food eliminates social unequalities and re-establishes equality among those who are present. At this important turning point of life it gives (or rather lends) the participant the feeling of contentment (and not subjugation). We find this hidden communication as a social mechanism of great importance not only because it is able to connect – with amazing ingenuity – the biological, social and cultural spheres of life, but also because it is able to stir up the feeling of equality and, with this, to help to maintain the general condition and stability of a community. Instead of a Summary; a few words about analogue coding The social construction of reality is made by the help of culturally accepted patterns (i.e. we speak about colour term or kinship terminology). Their acquirement is carried out in the course of social events. Such “occasions” are e.g. conversation parties, dinners, receptions, feasts, etc. Ethnographical research has paid relatively little attention to the examination of such social events and gatherings (Hoppál 1977). To a community such happenings or gatherings are really important because a range of different facts, ideas and beliefs could become imperative norms in the course of such events. Legitimatization supports the “universe of symbols” by which we attach (Berger-Luckman 1967: 110–111) meaning to a social fact. As Raymond Firth rightly said that one of the functions of creating symbols is the promotion of social contact and cooperation (Firth 1973: 90). 20 Culture usually creates signs and symbols in each case when the meaning of a certain feature is not entirely clear or cannot be exactly evaluated i.e. when an often recurring phenomenon must be explained and identified on a very general level. The essential meaning of symbol was well defined by Wheelwright (1962: 92): “A symbol is relatively stable and repetable element of perceptual experience, standing for some larger meaning or set of meanings which cannot be given, or not fully given in perceptual experience itself.” Such are, for instance, the power relations or man’s place within the social hierarchy of a community – these are regulated by etiquette, with its refined system of symbols. At the same time social behaviour controlled by the of etiquette shows us the existing relations within a given community and with this, it also helps to explore the structure of the collectivity. What practically happens is that those elements of the language of facts in which the differences of age, sex and social status play an important role are translated into the language of etiquette. So, from a pragmatic point of view, the function of etiquette-communication is to establish the place of the individual within the structure of society (Civjan 1975: 373). A feast, a simple drinking-bout or even a thoroughly organized diplomatic meeting can reflect and does reflect the social position of the participants. Frake dealing with the customs of drinking writes that “such meeting aim at rousing a sympathetic feeling by the end of the event in those who are present… The carousal in Subanun provides a good opportunity to increase, define and manipulate the individual’s social relations with the help of speech” (Frake 1979: 273). It was especially true in the Middle Ages when different types of feast and warm hospitality were important means to maintain social relations. “Feast among those who lived in primitive societies became a kind of ‘competition’ to show who can offer the most liberal table. The host wanted to outrival the others. Of course, the guest later on had to return the invitation and he also had to return the hospitality with and even more plentiful feast. The opposition of glory and opulence is very characteristic of primitive societies. In the light of this contrasts, wealth is regarded a value only if it helps to reach glory and social estimation. As we have already seen it, instead of hoarding money, it practically meant wasting and dispensing money, spending it on feast, etc. In other words: having money became a kind of virtue. Charity and feasts are keywords which form the unity of wealth and culture in barbaric societies” (Gurevics 1974: 198, 209). Of course, the diplomatic receptions and dinner-parties of today are also good examples o fit. A peasant wedding and still more, its courses expressed especially well financial and social situation. As we have already mentioned it, from the food served we can easily understand social differences. “…and categories of cooking are always peculiarly appropriate for use as symbols of social differentiation” (Leach 1974: 34). The precedence at table sitting position in a wedding gives even more expressive examples as it clearly shows one’s position and importance within a given group. First we are going to quote the recollection of a peasant in Gyöngyösvisonta: “…we asked the wedding guests to take their seats: it was the task of the best men. The most distinguished persons used to sit at the head of the table. Sot the best men, the bride and the bridegroom took the best seats at the table.” (Hoppál – Küllős – Manga 1974: 291). “The best men made tables and seats for dinner from boards put on three-legged trestles. The best man who directed the whole ceremony used to give the orders: men had to sit on the right side of the house while women sat on the left. If the dinner took place at the house of the bride, she – together with her girl-friends and those young women who helped in dressing-sat at the head of the table-, beside the best man. If the wedding feast was held in the house of the bridegroom this place was taken by the bridegroom, the best men, the woman in attendance on the bide and the bridesmaids. Bottles of strong drinks and brad 21 was put on the table and everyone got a spoon. The dish, which was either a kind of sour soup boiled with smoked meat or meat soup with poultry was brought in by the best men in big earthenware dishes. ‘Four persons from one plate’, he said, and with this, four of the guests bent over one big plate starting to eat usually with wooden spoons.” (Horváth 1971: 128). The customs were quite similar in the early 1700s. That is how Péter Apor describes a wedding feast: “… the hosts made the guests sit down separating the guests of the bridegroom from those who had been invited by the bride’s father. The bridegroom sat at the head of the table. The bride on his side could not even swallow a bite, just cried and tried to brush away her tears. The best man sat next to the bridegroom, then came the bridesman followed by the others in an order of importance. On the other side, next to the bride sat the woman in attendance on the bride, then the bridesmaid followed by the other women. The guests of the father of the bride, both men and women sat according to an order of importance: the host sat at the centre. When they all had taken their seats different dishes were brought in accompanied with merry music. After everything had been put on the table, they all stood up, the priest blessed the table and then the host started to offer food to the guests.” (Apor, 1978: 102). So the priority at table could express social hierarchy or at least one’s temporary situation in the language of “spatial arrangement” or of proxemic code. In other words, we can express different social relationships in term of proxemity or use of space: less – bigger the guest – the chief character of the event a distant relative – a close relative poor – rich the end of the table – The head of the table far – near All of these oppositions are suitable for expressing the social relations of peoples. 22 And here we have to say a few words about the two possible kinds of communication. One of them is the so-called “digital” communication. Its name is originated from the phenomenon that each information is the combination of two element: 1 and 0. The other kind of communication is analogical. This is the manipulation of quantitatively and qualitatively different signs. Human communication can be operated in these two totally different ways. One kind o fit is when we express something with the help of analogy, for instance with drawing. On the other hand we can express something by naming it. So, for example, the sentence “the cat has caught the mouse” can be expressed with pictures as well. It is quite an unusual way of communication and we rather use words and names (either in speech or in writing). These two kinds of communication are, as a matter of fact, similar to digital and analogical modalities – picture is analogical, word is digital. The naming of things – whatever word we use – is obviously arbitrary; there is no connection between the form of the word and its meaning. Words are arbitrary signs. On the other hand, is analogical communication, a sign has an organic connection with meaning. Here the sign or symbol used makes it easier to understand the expressed phenomenon (Watzlawick – Beavin – Jackson, 1973: 192). According to certain scholars, analogical communication must have developed in a very early period of human evolution, and that is why it is of universal validity to a larger extent than verbal communication which is based on binary (yes-no) logic. A good example o fit is that with the help of the language of gestures or with drawings we can make ourselves understood even if we “speak” with someone whose language we do not know. American researchers examining the questions of nonverbal communication demonstrated that there are a lot of phenomena that are based entirely on analogical communication, and which changed just very little in the course of evolution. This kind communication already existed between our mammal ancestors, and with this people could always determine their relations to each other (Watzlawick – Beavin – Jackson, 1973: 194). It is a well-known fact that our ability of tasting, smelling as well as our different feelings are coded not in a digital but in a analogical way (Sebeok 1972: 10, 21). The motions, the expressive gestures and pictures are coded in the memory in continuous terms. It is obvious that two kinds of sensation, the perception of space and taste can easily complete each other. Those hidden analogies that we can find from time to time between certain elements explain each other and reinforce their revealed meanings. So, for instance, the priority at table with its ceremonial structure inform us about invisible social structure as the unequal division of meat also makes us conscious of an existing inequality. – On the other hand, the dishes and the equal division of sweets at the end of the wedding dinner try to express equality among those who are present. This invisible mechanism translates the tensions of social existence into the language of the tangible physical reality – here it means the language of food – and with this it also tries to reduce those tensions. In my opinion, this continuous code-witching is a very important mechanism in the functioning of culture, and – at the same time –, through the reproduction of social harmony, it also guarantees the transmission and survival of traditions. 23 Bibliography Apor, Péter. Metamorphosis Transylvaniae. 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Az emberi kommunikáció pragmatikája (The pragmatics of human communication). In B. BUDA (ed.): Kommunikáció elméleti szöveggyűjtemény I. rész (Chrestomathy of studies in the theory of communication. Part 1.). 179–195. Budapest, Tankönyvkiadó. In WHEELWRIGHT, Ph. (ed.) Metaphor and Reality. 1962. Bloomington, Indiana, University Press, 1973. Zolnay, László. Kincses Magyarország – középkori művelődésünk történetéből (Treasures of Hungary – On the History of culture in Hungary in the Middle Ages). Budapest, Magvető Kiadó, 1977. 25 Edible Heritages: Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and Multinational Cuisine Policies Evrim Ölçer Özünel* To establish peace in the minds of humanity is in the lead of the UNESCO ideals. If world history is taken into consideration, then it is observed that to be able to meet around the same dinner table is one of the important elements among countries, which transforms wars into peace and which settles disagreements between individuals amicably. Consequently, the cultural shared features and cultural changes of the action of food and cooking is one of the important areas that should be followed. The meals eaten by collecting persons from two separate cultures around the dinner table can make references to similar cultural dynamics, even if they are in geographies that are distant from each other. Even if geography, belief and social factors put persons into appearances different from each other, the kitchen equipment and materials and the ingredients used for making food contain some shared features. Beyond this, cuisine culture contains the shared points of humanity semiotically and is of vital importance for being able to continue the race of mankind in the world. These shared features are important for cultures becoming closer together and for intercultural dialogue. Together with the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), the safeguarding of the cultural heritages related to cuisine culture also acquired importance. Since cuisine, cultural identity and state of belonging are important forms of expression, the states, which are a party to the Convention, presented both multinational files and national files and they were registered on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. However, when the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity is taken into consideration, then it is also striking that the cuisine culture is represented less than the other fields of heritage. However, fields related to cuisine culture are included in many of the UNESCO programs and conventions. Up until now, of the 430 elements * Assoc. Prof. Dr., Faculty Member, Department of Turkish Folklore, Faculty of Literature, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey. [email protected], [email protected] 27 registered on the list, only a 5% portion is related to cuisine culture. The cuisine culture is also important in the context of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and Creative Cities Network programs, which have been transformed into a significant target for the UNESCO. The second of the 2030 sustainable development goals of the United Nations are directly related to the food of the world and nutrition sources. Goal two has been constructed completely on finishing hunger, providing food safety, developing nutrition opportunities and on supporting sustainable agriculture. This also shows that when even more of the elements belonging to the cuisine culture are treated with the perspective of safeguarding of the convention on intangible cultural heritage, then it could develop a strategy that is compatible with the sustainable development goals. Consequently, it is also important in the context of stressing the sustainable aspects of traditional nourishment by taking under protection many more elements related to cuisine culture. First, by mentioning the importance of where the food and cuisine culture stands according to the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, it will draw attention to the activities realized previously in the fields of implementation of the Convention. The heritages related to the cuisine culture that have entered the representative list as of 2003 when the Convention went into effect will be studied critically. Subsequently, the multinational file policies of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will be evaluated. While doing every one of these, attention will be drawn to the multinational file opportunities that could be formed between the Turkish and Hungarian cultures by taking into consideration the data of the field studies obtained within the scope of the Interactive Project for the Shared Cuisine of Turkey and Hungary. The heritage files presented related to the cuisine culture have been criticized by some researchers with the justification that they support the transformation to nationalism, the breaking away from their context, excessive commercialization, touristification and the fast food culture. Certainly, this type of threat is not only for the elements, which are presented related to the cuisine culture, they are also valid for the other heritage fields. However, it appears that the threats, such as nationalization of cuisine with the multinational file strategies that would be formed and excessive commercialization could be prevented with multinational protection strategies. Consequently, it is important to administer the shared cultural heritage accumulation of humanity with multinational files related especially to the cuisine culture and to convey them to the future. 28 The need to talk on the action of eating food and on cuisine is universal. To eat food is beyond being only a bodily pleasure, it is a form of communication constituted with the societal applications, beliefs, taboos and norms of many kinds of edible, presentable and producible products, and a strong network of interaction. These network cultures, religions, geographies and economies are connected to each other. Every one of these connections mentioned also overlap with the UNESCO ideals, because essentially, cuisine is a culture, an identity, a state of belonging, a dialogue, a cultural diversity, a ritual, a societal sexuality, a nationality, an industry, a creativity, a sustainable development and a universal form of communication. The UNESCO takes an interest in the cuisine culture within the scope of many conventions and programs. Among these are agricultural policy programs, the Creative Cities Network, the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage stresses the living and continuously transforming structure of the cultural heritage. It serves a key function in the present-day for being able to safeguard the heritages, identities and cultural diversities of different groups, individuals and communities under threat in response to the issue of globalization by transferring the intangible cultural heritage from generation to generation. The expression intangible cultural heritage treats completely the heritages living in the present-day and envisions to safeguard them (Convention text, Article 2). The intangible cultural heritage treats in an inclusive manner the cultural heritage, which lives in the present-day, more than the heritages that remained in the past. It is aimed with this convention to be able to safeguard the cultural heritage in a conscious manner by individuals, groups and communities. When it is approached from this viewpoint, then it is observed that the cuisine culture and the societal applications produced by it completely conform to the definition of living heritage mentioned in the Convention. On this point, it is necessary to mention what course was followed as of the first careful attention, which was for the cuisine culture of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. At the Third Intergovernmental Committee meeting of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage realized in İstanbul in 2008, the proposal was expressed by Peru, one of the party states, that a sub-category expert meeting be organized on the practices related to the cuisine culture for developing the implementation of the Convention. After this proposal was deemed suitable by the Committee, the meeting of experts was realized in Vitré, France, from 4 to 5 April 2009. The experts at this meeting emphasized that the cuisine culture and the practices related to these were not only a part of the act of eating and biological needs, but that they were an important part of the history of culture distilled from the experiences and knowledge of humanity throughout their long history. The experts at the meeting decided that the cuisine applications contributed to the feeling of identity and to the continuity of communities, groups and persons and that cultural diversity contributed to the advancement of human creativity and 29 sustainable development. At the conclusion of the meeting, it was stressed among those at the meeting that it was mandatory to provide for the participation in the protection program processes for being able to safeguard the cuisine cultures of the aforementioned groups, individuals and communities (Maffei 2012: 245). It can be stated that after this meeting realized in Vitré, the attention of the party states to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage started to be oriented towards the cuisine culture. After the Vitré experts’ meeting, three important heritages related to cuisine were recorded onto the Representative List for the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity at the Fifth Intergovernmental Committee Meeting realized in 2010 for the Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. These heritages, which were recorded in the field of gastronomy, also showed that the careful attention of the party states to the UNESCO Convention for the Intangible Cultural Heritage started to change. This success in the field of gastronomy, which had not drawn much attention up until that year, can be observed as the sliding to an important paradigm in the context of paying more attention to the symbolic and ritualistic world produced around cuisine by the communities. One of these three heritages were the heritage file of Mexico titled “People of Corn: The Ancestral Cuisine of Mexico. Rituals, Ceremonies and Cultural Practices of the Cuisine of the Mexican People”, which was proposed for the List of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2005 and which was not accepted by the committee. Whereas, the justification for rejecting this file was the fact that the ritualistic and symbolic meanings of corn in the Mexican culture were not transferred sufficiently well. The fact that the file was rejected by the committee with the justification that the ritualistic and symbolic aspects were neglected shows that the heritage related to the cuisine culture of the Convention was not only treated in the context of gastronomy, and that the entire cultural codes formed around food were important, more than the calories, food values and contents of the materials. Cuisine culture is evaluated within societal applications, which is one of the five fields of the intangible cultural heritage. Whereas, societal applications mean the forms of action, which are strengthened by feelings of identity and belonging of the community, individuals or groups. The meals eaten together at religious festivals/national holidays, special days and harvest seasons have a strengthening effect on the community dynamics. 30 Mexico’s file, which was rejected in 2005, was once again presented to the committee in 2010 with the title “Traditional Mexican Cuisine—Ancestral, Ongoing Community Culture, the Michoacán Paradigm” and this time, it was registered on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Whereas, the most important reason why this file was accepted by the committee is that the file set forth the participation of the community as a value with priority and gave place to a ritual world formed around this culture. This file presented, it recorded a comprehensive cultural model to the list, which included the agricultural applications belonging to the traditional Mexican cuisine, the rituals that developed connected to this, the skills of the elderly, the kitchen equipment, materials and techniques and the traditions and customs belonging to their ancestors. This heritage is possible with the participation of many members of the community in the entire traditional food chain. The process of eating together at the same table from the stage of sowing to the time of harvest and afterwards is evaluated as a whole. Furthermore, an important reason why this heritage was registered onto the list is that fact that it includes every one of the aspects of the social, environmental and economic sustainable developments of the heritage. Two more files, other than this file, were registered on the representative list in 2010. One of these was the file titled “The Gastronomic Meal of the French”, which was presented to the committee by France. The file that is on the subject of the fine points of the French cuisine and what this expresses as a society and the cultural texture that formed around it, is important. The foods in the French cuisine, such as meals, births, weddings, anniversaries, successes and unions, are the entire societal applications made for celebrating the important moments in the lives of individuals and groups. It is the presentation of a festive dinner table, which brings persons together for enjoying the good food and alcoholic beverages of this cuisine. This type of food emphasizes unity, pleasure of taste and the balance between persons and the nourishments in nature. Among the important elements of the French cuisine the following can be listed as specific actions, such as to have a recipe repertoire that is constantly developing; to preferably buy local products for bringing the tastes together in the best manner; to match the foods with wine; to have a beautiful and esthetic table order; and during the meal to smell and taste the things and foods at the table. Furthermore, the French cuisine is also attached to the past about traditions. It is considered to be rather important to transfer the rituals to the young generation during the meal. The French cuisine confronts us with a good example of bringing family and friends closer to each other and for strengthening the societal ties. Two heritages mentioned above, which were registered on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in the field of gastronomy, were registered as a national heritage. Whereas, the Mediterranean Diet file was presented as a multinational file by Spain, Greece, Italy and Morocco. The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage encourages multinational files. Generally, the intangible cultural heritage is shared by communities on the lands of more than one country and the multinational inscriptions belonging to these 31 types of heritage that are shared on the Lists constitute a significant mechanism for the development of international cooperation. Consequently, the Committee decided to form an online system that could announce the requests to prepare a multinational file by the Party States in the fourteenth Agenda item of the Seventh Intergovernmental Committee Meeting. Whereas, basically, the reason for the preparation of this system was for the Party States to be able to learn of the moderator countries and cooperation opportunities by seeing the multinational file candidates. Furthermore, Article 1.5 of the Operational Directives of the Convention has been separated on this subject: States’ Parties are encouraged to jointly submit multinational nominations to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity when an element is found on the territory of more than one State Party. The Committee encourages the submission of subregional or regional programs, projects and activities as well as those undertaken jointly by States’ Parties in geographically discontinuous areas. States’ Parties may submit these proposals individually or jointly (Operational Directives, 2016: 30). 32 The Convention clearly states that multinational files are important for intercultural dialogue and becoming closer and encourages the party states on this subject. The first file related to multinational cuisine, which is registered on the representative list of the Convention, is the element titled the “Mediterranean Diet”. This file, which was expanded in 2013 with the participation of Cyprus, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Morocco and Portugal, is of importance as a multinational cuisine culture file. The Mediterranean diet, includes a series of skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions related to the products obtained, harvest, fishing, animal husbandry, preservation, processing, cooking and especially the sharing and consumption of foods. The cultural identity and the continuity of the communities is the foundation in the Mediterranean basin together with food. This is the moment of social change and communications and has the meaning of the approval of the identity of the family, group or community. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes a lifestyle oriented towards the values of hospitality, neighborliness, intercultural dialogue and creativity and by showing respect for diversity. It plays a vital role at the cultural places, festivals and celebrations and it brings together persons of all ages, no matter what the conditions or societal classes. It includes the production of the traditional art and craftsmanship for the transport, preservation and consumption of food. Women play an important role in the transfer of knowledge about the Mediterranean diet: in preserving the techniques, in feeling respect for the seasonal rhythms and festival events and in conveying the values of the element to new generations. The bazaars and markets related to food and furthermore, during the application of reciprocal respect and understanding, the daily Mediterranean shopping habit, plays an important role in the fields of education and transfer on the Mediterranean diet. Other than the Mediterranean diet, another one of the multinational cuisine culture files, which has been registered on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, has been registered on the list with the title of the Flatbread-making and Sharing Culture: Lavaş (thin bread), Katırma, Jupka and Yufka (very thin sheet of dough) at the Eleventh Intergovernmental Committee Meeting. The culture of making and sharing bread, which has an important place in many cultures, is also important for the countries, which participated in the file. Even if the preparation, cooking, presentation and sharing traditions display diversity, it is similar in the file in the context of helping one another and of the collective labor culture. Lavaş continues to be made in the present-day, both in modern pastry shops and markets and in traditional environments. Lavaş and yufka still hold an important place on special days, such as births, weddings and deaths. They are among the indispensable items of the preparations for winter in traditional environments. This file, which reflects properly the hospitality, mutual support and sharing culture, also assumes important roles for becoming closer culturally. As it was also emphasized previously, the multinational files are proposed as important safeguarding strategies for becoming closer interculturally and for tolerance. Consequently, making the multinational files more widespread, which are a means of bringing cultures closer together, should be encouraged for implementing the UNESCO ideals. The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, has placed importance on regional cooperation. In this context, the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO has realized many shared project experiences. One of these projects is the Interactive Project on the Traditional Cuisine of Turkey and Hungary that was realized in Ankara, Eskişehir, Kütahya, İzmit, Tekirdağ and İstanbul, Turkey, from 17 to 23 April 2016 and in Karsag, Kisujszallas, Jaszbereny, Jaszfenyszaru and Budapest, Hungary, from 9 to 18 May 2016. Observations were made related to the cuisine culture during the field studies and face-to-face discussions were realized. The data obtained during these field studies provided the opportunity to determine important shared points between the two cultures. In the direction of these shared features, it was observed that there are opportunities for preparing a multinational file. The other articles of the book discuss the subject shared features. It appears possible to develop new projects in the axis of these shared features, which were determined by the researchers from both cultures. These shared culture elements, which were determined especially in the cuisine culture, showed that it would be possible to make a multinational file for Turkey and Hungary. 33 References Maffesi Maria Clara. ‘‘Culinary Traditions as Cultural Intangible Heritage and Expression of Cultural Diversity’’. Cultural Heritage, Cultural Rights, Cultural Diversity New Developments in International Law. Ed. Silvia Borelli, Fedorico Lenzerini. Leiden: Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2012. Maria de Miguel Molina, Blanca de Miguel Molina, Virginia Santamarina Campos & Maria del Val Segarra Ona. “Intangible Heritage and Gastronomy: The Impact of UNESCO Gastronomy Elements”, Journal of Culinary Science & Technology, Vol. 14, Iss.4: 293-310, 2016. https://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/lists https://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/krakelingen-and-tonnekensbrand-end-of winterbreadand-fire-feast-at-geraardsbergen-00401 https://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/directives https://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/gastronomic-meal-of-the-french-00437 https://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/turkish-coffee-culture-and-tradition-00645 34 The Taste of Entertainment: Religious Festivals/National Holidays and Festival Dishes in the Turkish and Hungarian Cultures Dilek Türkyılmaz* One of the five basic areas of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage are “social practices, rituals and festive events” (2c). The convention especially places importance on the transferring and safeguarding of the social practices among generations. Religious festivals/national holidays are special days that occur from a series of performances, which are determined by the traditions of the forms and rules. Every type of art and folk dance form of the culture being celebrated is transformed into a participative performance. The most important attribute that distinguishes the religious festivals/national holidays, births, marriages, deaths and many of the other societal applications and ceremonies, is the celebration with a collective consciousness by every one of the individuals of the society. In this context, religious festivals/national holidays, the rituals applied at religious festivals/ national holidays and the dishes, which almost become a united whole with these, acquire importance. In all societies, by believing that certain days and events are blessed and lucky or days, which are celebrated with joy all together for remembering those days are called bayram in Turkish and there is a close relationship with the meaning of the word. In the oldest Turkish examples, the word bayram was badram. The word in Persian is paδrām and in the expression of the form in the same meaning of patrām in Sogdian and it means joy, peace of mind, happiness and silence. The word bayram in the Persian language is pati and sükûn, which have the meaning of back and repetition and expressing it with patirama, which is formed from the joining of the word rāma, which has the meaning of peace and happiness, is important from the aspect of telling what is the meaning of religious festivals/national holidays for societies. * Asst. Assoc. Prof. Dr., Faculty Member, Department of Turkish Folklore, Gazi University, Ankara/Turkey, [email protected] 35 It can be stated that in the lead of the celebrations that have the highest participation in almost every one of the cultures are the religious festivals and national holidays. Societies create religious festivals and national holidays in a form connected to events, situations, thoughts and actions, which affect everyone in societal life. In time, it shows continuity and takes on the form of tradition. Another attribute of religious festivals/national holidays is the fact that it is celebrated on a certain day or days of the year and that it is connected to a definite calendar. Acting from these attributes, religious festivals/national holidays, the source of which is from the life of the society, is a collective fact. Religious festivals/national holidays can be defined as institutions with social and cultural contents, which have multi-purposed and multi-functional complicated structures that manifest the group identity and that are shared by the society on days connected to the calendar. There are uniting, enlivening, educational and calming functions. With the most general expression, religious festivals/national holidays are among the most important components that add color and enrich our daily lives. If monotony would flow, the time of the societies, which would become indolent and weary if it flows monotonously, would eliminate the probability of being monotonous. Religious festivals/national holidays are good opportunities to recall the past with pleasure and for carrying hope about the future. Whereas, eatingdrinking are under consideration everywhere there is a religious festival/national holiday and celebration. From this aspect, the tables are the part that addresses the eyes and palate the most, which come mostly into the forefront in celebrations. The celebration tables are those that are the most striking within the religious festival/ national holiday tables. Another attribute of the religious festival/national holiday and festival tables is becoming closer interculturally and strengthening dialogue. The foods eaten and the dinner tables set on such special days are accepted by everyone without making a distinction for religion, language, race and gender. This is also an indicator that the UNESCO ideals could be brought to light through a shared cuisine culture. 36 In this paper, the religious feast/national holiday dishes will be dwelled upon, which have the richest, most imposing and most colorful reflections and that strengthen the feelings of identity and belonging of the Turkish and Hungarian societies and that provide for becoming closer interculturally. This study was formed based on the field studies made in Ankara, Eskişehir, Kütahya, İzmit and Tekirdağ in Turkey and in Karcag, Kisujszállás, Jászberény, Jászfénszaru and Budapest in Hungary, the information obtained from the written literature and data of the source persons. With this, the UNESCO has targeted to create the probabilities of presenting a shared file as Turkey and Hungary for the cuisine culture to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Hungarian Holidays and Holiday Meals 1. Karácsony (Christmas) It is a Christian religious festival that celebrates the birth of Jesus every year on 25 December. Furthermore, it is also known as Birth Religious Festival, Sacred Birth or Birth Date of Christ Feast Day. Christmas is celebrated every year on 25 December by most the Christians in the world. The celebrations start on Christmas eve on 24 December and continue in some countries until the evening of 26 December. Some Eastern Orthodox Churches, such as the Armenian Church, celebrate Christmas on 6 January, which is equivalent to 25 December on the Julian calendar. The Christmas celebrations, which start preparations months previously in the present-day, pass rather colorfully in Christian countries. The date of birth of Jesus is celebrated by the Hungarians with the name of Karácsony. Karácsony, that is, Christmas, is the most important holiday for the Hungarians, just as it is for the entire Christian societies. Karácsony is a beautiful family holiday. The celebrations start with decorating the Christmas tree by the family on the evening of 24 December. The family members put the gifts they bought under the tree. They read sections related to Jesus from the New Testament and pray. After exchanging gifts, they sit at the dinner table and eat dinner. Fish soup (Halászlé) and fish are the indispensables of this dinner table, because fish in Christianity are one of the symbols of Jesus. The noon meal at which the entire family also participates on the first day of Christmas is very important and the dinner table is very rich at this meal. First, a soup made from chicken meat and given the name of Húsleves is eaten. This soup is made by adding vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, parsley root and celery to the chicken meat. The other foods that decorate this table are Töltött káposzta (sarma {grape leaves stuffed with meat and rice}), stuffed cabbage leaves), roasted pig, turkey and duck, various fruits, desserts and wine. On the second day of Christmas relatives visit each other. Children definitely visit the family elders. Food is offered to those who come on this day, but on that day special meals are not prepared. The Hungarian families would select András day (30 November) for the slaughter of pigs in the periods, especially when there were no refrigerators. Since the weather had cooled off considerably in these periods, it was relatively easier to preserve a large amount of meat. They would preserve the large pieces by salting them and they would consume the small pieces as cabbage with meat (káposztáshús) or stuffed cabbage leaves (töltött káposzta). After cooking the lungs and liver, they would mix it with rice and fill intestines and would make Hurka, which is a type of sausage without pepper. Of course, from these foods, which were made at a time very close to Christmas, they would definitely put them on the dinner table (Bartha, 2016). 37 2. Húsvét (Easter) Easter or Húsvét, with the name of the Hungarians, is the oldest and most important religious festival in Christianity. After Jesus was nailed to the cross, his resurrection on the third day is celebrated. Before the Easter religious festival, the preparatory period starts, which changes in form connected both to the churches and to different perceptions within history and has been formed in a gradated manner for centuries. In the present-day, many churches apply this for a period of forty days. In Eastern Europe, Easter is also celebrated as St. George’s Day. St. George is a widespread cult. St. George, who was one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles and was known as a dragon hunter and deliverer (a type of Hızır {an immortal being reputed to come to the rescue of those in deep distress}) and fought against evil actions with the legendary weapon in his hand. This period expresses the period of atonement called to show a special effort for persons to be saved from their sins by the church. This period is accepted as a fortyday fasting and time of spiritual purification in preparing for Easter by being purified from their sins in this manner and in which persons expend efforts to renew spiritually, just as nature is renewed in spring. In the final week of this period (holy week) various religious services and ceremonies are performed. The new fire, which symbolizes the resurrection of the savior Jesus on Holy Saturday, is sanctified with Easter oil lamps, baptism basin and baptism water. Also, on this day, those who want to join the church realize their baptism and those who are baptized renew their vows about living suitably to their baptisms. At the end of this week the Easter religious service is performed. One of the most striking within the Easter entertainments, especially in small settlements, like villages, is the custom of men to generally wet women by sprinkling cold water and sometimes pleasant scents on them. Before doing this, the men read a short poem to the girls and almost get their permission. In response to this, women give painted Easter eggs and sometimes chocolate to men (Judith, 2016). Although there are differences among religious denominations, the Easter season is the period from approximately the end of March to the end of April. Whereas, Easter Day, which is celebrated mostly on Sunday in the churches of the world and which is not realized on a set day each year, is also called Resurrection Feast Day, Resurrection Sunday or Resurrection Day. Easter is celebrated by all the Christians. Other than the religious services organized prevalently at the churches, there are different traditions that are celebrated according to the country. Among these, the most widespread is generally giving gifts of Easter bunnies made of chocolate and Easter eggs. 38 To eat bread and drink wine at the religious services held at churches on the first day of the Easter holiday is believed to be a good deed. The painted Easter eggs are another component, which is definitely needed at Easter. It was believed that the God of the Sun was at the center of the egg yolk, whereas, surrounding it were the Goddesses, who symbolized abundance. Eggs, at the same time, are the symbol of birth, life and resurrection. It is the symbol of new beginnings, continuity, growth and abundance. Eggs roll down from the hills. Mainly the Catholics hide chocolate eggs in some places in gardens and provide for children to find them and sometimes they also put small toys inside the chocolate eggs. Mostly red and green are preferred for the eggs that will be dyed. The eggs are dyed mostly these two colors at Easter from the aspect of representing the flow of Jesus’ blood on green places. Onion skins are also benefitted from when dyeing the eggs. Dishes made from mutton are mainly preferred in many regions of Hungary in contrast to the other holidays. The sheep is slaughtered on Easter day and the mutton is cooked in various forms. Today, it is known that there are over twenty types of mutton dishes in the Kuman region. At the same time, it comes into the forefront today to the extent of eggs from the aspect of the representation of the production and revival of nature of the sheep and the sheep giving birth to lambs. Besides mutton, it is also observed that pork is eaten. Another one of the most important foods of the Easter meals are eggs, which are believed to represent abundance and reproduction and if they are eaten that day, then a year will pass in abundance and plenty. Sweet bread is also one of the most important elements of the Easter meals. Children receive chocolates in the shape of eggs from the bunny rabbit (sometimes it could be fruit and hazelnuts or chocolates in the shape of bunny rabbits). Sometimes these gifts are hidden in the garden or at home (Bartha, 2016). Farsang (Shepherd’s Christmas Holiday) Farsang (Shepherd’s Christmas Holiday) is the name given to the entertaining activities, which shows the attribute more of a festival than a religious holiday, is celebrated on 6 January, especially in the Mohaćs region of Hungary, for frightening winter away and for preparing to greet spring. During these activities, which are held before Easter, since the objective is to be saved from the severe conditions of winter, people wear frightening costumes made from sheepskins and at the same time, by emitting ugly sounds with the sounds of large bells hung around their necks, it distances the world from winter and invites spring. A human figure made from straw, which represents persons, is put in a coffin and the coffin is either put in the river or it is thrown into a fire. To be saved from winter means that after this application, everyone dances together and has a good time. During these entertainments, which have the meaning of a type of renewal, young persons, who plan to get married, hold their weddings. Whereas, it is believed that girls who do not marry at this time must wait another year (Tóth, 2016). There is a type of sweet round/ring-shaped/braided cookie or bread roll (farsangi fánk) made at Farsang. This sweet, which is made of milk, flour and eggs, is fried in oil and is eaten by spreading powdered sugar or syrupy jam on it. This is the only special food made for this carnival. 39 Turkish Religious Festivals and Religious Festival Dishes 1. Ramazan (Ramadan) and Kurban (Feast of the Sacrifice) Religious Festivals When mentioning religious festivals in the Turkish folk culture, the Ramazan (Ramadan) and Kurban (Feast of the Sacrifice) religious festivals come to mind. Since the times of the religious festivals are calculated connected to the lunar calendar, not the solar calendar, since our lives have been regulated according to the solar calendar, the festivals are not encountered on the same days every year. There is a difference of ten days between the two calendar systems and consequently, the religious festivals are celebrated ten days earlier every year compared to the previous year. Therefore, the religious festivals are falling on the same day only once every 36 years. The Ramadan Religious Festival is celebrated for three days and the Feast of the Sacrifice is celebrated for four days. The religious festival celebrations in the Turkish folk culture are official holidays. In our religious festival celebration tradition, there are some special religious days, which are celebrated in various manners, even if not to the extent of these two religious festivals. In the lead of these types of special religious days are various ceremonies, such as the kandil (the day preceding a kandil {one of five Islamic holy nights when the minarets are illuminated}), days, Mevlid (the night of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad{the twelfth night of Rabi I}), Miraç (the night of the Prophet Muhammad’s miraculous journey to heaven {twenty-seventh of Rajab}), Beraat (Acquittal), Kadir (the Night of Power {the twenty-seventh of Ramadan, when the Holy Koran was revealed}) Şebi Arus Night (The Wedding Day every 17 December, the night of Mevlana’s death, when he was reunited with his Beloved, with the Divine) and Ayin-i Cem (a ceremony of worship performed by various dervish orders). The basic attribute of the celebrations of the Ramadan and Feast of the Sacrifice Religious Festivals is to visit reciprocally with each other, friends, in-laws, relatives and friends, and to ask how they are doing. Young persons kiss the hands of the elderly; and receive their prayers invoking God’s favor. The very elderly cannot leave their homes and one does not expect them to visit. Everyone goes to kiss their hands. Candy, chocolate and especially at the Ramadan Religious Festival, baklava, kadayıf (oven baked shredded pastry with pistachio filling in thick syrup) and similar desserts are offered to visitors. The Feast of the Sacrifice is the religious festival to give thanks and gratitude to God by killing an animal as a sacrifice and by distributing the meat to poor persons. According to widespread beliefs, the Prophet Abraham wanted to sacrifice his son to God and at that time, God wanted him to sacrifice a ram instead of his son. After that date, to sacrifice to God continued in the Islamic Faith by killing an animal as a sacrifice. 40 Religious festivals are met by “religious festival cleaning” made in the homes before each religious festival and similar “preparations”. On the first day of the religious festivals, the religious festival namaz (ritual of worship centered in prayer) is performed and later the family graves are visited. To kill an animal as a sacrifice has entered the Islamic Faith connected to this moment. “Visits to the graveyard” are of extreme importance. In recent years, besides congratulating the religious festivals of those far away with greeting cards, it is observed that religious festival congratulations via the telephone and electronic post have also become widespread. At both religious festivals, after leaving the mosque on the morning of the religious festival, hands are kissed and greetings for the religious festival are exchanged and persons sit at the religious festival dinner table, which has been filled with dishes, which started to be prepared days ago; especially the first day of the religious festival, the entire family comes together at these meals and they are the best meals set out throughout the entire year. To eat dessert before the religious festival namaz is among the religious festival traditions. Men put on clean and new clothing before and after going to the mosque to perform the religious festival namaz. The men who come out from the religious festival namaz exchange religious festival greetings with each other after the namaz in front of the mosque. Careful attention is paid for relatives to come together at the religious festival morning breakfast. It is observed that in some villages or towns, the wealthy families prepare meals instead of breakfast and give a meal to a crowded group as a religious festival meal. Sometimes, it is also possible to give a meal as a group in the courtyards of the mosque. The religious festival meals, which are prepared with a richer breakfast menu within the city life of the present-day, and especially in the places where the Turkish traditional culture is kept alive, the table is filled with the most important dishes of the Turkish Cuisine. Although it can show differences from region to region, traditional Turkish dishes and desserts, such as soup, stuffed vine leaves, su böreği (a börek made of layers of noodle-like pastry filled with cheese/meat), stewed fruit and baklava are among the indispensables of this meal. Whereas, if the Feast of the Sacrifice is being celebrated, then it is the custom to have breakfast with the braising made from the sacrifice meat. The main attribute of the Ramadan and Feast of the Sacrifice religious festivals is the coming together with visiting tours of neighbors, friends and relatives. Sometimes, those who live in the cities, by taking the opportunity during the religious festival days, visit their elders and relatives, who live in the villages. Young persons kiss the hands of their elders and receive their blessings. It is also traditional to give money and gifts to children who kiss the hands of their elders. Whereas, to those who come to visit, it is the custom to offer candy, Turkish delight, baklava and coffee. Whereas, if it is the Feast of the Sacrifice, then it is the custom to offer from the braising of the meat prepared. 41 Hıdırellez The coming of spring after a tiring winter has been celebrated for thousands of years by all societies. The reanimation of nature every year also revives the hopes of persons. The hopes that re-emerge have been transformed into celebrations with similar states of mind in different geographies. In the geography of Turkey, the hopes re-emerge at Hıdırellez (festival held on 6 May to celebrate the coming of summer), whereas, in other places of the world it is the re-emergence with the celebrations made on St. George or Kara Sara days. Societies celebrate the coming of spring every year within the framework of their beliefs and lifestyles. On the night, which connects 5 May to 6 May, Hızır (an immortal person believed to come in time of need), the terrestrial saint, meets with İlyas (Elijah), the maritime saint and the earth, sky and entire nature, which witnesses this meeting, virtually becomes revived. This revival indicates that there is a transition to spring and that now summer has begun. This night is celebrated with great enthusiasm in Anatolia and in other geographies as well. The Hıdırellez celebrations are always made in green, wooded areas, at the edges of water, next to a tomb or a place where a holy man is buried. It is the custom to eat the fresh plants of spring and the fresh lamb’s meat or lamb’s liver at Hıdırellez. It is believed that when the first lamb of spring is eaten, it will bring health and recovery of one’s health. It is believed that if one collects flowers or wild grass in the countryside on this day and drinks the water after boiling them, then it will be good for all diseases, and that if one bathes with this water for forty days, then one will become younger and beautiful. On Hıdırellez day, just like Easter, eggs are dyed and knocked together, then it is believed that in this manner, that year will pass in abundance and plenty. 42 As it can be observed, food is an indispensable part of the celebrations in both cultures. Some of the important issues that we were confronted with when collecting the data of this project are that the most imposing dinner tables were set almost everywhere when there was a celebration, that dishes were made that were believed to be sacred, and that there were differences in the forms of making and sharing the dishes made on such days. Despite the social and cultural differences between the two cultures, it was observed that there were similarities between the foods eaten at Húsvét, which is a Hungarian festival, and Hıdırellez, which is a Turkish festival. At these two festivals, especially the similarity in the eating of eggs and lamb/mutton, which represent renewal, abundance and proliferation, should not be overlooked. At the conclusion of the study made, it was observed that in both cultures the cuisine culture was transferred from generation to generation at the religious feast and festival tables. In this context, it was observed that the shared taste and cultures of the tables set was united by the intangible cultural heritage. References Belge, Murat. Tarih Boyunca Yemek Kültürü (Cuisine Culture Throughout History). İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2001 (in Turkish). Goody, Jack. Yemek, Mutfak, Sınıf Karşılaştırmalı Sosyoloji Çalışması (Cooking, Cuisine and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology). Güran, Müge Günay, trans. İstanbul: Pinhan Yayınları, 2013 (in Turkish). Tasnadi, Edit. “Macar Mutfağında Türk Yemekleri” (Turkish Foods in Hungarian Cuisine). In: Halıcı, Feyzi, ed. Dördüncü Milletlerarası Yemek Kongresi Kitabı, 3-6 Eylül 1992, Türkiye. Konya: Kombassan A.Ş. Yayınları, 1993 (in Turkish). Tezcan, Mahmut. Türk Yemek Antropolojisi Yazıları (Anthropology Articles on Turkish Cuisine). Ankara: T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 2000 (in Turkish). Source Persons Ágnes Tóth, 32, Budapest, Hungary, Project Coordinator at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Julia Bartha, 60, Karcag, Hungary, Folklore Researcher. Kis Judith, 28, Jaszbereny, Hungary, Personnel at the Jasz Museum. 43 Points of Connection Between Turkish and Hungarian Dietary Culture Júlia Bartha* Introduction Hungarian rural dietary culture carries a rich oriental heritage. Our culture received three waves of oriental impact. During the time of the Takeover we brought along elements of knowledge which had entered our culture through living amidst Turkic peoples. The names of cereals (búza and árpa meaning wheat and barley), the names of fruits (alma and szőlő meaning apples and grapes), other plant names and the entire vocabulary of sheep-keeping are of Turkic origin (Kakuk 1996), except for those words which became incorporated when the Vlachian stratum of shepherds appeared – most of which are related to the techniques of processing yew’s milk. The Kun and Jász population, which settled in this county in the 13th century, enriched our culture by a new Oriental layer which was further reinforced later by the Turkish administration of this country. Viewed in the light of these facts it becomes understandable that the influence of the Turkish administration found its way easily into rural culture, particularly into horticulture and, via commerce, into dietary culture, because it meant a good example and improved on the existing range of foods. Reception was made easier by the fact that the people living on the Great Plane practically continued their former culture of the Steppes. This meant the kind of foundation which profoundly connected Hungarian culture with Central Asian and Anatolian Turkish culture because although they were far removed from each other in both time and space, the method of land cultivation and lifestyle which developed under analogous ecological circumstances continued to thrive. Thanks to the works of turcologists and historians of economics published in the last third of the 20th century we now have a more nuanced picture about conditions in Hungary under Turkish administration. Research has yielded a number of new conclusions about the way in which the occupants managed and organised life in Hungary. Analysing the data of tax records and knowing the system of public administration it now appears to the researchers that before the end of the 16th century neither the population, nor the * Júlia Bartha, PhD. Turkologist, ethnographer, Member of the research network of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, retired head of department of the directorate of the Museums in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County. [email protected] 45 economy itself suffered the degree of destruction that had been assumed (Dávid 1991; Hegyi 1995; Ágoston 1992). Real destruction set in not as a consequence of the fights but due to the subsequent onslaught of ‘morbus hungaricus’, the disease which made Hungary’s name ill-omened and widely known throughout Europe. A combination of typhoid fever, dysentery and malaria, the epidemic first appeared in the first half of the 16th century and was carried by affected mercenary soldiers to several countries throughout Europe. The disease was caused mostly by extreme weather conditions, the presence of extensive marshlands and the lack of sufficient hygiene (Ágoston 1992: 123). In the administration territories often we see, instead of economic decline, the signs of growing prosperity: an increasing boom in cattle-breeding, highly developed viniculture, horticulture, bustling market towns which evolved into regional trade centres in this very period and laid the foundations of their later affluence. The occupants, often decried as barbarians, turned out in retrospect to have settled in this country with the mentality of the careful landowner and although they drew considerable revenues from taxes, bearing these in mind they catered to provide circumstances for successful farming. The presence of the Turks did not topple the system of previous institutions. Although they divided the administration areas into vilayets and sanjaks, these Turkish offices failed to take root and to exercise any effective influence over the everyday life of the Hungarian people beyond tax-collecting. The Turks never actually administration the whole of Hungary as their rule extended only over the central third of the country. 1 Since this region represented the frontier status within their empire most of the occupants were soldiers and lived relatively secluded lives. There were no Anatolian peasants settling in Hungarian villages and even in the towns and cities they did not appear in great numbers. There were some settlers, but not many – only the number required to secure the alimentation of the local army, collecting the taxes and securing religious practice. Along with the soldiers came the officials of the local administration and the artisans and merchants tending to the needs of those living so far removed from their home. The total number did not exceed 50,000 if that (Ágoston 1992: 126). They administration Hungarian houses in the villages and towns, Market (Alanya, 2013) 46 1 This is what historians call a condominium i.e. joint Turkish-Hungarian owndership. sharing their lot with the local population and slowly shaped the towns to their own liking. The typical quarters of Turkish towns, mahalle appeared. Next to the djami they also built medrese (schools), kitchens for the poor and public baths; in the larger cities also a hospital and a library. Indispensable elements of the Turkish lifestyle were small workshops of artisans which formed separate units arranged into streets according to the various crafts. There were streets for bootmakers, potters, coppersmiths, tinsmiths, furriers, belt-makers, locksmiths, pen-cutters, barbers, bakers and butchers. Their memory is still preserved in some places in the form of street names. Right beside them, of course, there were also Hungarian butchers and publicans, too – the only difference being that Hungarian butchers sold pork and the publicans served wine, while the Turkish drinkvendors sold serbet and boza. In between them there were also small grocery shops where they sold herbs, spices and oriental fabrics imported from distant lands. There were also masters who cooked the Turkish foods unknown to the Hungarians and sewed pieces of clothing. After the Turkish fashion, the artisans sat and worked in the open street… Anyone who is acquainted with contemporary Turkey can very easily imagine this, as this is normal everyday sight in cities even today in the Eastern part of the country. Wholesale trade was made possible by large covered warehouse stores called bedesten which were built in the major cities (Bartha 1997: 59-71). In Buda, the bedesten was in the square just outside today’s Matthias Church (Ágoston 1992: 132). Whenever necessary, they also stored products in the djamis, particularly military supplies. The various peace treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Empire created highly favourable conditions for merchants who handled a considerable turnover in goods. Itinerant trade gradually became re-directed from Venice toward the West, its new centre was first Vienna and the Pest. Itinerant traders also appeared in major market towns and later as shop owners (Papp 2004: 74). It was through them and by the mediation of the local bourgeois population that a great many kitchen requisites, herbs, spices and dishes found their way to Hungary from Turkey and the Balkans. Turkish dietary culture was shaped by the plurality and ethnic complexity of the Ottoman Empire and its resulting multi-cultural character. The culinary culture of the Turkic population which preserved the Central Asian traditions was most powerfully affected by the cultures of Greece and the Middle East. This is also what then went on to affect Hungarian culture and left lasting traces on the areas of dietary culture mentioned above. Horticulture, viniculture, fruit production In Hungary the various types of fruit from the Balkans were introduced and regular fruit production took root in the 16th century, and the first real boom in fruit production came in the 17-18th centuries. Of the fruits grown in this country, apples, water chestnuts, rowan berries, strawberries and hazelnuts are the fruits mentioned in documents as early as the 11th century. Some fruits, including cornels, apples, walnuts, pears and sloe get their names (som, alma, dió, körte, kökény) from Old Turkish, and belong to the layer of Hungarian dating back to the Takeover, which means that 47 48 the Hungarian had known these fruits long before the Turkish period. Clearly this was part of the reason why the cultural stratum of the Turkish administration could easily become incorporated in overall Hungarian culture. That great traveller of the 17th century, Evliya Chelebi wrote about fruit production in Pécs in tones of admiration. He records that there were 170 types of fruit produced there at the time – he himself tasted 47 kinds of pears in one day in the house of Alay Beg (Surányi 1985: 78). Turkish rule brought no changes for the worse as regards horticulture and viniculture. The range was enriched by a number of new types in the administration areas which only came under Turkish rule in subsequent waves. (The Szerémség area Vine-harvest decoration, Pécs, 2016. as early as 1523, while the centre of the country after the lost battle of Mohács.) Under Turkish influence considerable centres of gardening developed in a number of locations. Although wine grapes had to go due to the religious ban on alcohol in Islam, but this is the period when products distilled from wine began their rise to popularity, since the prohibitions of the Quran were interpreted as not to apply to ‘cooked wines’(Surányi 1985: 175). Due to tax holidays a great many vineyards were planted on the Great Plane, as well as elsewhere. For instance, the town of Jászberény did not pay tax to the porta for 16 year because they planted vines over an extensive area (Bathó 2014: 9-11), but the vine-growing areas of Szekszárd, Tolna and Pécs also survived Turkish rule undamaged. We know from Evliya Çelebi’s records (Evlija 1985) that viniculture was significant around Buda. According to information from the castellan of Buda there were altogether 7000 vineyards in Buda ranging from the Középhegy hills, Szabadság hill and Gellért hill to the hill of Kelen and including Óbuda. Visiting Kassa, Evliya Chelebi describes vineyards where there were 22 types being grafted. This was the period when the black common grapevine (Vitis vinifera), black muscat, blue and red ‘kecskecsöcsű’, red crimson and white ‘pumpkin grapes’ as well as ‘pumpkin currants’ (csausz) started to appear in the vineyards, as well as Kadarka which began spreading fast. Kadarka had existed even before 1526 (Surányi 1985: 175-176). Commerce was also affecting garden cultivation considerably – cities such as Kecskemét (with is unique gardening culture) and Debrecen grew particularly strong. Going to pubs to drink now became a common practice not only at centres of commerce but even at places of production. So much so that in 1661 the ‘three cities passed a decree to stop people visiting the pubs (Novák 2016). Although Hungary had always cultivated some excellent fruit species, the production of sour cherries and cherries rose considerably in the 16th century. The sour cherries of Szentes are supposed by tradition to have originated in Turkish times when a Turk called Ahmet saved the life of the high commissioner of Szentes, Gáspár Bartha and this enamoured Turkish officer had the first sour cherry trees brought the first sour cherry trees to Szentes (Surányi 1985: 99). Apricots are first mentioned in works on medical herbs and botany in the 16th century which refer to the fruit as sárga barack or tengeri barack. In her journal in the 18th century Anna Bornemissza speaks of kajszifák, (apricot trees) – there must have been some in the garden of Miklós Zrínyi. The one and a half centuries of Turkish rule must have had a favourable influence on apricot growing. Evliya Chelebi mentions apricots in several towns of the south of this country, as well as Pécs, Tolna, Fehérvár and Buda – the one at Pécs supposedly yielding fruit which is particularly large… Tradition has it that at Halas people started to grow apricots inspired by the Turks. In the early 17th century the leaders of Kecskemét, Nagykőrös and Abony were greatly troubled by the crops being frozen because they were nevertheless compelled to pay the one-tenth tax even though the fruit had frozen…(Surányi 1985: 93). Eventually it was in the area between the rivers Duna and Tisza that apricots really became common, although some local variants must be prevalent in other areas, too. Aubergines had been indigenous in the Mediterranean area and the Balkans since the 17th century. They reached this country through Turkish mediation which is why the rural name of the fruit is törökparadicsom, meaning Turkish tomato. This is one of the most popular vegetables used in Turkish cuisine – a versatile plant used in many ways. Perhaps the most widely known dish, stuffed aubergines, bears the name imám bayıldı, meaning ‘the imam has fainted’. It is an indispensable part of Hungarian lecsó and of various salads, but grill dishes are also unimaginable without it. It also remains a much loved part of Transylvanian cuisine to this day. The surrounding nations, including Romanians and Bulgarians, have also borrowed aubergines from the Turks The paprika brought a great turn in the Hungarian cuisine. 49 and it has become a significant part of rural cooking. The Turks also consider it an aphrodisiac – no wonder its folklore name translates as love apple. As regards our Mediterranean fruits, carob or St. John’s bread (Ceratonia siliqua) has long been known and is even mentioned by Herod and Pliny. Tradition has it that St. John the Baptist in his solitude ate the fruit of the carob tree, hence it gained its name. In Turkey it is eaten by many as a normal food supplement, while the ground version of the skin of the fruit is used to flavour coffee. It is sold widely in any Turkish grocery under the name koç boynuzu (ram’s horn) and is supposed to act as an aphrodisiac, particularly fit to boost male potency… Wild strawberries (szamóca) are mentioned, among others, by János Dernschwam who saw the fruit in great quantities during his travels as envoy to Turkey. ‘I saw bushes similar to sloe growing in rocky spots along the coast. They produce lovely red berries that are the same shape as strawberries. (…) In Turkish these are referred to as kocayemiş. One of our forgotten fruits, medlar (Hungarian naspolya, Turkish maşmala) originally comes from Asia Minor. It is known to have ben planted by Western monastics, particularly the Benedictines, even in earlier times, but gained major popularity only in the Turkish administration areas. Even today it is mostly in Csongrád County that people plant medlar. Figs originally come from the Mediterranean and spread from there over the world mostly through commerce. They are grown mostly in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. ever since antiquity, Asia Minor had been famous for its various types of figs and its methods of drying the fruit. This is described by famous geographer of the age, Strabon, who was born in the beautiful Turkish town of Amasya. During the Turkish period, Hungary’s fig production was most significant in areas which formed part of the Ottoman Empire. It was mostly planted by the Ottomans themselves. Figs still grow in Hungary, particularly the Izmir breed (ancient Smirna), but Hungarian figs are not suited for drying, because the fig wasp responsible for its pollination does not survive under this climate and thus the fruit produced here is different in kind from that grown in Turkey (Surányi 1985: 132). Herbs and spices play a very important role in both Turkish and Hungarian cooking habits. Herbs used in the gastronomy of both countries include sage (Salvia officinalis) which the Turkish also think of as a medical herb; juniper berries (ardic in Turkish, Juniperus communalis) which is used to flavour roasts, saffron (a natural colouring used when cooking rice), rosemary (Turkish name kuş dili; Rozmarinus officinalis), thyme (kekik otu; Thymus vulgaris), peppermint (nane; Mentha piperitae), garlic, common onioins (Allium cepa), parsley, black pepper and paprika…. 50 Paprika, by now a most indispensable Hungarian spice, was once referred to as Turkish pepper and in 1570 blossomed merely as an ornamental plant in Margit Széchy’s garden. It found its way into Hungarian culinary culture through Turkish mediation. First in conquered the cooking of the peasantry and eventually became a must-have in colouring and flavouring dishes of the aristocracy. River valleys of the Great Plane granted excellent conditions for growing the paprika plant as a spice. It was also used as a medical herb deployed in combatting the fever Morbus Hungaricus common in swampy areas. It is mentioned in 1775 as a medical herb by József Csapó in his book Új füves és viragos Magyar kert (The New Hungarian Garden of Herbs and Flowers), as one that ‘brings great heat to the human blood’. It is a fact that paprika brought colour to our culinary culture – our meat dishes, particularly pörkölt and gulyás (‘Goulash’) are unimaginable without it. Sweetcorn or maize (Zea mays), referred to as kukorica in vernacular Hungarian, tengeri in the rural language and törökbúza (literally Turkish wheat) in the Transylvanian dialect, it was already present in Southern European gardens in the early 16th century. István Györffy writes, ‘At first sweet corn, which became widespread during the Turkish rule, was not part of the normal crop rotation and only gradually came to replace the spring sowing or the fallow stage during the 18th century.’ (Györffy 1934). Sweet corn became known not only as animal fodder but also as a food for human consumption as part of rural gastronomy replacing cereals, particularly in Transylvania and the Great Plane. Puliszka and málé are types of cornmeal mush which became widespread after the 17th century and it is possible that migrations and the settling of Romanian shepherds also played a part in the process (Ágoston 1992: 107-108). Rice dishes Cereals grown commonly in the 16th century, such as wheat, rye, barley, millet and oats, covered the needs of alimentation of the general public but were not sufficient for also supplying the army. During the time of Turkish rule new culinary habits started to appear. In order to supply their army, the Turks began to produce rice in their territories on the Balkans. This is how this plant also came to be known in Hungary. Huge rice plantations were established in the South of the country, but these were eradicated after the Turkish army withdrew and rice production was not re-launched until the 20th century when breeds adapted to the climate of our country were developed. It had, however, become a fixture in our culinary culture and so it can fairly be declared that we owe our rice-based dishes to the Turks as they became widespread during the time of the administration (Ketter 1985: 259). The best example is rizses hús (pilaf ) – a dish most popular in the cuisine of both nations. Turkish people mostly make it from mutton, while in Hungary mutton and rice is a dish mostly cooked in the Nagykunság area under the name juhhúsos kása. Another common rice-based dish in both Hungarian and Turkish cuisine is stuffed paprika (Hnngarian töltött paprika, Turkish biber). The only major difference is that Turkish people use mutton for the stuffing, while in Hungarian cooking it is substituted by pork. 51 Various dishes where a rice-andmeat filling is stuffed inside cabbage or grape leaves are still thought of as the best known foods of Turkish cuisine. The nomadic Turkic peoples did not grow cabbage or rice –they adopted these cultivated plants after the administration of Constantinople (1435) from the population engaged in irrigating farming of the Byzantian fashion and passed this skill on to the rest of Europe. The The stuffed cabbage plays an honourable role Hungarian dish referred to as stuffed among cabbage meals. cabbage (töltöttkáposzta), seen as a national classic, has been known since the time of the Turkish administration. Its popularity is understandable since meat and cabbage had always been a popular combination in Hungarian cuisine. A MS Booklet of the Art of Cooking originating from the court of the Zrínyis from before 1662 refers to cabbage and meat as the token food of Hungary. Péter Apor offers the following laudation of cabbage meat, ‘No food more beloved by Hungarians could be found in past times than cabbage.’ 52 The extent to which the emigrant population exiled from the country after Rákóczi’s War of Independence managed to retain their Hungarian culinary habits is indicated by one of the very few data we have – one of the letters of Kelemen Mikes. ‘Therefore I say that a finely composed letter pleases the mind no less than the palate is pleased by cabbage finely covered in dill, and sour cabbage which appear from a distance like a little mountain of silver. (…) All I can worry myself about now is when I can eat cabbage again.’ This allows us to conclude that the dish known as dolma or sarma was not known at Rodosto at the time, even though it was considered a national dish along the Black Sea coast and so around Trabzon, too, and is much liked to this day. Its first Hungarian description appeared in 1695 in Tótfalusi’s cookbook and it only became widespread in Hungary in the 18th century, under Turkish influence. Even today it is called by the name sarma, or stuffed cabbage, in Transylvania and the Southern parts of the country. The 200-year-old recipe tells us to make it from beef, as follows. ‘Ask for some cow’s meat of the kind you would use for sausages or stuffed cabbage, peel off the veins and the blueish skin and cut it very fine. Take some good bacon and chop it very small, then take a handful of rice, wash it and mix it with the chopped meat and the bacon. Add salt and pepper as is due. Break two eggs over it all and mix it thoroughly. Take the leaves of a sour cabbage and cut the thick stalks out, put as much of the stuffing as you find fit into each leaf and then fold them up neatly. Once that is done, take one or two whole heads of cabbage and chop them into small slices, put a handful in the bottom of the saucepan, then four or five of the folded pieces, then again the fine chopped cabbage. Sprinkle 15 whole grains of mild pepper on top of it all. Lay a few slices of bacon over the top and so fill the saucepan right to the top, with the pepper and the bacon, but make sure it is not tight so that you can shake it well while cooking. Fill the pot up with good beef bouillon, once it is all done, add a good roux, sprinkle saffron on top and serve it warm.’ (Simai 2011: 276). One popular rice dish characteristic of both Turkish and Hungarian cuisine, particularly in the Eastern part of the Great Plane in the Nagykunság region, is töltike – minced meat with rice stuffed inside vine leaves. The Turkish variant, (yaprak sarması) is usually made without meat, and is flavoured with currants, parsley, mint, allspice and cinnamon; they slice lemons on top and so cook it. It is usually served cold, decorated with parsley. Turkish cuisine uses a very wide array of vegetables, the most common being beans, peas, black cumin (çörek otu), bulgur (crushed wheat), coriander, aubergines, vine leaves, tomatoes, paprika and a great many Oriental herbs and spices, amongst which thyme and rosemary mostly define the flavouring of their dishes. Shepherds’ dishes Meat dishes The areas that have traditionally been most intensely involved in stock breeding within the Great Plane of Hungary are the left bank of the Tisza and the region above the estuary of the rivers Körös. In the era before the regulation of the Tisza this part of the country was dominated mostly by wetlands and meadows and the most fruitful activity on the meadowlands was stockbreeding. The people of the Kiskunság, Nagykunság and Jászság regions created their livelihood at the cost of very hard labour struggling on the salty flatlands. The region was kept alive by the periodic flooding of the rivers Tisza, Berettyó and the three branches of the Körös. Most of the area was used as pasture for large stock, while land cultivation was only allowed to take up as much of the area as was necessary to cover local needs. The characteristics of the landscape provided the foundations of a lifestyle which kept alive both the shepherding population of the Plane and, at the same time, the system of market towns which existed in parallel. The extensive fields were mostly used for pasture where livestock was bred. Due to a drop in population numbers, the Turkish administration actually favoured the keeping of large livestock on the plane. The newly settled Muslim and South Slavic population clearly preferred sheep breeding to keeping pigs and cattle. Mutton dishes The most important example in this context are the Kun population who lived at Szentkirály in the 15th – 16th centuries and had a considerable culture of sheepbreeding. Archaeological research has identified the remains of pens and sties dug 53 54 halfway into the ground and covered with one-way slanting roofs. Such simple structures were used in keeping sheep and pigs. Although the lifestyle of the Kun population who had settled at Szentkirály changed by the 15th century, certain elements of the traditional way of stock-keeping have survived to this day (Pálóczi 2014: 182). The Hungarian word karám, the name of that characteristic structure built by shepherds, belongs to the Besenyő-Kun layer of Turkish loan-words in the Hungarian language. It is known from 16th century Turkish defters that Szentkirály was the scene of considerable sheep and cattle breeding (Pálóczi 2014: 182). In 1546 the more affluent of farmers would keep 150-200 sheep, and the census of 1562 shows that farmers owning 250-300 were not rare. At the time of the census there were altogether 1582 sheep counted at this village, which was a considerable number for the period. The word-stock related to animal-breeding in the Hungarian language shows clearly (our words related to keeping sheep are of Turkish origin and belong to the layer of the language dating back to the time of the Takeover) that the influence of the culture of the age of Turkish administration continues to live on in the middle cultural layer, the Kun stratum, and it is this cultural element that may be traced in today’s rural culture of the Nagykunság region. The extensive animal farming which existed in the 17th - 19th centuries is in organic historical connection with the extensive technique of animal keeping used at the time of the Takeover and the age of the House of Árpád (Szabadfalvi 1997). The predominance of stock-breeding prevailed right until the 19th century, the time of the great river regulations. A characteristic of this part of the world is the scattered farmsteads of the Great Plane which is distinctive in that these units never transformed into classic farms but preserved their dependence on the town. Although the system of stockkeeping was eventually transformed, mostly due to the ecological changes brought about by the river regulations, but it still remained significant in the Nagykunság and neighbouring Hortobágy (Bellon 1996: 41-42). The extensive, year-round pasture method of the latter region preserved for a long time the shepherding culture which then transmitted various archaic elements of rural gastronomy to us. Since Hungarian grey cattle were capital stock, people would more commonly kill and cook mutton and pork. Despite changes in culinary habits in the 17th - 18th centuries, mutton was an absolute staple and was listed by contemporary cookbooks as one of the basic raw materials of the nobility’s kitchen. The court cookbook of the Prince of Transylvania from the 16th century lists the following mutton dishes: ‘mutton with red cabbage; mutton in vinegar; leg of lamb with bigoz (a sauce with nutmeg, ginger, pepper and vinegar); mutton with rice; new style mutton with a head of cabbage; mutton with sour cabbage, mutton with sweet cabbage, leg of mutton interlarded with garlic; cold mutton for travelling either the front or the back end; mutton with garlic sauce; stomach of mutton stuffed; mutton with savoury milk; lamb deep-fried in breadcrumbs; head of lamb deep-fried in breadcrumbs; lamb with sorrel; leg of lamb with sour cream sufa’ (Lackó 1983). Some of the dishes listed are known even today. In the Nagykunság and the periphery of the Hortobágy mutton has preserved its role to this day as a part of the festive menu, particularly the string of dishes served at weddings. A Manual for Farmers of the Field (Mezei Gazda Kézi Könye) published at Kassa in 1831 offers the following instructions, ‘Nothing will better further the prosperity of a man farming the fields than breeding mutton combined with breeding cattle. Cattle is required to provide him with manure so that he may farm his fields and to get from them some drips, if not a broad influx, of revenue. The only source of solid income can be sheep. That is, if he can command the mastery of breeding them’ (Staut 1831). As regards the technologies of Hungarian rural cuisine, stewing meats goes back a long time. Meat stews (pörkölt) are mentioned by sources among customary peasant dishes as one of the typical foods of shepherds. However, the colour and flavour of this dish was changed radically after paprika became known in this country in the 16th century. As it grew widespread from the 1700’s onwards, paprika transformed pörkölt to become the national classic known today – no cookbook fails to mention it and no traveller goes by without referring to this hot and spicy Hungarian dish. Mátyás Bél writes as follows, ‘Hungarian pepper is so hot that if you touch your eye with it you may actually lose your eyesight. Therefore many oppose it, nevertheless its use is widespread in many parts.’(Bél 1730). A German traveller came to the same conclusion. ‘This Turkish pepper, which is referred to as paprika around these parts, I first tasted on the next occasion, when it was used to season the stuffing of cabbage. It is terribly hot, but does not linger for a long time and makes the stomach warm. I believe that hot things of this kind are very useful in such lazy parts of the world as this, because they resist shivering. (…) My most pleasant experience here was an excellent Hungarian national dish, meat with paprika, which I enjoyed tremendously. (…) Once it is ripe, they string them together, hang them out to dry and then crush them.’(Surányi 1985). Pörkölt as a meat dish in its own right was first made from mutton in the Nagykunság area in the middle of the Great Plane – and still is. Mutton has retained its considerable role in rural cuisine in this region – they cook 26 different dishes from mutton. The local manner of cooking this meat, where the head, hoofs and tail are scorched, the meat is stewed and the food, particularly the head, is distributed ritually, is considered an element of cultural heritage which is a remnant of the archaic Kun culture in the heart of the Great Plane (Füvessy 1974: 221; Bartha 2002: 128). Scorching over an open fire gives a unique flavour to the food. In Karcag, Kunhegyes, Túrkee, Kunmadaras and neighbouring Tiszaörs and Nagyivány (shepherds’ village next to the Hortobágy) it is still common practice to scorch the hoofs and the head. In the Jászság area this way of cooking the meat has been recorded at one place, Jászkisér, but this village became repopulated in the 18th century as a result of an outflow of Kun population 55 in the 18th century. A tradition related to eating the ‘sheep body’ at festive occasions, particularly weddings, is that this is given as a gesture of respect to the person most highly honoured by the community. It is seen as the sign of the greatest honour in the Nagykunság (particularly Karcag) if a guest is given the sheep’s head that was cooked along with the mutton stew – which he or she then has to distribute among those around. A particular delicacy is the brain, seasoned generously with black pepper and paprika (Bartha 2002: 128-129; Bereczki 1986: 91-92). This method of cooking mutton is particularly characteristic in the Nagykunság, but mutton dishes are equally common among shepherds of the Kiskunság. Otto Herman noted during one of his collecting tours on the Kiskunság, ‘(…) this is a place where the offal is also cooked in with the paprikás’(Herman 1914: 245). In the rural cuisine of Anatolian Turks and the Balkan countries a frequent feature of rural cuisine is kokerec, sheeps’ intestines seasoned with Oriental herbs and spices and twisted around a large cylinder. This roasting appliance, used in the streets, is available everywhere. Roasted until tender, kokerec is then placed inside pita-bread. We find no parallel in Hungarian cooking – the only shared feature is that shepherds of Nagyivány used to include the small intestines in their paprikás after cleaning the intestines and slicing them into finger-wide stripes. The first written record of Goulash, a dish thought of as particularly Hungarian, occurred in the form ‘Gujás-hús’ in 1787 in a work by István Mátyus titled Diatetica. A point of interest is that Mátyus, who had come from Transylvania, had no direct experience of the traditional dish of the shepherds of the Great Plane, but the writing reveals that gulyás was already a widely used food name by that time and the way of preparation was widely known. It keeps cropping up in the writings of various authors over the subsequent years as a food name that requires no further explanation. A notary working for József Gvadányi at Peleske travelled to the Hortobágy in 1790 which is where he was introduced to gulyáshús made for him by a cowherd. The point of interest is that Gvadányi does not mention the name of the dish and that among the ingredients he does not mention paprika, even though at other points in his poetry he refers to it under the name törökbors (Turkish pepper). One reason for omitting the name of the food may have been that the shepherds and cowherds themselves merely refer to it as ‘hús’, meaning meat, - they ‘cook meat’. Generally the phrase gulyás (Goulash) was only used in the literary vernacular, in the language of the people these dishes are usually referred to as pörkölt or paprikás. Linguists derive the name of the dish from the word gulya (a herd of cows) (Tesz, 1984). 56 Naturally, the dish gulyás also came to the notice of the Turks, as testified by an endearing explanation from folk etymology. ‘When Suleiman the Great ruled in Hungary and his cook could not find mutton or lamb anywhere, first he cooked taş kebab or something similar from veal. This is how he wanted to please the padishah. The sultan tasted a mouthful or two of the food and then turned to the cook and asked, “Who did you make this dish for?” The cook thought the food was failing to please, so he rapidly answered, “For the slaves, your majesty!” The sultan was actually loving the new dish, so he gave it the name kul aşı, slaves’ food. This is how kulashi gradually turned into goulash… according to popular etymology viewed from the Turkish angle.’2 Milk processing The milk yielded by sheep is one of the most important sources of revenue in sheep farming. After the lambing takes place in February, most of the milk goes to feeding and strengthening the lambs, but as soon as the lambs are weened and driven to pasture the milking period begins and continues right until the end of October, the time of ‘being stuck inside’ when the animals are herded to their winter place. The quality of milk always depends to some extent on the quality of pasture, but the best period for grazing which produces the best yield in milk is always the spring and early summer when the pasture is at its most nourishing. They milk the yews every morning and every evening. For milking they line up the animals with their head turned toward each other. Turkish people make lots of different products from the milk. Dairy products play a greater part in their rural diet than in Hungary’s. The cheeses, yoghurt, milk and cottage cheese made from the milk are parts of the everyday diet. A Turkish breakfast is unimaginable without white cheese, which is accompanied by tomatoes, olives and tea. (At a market in Kadiyök, Istanbul, I counted two hundred types of cheese. Most of them were named after the area but this versatility in itself indicates what an important role they play in the local diet.) The other food which is always present on the table of the Turkish family is yoghurt (or in another form when it is watered down and salted, it is a drink called ayran, no different from whey). It is easy to produce and is usually made by the village housewife herself. After milking the milk is strained, brought to the boil and then, when it is ‘udder temperature’, it is injected Selling yoghurt in Istanbul at the beginning with yoghurt made earlier or with lamb’s of the 20th century (internet source). 2 https://www.yemekhikayeleri.com/hikayeler/yemek-ve-tarih/macar-corbasi-gulas-osmanli-nin-kul-asimid.html 57 stomach. (For producing yoghurt and milk they first produce the culture (firsik) from the lamb’s stomach. The stomach, once washed, is placed inside whey, they add salt and figs (or sugar or sometimes grapes) inside the liquid and place it in the sun to mature. (Kutlu 1987; Galimdzsán 1940: 146-165; Kisbán 1967: 84). This method of making yoghurt is known in the central part of the HungarianYoghurt (tarhó) Kiskunfélegyháza, 2016. speaking areas, in the Bánság, Bácska regions, at Mohács, in and around Szeged, at Szentes, Csongrád, in the Kiskunság region at Kiskunfélegyháza, Kiskunhalas, Kecskemét, Bugac, in the Nagykunság at Karcag, Kisújszállás and Kunmadaras, as well as at the Hortobágy (Kisbán 1967: 84). In Hungarian culinary culture the name used is not yoghurt which became known all over Europe due to the Turks, but tarhó – a phrase of Slavic origin. It is a fact, however, that Hungarians had known tarhó before the time of the Turkish administration and the technique for making it survived on the hands of the shepherds. Pastas, ‘old’ dishes In Hungarian culinary culture the element known and surviving to this day from the legacy of the shepherds of past times are kasha-based dishes often referred to as ‘old dishes’ (öreg ételek) where ‘old’ is used to refer to a thick consistency (tésztaételek, öreglebbencs, galaburgyi, öregtarhonya, pásztortarhonya) and millet kasha, which is known all over the Great Plane. Millet kasha, when cooked thick, is prepared on lard with diced onions fried in it, thinned down with water, milk or a mixture of the two. It is known in several variants such as kasha boiled with pasta and paprika, flavoured with black pepper, as well as millet kasha cooked from mutton or, less frequently, from poultry and cooked with pörkölt (Füvessy 1975: 75). Millet flour was used to cook köleslepény, a flatbread similar to gözlem cooked by the Turks. 58 Unleavened flatbreads similar to Turkish gözlem are made even today by Gypsies in the villages along the river Tisza, such as Tiszaderzs and Tiszabő, to go with cabbage dishes. This flatbread is called ‘sovány’, which means thin or lean. A dish widely used in the cuisine of both nations is what Hungarians call húsosderelye – pockets of pasta filled with meat –, the only difference being that in Hungarian cooking the filling is made from pork. The Turkish phrase for this dish is manti, while around Ankara, due obviously to Tatar settlement, it is called tatárböreği, but it is also known to the Kazaks under the name besparmak. It is one of the ancient dishes of Hungarians, just like tarhonya, which is known both as a pasta to go in soups and as an independent shepherds’ dish, in Hungarian rural cuisine. Börek (Ankara), 20149. Börek (Cubuk, 2016). Several versions of the börek are known in the Turkish cuisine számtalan fajtáját ismerik a török konyhán Crescent roll with jam Wedding scone in Kisújszállás . (Cubuk, 2016). Manti, roly-poly filled with meat and yoghurt 59 Drinks Boza We have every reason to assume that millet is one of our oldest types of cereals. Even the Chinese emperors of yore sowed the first millet seeds amidst a ceremony of great pomp. Researchers consider the genetic centre or fountainhead of this species to have been around the border area of China and Mongolia (Bellon 1981: 233). In Asia and Eastern Europe millet cultivation was significant until the 19th century; it was considered the most important cereal and the No. 1 staple in the diet of the common people. Due to its high starch content (60%) it was excellently suited for brewing beer. Its great advantage and cultural historical significance was that being a plant with a short gestation cycle it could easily be bred even by nomadic peoples. The sharp beer-like fluid gained from it through fermentation is called boza and is known in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Monte Negro, Bosnia, Romania and the Ukraine. Writing about the Kirgiz, György Almásy says, ‘I have already mentioned the alcoholic beverage of the nomads, the millet-beer called magzyn, as well as the similar fermented drink referred to as buza or szra. Although consumption of these is forbidden, they are relatively widely used.’(Almássy 1903: 694). Boza making (internet source). 60 Pogácsa (salt cake). It is highly probable that boza, the drink produced by fermentation from millet, was first made by the Turkic peoples of Central Asia in the 10th century – it is from here that it spread through the Caucuses to the Balkans and Hungary. In the Ottoman empire it was brewed in practically every village or town, it was the most widely drunk liquid, probably due to contaminated drinking water. (Among the nomads kumis played a similar part.) It retained its popularity until the 16th century when sultan Selim II finally banned what was called Tartar boza, a brewed beverage containing opium. He is associated with the first description of alcohol-free sweet boza, a favoured drink of the Albanians. This drink remained popular for a much longer time, so much so that 17th century traveller Evliya Çelebi described that in Istanbul there are some 300 points selling boza, and the activity has developed into an industry employing a thousand people. Boza was particularly popular among janissaries, but the common people also drank it. The army itself also included a great many boza-brewers. Since it contains little alcohol, in moderate quantities it does not cause inebriation, it was considered a roborative drink.The Ottomans also referred to it as janissaries’ joy. Linguists attribute the Hungarian word boza to the Kuns, although it was known among the Hungarians even before the arrival of the Kuns. The earliest known occurrence is in the inscriptions on the gold treasure of Nagyszentmiklós. Although millet was known to the Hungarians very early, the first time it appears as a place-name (Kölesér) was recorded in 1138 in Bihar County (Bellon 1981: 234). There are plenty of sources that mention boza. Primate Miklós Oláh commemorates the drink in his descriptions of Hungary as follows. ‘On the planes of the Kun people, besides wines which are brought there from a distance, there is one more drink commonly consumed, made after its own style from millet and water, which they call bóza.’(Szarvas-Simonyi 1890: 302). This Hungarian drink is also mentioned in the Érdy Codex (1526-1527). 3 Millet was used in a crushed form, ground in a dry-mill or in wooden ‘millet mortar’ before use. This procedure was described by medical student Pál Márton who accompanied English governor L. Hudson as a translator along his travels in the 1820’s through Constantinople all the way to Smyrna. Accordingly, millet was first roasted on hot stones, then ground by hand-mills. In a roasted state millet keeps for a long time, this is the explanation why the Kun used to transport it and brew boza from it when the weather was suitable. Millet is a yellow colour, once roasted, it gets a brownish tint and this alone could give boza its colour. Rough-ground millet flour was cooked in water over a low fire to a thick, porridge-type consistency. Due to its high starch content during the cooking it turned gluey and released a lot of sugar which allowed it to start fermenting easily. Subsequently it was cooled down and left to stand for a few days. Pál Márton’s writing reveals that in the Turkish and Tartar method the fermentation lasted eight hours. The liquid began to produce a foam, and after the fermentation the sediment settled and the liquid on top became purified. This is what they called sweet boza. It is highly likely that in order to accelerate fermentation they added lactobacilli through sourdough which caused it to have a slightly sharp, stinging flavour, due to the carbon-dioxide it now contained. A chemical analysis of boza from Pancsova in the late 19th century revealed that 100 cm3 contained 1.62-1.75g of alcohol (Szathmáry 1932: 39-40). In Hungarian healing practice boza was considered a medical remedy. The famous doctor Gáspár Kőrösi considered it a medicine. When Palatine Tamás Nádasdi’s wife 3 [Linguistic Relics. Old Hungarian Codices and Printed Documents]. Vol. 4. Bp. 1876. 61 grew ill, he prescribed her to drink boza and she did indeed recover – probably due to the lactic acid’s ability to kill bacteria. In 1554 he wrote, jokingly, ‘My Lady, wife of the chief Justice of the Kuns, is in such health, perhaps from drinking boza, that she seems healthier than Methuselah himself.’(Paládi 1966: 79; Bellon 1981: 252). Another doctor has also commemorated the healing quality of boza – the army doctor of Temesvár, a much-liked student of Linné’s, János Krammer when he toured Hungary. He considered boza a diuretic substance and often recommended it to his patients for such purposes (Szathmáry 1932: 39). At first people used millet to brew boza and every nation which grew this plant was also acquainted with boza. Millet was then gradually squeezed out by other cereals – one could imagine that boza also sank into oblivion. But this is not what happened. Kun Captain János Laczka mentions in 1862 that the poorer Kuns use sweetcorn to brew boza. They grind sweetcorn to flour in a hand mill, knead it into a scone and dry it or even scorch it inside an oven, then crush it in a container and pour lukewarm water over it. The liquid then ferments and turns into a yellow drink with a slight bite. Kun Captain János Laczka also mentions that instead of boza this is called ciberer. But the flavour and the colour of the two drinks must have been fairly similar (Szathmáry 1932: 39-40). Rajmund Rapaics was of the opinion that the production and consumption of boza was squeezed out by more modern methods of drink production which started out from the monasteries (Rapaics 1934: 69). It was not forgotten – indeed, in the Nagykunság region boza was brewed as late as the 1960’s at Karcag, sometimes from wheat and at other times from sweet corn and referred to an kunsavó. The word boza was known all over the Nagykunság, but used only in its derivative forms at Kumadaras, where drunk people were referred to as bozás, bebozitált, bozálkodik – someone who had taken boza. 62 Boza is a fairly multi-coloured phenomenon in cultural history, a drink prevalent from Central Asia through Asia Minor all the way through the Balkans and Europe, brewed at first from millet, later also from other types of cereals, and still brewed today, when different variants of the drink are still known. Most widely known are Bulgarian, Albanian and Turkish boza. In the 19th century the Ottoman Turks favoured alcoholfree Albanian boza, while the Armenians liked the alcoholic versions. In Istanbul and many towns of contemporary Turkey this drink is still widespread and popular, served most recently with cinnamon or chickpeas. The various types are sold by noted and prestigious old bozadji (boza vendors) such as Vefa Bozacisi in Istanbul, Akman Boza in Ankara, Ömür Bozacisi in Bursa or Karakedi Bozacisi in Eskişehir. In Bulgaria the traditional Bulgarian breakfast is consumed with boza. In Kyrgyzstan it is sold in the streets in the summer months, but this is the variant brewed from wheat. The Romanian variant is referred to as braga and is somewhat sweeter than the Turkish or Bulgarian variant, similar to the boza of the Macedonians. Coffee We owe the custom of drinking coffee to the Turks. Tradition has it that coffee had come from Arabia, from the city of Mokha in Yemen through Persia. In the 14th - 15th centuries it was used not only for pleasure but also as medication. In Istanbul coffee shops opened as early as the 1550’s. Suleiman the Great restricted coffee consumption in 1552 and later coffee Turkish coffee (Izmit, 2016). drinking was banned on multiple occasions in the empire. These prohibitions did not last long, however, as coffee irresistibly set out to conquer the world. Coffee became the national drink of the Turks. It spread from various parts of Turkey to Europe through Armenian merchants and reached Hungary, too. In Pest and Buda from 1579 onwards there were Turkish coffee makers (kahvendji) making the black drink with its enticing scent in coffee shops Káhve Háne (Ketter 1985: 165). Coffee drinking became a part of our dietary habits. It grew so popular that by the early 18th century coffee shops turned into veritable cafés and gradually became the centres of the social life of the community. The phrase kávéház (coffee house or café) first appears Turkish coffee (Karcag, 2016). in the epistles of Kelemen Mikes in 1738. Today coffee is so popular in both Turkish and Hungarian gastronomy that our life is unimaginable without it. Coffee-drinking has become a ritual. If you smell the scent of coffee lingering about a house when you enter you can be sure you are a welcome visitor. Sweets Honeycomb toffee is originally an Armenian sweet, but it reached Hungary through Turkish mediation. The same is true of gingerbread, Hungarian mézeskalács. Beekeeping was a considerable source of revenue for farmers. In the Jászság area people paid a one-tenth tax on bee-keeping to the Turks. In 1671 the Jász villages record that 63 they paid a tax of butter, lambs and pigs collected from house to house and also paid a tenth of bees and wine (Bathó 2007: 23). As far as we know today, the first Hungarian gingerbread guild was founded in Pozsony in 1619, but Kassa was also seen as a centre of gingerbread-making as early as the 17th century. The regulations of the gingerbreadmakers’ guild of Debrecen are known from 1713. This city is one of the most significant centres of this activity to this day, where excellent quality gingerbread has been made for centuries. The beneficial health effect of quince jelly was already mentioned in the famous Herbárium of 1778. Quinces were produced in substantial quantities in the 17th century. The first cookbook which survived in the Hungarian language, printed in Miklós Misztótfalusi Kis’s printing house at Kolozsvár, describes no fewer than 7 recipes for quinces. Scones (pogácsa) are much liked among Hungarian savoury cakes and since the word itself is of Old Turkic origin (bagandja), we have reason to believe that it was already known to the conquering Hungarians and the effect was only further enhanced during the Ottoman Turkish era. Summary 64 The most prominent traits of Hungarian dietary habits during the time of the Turkish administration were that dishes were made mostly with butter, they used lots of dairy products and seasoned their dishes intensely. Boiled pastas and dumplings were added as garnish to main courses, or used to go in soups. Characteristic dishes include different types of pâté, soft blood and liver sausages (hurka), hard meat sausages (kolbász), jellies, doughnuts, pancakes and strudels. Preparation techniques included grating, curing, interlarding, coating in breadcrumbs, steaming, roasting. Naturally, in Turkish administration areas Turkish culinary habits came into the foreground, and people used the traits of Turkish cuisine. We borrowed scones (pogácsa), lángos (savoury doughnut fried in fat or oil), bejgli (a Christmas sweet cake) and stuffed cabbage from the Turks. As regards herbs and spices, they introduced parsley, cumin, aniseeds and horse radishes into this country. In the dessert category they imported grillage, sweet-loaves, biscuits, ‘floating islands’, gingerbread, honeycomb toffee and the habit of coffee-drinking. This is also when poppy-seeds, tomatoes and aubergines appeared. 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Edited with an Introductory Essay by József László Kovács] Szépirodalmi Kiadó, 1986. Zsemley, Oszkár. A magyar sütő-cukrász-és mézeskalácsos ipar története [The History of Hungarian Baking, Patisserie and Gingerbread Industry]. Budapest, 1940. Internet source: https://www.yemekhikayeleri.com/hikayeler/yemek-ve-tarih/macar-corbasigulas-osmanli-nin-kul-asi-mid.html (Accessed: 14/07/2016). 68 Food, Culture and Identity: On Turkish and Hungarian Cuisine Adem Koç* The subject of this study is on the function of the “emphasis on identity” in the contexts of the diversity of sociocultural and cultural expression other than the known biological function of food (feeding oneself ). The field studies made in Ankara (Çubuk), Eskişehir (Alpu), Kütahya, İzmit (Kocaeli) and Tekirdağ in Turkey and in Karcag, Kisújszállás, Jászberény, Jászfényszaru and Budapest in Hungary and a scanning of the literature gave direction to the study. The Connection among Cuisine, Culture and Identity Culture is a symbolic field. Symbols are generally related to language. However, just as there are flags, which represent countries, there are also nonverbal symbols. The only living creatures who can use this field of symbols are human beings. Culture is not about individuals one by one and independent from each other; it is an attribute unique to individuals as members of a group. Culture is transferred within the society. We learn our culture by observing, listening, talking and by entering interactions with other humans. The cultural beliefs, values, memories, expectations, forms of thoughts and actions erase the differences among persons. The process of becoming cultured joins persons together by providing shared experiences (Kottak 2008: 52). We can make the following proof with the definitions by Kottak: Animals also hunt, human beings also hunt, but human beings make food. Consequently, to cook food can be included in culture, which is a symbolic field. According to Malinowski, function always expresses the filling of a need. This starts with the simplest action of eating and extends to a sacred action (Malinowski 1992: 28). Other than meeting the basic biological needs of foods, societal functions such as gifts, sharing, mutual support, providing for the unity of family and clan, friendship * Asst. Assoc. Prof. Dr., Faculty Member, Department of Turkish Language and Literature, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir/Turkey, [email protected] 69 and communications; religious functions are emphasized, such as blessings and abundance ceremonies, religious rites and incantations. Food cults, foods at religious rites and sacrifices provide persons with ties to the strengths of destiny and the benevolent abundance forces (Malinowski 1990: 31-41). Bringing nourishments to a suitable condition for human consumption and the process of consumption behaviors are removed from being solely a biological action and are transformed into a cultural action (Beşirli 2010: 159). It explains Claude LéviStrauss’ (2013: 46) culinary triangle in the form of “raw, rotted, cooked” for food and provides the opportunity for the culturalization of cooking. Figure 1. Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Culinary Triangle. “Raw” is normal, “cooked” (smoked) and “rotted” (boiled) are given and transformed in The Culinary Triangle by C. Lévi-Strauss. Besides, since “rotting” is on the nature side, cooking is classified as “culture”. According to Hayati Beşirli (2010: 159-160), “the actions in the process of the production, transport, storage and use of food items” makes it possible to examine carefully the subject of nutrition and food in the context of the cultural concept. Ethnologist Mahmut Tezcan states that culture: 1. Is the basic sign of what we will eat. 2. Culture has been learned. Food habits are also learned at an early age. It does not change for a long period of time after being learned. 70 3. Foods are the complementary parts of culture (Tezcan 2000:1) and indicates the linear and dependent relationship between culture and food. There are some attributes under consideration that could be counted as basic in almost every cuisine in the world. These are defined as the attributes that make that cuisine separate from the others. Every cuisine acquires an identity with these attributes. However, most of the time, these are limited by religion and beliefs and the fauna and flora unique to the region (types of animals and plant cover) (Şavkay 2000: 10). Another factor in the diversification of cuisine is the relations experienced with the neighboring peoples or nations. Persons who immigrate due to reasons, such as wars, natural disasters, economy, etc. also realize a cultural immigration when coming together with other societies. The eating-drinking habits are also an important part of this cultural migration. Persons of different races, cultures and identities, who are forced to live together for whatever reason, rather than emphasizing the differences, find the means for sharing their originalities, which is a method that is also supported by the UNESCO. The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions1 (2005) wants to prevent a single typification and consequently, the forming of a single, dominant culture and persons becoming isolated “by taking into consideration that culture takes diverse forms across time and space and that this diversity is embodied in the uniqueness and plurality of the cultural expressions and identities of the groups and societies making up humankind”. In this context, one of the most important problems confronted by the Turkish and Hungarian cuisines are the decrease of production in their cuisines. In the field studies made in Turkey and Hungary, production was realized in the kitchens, but it was observed that problems were experienced in the transfer to new generations, because the newly educated population (young people) in Hungary are leaving their families to live in Budapest and this has been the cause of the cuisine habits becoming different and of orienting towards prepared foods. Actually, this situation is not very different in Turkey. However, still at the present, it is also observed that the women are continuing the food cooking habits and food cooking traditions for special days and ceremonies in the cuisines of both countries. This, at the same time, also nurtures the state of belonging to the local culture and identity. To feel a state of belonging to the local or national culture is also dependent on food preferences: We are what we eat. In that case, to eat something is not only to feed oneself. In daily life, our bolting of food standing up most of the time without being aware, is a meaningless food action. However, in the Turkish and Hungarian families, dinners, special day meals, wedding and funeral meals are not only overlapping with the action of feeding oneself. The meal together with itself, has the eater also engage 1 https://www.unesco.org.tr/dokumanlar/kulturel_ifadelerin_cesitliligi/SOZLESME.pdf 71 in other cultural actions. In the Turkish cuisine to slaughter a sheep and fix söğüş (boiled meat that is served cold) and subsequently to fry meat or to prepare güveç (stew cooked in earthenware cooking pot) for guest; and in a similar manner, the Hungarian’s cooking birkapörkölt is not a simple action for feeding oneself. The action of food is transformed into an action filled with cultural meanings that surround all its aspects. The definition of culture by Edward B. Tylor gives us an idea on this subject: “Culture... is a complicated whole, which includes within it knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, traditions and all of the other abilities and habits obtained by persons as members of a specific society” (Tylor 1871: 1). The important point in this definition is the expression, “obtained by persons as members of the society”. Consequently, persons learn their own culture within a process of “culturalization”. While a meat dish eaten alone by a Turk or a Hungarian is a biologically simple feeding on its own, the birkapörkölt or güveç shared with guests emerges as the result of culturalization. In other words, foods nourish the physiology of humans biologically with their material aspects and besides this, the psychology is also nourished with the historical and cultural heritages, which are presented to eaters as spiritual. As Zen Master Taigu Ryokan stated: Everyone eats rice Yet no one knows why (Ryokan, 1996: 157). Sometimes persons do not know what or why they eat. People do not only eat rice. They consume it as rice pilaf, soup, stuffed, etc. Everyone has a reason when eating rice: to fill oneself, to gain weight, to get well, to have children, to bring abundance, etc. As it can be observed, when we consume a nourishment, we are also consuming its cultural equipment. However, this consumption is just the opposite for him/her; in other words, it makes him/her live the cuisine culture. The Saucepans are Boiling: We do not Eat Fast Food, We Make our Own! 72 The words of a Nogai Tatar woman, one of the source persons with whom we talked in Alpu County of Eskişehir Province, “We do not eat fast food, we make our own!” has the attribute of a manifesto. The food that she prepares herself preserves her own cultural heritage and identity. Foreign food distances itself from food. Actually, to consume fast food is to lose one’s own memory. Since fast food prevents the consumption of local flavors, it is dangerous from the aspect of the cultural heritage of many countries in the world. The periods of time spent in the kitchen are also decreasing due to reasons, such as the city culture, technology, fast life, working hours and couples working. Consequently, fast foods also enter into the cycle and meals are evaded. Photograph 1. Eskişehir (Alpu), Turkey. Photograph 2. Jászberény, Hungary. In this context, it appears to be just for countries to enter into regulations themselves for protecting the diversity of cultural expression and projects, such as slow food and are also serving a purpose for raising healthy generations. Both to prepare and to eat is a process. The use and transfer of local knowledge during preparation and sharing is important for the transfer and keeping alive of the cultural memory for making the special food preparations for specific days and ceremonies. It is necessary to include the generations who are being raised in these processes for a sustainable cuisine culture. The houses in Turkey and Hungary in the present-day have the appearance of a workshop despite every sort of difficulty and the obstinate insistence of the dominant cultures of globalization. The Turkish and Hungarian women produce food, almost like a factory and continue to cook food. This production appears to be of extreme importance in the continuation of identity. The transferring of the food varieties, cooking techniques and the areas of use to the newly raised generations in both countries is also serving for the preservation of the intangible cultural heritage. In the narrow sense, the Nogai Tatars of Eskişehir Province in Turkey continuing to make “göbete, çibörek, kaşık börek, üyken börek, kalagay, balaban, etc.” and the Kumans at Karcag in Hungary to make “birkapörkölt, sarma (dish made with grape/cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and/or rice), tarhanya, kolbast, etc.” shows that the cultural memory and heritage are being preserved. At the same time, it also has a communicational function for the indicator of the identity of the 73 city or country at a higher structure. Today, “gulyas and birkapörkölt” have become the indicator of Karcag in the narrow sense and Hungarian in the broad sense and çibörek, for the Tatar and citizens of Eskişehir, and güveç (stew cooked in earthenware pot) in Konya and Kütahya, etc. have become the indicator in the narrow sense and of the Turkish identity in the broad sense. Vedat Milör, the flavor master of Turkey, by stating, “In a good güveç (stew) you eat a meal, which is made complete with each other from the aspect of many layers and flavors.”2 of the güveç derivatives, which are most special meal, and at the same time, he believes it is a flavor that would also represent Turkey. “Goulash” and “güveç”, which are composed of similar mixtures, but whose cooking techniques can change, is given by some researchers as an example to prove the similarity of the Turkish-Hungarian cuisines. Moreover, the question, “Kul aşı, gulaş mı?” (Is it cooked food or goulash?) can come to mind. It is probable to encounter the willing cultural and etymology experts, who attempt to establish a tie between Goulash and Kulaş. However, Hasan Eren, who has made significant studies on Hungarian, absolutely rejects this etymology experiment. Moreover, Zülfü Livaneli, the famous author and singer, also got his share from this rejection. Zülfü Livaneli wrote in a newspaper column, “We do not know that the goulash, the meat boiled in the cauldrons of the Ottoman army during the Rumelia campaign and that was distributed to the soldiers, was for this reason called ‘kul aşı’ and was later transformed to goulash.”3 Hasan Eren, acting from Zülfü Livaneli’s article, put the final note on the discussions as follows: As it is known by extensive intellectual circles, the name goulash given to the famous dish of the Hungarians and is a Hungarian derivative. At the root of this derivative is hidden the word ‘gulya’, which is used as ‘herd of cattle’. The name ‘gulyás’ is given to the cattle herder in Hungarian. The ‘-s’ at the end of this name is a suffix, a suffix similar to the suffix -lı, -li, -lu, -lü in Turkish. The name gulyás given to the Hungarian dish we have mentioned, is a name remaining from gulyáshús, which has the meaning of ‘herdsman meat’... It is understood that goulash came to Turkey in recent years, through the European languages, such as German or French (Eren 1999: 659-661). Hasan Eren, with this well-organized etymology study, rejects these fabricated stories by saying, “Kul aşı did not become goulash!” In the study by Osman Karatay that examined carefully the Hungarian and Turkish history, he mentions shared words of approximately 700. It was determined that there are more shared words between the Hungarian and Turkish languages than between the Finnish and Hungarian languages. Even if 2 74 3 https://www.vedatmilor.com/ulkemizi-guvecle-temsil-edelim/ Zülfü Livaneli, “Kul aşı gulaş olmuş!” https://arsiv.sabah.com.tr/1999/06/16/y29.html the word goulash is used in the title of the article, this is not mentioned in the careful study. However, he also emphasizes the thesis that the Hungarians and Turks are two related groups, who come from the Ogurs (Karatay 2016: 105-128). Németh, Rásonyi and Vásáry are also of the opinion that there is a relationship of relatives (Doğan 2007:4). The relationship between the two peoples has not broken off at all in the historical process.4 A Friendship Message: We are Flesh and Bone! The Goulash and potatoes with meat dishes are both filling and provide energy due to the materials they contain (meat, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, etc.). From the aspect of presentation technique as soup or as a meal, it meets the needs in a single item for the Hungarian villager working in the fields and for the soldier at the front. Birkapörkölt and güveç, which are prepared even more specially, have become the codes of value given to guests from the aspect of offering food. These dishes, which can also be used as an indicator of the national identity, are also attributed to an archaic structure. Meat is the most valuable nourishment item. Consequently, the sharing of meat is an indicator of the importance placed on the opposite side. The meat closest to the bone is the most valuable meat. At the same time, with the statement of meat with bones in the Turkish culture, “We are flesh and bones” symbolizes “sincerity, friendship, unity”, and briefly, “peace”. Owing to this, the presentation of “meat with bones” to guests in the Turkish culture from Siberia to Anatolia has a special meaning. Furthermore, to see meat with bones in a dream in the Turks has the meaning that “a very favorable work will be realized and it will bring happiness”. Ögel transfers the knowledge, “The best meat is that which adheres to the bone / Etin yeğreği oldur kim sünğüke ulaşu oladır”, which was encountered in the medical books that were written in Ancient Anatolia. Also, the following proverb said by the Kyrgyz Turks also states the flavor of meat with bones: You cannot be satiated with conversation without spending the night together and you cannot be satiated with meat without chewing the bone” (Ögel 1978: 368). A person for whom a sheep is slaughtered and who is presented the brain of that sheep5 means that he/she is a 4 The ethnic and cultural closeness between the Turks and Hungarians coming from history was the cause of the Turkish-Hungarian fact of brotherhood. The Hungarians who came or who were brought to Anatolia during the Ottoman period mixed and joined with the Turks. The place names in Anatolia having Hungarian names are testifying to what was experienced within this historical process. The Turkish-Hungarian relationships based on a closeness coming from the past, became rather strengthened during the Atatürk period and a great number of Hungarian scientists, experts, engineers and workers expended efforts in the structuring of the new Turkey (Çolak 2006: 36). 5 mengiledi. er mengiledi: The man ate brain. This is the root-meaning. Later, this word in the spoken language acquired a meaning corresponding to tûbâ leke (I have got some good news for you) in Arabic. Due to this use, the slaughter of a sheep for the good of someone and to present to this person the brain, which is the most valuable organ of the animal, is to honor that person. Subsequently, this expression became a mold, which was used for everyone, who had flavorful foods (DLT 2005: 343). 75 great person who is respected. Later, this saying was also said for everyone who eats good food (those who are powerful and rich) (Ögel 1978: 329). Photographs 3-4. Presentation of meat with bones in Hungary and Turkey. In the Oğuz Kağan epic poem, it was clearly indicated which pieces of the sheep slaughtered at the great feasts would be eaten by which clans. Which Turkish military company would eat which piece was announced previously as a definite custom so that fights did not emerge among the clans and the Turkish sections. This thought was the image of the “portion or share” system in the Turks. The meat share of a sheep was the narrating in a different manner of the perception of a state and law in a much broader meaning (Ögel 1978: 335). In this context, the following proverb of the eleventh century Turks is important from the aspect of understanding the subject: “Two sheep’s heads cannot cook in one pot. / İki koçngar başı aşıçta bışmas.”Even if Ögel made an interpretation, such as saying that it was due to the smallness of the pot, it is striking that a single ram’s head within a meat dish cooks in cauldrons. Related to this proverb, Ögel made the interpretation “Two khans in one state” or “two heads in one association are impossible” helps in solving the loaded meaning of the messages of the food (Ögel 1978: 265). Photograph 5. Birkapörkölt, Hungary. 76 Photograph 6. Güveç, Turkey. The half a ram’s head left by preparing it within the birkapörkölt, which is only cooked by men at Karcag County in Hungary, can be thought of in a similar manner, because the tradition of dividing up the meat of the animal especially for guests has spread from Siberia to Anatolia and up until the Hungarian plain. The divisions are made by the oldest male at the gathering or the dinner table during the meal. The head of the animal is distributed specially. The tradition of the division to those at the dinner table of the head of the sheep in the serving of birkapörkölt in Karcag is by the Thamade (oldest and most respected persons in community) and among the peoples in Kazakhstan or the Caucasian peoples and consequently, similar interpretations continue among the Caucasian peoples who live in Turkey. According to the Adyghe Habze customs the Thamade directs the dinner table. The part cut from the ear is given to the youngest. The meaning of this is, “Do not do wrong, be careful”, that is, it is a warning to be careful in service. The nose part is given to the Thamadekodze (assistant to the Thamade). This means, “Be careful, so that there will not be a dangerous situation or incident”. This is a safety warning. The eye part is given to the Kengeseğ, who is the adviser of the Thamade. This has the meaning of seeing and spying on everything. The brain belongs to the director, that is, the Thamade. It would be possible to govern well with a brain that works soundly (Tuna 2014: 281). The fact that the division of the ram’s head is made by the oldest male and greatest male at the dinner table prior to the presentation of the birkapörkölt in Karcag is striking in its being similar in meaning, such as the division of the ears, eyes and brain. Photograph 7. Birkapörkölt. 77 The cooking by males of the goulash in pots given the traditional name of bogrács is an attribution to a masculine structure. The Hungarian shepherds in the ninth century would take foods that they could carry with them before setting off to bring the herds to graze. Meats cut in small chunks cook until the oil is absorbed on a slow fire together with onions and other taste producers and later the food would be dried and stored in animal skins made from the rumen of sheep. It was prepared in the form of a meal or soup by adding water to the dried food in the amount that would be eaten.6 This technique is overlapping with the form of use of tarhana (dried foodstuff made chiefly of curds and flour), which is widespread among the Turks. These are “portable foods” from the aspect of the preparatory technique of foods, such as pastırma (pastrami-like beef that is smoked or dried in the sun after being treated with spices), sucuk (sausage flavored with garlic), tarhana and kurut (any dried dairy product, especially dried yogurt). Photographs 8-9. Tarhana (Turkey and Hungary). It is observed that foods, such as tarhana, dried beans, rice and bulgur, as a cultural image in the present-day, have be carried within Turkey and in the exits abroad. This form of behavior, which is observed with other peoples together with the Turks, is the effort to continue the dependency, which is almost to the soil, of the tastes and smells, by bringing to foreign places the products that are grown in the soils of their own region. At the same time, the condition of putting into action the thought of “not remaining on the road” in the archaic nomad culture is: the carrying of food. Especially, to offer foods that show their own identity is a widespread application when guests come to the house or when families of different cultures come together. At meetings where the families of different nations are guests with each other, it is attempted to serve the national dishes and drinks. In this context, the “palinka (fruit brandy), wine, paprika, goulash, birkapörkölt, tarhonya, etc. foods and drinks served during the field studies are the symbols of the Hungarian identity. In a similar manner, 6 78 See Károly, János and Mihály 2000, for extensive information related to the traditional Hungarian cuisine; see László 2015, for some similarities in the Turkish and Hungarian cuisine. the offering of regional dishes and drinks, such as “sıkıcık, cimcik, göbete, çibörek, ayran (drink made with yogurt, water and salt), pickles, etc. are symbols that put into the forefront especially the region and consequently the Turkish identity. Tarhana is an imaginative soup in the Turkish cuisine culture. A similar situation is also encountered in the Hungarian cuisine culture. Tarhana is “making dough small that is prepared with yeast and yogurt, which is benefitted from in making soup”. It is tarxana, tarxwana in Persian; having the meaning of “thick pottage, frumenty, portable soup”. The forms tarxana in Bulgarian, tarhana, tarana in Serbian, trahana in Romanian and tarhonya in Hungarian have been taken from the Turkish (Eren 1999: 395). There are also tarhanas made with different materials in various places of Anatolia: göceli white tarhana with yogurt and red tarhana with peppers and beans. Among these, the most famous is the Gediz (Kütahya) tarhana. The foods based on dairy products, which have an important place in the Turkish cuisine culture, continue to enrich the dinner tables in the presentday. Even though there are many shared features of the Turkish-Hungarian cuisine, it is an interesting point that yogurt is not included in the Hungarian cuisine. Conclusion The differentiation and the molds of behavior according to “agricultural structure and the nomadic culture, the effect of the neighboring nations and the socioeconomic levels in the formation of the Turkish and Hungarian cuisine cultures and the factors that differences are shown in the foods according to the regions, the tradition of eating food in a group, the dinner table arrangements, and ceremonies, etc.” at the same time, have also provided for the formation of cuisines and drinks by also putting the national identity into the forefront. The behavior towards a single typification of the food preferences, which develop connected to globalization, which could prevent the diversity of cultural expression, also compose a serious threat for both peoples. The dishes, which appear to be shared in the Turkish and Hungarian cuisine, such as “goulash, birkapörkölt, stew, tarhana, sarma and pickles,” appear at the same time as the symbols of the national identity. Nevertheless, although “börek (flaky pastry filled with thin layers of food, usually cheese or meat), çörek (round/ring-shaped/braided cookie or bread roll, usually sweet), sweet desserts and drinks” also continue to be produced locally, it can be stated that these have the flavor and strength to represent both the national and the universal of these products as well. The women of the present-day in both countries continue to work in their kitchens like a factory. In this context, the following are the similarities of the Turkish and Hungarian cuisine: - Can be prepared as a joint file in the UNESCO programs, - Can be presented at special days or festivals where foods are in the forefront, 79 - Can be presented and explained at joint food competitions, and - Can be represented reciprocally for these two cuisine cultures at the gastronomy departments in universities. References Beşirli, Hayati. “Yemek, Kültür ve Kimlik” (Cuisine, Culture and Identity). 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London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1871. ‘Djanfeda, Chincha, Goher’ Turkish Aspects in the Past of Viniculture at Jászberény Edit Bathó* Introduction Besides the famous vine-growing areas of Hungary (Miskolc-Abaúj, Eger-Visonta, Villány-Siklós, Somlyó, Tokaj-Hegyalja), a more modest claim is made by the extensive vineyards of the Great Plain which in fact provided 65% of Hungary’s vine-growing area up until the second half of the 20th century. In the central and Southern parts of the Great Plain (e.g. at Keecskemét) vine-growing has been continuous since Roman times, carried on by all the subsequent peoples of the later centuries (Hungarians, Kun, Jász etc.) (Katona – Dömötör 1963: 125-127). One characteristic region of the vinegrowing area of the Great Plain is the Jászság which is a landscape of scattered trees and bushes stretching to the West of the Tisza by the foot of the Mátra hills, flanked by the rivers Zagyva and Tarna. This is where a people of Alan origin called the Jász settled in Hungary after they had arrived, along with that other population group, the Kun, in the 13th century. The region later came to be named after them (Jászság). The beginnings of vine-growing at Jászberény (16th-17th centuries) Vine-growing goes back over a long time in the land of the Jász. The earliest surviving records date back to the 16th century, the age of the Turkish administration. During the period of its Turkish administration (1552-1682) the Jászság region managed to retain its relatively privileged position since, as an area owned by the treasury as part of the khasz of Hatvan, it paid its taxes directly to the Sultan’s court (Fekete 1940: 7-8). The earliest census of the Hatvan sandjak comes from 1550. The census of the town of Jászberény, enlisted under the fifth nahiye1, and of the 12 Jász villages, does not include an itemised list of all the taxable products. Instead we find a * 1 Dr. Bathó Edit PhD. ethnographer, Director of Jász Museum, [email protected] An administrative unit corresponding to Hungarian ’járás’ within a Sandjak. The Sandjak of Hatvan comprised 14 nahiye. In: Bayerle, Gusztáv, 1998. 277. 81 note saying that in former times, the age of the kings, the town of Jászberény, along with the twelve villages, used not to pay the tenth and the djiye tax, but instead was used to paying a set amount of 700 Flóri per annum (counting a Flóri to be the equivalent of 50 Akche), 2500 kila2 of wheat and 2500 kila of barley. Therefore, true to earlier custom, this is how it was recorded in the sultan’s new defter. This meant that at the beginning of the time of Turkish rule the Jászság area constituted a separate tax unit and paid its own tax into the treasury of the Turks, probably with the mediation of the land steward (Fekete 1968: 7-8). The census of the sandjak of Hatvan, dating back to 1570, shows, however, that the nahiye of Jászberény now included 15 villages and 8 farmsteads which paid many different types of tax, including the barrel tax (Bayerle 1998: 36-37, 76-96). The barrel tax in Acha34 Jászberény Kisér Jász Apáti Ágó Bódok Ház Kürt Ladáni Szengyörgy Négyszállás Dósa 1800 180 120 375 162 60 175 60 125 Gáli Szengyörgy Jász Ladán Kerek Udvar Alataján Mihál Telek Mizse Jákó Halma Áruk Szállás8 98 90 30 45 140 60 60 280 The territory of the fields of Berény in 1565 covered 47,141 kat. hold, 1,251 of which were vineyards (Blénenny 1943: 207). We have no data to say when these vineyards were planted. What we do know from surviving sources is that in 1556 and 1557 the Jász villages gave detailed accounts of sales of wine at various annual occasions (Christmas, Carnival, Whitsun etc.) and paid their royal dica5 (gate tax). Records of Eger castle for 1587 also contain references to vine-growing around Berény, as the Jász ‘measure certain numbers of barrels of wine each year’ for the castle (Gyárfás 1885. IV. 145., Szabó 1982: 176). 2 82 Kila was a dimension of volume used in Hungary’s Turkish administration territories from the 17th century onwards. 1 kila= 3 ‘Pozsony measures’ = 140 kg (of grain) 3 Akcha – a silver coin, the basic unit of currency under Turkish administration. In the middle of the 16th century one Akcha equalled 2 Dénár and 50 Akcha amounted to 1 Forint. This rate rapidly became inflated by the end of the 1550’s. In: Bayerle, Gusztáv, 1998. 278. 4 At this time Árokszállás belonged to the nahiye not of Jászberény but of Hatvan. In: Bayerle, Gusztáv, 1998: 36-37. 5 Dica is a term which includes the gate tax. Dica is a tax unit levied on any single gate (household), the rate of which was re-defined by each Parliament over the 16th and 17th centries. In: Magyar történelmi fogalomgyűjtemény [A Hungarian Encyclopaedia of Historical Concepts] II. 1980. 808. The Turks, who administration the Jászság area between 1567 and 1690, converted the Franciscan church of Berény, its monastery and the surrounding area into a plank castle which they named Djanfeda (meaning a place for sacrificing souls). From the South and East the castle is bordered by the river Zagyva and its A drawing of the Turkish Plank Castle impassable, swampy marshland, from the (Djanfeda) of Jászberény. North by a plank wall fortified by a circular bastion. Further natural protection is provided by the water of the Csincsa (Djindja), a tributary of the Zagyva, which runs some 150 m from the plank wall. In the area just outside the plank there stretched the part of town called Yedam, inhabited by gunsmiths, wheelwrights and other artisans belonging to the Turkish garrison. The plank castle of Berény was not particularly significant, there were no high-ranking commanding staff living in it, only the Turkish mounted guard. The Turkish army stationed in Berény was forced to flee the troops of German General Tieffenbach and set everything on fire along its way. This was when the socalled Turkish vineyards outside the plank were destroyed and only the more remote vineyards were spared (Fodor 1942: 249-250, Gyárás 1885: IV. 150-153). After the Turkish army fled from the plank castle of Berény, in the first few days of May scribe Gáspár Keresztury and thirtieth-controller Gergely Horpácsi from Ónod inventoried all of the abandoned assets of the Turks, such as the military wagons, the mills on the river Zagyva, their autumn and spring sowing, their fields of barley and millet, as well as the vineyards around the planks of the town. Referring to the last they note that these were mostly destroyed during the flight of the Turks. Records of this inventory allow us to conclude that the vineyards of Berény were in possession of the Turks, but they had them worked by the local inhabitants (Gyárfás 1885: IV. 149-150, Fodor, 1942: 249-250). The Turks were extremely partial to grapes and the divine liquid produced therefrom. Although their religion strictly prohibited them the drinking of wine, they believed ‘the Hungarian Plain is very far from the Almighty’ and so they took their share of it as they desired (Katona – Dömötör 1963: 126). This is reflected by a proverb common in the Jászság area: ‘He drinks like a Turk at Berény’ (Prückler 1934: 68). It must be noted, however, that as regards the soldiers of the Turkish army stationed in Hungary, only a certain portion of them were ethnically Turkish – most of them belonged to various other peoples of the Balkans (Andrásfalvy 1957: 59). This way it is imaginable that the mounted guard of the Berény plank also included soldiers of a non-Muslim faith who were free to drink wine without further thought. Based on data from letters surviving from the age of the Turkish administration (1570-1682) we have every reason to assume that grapes were introduced at 83 Jászberény by the Turks. These letters repeatedly contain lines like ‘up till now they were not engaged in planting and cultivating grapes’. The idea is plausible, as the favoured and ancient drink of the Jász was the boza, this mildly alcoholic beverage brewed from millet, which was only squeezed out by wine production (Bathó 2014: 11). In 1640 inhabitants of the city addressed a request to the Sultan’s court ‘that, lacking vineyards, they should be allowed to plant them once more’6. Sultan Ibrahim I issued a decree regarding the matter which was forwarded by the pasha Musa to the sandjak beg and kadi of Hatvan (Hegyi 1988: 73. Letter No. 49). The raya of the town of Berény, lying in the liva of Hatvan, who present this decree of the Sultan to you, had come to us and told us the following. Their village is on the edge of a range of fields and up till now its raya had not been given to planting and producing grapes and were therefore in great want. Now they had acquired grape stems from another area and had the intention to plant new vineyards in their village. They wish to start growing grapes within the fields of their village and thus, in order to further the prosperity of their village and create new vineyards they had sought my highest leave to grant that the owners of these fields should not burden them with demands of the tenth part and the tax in the following 5-10 years (on the new vineyards). Therefore I give my permission as Sultan and command that when they come to you with my highest order you should look into the matter. If there are no vineyards on the lands of said village but there are areas suited for the planting of vineyards, and if such planting would indeed prove good and useful, do not allow anyone to interfere with the planting of new vineyards in the area and prevent it. For the newly planted vineyards to start flourishing as is due, the farmers of the vineyards should be burdened by no taxes or tenth parts by the owners of the fields in the subsequent 16 years. Do not allow The Letter, in Turkish, on the Plantation of such claims to be made and should Vineyards. 6 84 Jászberényi török levelek magyar fordítása [Hungarian Translations of Turkish Letters] (MS). Translation by Repiczky, János, 1851. Letter No. 48. (Library of the Jász Museum) someone do so after all, prevent them – and in that manner strive to secure the prosperity and flourishing of the area.7 Eventually, the people of Berény planted their Belső Öreghegy vineyards in 1662 on the banks of the river Zagyva, in the area called Sárkányszög and gained a 7 year tax holiday (Pesthy 1978: 67, Fodor én: 253). From this time on, vine-growing became increasingly widespread and more and more farmers decided to plant grape-stems. It is more than probable that the inhabitants of Fényszaru and Apáti also planted their vines around this time on the higher and sandier parts of the area (Bathó 1995: 117). This is the period when it became common on the Plain, including the Jászság area, to use the word ‘hegy’ (hill) to refer to any vineyard, since grapes were originally only planted on elevations, hillocks or hillsides (Katona – Dömötör 1963: 126). The Old Vineyards of Jászberény in the 1780’s. However, the inhabitants of Jászberény, belonging to the khas of Hatvan, could not remain long in the enjoyment of their tax holiday granted by the Sultan, because the begs of the nearby castles (Szolnok, Eger, Hatvan) frequently demanded them to provide food, drink and various practical items. As a result of frequent looting the inhabitants often sought the assistance of the Sultan by letter and many of them moved from the town to neighbouring counties. In October 1668, Sultan Mehmed IV wrote the following to the kadi of Hatvan, ‘I therefore command… that the begler beg of Eger, the sandjak begs of Hatvan and Szolnok and other leading officials be severely warned that they must not go against the seriat and khanum and demand for themselves cloth, firewood, hey, wine, butter, barley, candle wax or anything else, they must not snatch anything in a violent manner or without payment nor otherwise harass anybody…” (Hegyi: 138-139. Letter No. 124. ) Payment of the tenth part on wine was waived only for farmers who were willing to plant new vineyards, all other inhabitants had to pay tax on their wine, as on many other types of produce. This is confirmed by a census of the services provided by the town of Jászberény in 1670. ‘In the town of Jászberény, each hearth yielded one Forint 7 Hegyi Klára, 1988. 73. Letter No. 49. 85 per annum to the Turkish landlord, to the Turkish emperor the totality of the inhabitants paid 60 Forints. Each house gave butter to the landlord; they did not give wood and hey, but provided 15 scythe-men for a week’s work instead. They paid a tenth part of all kinds of produce, such as wine, lambs, pigs and bees, too (Botka 1988: 305-306). The Turkish troops left the Jászság area in 1690. In 1699 János Pentz, Eger chamber prefect performed a methodical census, on commission by the court at Vienna, in the area of the Triple Jászkun District. The tax-payers and taxable objects included in the census also mentioned how many ‘hoe cuts’ of vineyard the farmers were cultivating (Blémessy 1943: 246). Vineyards were recorded in ‘hoe-cuts’ (vinea fossores), and one ‘hoe cuts’ of vineyard in the Jászság corresponded to approximately 200 contemporary ‘négyszögöl’ (one ‘négyszögöl’ is 3,6 m2) (Fodor 1942: 260-261, Blénessy 1943: 246, Szabó 1982: 176). The census also recorded people’s occupations, although in this respect it was incomplete, since all they recorded besides farmers were shepherds. This way at Jászberény they also mentioned 4 vine-shepherds (Fodor 1942: 439). In 1699 vineyards were only recorded in three places within the Jászság – the other two besides Berény being Apáti and Jászfényszaru. Other villages did not have vineyards at this time. Vineyards at Jászberény in the 18th-19th centuries The area covered by vineyards grew considerably in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly at Jászberény, the largest community of the Jászság and the economic hub of this region. The vineyards were first planted in dense, black soil, but a considerable portion were also established over sandy areas. Besides the already existing vineyards in spring 1807 a new vineyard called Neszűri szőlőskert was planted on a vast cow pasture to the South West of the town. The practice of planting grapes to tie down the sandy soil became particularly widespread during the philoxera epidemic devastating plantations in the second half of the 19th century. In and around Jászberény vineyards in 1828 amounted to 1.220 kh, in 1852 to 1.433 kh, in 1879 to 977 kh and in 1895 to 1.318 kh (Herbert, no date. 160, Novák 1998: 373-374). The vine pest which infested the entire country in the 1880’s, philoxera destroyed the vine plantations in black soil also at Jászberény, and only the vineyards in sandy soil survived. Types of grapes and fruit in the vineyards; the harvesting of grapes 86 Kadarka Grapes. Farmers grew a number of different types of grapes in the vineyards of the Jászság. The oldest type was the pale red kadarka, referred to in popular parlance as Turkish góher or Turkish grapes (Andrásfalvy 1957: 58, Szabó 1982: 177). Perfumed in its scent and flavour, kadarka was probably imported into this country by the Turks. This plant is resilient, yields abundantly and gives good quality wine. The colour of filtered kadarka is ruby red (Katona – Dömötör 1962: 132). Besides this, they also grew bright red Szlankamenka grapes called Oportó, the greenish yellow Risling,which has a smell similar to reseday, yellow or pale pink Kövidinka, Mézesfehér, Ezerjó with its greenish white colour, as well as Saszla, Izabella and Delavári grapes (Bathó 2014: 100). For a considerable period, farmers planted the different types mixed, not differentiated even by rows, just randomly – as they did in other wine-growing areas of the country. There was also a habit of planting pumpkins or sweet-corn in amongst the scattered stems of grapes. The authorities would make frequent attempts to stem this practice, but to little avail – the custom remained rife for a long time to come. It was only around the end of the 19th century that farmers began to separate the different types of grapes and to plant grapes in rows. They now kept a distance of 63 cm between stems and 95 cm between rows. Between rows they would create small banks of sand (bakhát) This type of cultivation with rows and banks of sand remained common until the middle of the 20th century and it was only industrial-scale grape cultivation that brought about the transfer to what is known as the ‘quadrat’ method (where the distance between stems and rows was the same) and later still the chord method of cultivation, where the new shoots were supported by outstretched wire. The chord method remains common to this day not only in Hungary, but other countries also. A Vineyard with Earth Banks and Fruit Trees, Jászberény, 1960’s. Square Plantation Vineyard, Jászberény, 1997. photograph by Baráth, Károly. Kadarka Grapes Planted with the Chord Method, Jászberény, 1974. Vineyard Planted with the Chord Method Near Rodosto Turkey. 2016. Photograph by Bathó, Edit. 87 In Jászberény up until the middle of the 20th century practically all farmers had vineyards, where they planted not only grapes but all kinds of fruit trees (Jász semiwild apples, long plums, pears that ripen at the same time as barley, cherries), thus catering for the fruit need of their families. The fruit was eaten fresh when in season, but they also used to sun-dry, candy, bottle them or make jam. These delicacies then Bunches of Grapes on a String in Beyparazi (Turkey), 2014. Helytörténeti Múzeum. served to improve the diet of the winter Photograph by Bartha, Júlia. period. It was a common way of preserving grapes employed by the Jász population to select bunches which did not drop their fruit, tie them up on thin string and hang them on a post in the attic where they would dry slowly, while the berries of the fruit remained sweet and tasty. In the winter period family members would often eat these with white bacon, bread or on its own as a sweet. This manner of preservation was also known to Turkish people and is used to this very day. The vineyards of Jászberény operated a hill region organisation – an institution for landowners, renters and vine farmers without any legal mandates but a self-governing and decision-making character. Its goal was to serve and protect the interests of vine-growers. It operated according to the rules and regulations passed by the community through annually elected officials (vine-manager, vine-sheriff, notary) (Magyar Néprajzi Lexikon 2., 1979: 518). The operation of the vine-hill communities was suspended in 1949 by a government decree (Sebők, March 1996). 88 The unique ambiance of the vine-hills of Jászberény was created by the characteristic huts (kunyhó or gunyhó) which usually stood at the base of the vineyard with their end toward the sloping road. Their door and window usually faced the vineyard. Because buildings in this area were mostly built from mud, the huts were also built from this substance. The oldest of them were plastered wood-and-wicker structures, but Vine-grower’s hut in the vineyard of from the middle of the 20th century onwards Jászberény, 1959. Photograph by Tóth, János. battered mud walls and clay-brick walls became common. Most of the huts were a single-space structure with a small window on the narrow side and a door on the long side. There were also some that consisted of two separate spaces – in cases like this there were two doors cut into the long side of the building and sometimes people even added a veranda or porch to the front. For a long time these huts were built with thatched roofs, but after the second half of the 20th century it became common practice to use tiles which offered more protection from the weather and were easier to maintain. The oldest of the huts had no ceilings but only a roof. Later, however, people started creating ceilings in all huts and used the resulting attic space for storage. The walls were usually whitewashed and only in the second half of the 20th century did they start to paint the walls different colours – by this time most of the vineyards functioned as hobby gardens. These huts were very plainly furnished. Usually in each there was a little table, a wooden bed structure filled with straw called a dikó, a few shelves on the walls and a stool. There was a dead window in which they kept a candle or later a petrol lamp. In one corner they would deposit the tools for tending to the vines, as well as the cauldron used for open-air cooking, the tripod on which it was suspended and a few other pots and pans. Stoves were only built in the vineyard guard’s huts, because he had to live out on the vine-hill all year round. The hut was usually used in the period between spring and autumn, during the period when the vineyard needed to be worked. After the day’s work the family members would usually go home, but the more senior male members would stay at the vineyard from the opening of the season in spring until it was covered Cooking a cauldron sunk into the ground, in late autumn. During these works it was Jászberény, 1960’s. common for the women to cook outdoors. For this they would dig a round hole in the ground, make a fire inside it and place the cauldron on top. One of the most important events for vine-growers each year was the harvest which was carried out jointly by members of the community on a mutual help basis. Family members young and old would all take part at the harvest. They would arrive by horse and cart early in the morning, roast some bacon on skewers over the fire and then instantly set to work. Women and children picked grapes in wooden buckets or round wooden tubs, while the men carried wicker baskets called puttony on their backs, haversack style. One man with a puttony was usually accompanied by 3-4 pickers. Children were in charge of picking up single berries that dropped. The grapes, once picked, were tipped by the puttony men into pressing sacks which were placed into pressing tubs at the end of the vineyard where women and children pressed them with their feet. The juice of the vines was channelled into collecting tubs. After the second half of the 20th century it became more common to transport the grapes from the vineyard to the house or farm after picking and process them there. 89 For breakfast, the harvesters usually ate bacon roast on a skewer. The traditional harvest lunch, mutton stew, was cooked in a cauldron by one of the male family members8. After finishing work for the day they would eat what was left over and then sing together. Jász people were in the habit of indulging in a bit of a dance to mark the end of their harvest work. The harvest ball used to be held directly after the harvest in the local pub or restaurant, later it was moved to the grand hall of the community centre. The ball usually started with a funny procession headed by young lads on horseback, followed by young men and young girls and women in national costumes carrying a vast bunch of grapes. After them came three carriages with young people in fancy clothes. The harvest procession marched down the city singing songs and arrived by evening time at the venue of the ball. The ball room was decorated finely with grapes and guarded by mock guards. If anyone was caught stealing, the young lads acting as guard would take the ‘culprit’ to the judge who would issue his penalties next to the wine-barrel. Tradition has it that the harvest ball was used by many young people as an occasion to get engaged (Bathó 2014: 124). The decline of wine-growing at Jászberény Jászberény as a town of favourable features still possessed considerable vineyards as late as the 20th century. The manner of vine-growing became entirely transformed during the socialist period (1945-1989). Most vineyards were expropriated by agricultural cooperatives and state-owned farms which thus boasted a flourishing viniculture and wine trade in the second half of the 20th century. After the transition period of 1989 the co-operatives were disbanded, the land was restored to private ownership and the new owners applied new business strategies. They ploughed in the vineyards and began to cultivate the land in different ways. Many farmers planted woods in place of the former vineyards. After WWII the small plots of vineyard still owned by the general public, rarely amounting to more than a few rows, continued to operate as private gardens. (Neszűr, Kishegy, Bánhegy, Antalhegy). Over the 1970’s and 1980’s these gardens gradually turned into hobby allotments where the owners built week-end cottages. This is where many families went to recuperate from a week’s work, while attending to the most pressing tasks of the vineyard. During the decade of the 1990’s, however, the use of these week-end allotments changed considerably. The old people who had owned them died and the younger generation, often working three shifts in a factory, had no energy or motivation left to work in the garden at week-ends. Many of them also lacked the knowledge required for such work. This way most of these gardens fell into disuse. The vineyard huts collapsed, the once flourishing vineyards became overgrown with weed. This was the decline of the vineyards of Jászberény. Today there is hardly 90 8 In the Jászság region dishes prepared in the cauldron called bogrács were only made by men. any viniculture to speak of at Jászberény. 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Katona, József – Dömötör, József. Magyar borok-borvidékek [Hungarian Wines and Vine-growing Regions], Budapest, 1963. Novák László. Adatok a Jászság településnéprajzához [Data on the Population Ethnograpy of the Jász Region]. In: Jász Múzeum Évkönyve 1975-2000. Jászsági Könyvtár 4. Jászberény, 1998. Pesthy, Frigyes. Helynévtára I. Jászkunság. Kecskemét-Szolnok [A Dictionary of Place Names. I. Jászkunság Region, Kecskemét and Szolnok], 1978. 91 Prückler, József. Jászberényi rajzok [Drawings from Jászberény], Jászberény, 1934. Repiczky, János (translator). Jászberényi török levelek magyar fordítása (kézirat) [Hungarian Translations of Turkish Letters from Jászberény] Jász Múzeum Adattára (JMA) (no date). Sebők, József. Jászberényi Hegyközség [The Hill Region Community of Jászberény]. Jászkürt, year VIII, No. 5. p 5., 1996. Szabó, László. Jászság [The Jászság Region]. Budapest, 1982. 92 “Traditionality” and Sustainability of Foods in Turkish and Hungarian Cuisines Selcan Gürçayır Teke* The Traditional Cuisine Interaction Project of Turkey and Hungary aims to set forth the shared features and differences between the two countries by focusing on the cuisine existing in both countries at the present. In that case, first it is necessary to succeed in acquiring clarity to what is understood by the term “traditional food/cuisine” in both cultures. The truth of the matter is that the word “traditional” is a debatable and problematic concept. When this concept is brought together with food, then it is observed that the expression of this ambiguity continues. Should the materials be obtained through traditional/natural means for a food to be considered traditional? Should the cooking techniques be traditional? Should the forms of presentation be traditional? Is there a relationship between the traditionality of the environment where foods are consumed and the traditionality of foods? Do foods become traditional because they are prepared with rituals or are they prepared with rituals because they are traditional? For a minimum of how many generations should the forms of preparing foods, which we define as traditional, have been transferred? Does the relationship with the concepts, such as identity and state of belonging of traditional foods determine their traditionalities? Do the symbolic meanings of foods provide for or strengthen their traditionalities? In light of these questions, it was observed that together with there being slight differences in both cultures in the definition of traditional cuisine and food when considered in the Turkish and Hungarian cultures, they were expressed in similar forms. In the field studies, traditional cuisine was used for defining the foods coming to the present-day by being prepared sometime in the past. Sometimes due to the traditionality of the cooking techniques (cooking on sheet iron, cooking surrounding it by lighting a fire) they were characterized as traditional and sometimes they were defined as traditional because they were associated or moreover, were identified with * Dr., Lecturer in the Department of Turkish Folklore, Faculty of Literature, Gazi University, Ankara/Turkey, [email protected] 93 a region or a group, because these foods were a characteristic, which continued a religious group or ethnic identity and which separated that ethnicity or religious group from others. Sometimes, the criteria of recognition and prevalence were the reason for defining foods as traditional. Sometimes, due to the traditionality of the environments in which foods were presented brought into the forefront the thought that those foods were also traditional. In this article, every one of the justifications, which are the cause of characterizing a food as traditional, will be opened to debate with examples from both cultures. How the traditional foods have lived on in the present-day, to what extent they have been changed, how they responded to the loss or change in the environments of transferring traditional foods, in other words, it will also be treated on how they could be sustainable. First, what is meant related to traditional cuisine is that it should be something that was known by those living in the past and that it was transferred to us. The fact that a cuisine was transferred from generation to generation is the first criterion in its characterization as traditional. The fact that the materials, preparation and cooking techniques, form of presentation, where they were presented and the forms of consumption show similarities with the generations who lived before us, basically provides for separating that food from others and making it traditional. If we were to borrow from Jack Goody, when cuisine culture is mentioned, then we can talk about a traditional cuisine in the proportion that we can mention its traditionality in the production, distribution, preparation and consumption stages (Goody, 2013). It is an indisputable fact that traditions change and transform within time. As Anne Kaplan also expressed, “To see change as the enemy of tradition is an emotional error... Persons change their traditions in a continuous manner for fitting them into their lives; a fixed tradition... is one that is dead” (Quoted from Kaplan, 1986 by Humphrey, 1989: 163). Consequently, the traditional foods and cuisine culture are also changed by the generations, and the blending of new cooking techniques, new materials, new forms of presentation of the traditional cuisine culture is under consideration. Cuisine is open to innovations, but at the same time, is an area that also preserves conservatism. Persons are open to both new flavors and new tastes and to technological innovations, which make their lives easier in the kitchen, and with the identity consciousness provided by food, they are conservative due to the social and cultural meanings or only the food eating habits and flavors they are accustomed to eating. Consequently, it can be stated that cuisine is an area where tradition and modern sometimes clash and sometimes reconcile differences. Technological developments and the rapid spreading of the fast food culture have provided for experiencing a process, which weakens the traditional cuisine culture. 94 Even if the difficulty in understanding the definition of traditional food/cuisine is preserved, it can be said that the thought that traditional foods are foods that take a long time and are difficult to prepare is also valid for the Turkish and Hungarian cultures. Just as there are traditional foods, which could be brought up until today by being transferred among generations, there are also traditional foods that were abandoned with some justifications by the generations and have not reached the present-day. Among the basic difficulties experienced in the continuation of the traditional foods is that fact that the preparation processes are difficult and that it requires a long period of time. The fact that it requires a definite period of training in the preparations of foods and that the preparation is hard and difficult, makes it difficult to continue the existence of the traditional foods within the lifestyles of today. The plum pestil (thin sheet of sun-dried fruit pulp), which is made at Şair Şeyhi Village in Kütahya Province, is not made very much by the village women in the present-day. The fact that prepared beverages and drinks have a rather broader range of flavors and that they can be purchased inexpensively and easily, has been the cause of the gradual disappearance of this traditional taste. Zehra Kipir narrated with the following statements the making of plum pestil to the extent that she remembered it from her mother, “The plums are cooked, boiled, put through a sieve, put on a tray, set out in the sun and hung on a string. In winter, it is cut, and by melting, it is drunk with pilaf.” She summarized the justification for not making this traditional taste with the words, “We cannot be bothered to make it, we are not making it.” Couscous, which is defined as traditional and unique to the region at Kartepe Village of Karatepe County in İzmit Province, is known in the present-day, especially by the elderly women, but its production is gradually decreasing. The villagers say that they cook this traditional food for the visits of some of the Hungarian guests, who come to visit the Tökeli İmre Monument, which is located in the village. The food is traditional in the village, but at the same time, is observed to be an imaginary food and they benefit from this traditional food for stating themselves to another culture and is only known in theory by the younger generations with the justification of the difficulty in making it, but is not made by them. After bringing it to the shape of lentils by kneading bulgur with flour, it is rolled by hand by two women who sit on the side of a dough tray/trough and after rolling for 2-3 hours the couscous is realized and obtained. Subsequently, it is boiled in a kettle and dried. Ayşe Özkan, who operates a grocery store in the village, gave information for the making of couscous with the statements, “Couscous is a very difficult job. Bulgur is brought to the shape of lentils with flour. Two persons roll it in a tray/trough. It takes a lot of time. They understand. Our elders are boiling it in a kettle and dry it later.” Actually these flavors, which are not learned, will disappear together with the deaths of the carriers of the traditional knowledge, due to the difficulties in its production. For what period of time the couscous is rolled and what shape it takes when the production is finished is a traditional knowledge. The loss of this knowledge makes it necessary to rediscover by trial and error when it is decided to make these flavors once again. A Hungarian drink called martz is a drink we encountered in 95 Budapest, for which information is found in theory on how it was made in the past, but has been forgotten since it was not transferred in the sense of implementation. This is a drink made with the mixing of sugar, aniseed and water and served to children during holidays. It was tried by the source person with whom we talked, but since it was not known in practice how it was made, the tests were unsuccessful. They obtained a very bad flavor and abandoned making this drink. Actually, food is also closely related to lifestyle and one of the important factors in the change of cuisine culture is the change in lifestyle. If we were to speak about Turkey in particular, the foods consumed from a single dish in the past have left their place to the foods that can be eaten as a group or separately according to work hours, together from separate plates with the establishment of the modern working conditions of today and with the perception of hygiene. The traditional foods, which were the tradition of eating from a single dish, could find a place for themselves in the world of today, but it could be realized when the forms of presentation changed. The tirit food, which is made for special guests or at Ramadan in Kütahya, is served by boiling a turkey and placing it on a rather large tray, and surrounding it with yufka (bread baked in very thin sheets) dampened with turkey gravy. Eating it from a single tray is one of the dominant points of the traditionality of the food. However, the eating of this food from separate plates in the present-day has been solved with the formula of preparing it separately for each plate. Our source person Hediye Demir stated that her daughter prepares this food separately for each plate, but that this was somewhat difficult. In a similar manner, the yufka böreği (flaky thin sheet of pastry filled with thin layers of food, usually cheese or cooked ground beef ) made in Kütahya, is a food eaten by separating it with the hands and by putting it in the center of the tray. Both the difficulties in preparing it and the technique of presentation have paved the way for a decrease in the preparation of this börek. A significant share of the traditional foods is being abandoned with the changeability in traditional flavors and tastes.1 The food called talkan, which was made up until recently among the Nogai Turks of Alpu County in Eskişehir Province, is among the traditional foods that has been forgotten along with the closing of the mill in the region. Chickpeas are broiled with corn and are made into flour by being brought to the mill. It is eaten by mixing it with yogurt with sugar. Talkan is a food that is made for keeping one full, especially at sahur (meal taken just before dawn during the Ramadan fast) during the month of Ramadan. Certainly, the closing of the mill is one of the justifications for not making this food any more. However, another justification is that the flavor of this food is not liked, especially by the new generation. There are many 1 96 See Jean-Louis Flandrin, “Tadın da Bir Tarihi Var” (There is also a History of Taste). Yemek ve Kültür Dergisi, 2008, 11:92-101, for detailed information on the subject of change in taste. tastes existing in the present-day, which are thought to be more flavorful and could take the place of this taste that could be defined as snack food. The coming into the forefront of these tastes has been the cause of taking the place of the foods, which were consumed for meeting the same needs in the past. One of the basic characteristics of the change in traditional tastes is encountering other cultures, that is, the entering into the interactions of different cuisine cultures. When the economic yield of cuisine is considered, then it is observed that touristic tastes have been able to provide for a change and transformation of traditional tastes in a rapid manner. The traditional pide (pita, a slightly leavened, flat pizza-like bread) called kemences langos, which is baked in a traditional oven and that we encountered in Hungary, has been shaped in time according to the palates of tourists. In the tradition, this pide is baked by putting sour cream and salt on the dough and in recent years, is baked by putting onions and pork on it. Thus, this pide, which is sold to tourists during festivals in the streets, has become a more popular food. While the baking technique of kemences langos has preserved its traditionality, it is observed that it has become more enriched from the aspect of materials. When it is also considered that the kitchen is at the same time a technical area, then it can be evaluated that technical developments and new technologies are a threat in response to the traditional tastes. The fact that the pots and pans or the cooking equipment used in the past are not existing in the present-day has provided for taking on the condition, which makes it difficult to prepare these foods at home and as a result of this, these traditional foods can only live in memories. It is also impossible to say that the tandırs (ovens consisting of a clay-lined pit or a large earthen jar buried in the ground), kuzines (small, iron, wood-burning cook stoves) and sacs (pieces of sheet iron used for cooking/baking) as food cooking equipment have been able to find a place in the modern Turkish kitchen. It is thought that these foods, which are evaluated as traditional due to their cooking supplies, are also disappearing with the decrease in the use of this equipment or that their traditionalities have been lost with the new cooking techniques. For example, the su böreği (a börek made of layers of noodle-like pastry filled with cheese/meat), which was definitely served to guests coming during the religious festivals in Kütahya, while it was a börek baked on pieces of sheet iron in a wood fire in the past, it is now baked in an oven. Naciye Keler, our source person, thinks that the food has lost its traditionality by this means, by saying that su böreği cannot be baked in an oven. A type of macaroni called ovma, which is prepared in Kütahya as preparations for winter, is both difficult to make and is prepared with a special gözer (coarsely meshed sieve). Those who do not have this gözer in their homes abandon this traditional taste. When cooking or preparation equipment are not preserved in a home environment, then we are confronted with them at business enterprises, cultural protection associations and museums. The dried bean soup 97 cooked in a large, earthenware jar surrounded by a fire lit in the middle, together with vegetables, such as onions, carrots and potatoes, that we encountered at the Skansen Museum in Hungary, is considered to be traditional due to its cooking technique. This dish, which is an ideal food for families engaged in agriculture, is put into large, earthenware jars surrounded by rather large fires lit in the middle. Generally, this dish is prepared by men and is also in harmony with the lifestyles of farmers, because it cooks in a long period of time by coming and stirring it at specific intervals. The names of the families, which are written on the large, earthenware jars, prevent the foods from being mixed up with each other, because the villagers cook their foods around a single fire that they light. It is almost impossible to find a place for this cooking technique within the modern kitchens and modern lifestyles. 98 The statement of our source person in Kisujszallas, “Traditional foods remain in the past. They exist during festivals, but are not in daily dishes.” It provides for us to see the open relationship between rituals and traditional foods. The most important areas of life for the traditional foods are related to the traditional applications. When these applications are abandoned or when they change form, then the changing or the disappearance of the traditional foods is also under consideration. However, when the difficulty of the “traditionality” of rituals is considered, then actually the traditional rituals and applications can also be observed to be the safety valve of traditional foods. The irreplaceable foods of weddings at Karcag in Hungary are chicken soup, birkapörkölt, kolac (pie, cake), a caramelized cake with sugar given the name of pörkölt pie to the bride in Jasbereny and at weddings in Tekirdağ, keşkek (a dish made of pounded meat and wheat), cabbage, paça (jellied trotters – it is made with garlic and milk in the area) and stew made with onions and tomatoes are the traditional dishes identified with traditional applications. The dishes at traditional rituals are also becoming traditionalized due to the meanings that they carry. The cake called rustiyush kolac is carried in the hand of the best man at weddings in Jaszfenyszaru and symbolizes the wish, “to continue the marriage in a happy manner eternally”. It is only made at weddings and is a cake that is distributed by the neighbors. Also, in Kumanistan, when going to see the mother and child before forty days have passed after birth, a meal (lunch) called komatal, which is brought by the close relatives or neighbors, is one of the meals related to traditions. Within this meal is the special cake given the name of çörek (a round/ring-shaped/braided cake) and the shape of folding the cake resembles the female sexual organ and symbolizes the wish that the woman who has just given birth will recover as soon as possible. It is valid for funerals at İzmit, Kütahya, Tekirdağ and moreover, in many areas of Turkey, that helva (halvah, sweet prepared with sesame oil, various cereals and syrup or honey) is made with the objective of removing the smell and of the house of the dead being known. Similarly, to remove the smell by frying dough in oil or by making helva is done at İzmit and Kütahya for kandils (one of five Islamic holy nights when the minarets are illuminated), but this time it is done with the perception of “Birds are filled by the smell, a blessed day”. While making square vermicelli, which symbolizes “that life has ended” for the vermicelli put into the soups cooked at funerals in Kumanistan, at weddings, long vermicelli is put into the soups, which symbolizes, “that life and the marriage would last for a long time”. Our source person stated that this form of preparation was also continued at Karcag up until recently, but now it has been forgotten. The change in form of traditional rituals has led to a departure from these rituals of the traditional foods in both cultures. The salon weddings, which have taken the place of traditional weddings, both for the Hungarians and the Turks, have decreased the preparation of traditional dishes, which were identified with weddings. Modern foods and cakes are offered to the guests at salon weddings. Even though the making of helva, a traditional flavor, is still done in a widespread manner at funerals in Turkey, it is also known that the distribution of pide with meat and ayran (drink made with yogurt and water) has gradually become more widespread in recent years. A similar situation is encountered in Hungary. Our source person in Kisujszallas said that now the funeral meals are brought from restaurants, but stated she recalled that forty years ago, for the death of her father-in-law, chicken soup made with square-shaped vermicelli, birkapörkölt and her father-in-law’s favorite foods were cooked. The traditionality of foods strengthens even more with the symbolic meanings that they express in rituals. The symbolic meanings assumed by foods at rituals, such as weddings, funerals and kandil, come to a status of being one of the basic motivations in the cooking of these foods. A similar situation can also be followed in the symbolic meanings of foods in the Alevi (member of a religious group in Turkey that revers the Caliph Ali) culture. The chicken, eggs, keşkek and fig compote given at the Nevruz (holiday celebrated at the vernal equinox) religious ritual is a traditional menu, “which has been preserved ever since Hacı Bektaş Veli” and has symbolic meanings. The giving of chicken and eggs together symbolizes the perception of cycle, while the fig compote symbolizes the oneness and unity of God, that is, it symbolizes oneness and abundance. The fig is single in appearance, but when it is opened, one is confronted with hundreds of seeds. Whereas, milk symbolizes cleanliness and purity. According to what Mahrem Tezoldu, our source person stated, this religious ritual, realized on 21 March, is the start of the new year according to the ancient Turks. Every one of these foods, “provides for the cleansing of the intestines and for discarding the deposits of winter”. It is thought that these foods which are eaten “would be the reason for rising healthier the next day and for starting the new year better.” Another basic factor of food in the continuation of traditional foods and in the adaptation to new lifestyles is thinking of food as a part of an identity, by equating it with a certain ethnicity or religious group. In this situation, food is transformed into a tool that satisfies the feeling of identity and belonging. Marie Hèléne Sauner-Leroy 99 stated that food became fixed by laying an “ethnic” meaning, especially on some foods, and that it was endeavored to prepare it in the same manner. Sauner-Leroy set forth that this situation could be observed in an easy manner in immigrants drew attention to the fact that immigrants who selected a food for themselves, reflect this to their identities and thought of it as a food that symbolized them. The eating habits related to collards of the Black Sea residents who immigrated to France and the way of behaving for Indreja bread of the Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel can be shown as examples (2012: 163-164). The foods belonging to these groups, which separates them from other groups, assume a distinctive function. Traditional foods, especially when they remain under the influence of different cultures, assume roles in the definition of group belongings and identities. For the Jasz and Kuman peoples with whom we talked during the field research in Hungary, the traditional foods had become the condition of an area that they thought were continuing their identities. This is also valid for the Nogai Tatars at Eskişehir and the Alevis and Bulgarian immigrants with whom we talked at Tekirdağ in Turkey. The pörkölt pie (hazelnut cake, caramelized with sugar) given to the bride at weddings in the city of Jaszbereny and the pigeon soup cooked for women who had given birth are foods that have been identified with the Jasz culture, which is unique to the region. The pastries given the names of kırma and dızmana by persons who are immigrants from Bulgaria at Çeşmirli Village of Çorlu County in Tekirdağ Province are foods that have been brought to the condition of a part of their identities. The çiğbörek (a fried börek made with raw ground meat, onions and spices), köbete (börek with chicken), katlama, kaşık börek, ovmaç soup, ükenbörek, sarburma, sorpa (it is made from veal) and palace dessert are the traditional dishes coming into the forefront, which reflect identity in the Nogai Tatars. The foods in the Alevi communities, are foods that both strengthen the group identities and that express symbolic meanings. The aşure (pudding made of cereals, sugar, raisins, etc.), which is cooked during the month of Muharrem (the first month of the Muslim calendar) and which is also known as the month of mourning, is a traditional dessert observed between the Alevis and Sunnis. The form of eating these traditional foods has also become traditionalized. The eating of sacrifice meat cut in the worship of companions by only the companions, that is, not being eaten by singles, who are not companions, are also the traditional habits formed around traditional foods. 100 It is observed that some traditional foods represent that region or have acquired the attribute of coming to mind when that region is mentioned. In this context, a relationship can be established between the foods becoming imaginary and traditionality. The pişmaniye (a sweet that has the texture like cotton candy) from İzmit, where the monumental tombs of İmre Tökeli and Queen Zirini are located, is famous. Pişmaniye, which is a traditional flavor belonging to the region, has become a flavor that is produced in small enterprises, not in homes. There are fourteen workshops in İzmit that produce pişmaniye. In obtaining this traditional, regional taste that is described as a food learned from Iran, while previously it was a style of production dominant in home-type workshops with emphasis on manpower, in the present day, it has acquired emphasis in industrial-type workshops and machine power. This sweet, which does not have an important place in the daily food consumption of the people of the region, is mostly brought as a gift. Especially, this taste, which we are accustomed to seeing at the bus terminals in Turkey, is a sweet, which shows both the regional and the traditional attributes. The mezeskalacs, honey cakes, that we encounter in Karcag are one of the traditional tastes produced in small enterprises in Hungary. These sweet cakes, produced from honey, flour, sugar, fresh eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, are one of the traditional tastes, which is learned within the master-apprentice relationship. It is known that Debrecen could be described as a center from the aspect of mezeskalacs. Mihail Andrashi, our source person stated that previously, there were over ten thousand masters in this sector, but in the present-day only thirty-five masters remain. It is stated that this traditional dessert has lost its former importance in response to the desserts coming from the West. Previously, in the periods when the number of masters was few, the recipe was secret, whereas, in the present-day it is set forth that the recipe is not kept secret and that giving shape and color and the forms of decoration have acquired importance. The molds in which the honey cakes are poured are obtained by hollowing out from pear tree wood. In this sense, a number of the cake masters are also masters that make their own molds. These cakes, which are edible, but mostly come into the forefront with their visualities, have become a part and have been made imaginary in the gift sector. It is conspicuous that the traditional foods in Turkish and Hungarian cuisines are closely related to “the past” and “to being transferred for several generations”. It is observed that the traditional flavors, with changes in the production, cooking and serving, are also able to continue their existences today. However, some flavors, due to the difficulties in their preparation, are being abandoned by both cultures. Whereas, another reason for the abandonment of the traditional tastes stems from thinking that they do not address the palates of today. Thinking that foods are an inseparable part of rituals also contributes to the traditionality of these foods. However, as it can be observed in the wedding and funeral examples, it is seen that together with the change in the form of traditional rituals, it is also gradually ending the relationship of these traditional flavors with these rituals. The symbolic meanings (good wishes, therapeutic attributes) given to these traditional foods confronts us as one of the basic motivations in the continuation of the traditional foods. Ethnic and religious groups continue the traditionality of foods by making foods that they think have become a part of their own identities. These traditional foods, just as they are distinctive and separate them from other groups, they show the quality of a unifier that meets in a shared denominator with their own groups. Also, acquiring imaginariness by equating some dishes and foods to a specific region strengthens the traditionality of the dishes. 101 The traditional cuisine culture is one of the fields that makes traditional knowledge become known. Providing for the transfer of this knowledge between generations also has the meaning of transferring and continuing the knowledge of humanity obtained through experience for hundreds and thousands of years. When it is considered from the aspect of the UNESCO, the sustainability of this knowledge is of vital importance from the aspect of the respect felt for the creativity of humans and for preserving the diversity of cultural expressions. It is also of great importance for both cultures to transfer to future generations the knowledge related to the traditional cuisine culture by the nongovernmental organizations setting into action the open-air museums for the traditional tastes, which do not have the opportunities to retain their existences in response to the strong capital in an important economic sector, such as food. References Flandrin, Jean-Louis. “Tadın da Bir Tarihi Var” (There is also a History of Taste). Yemek ve Kültür Dergisi. 2008, 11: 92-101 (in Turkish). Goody, Jack. Yemek, Mutfak, Sınıf Karşılaştırmalı Sosyoloji Çalışması (Cooking, Cuisine and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology). Güran, Müge Günay, trans. İstanbul: Pinhan Yayınları, 2013 (in Turkish). Humphrey, Lin T. “Traditional Foods? Traditional Values?” Western Folklore, 1989, 48(2): 162-169. Sauner-Leroy, Marie Hèléne. “Yemeğin Değişken Anlamları ve Göç” (The Changeable Meanings of Food and Migration). In: Avcı, Ayşegül, Erkoç, Seda and Otman, Elvin, eds. Yemekte Tarih Var Yemek Kültürü ve Tarihçiliği (There is History in Food: Cuisine Culture and Historiography). İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2012 (in Turkish). 102 Cuisines United with Photographs: To Follow the Cuisine Cultures in Visual Texts* Ezgi Metin Basat** Nourishment, which is one of the basic needs of mankind, is a universal necessity. However, the shaping of this need according to context and lifestyles, transforms nourishment from a physical need to a social activity. Whereas, the equipment and supplies of cuisine present striking data from the aspect of the transformation of the “eating” action to a cuisine culture. In this study, the equipment and supplies used in the kitchen are examined in detail as a visual text that presents striking data related to cooking techniques. When it is considered that the changes of nourishments found in nature are transforming cuisine into a cultural product, that this transformation is shaped by kitchen equipment and supplies, then it is possible to state that the cuisine culture can also be read through this shaping. According to Levi Strauss, to cook food is universal within human societies. Cooked food is the condition of transforming raw food culturally. Whereas, what is rotten is the condition of transforming in a natural manner what is raw and cooked. Frying and smoking are on the side of nature, whereas, boiling is on the side of culture. Smoking is on the side of culture and frying and boiling are on the side of nature from the aspect of results (quoted from Goody 2013: 43). It is observed that the natural cultural relationship determines the cooking techniques of food by taking into consideration the cuisine triangle diagram of Levi Strauss. In this relationship, it is possible to state that food has assumed social functions and has been transformed into a cultural text. According to Mary Douglas, besides the biological realities of food, it is also related to the social realities. According to her, food is transformed into a code, whereas, the things that set forth the message coded are * The photographs used in this article were taken during the field study in Turkey between 17-23 April 2016 and in Hungary between 9-18 May 2016 by Tuna Yıldız, a doctoral student at the Department of Turkish Folklore at the Gazi University in Ankara, Turkey, and by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Adem Koç, a staff member at the Department of Turkish Language and Literature of the Gaziosmanpaşa University in Tokat, Turkey. ** PhD.at the Department of Turkish Folklore, Gazi University, Ankara/Turkey, [email protected] 103 the patterns of the social relations. Consequently, food is brought to the condition of the symbol of social relations. A correspondence is shown between the given social structure and the structure of symbols, which are expressed on this structure (quoted from Goody 2013: 46). It can be stated that nourishments, which are a biological requirement, are transformed into a cultural action with cooking methods, by considering the statements of Strauss and Douglas. In this transformation, while the cuisine culture determines the cooking nourishments of societies with fire, putting in ovens to bake, drying and frying, on the other hand, it is important from the aspect of reflecting the shared tastes of societies that are different from each other. Consequently, it is possible to read from the cooking techniques the extent to which the cuisine culture is original or universal. Whereas, kitchen equipment and supplies recognize the opportunity for reading the cooking techniques as a visual text. Careful examination, on the one hand, of ovens, stoves and barbeques, and on the other hand, of colanders, sinis (large, round copper/brass trays) and storage containers, can present significant data easily and quickly about the cuisine culture of the kitchen. Here, nourishments are removed from being a basic need and are transformed into a cultural tool, which reflects taste. In other words, as it was also stated by Civitello, to provide nourishment and to establish dominance on a nourishment are different points. That is, actions, such as to produce, to prepare with equipment, to cook, etc. are important from the aspect of setting forth their specificity to the culture (quoted from Nahya 2012: 80). When these cooking techniques mentioned and the kitchen equipment and supplies, which make these techniques functional, are examined carefully, then they are transformed into documents for the transfer of the cuisine culture. 104 It is rather easy to obtain information about the shape attributes of kitchens, which can be read as a visual text, and about the equipment and supplies located in these kitchens for the foods cooked. Also, as stated by Özge Samancı, questions on whether or not foods are prepared by being mashed, fried, boiled or in a closed manner can be answered through these documents. Furthermore, there can also be the opportunity to learn most of the time the types of foods cooked in kitchens from the names of the aforementioned pots, saucepans and dishes in documents since they also include areas of use. Accordingly, it can be stated that the cooking techniques, which are shaped by the cuisine culture, and the form of the equipment and supplies used in these techniques are functionally unique. Whereas, in the transfer of this originality, it is observed that it answers many cultural questions of the kitchens, like an ethnographic object. As stated by Barthes, culture is an agreement reached between those who create it and those who consume it. Consequently, photographs, which are visual text, can give answers to many ethnographic questions from the clothing of persons to the accessories (Barthes 1992: 45). When kitchen equipment-supplies are approached from this viewpoint, then the shapes reflected by cooking techniques are striking. According to Peter Burke, paintings, statues and printings provide the opportunity of sharing to future generations the knowledge and experiences on the previous cultures that have not been put into writing (Burke 2009: 13). When kitchen equipment and supplies are considered to be a visual text, then it is possible to say that they would be evaluated as one each source related to the cooking techniques of foods and the forms of eating. Just like William Burroughs expressed, since no one can say something that they do not know at all, then you also cannot show something that you do not know at all (quoted by Yaykın 2009: 137). For example, the photograph taken at the Thököly İmre Memory house located in İzmit, Turkey, which symbolizes the takeover of Buda, has the attribute of constituting an example of the pictures considered by Burke as “the eyewitnesses of history”. Photographs 1-2. İzmit, Turkey. Thököly İmre Memory house. Paintings by Frans Geffels, 1686. Photograph 3. Jaszbereny, Hungary. 105 In the first two photographs above, the takeover of Buda is narrated in one painting and the detail of it is observed. Within the details of the painting, pörkölt (stew), which is one of the important foods of the Hungarian cuisine, is being cooked and the cooking techniques of this food are striking. Pörkölt, which was also served frequently during the field studies, is cooked today in large kettles with similar techniques. For example, the cooking technique in the third photograph, which was taken in Jaszbereny on 12 May 2016, is rather like the cooking technique observed in the painting. As it can be observed, food was cooked with similar techniques in the two different visual texts. Here, it is also possible to follow the historical processes through photographs of a food, which constitutes a cuisine culture. As it can also be observed in the examples, our interest for the objects emerging before us in the photograph and our form of giving meaning are connected to our acquaintance with these objects, because just as İhsan Derman expressed, the visual perception, which is only a part of the object observed, contains more than we have seen (Derman, 2010: 31). Consequently, it is possible to say that the memory of visual perception is closely related with cultural codes. In a similar manner, the photograph of the painting given below was taken at the kitchen section of the Esztergom Fortress Museum. A kitchen dating back to 1542 observed in the painting appears in the photograph. Here, at first glance, it provides for us to obtain an idea on the cuisine culture about the kitchen equipment and supplies and food cooking techniques. The sizes of the kettles and that collective foods were eaten from the small ones and that boiling and straining techniques were used in the form of colanders and spoons are understood from the painting. In the photograph observed next to the painting, it is striking that the spoons have similar attributes to those in the painting. Nevertheless, it is possible to read as a visual, which transfers that the boiling and straining techniques were used. 106 Photographs 3-4. National Museum of Hungary. – Esztergom Fortress Museum. Just as it can also be observed in the examples above, the kitchen equipment and supplies, just like oral and written sources, provide striking data on the cuisine culture. Here, it is observed that the names of the equipment and supplies and the shape attributes can be read, just like a visual text. For example, in the article titled, “Osmanlı Mutfağında Kullanılan Sofra Gereçleri” (The Dinner Table Supplies Used in Ottoman Cuisine) by Ayşe Erdoğdu, the Ottoman cuisine culture is studied carefully through miniature paintings. Erdoğdu stated that in the Surname, which describes the circumcision ceremony held for 52 days and 52 nights in 1582 for Prince Mehmet, the son of Sultan Murad III, there are in many miniature paintings, most which represent metal, ceramic and porcelain dish shapes and that plates, glass jars, shallow cooking pans, coffee cups, trays, bowls and saucepans were forms that were used frequently. For example, in a scene, which shows the procession of the helva (sweet prepared with sesame oil, various cereals, and syrup or honey) makers, it shows clearly that helva is being made in a copper saucepan with a long-handled ladle. Also, in the miniature painting drawn by Levni, which reflects the circumcision ceremony of Sultan Ahmed III’s princes, many ideas can be obtained on the cuisine culture reflected in the miniature paintings. It is observed in these miniature paintings that the round, sini/table diagrams were repeated in all the feast dinner tables. Lidded metal covers, bowls and shallow cooking pans, blue and white bowls and plates, porcelain pots with jewels, and generally, censers, small flasks for sprinkling rose water, decanters, spoons, silver washbowl for washing hands and face, long-spouted pitchers and coffee cups on a tray as a set, were the types of containers pictured the most (Erdoğdu 2000: 65). Just as it can be observed in the examples, it is possible to follow the traces of the cultural dynamics in general through visual texts, whereas, especially in the cuisine culture. Özge Samancı expressed that the pots, such as shallow cooking pans, saucepans and kettles, used in the cooking of food in the palace kitchens and sometimes in the serving of food, were produced from copper and that sal ammoniac and tin were continuously provided to the kitchen for the tinning of these items. Large, shallow copper dishes were used for pilaf, lamb and kebap, trays for baklava, börek (flaky pastry filled with thin layers of food, usually cheese or cooked ground meat) and kadayıf (various kinds of sweet pastry) and frying pans were used for mücver (a fried patty, the chief ingredient of which is squash), eggs, fish and to fry oil, butter, etc. Equipment, such as meat cleavers, bone cleavers, ground meat cleavers, small cleavers and standing boards were used since the cutting and processing of meats were realized in kitchens. Equipment and supplies would be found, such as copper colanders and ladles, jam ladles, lokma (a small, round syrupy fried cake) ladles, soup ladles and wooden ladles used in the cooking of stews, etc. When the kitchen equipment and supplies are examined carefully by considering the examples given by Samancı, then it can be said that the forms of transforming nutriments in the kitchens also emerged. The frying 107 pans, colanders and cleavers found in the kitchen, can also provide for our obtaining detailed information about the food of the culture used in that kitchen to the extent of the oral and written sources. When all of these are taken into consideration, then it is possible to say that a detailed inference from the photographs about the cuisine culture of Turkey and Hungary for both cuisines when the shared cuisine attributes are considered. Especially, it is striking from the aspect of reflecting the equipment and supplies used to the cooking techniques. For example, of the two photographs given below, one was taken in the field studies in Hungary, whereas, the other one was taken in Turkey. Photograph 5. Karcag, Hungary. 108 Photograph 6. Eskişehir, Turkey. If it were to be evaluated specific to the examples, then it is possible to say that similar food cooking techniques are used in both cuisines. As it can also be observed in the photographs, the presence of an oven in the kitchens gives an idea on the change of dough in both food cultures. It is also possible to see in the field photographs the other food forms obtained from dough. In the photographs given below, equipment and supplies, such as graters, fine sieves, dough cutting machines and dough boards, are used in the cuisine in both cultures. The making of tarhunya is in the left-hand photograph, whereas, the making of mantı (a ravioli-like dish served with yogurt) is in the right-hand photograph. Along with the originality of the foods, it is possible to detect a sharing in the manner of transforming dough and in the cooking techniques. However, even the existence of these equipment and supplies give information for passing through the procedures, such as sifting and cutting of the dough. In a similar manner, it is possible to follow the processes of change in the dough in the right-hand photograph. Besides this, it can be said that in both photographs, women take an active role in the foods obtained from dough. Photograph 7. Kisujszallas, Hungary. Photograph 8. Kütahya, Turkey. Frying, in a manner similar to the examples given above, is one of the techniques used in the transformation of nutrients. It is known that foods are consumed by frying in many different geographies. For example, in the two photographs given below, the cooking stages of nutrients produced with the frying techniques have been displayed. Here, despite the use of similar techniques, it is possible to say that potatoes and dough have been shaped in the kitchens of different cultures. Photograph 9. Jazsbereny, Hungary. Photograph 10. Eskişehir, Turkey. Whereas, drying is one of the methods used for storing nourishments. Especially, the culture, which examines carefully the drying of nourishments in the process of 109 preparations for winter, shelter important clues for the tastes and the forms of storing nourishments. For example, it is possible to follow the traces of a shared cuisine culture in the two photographs given below. It is observed in both photographs that peppers are being dried as preparations for winter. This is also important from the aspect of reflecting the similarity within both cuisines of the nourishments that should be stored for winter. Photograph 11. Jasfenyszaru, Hungary. Photograph 12. Çubuk, Ankara, Turkey. As it can also be observed in the examples given above, they can be read as a visual text as of the appearances of the objects and they reflect the cuisine culture in the context of the functions on which they are found. In other words, the presence of equipment and supplies, such as a fine sieve, bread dough tray/trough and rolling pin in a kitchen, which is studied carefully, the nourishments dried and the forms of presenting foods are important from the aspect of reflecting the characters of kitchens. Besides this, it is also possible to say that the cuisine cultures, with their joint undertakings and differences, are within a network of interaction. Similarly, large, earthenware jars, glass jars and skewers also present striking data about the storing culture. Whereas, these examples mentioned can be read with ease on photographs in different time segments. Pots used for the carrying and storing of food materials, the equipment and supplies used for preparation and the dinner table order are important indicators that provide for our understanding the cuisine culture. 110 Photograph 13. Kisujszallas, Hungary. Photograph 14. Tekirdağ, Turkey. As it can also be observed in the examples given above, it is possible to use the equipment and supplies used in the cuisine of that culture as one each source in the solution of the cuisine culture. It is observed that these equipment and supplies, just like written and oral sources, reflect the food cooking techniques. Besides this, it is possible to say that important functions are undertaken in following the historical process of the cuisine culture in museums and other exhibition areas, which reflect the cuisine culture. In other words, finding bread boards, ovens, colanders, ladles and fine sieves in a kitchen transfers easily to field researchers that dough raw material nourishments are cooked in that culture. It is possible to read the photographs located below from this viewpoint. Photograph 15. Jaszfenyszaru, Hungary. Photograph 16. Karcag, Hungary. Photograph 17. Kütahya, Turkey. 111 As it can also be observed in the three photographs given above, the kitchen equipment and supplies and the shape attributes of kitchens present data related to the cuisine culture. For example, in the photograph taken in Hungary on the left, it is possible to understand when looking at the kitchen equipment and supplies that the boiling and straining methods are used from the colanders, whereas, that nourishments are consumed by making them smaller from the graters and large stone/ wooden mortars. In addition, from the peppers hanging on the wall, it is possible to understand that preparations for winter are made by drying nourishments. Whereas, when Photographs 16 and 17 are examined, then it is observed that in the photograph on the left, there is a kitchen example from Hungary, whereas, in the photograph on the right, there is an area used as a kitchen in Kütahya, Turkey. While it is observed that food is eaten at a table in the kitchen on the left, food is consumed on a sini on the floor in the kitchen on the right. Nevertheless, it is possible to say that the equipment and supplies hanging on the walls that include long-spouted pitchers and storage pots in both photographs, provide data for both cultures. In conclusion, it can be said that the examination of kitchen equipment and supplies gives noteworthy information on the cuisine culture of the kitchen, just like oral and written texts. Here, it is possible to examine carefully this aforementioned equipment and supplies as one each visual text. In this study, the photographs taken in the field studies were examined carefully as visual sources having the meaning of original and shared cuisine attributes of both countries. Accordingly, it is possible to interpret on the cooking techniques, which form the cuisine culture, through the equipment and supplies used. Especially, the functions of the equipment and supplies and the shape attributes are striking from the aspect of also reflecting the historical processes and methods. Consequently, it is possible to say that the equipment mentioned is transformed into a visual text of the nourishment culture. References Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida, Fotoğraf Üzerine Düşünceler (Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography). Akçakaya, Reha, trans. İstanbul: Altıkırkbeş Yayınları, 1992 (in Turkish). Burke, Peter. Afişten Heykele Minatürden Fotoğrafa Tarihin Görgü Tanıkları (Eyewitnessing: The Uses of Images as Historical Evidence). Yelçe, Zeynep, trans. İstanbul: Kitap Yayınları, 2003 (in Turkish). Derman, İhsan. Fotoğraf ve Gerçeklik (Photographs and Reality). İstanbul: Hayalbaz Yayınları, 2010 (in Turkish). 112 Erdoğdu, Ayşe. “Osmanlı Mutfağında Kullanılan Sofra Gereçleri” (The Dinner Table Requisites Used in Ottoman Cuisine). Çevik, Nihal Kadıoğlu, ed. Hünkar Beğendi Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 2000, pp. 61-71 (in Turkish). Goody, Jack. Yemek, Mutfak, Sınıf Karşılaştırmalı Sosyoloji Çalışması (Cooking, Cuisine and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology). Güran, Müge Günay, trans. İstanbul: Pinhan Yayınları, 2013 (in Turkish). Nahya, Nilüfer. “Evin Kalbi: Gaziantep’te Bir Kültürel Mekân Olarak Mutfak” (The Heart of the House: Kitchen as a Cultural Place in Gaziantep). Nahya, Z. Nilüfer, ed. Şehir ve Mutfak Kültürü (City and Cuisine Culture). Ankara: Ürün Yayınları, 2012 (in Turkish). Samancı, Özge. “Alaturkadan Alafrangaya: 19. Yüzyılda Osmanlı Saray Mutfaklarında Kullanılan Araç ve Gereçler” (From Turkish Style to European Style: The Equipment and supplies Used in the Ottoman Palace Kitchen in the 19th Century). Samancı, Özge and Bilgin, Arif, eds. Türk Mutfağı (Turkish Cuisine). Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları, 2008 (in Turkish). Yaykın, Murat. Fotoğrafın İdeolojisi “Algıda Gerçeğin Bozulumu” (The Ideology of Photography “The Distortion of Reality in Perception”). İstanbul: Kalkedon Yayınları, 2009 (in Turkish). 113 The Role of Herbs and Spices in Turkish Cuisine in Hungary Andrea Bán* Introduction The best way to knowing, understanding and accepting a people is to start studying its cultural history – and one way to do that is by exploring its cuisine. In my paper I explore and present the ways in which the use of herbs has changed among the Turks living in Hungary. As the common aphorism holds, ‘Tell me what you eat and I’ll say who you are.’ This and similar proverbs indicate that once you are acquainted with the diet and foods of a people or an ethnic group you will also have learnt a great deal about the community in general. Over the centuries, the different foods have migrated along with the people and under the influence of changing circumstances they, too, have changed and evolved. This migration has contributed to the variety and multiplicity of foods. A difference in even one ingredient will result in flavours characteristic of the given region or people. Sometimes it is enough to change the quantity of a spice or additive or to omit or add one, a variation in the manner of preparation due to circumstances in the environment or the technical facilities and the result is a new dish. The natural environment spreading out under our feet, all the plants that we only need to reach out our hands for and they give us food as we go along, all provide additional features to the cuisine and gastro-culture of any nation adapting to the characteristics of the landscape, the soil, the climate and the geographic position. A further feature that has contributed to the appearance of different food variants is the free or illegal trade (or smuggling) of commodities among countries. During my research my goal was to find out whether and to what extent the culinary habits of these Turkish people changed after they had moved to and settled in Hungary. If so, how is this noticeable? How far do these people preserve their traditions? What are the herbs and spices they even use in this country? Are these the * Bán Andrea ethnographer, PhD aspirant, Institute for Ethnography, University of Debrecen, [email protected] 115 traditional variants and where do these people acquire them? If they are not available in this country, what do they use for substitutes? And, most importantly, how does the Hungarian cuisine influence the flavours of the traditional Turkish dishes, how far and to what extent have changes taken place. Naturally, the reverse also applies. It is easily possible that the Turkish people who have entered employment and started a family in this country (including those in mixed marriages) also affect Hungary’s culture as part of a kind of 21st century impact. It is important to note that the shops established to serve the needs of these Turkish people are also visited by many Hungarians. Also most Turkish restaurants follow their business interests when they offer mostly ‘Hungarianised’ versions of their Turkish dishes, to suit local taste. This way we can subtly hint that the impact of living together has already gently started to affect both cultures. Turkish administration in Hungary had a favourable effect on our foods and our culinary culture. During these 150 years the two nations passed on a great deal of knowledge to each other. One such transmission was the use of intensely seasoned dishes, as well as mutton roast on a spit, stuffed cabbage or stuffed vine-leaves, to mention but a few (Ketter 1985:. 158-160). There are also a number of plants which became wide-spread due to Turkish influence. They played a great part in both export and import. It was during the Turkish period that a great many people began to grow ornamental plants such as roses, tulips, hyacinths and lilacs. The same is true of crops such as cucumbers, almonds, currants, cherries and quinces (Surányi 1985: 6162). Although rice was first grown in Europe in the 8th century by the Moors, the first plantations in Hungary appeared during Turkish rule. The need to supply the kitchen of the Turkish army caused the Turks to establish rice plantations in the South of the country – this production was reduced after the Turkish administration not to gain momentum again until the 20th century, when breeds adapted to our climate began to appear (Ketter 1985: 158-160). Aubergines (tojáscsucsor, törökparadicsom in Hungarian) originally come from Southeast Asia and India and found their way to this country through Turkish mediation to become an increasingly popular food. This is where we must also mention sweetcorn (Zea mays), poppies (Papaver somniferum), tomatoes and red paprika1 (Capsicum annuum) (further Hungarian names include törökbors and pogánypaprika). There is a minor historical legend surrounding the introduction of paprika into this county in the 17th century. According to legend it was a Hungarian maidservant who pinched the seeds of ‘Turkish pepper’ from the garden of Mehmed Pasha of Buda. The Pasha saw the pretty young woman carrying her pitcher of water and had her taken to his Seray 1 116 Bartha (https://www.szoljon.hu/jasz-nagykun-szolnok/magazin/a-magyaros-gasztronomia-torok-eredete398371 2016.07.21.) without delay. Locked inside the curious garden the young beauty could observe some very special flowers, including the paprika plant which was growing its bright red crops just then. She observed how the Turkish people dry the red fruit of the plant, grind it into powder and use it to season their dishes. Because she liked the flavour she got hold of some of the seeds of the plant. However, the young woman could not bring herself to forget her former lover, a young farmer. One day she had a lucky strike – she found a secret passage that her master had built and through this she could get out in the night to meet her loved one. One day she sneaked out carrying a small sack of seeds she had picked and gave it to her former fiancé, instructing him to take it home and plant the seeds. The young farmer did her bidding. By the following year every garden in the town was abundant with the paprika seedlings. The Hungarians grew very fond of the new red spice. Although the legend about the young lovers is loveable, it is more likely that the plant, seen today as the national spice of the Hungarians, spread wide due to the activity of a handful of Bulgarian gardeners whom the Turks had invited into this country (Swahn no date: 174-177). The Turks, who were also extremely fond of the fiery fruit of the paprika plant, had come in touch with it through Spanish and Portuguese mediation in the 16th or 17th century. Today there are innumerable variations and types in terms of flavour, colour, shape or growth rate. Hungary is now thought of worldwide as one of the leading producers of paprika, as well as a number of other plants, herbs and spices such as basil, garlic, parsley or various types of onions. In Turkey the most intensely produced herbs and spices are aniseeds, chili, bay leaves, oregano, poppies and sage (Swahn, no date: 9). Herbs and spices in Turkish cuisine Herbs and spices are substances we use in making or preserving our foods, due to their active agents (scent, flavour, aroma, colour or preservative effect). Mostly they come from plants (herbs and other plants produced for this purpose), but some others come from fungi, animal or mineral sources. According to another definition a spice is the part of a plant with an intense flavour or aroma which we add in small quantities to our food in order to preserve, enhance or modify the flavour or smell of our foods.2 It is hard to tell how long humanity had been using herbs and spices. We cannot even estimate the century, but it is probable that flavouring goes back as far as cooking. Relevant testimony comes from the remnants of food and drink which were found in dried form on the surviving fragments of clay dishes placed inside graves next to the deceased (Swahn no date: 11-19). Naturally, as gastro-culture changes continually and special foods appear and influences are adapted from different cultures, various plants can act either as herbs 2 https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C5%B1szer (2016.08.27.) 117 and spices or as core ingredients of main courses – such as dill, the leaves of vegetables, paprika, tomatoes, mint, lemon, yoghurt or cheese… ’Turks of This Land’ Turkish people living in Hungary are either new immigrants from Turkey or are persons of dual citizenship (born in this country) living here with their families mostly in the major cities. They employ themselves either in commerce (textiles, foods, jewellery, household products), as wholesale or retail traders, business owners in the service industry (restaurants, fast food places), market vendors or the employees of any of these. A considerable number are visiting students studying at our colleges and universities. The Turkish food shops and restaurants opened in order to serve the needs of these people conjure up a tiny little Turkey inside Hungary. The spread of grocery offered by these shops and the manner in which they display their spices, seeds and kernels, pickles or packaged products are no different here from the appearance, quality, packaging or range of choice offered back in Turkey. These shops draw their custom from two sources. One type of customer – the majority – are Turks who are attached to what they got used to in their own country; the rest are Hungarians who like or are interested in Turkish cuisine. As I have learnt, these little shops make sure they stock everything that is required in order to cook the foods of the authentic Turkish cuisine. They procure these goods with the help of Turkish suppliers and wholesale traders. Customers can buy not only the foods and drinks such as tea or coffee, but also the cooking dishes and cups or glasses needed for preparation and service. Most of the Turkish inhabitants of this country feel a profound sense of patriotism and a respect for their original homeland – retaining their identity even when living at a great distance from Turkey they are deeply attached to the traditional Turkish flavours and dishes, to their manner of preparation and the raw materials used therein. The cuisines they follow may be categorised into three types. 1. Authentic Turkish cuisine. Traditional dishes, flavours, preparation, herbs and spices; meals in accordance with the time of day; using raw material purchased in Turkish shops and coming from Turkish import. They will not substitute, not even the fresh vegetables, only if they are absolutely unable to buy Turkish import products. 118 2. Mixed cuisine. This means a place where Turkish and Hungarian dishes are served alternately. There may be several reasons for this, such as a simple liking for Hungarian food, Turkish-Hungarian mixed marriages; children get used to Hungarian dishes at school canteens and claim similar dishes as those they have been socialised on. Many Hungarian university and college canteens are aware of the diverging religious and dietary needs of foreign students studying in this country and serve a spread of dishes also suited to their taste, but the choice is still rather narrow. This also motivates Turkish students to familiarise themselves with Hungarian cuisine and eating our foods. Similarly, in order to meet children’s needs, the foods served may include items such as hot dogs and hamburgers which are not characteristic of Turkey and are imported even into our country. 3. Households that cook Hungarian dishes. Although this is very rare, and it is hard to declare that any such household is 100% Hungarian, but there are some which are predominantly so. This is the result of mixed marriages, but these are mostly Turkish people who are unable to acquire Turkish import all the time because there is no shop to meet their needs near where they live and acquiring such products is difficult. It is important to point out that even in kitchens preparing Hungarian dishes or adapting a Hungarian style to any extent people do not use pork, in line with Muslim prohibition, and substitute it with beef, mutton or poultry. Acquiring products As I have just mentioned, Turkish people are very much attached to their own foods and drinks. The Turkish shops are stocked by Turkish suppliers, importers or wholesalers, whether we are talking of dry goods, fresh vegetables or meats, frozen, dried or tinned products. People insist not only on the sight of well-stocked stores but also the experience of being served in the right way. Turkish customers like products of the meet counter to be ready to cook. This means that it is cleaned, chopped, washed, pre-packaged so you only need to rince it through and can get down to cooking straight away. They have a broad range of foods made from minced meat, which is put through the mincer two or even three times until they reach the consistency that Turkish people favour. The cultivated plants of Turkish gastronomy in Hungary The Turkish dietary spread eaten in a normal day, and the mealtimes are practically identical between the Hungarian and the Turkish peoples. Hungary’s Turkish inhabitants, belonging to various Turkic groups, follow their traditional Turkish cuisine and make their dishes accordingly. The three mealtimes are distinguished in the same way as in our culture, but the dishes eaten at these mealtimes, and the foods eaten between mealtimes are different. For snacks Turkish people eat mostly oily seeds prepared in any number of ways, sweet, savoury and spicy (chickpeas, sunflower seeds, pistachio, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, walnuts etc.). 119 Breakfast Breakfast is eaten together. It is very ample and varied. There are several types of cheese served: harder, softer, white, salted etc. They very rarely eat smoked cheese, it is not characteristic in this part of the world – white soft cheese are far more common. Another typical breakfast food is a type of pastry rolled out thin and stuffed with various types of stuffing (meat, spinach, potatoes, cheese) – this is called börek. This is accompanied, as all other meals, with yoghurt, cottage cheese and cut meats. On the breakfast table you wil always find various salads (mostly made from cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, olives, aubergines and pumpkins and raw fresh herbs such as dill, parsley and mint). Although compared to green plants available in Turkey the spread is narrower in Hungary. In Trukey, village people just walk out to their garden and pick what they had grown, or whatever nature had placed on their plate: porcsinkeserűfű - madárkeserűfű (Polygonum aviculare), pitypang (Taraxacum officinale), pásztortáska (Capsella bursa-pastoris), papsajtmályva (Malva neglecta), lórum (Rumex obtusifolius), kövér porcsin (Portulaca oleracea), csalán (Urtica dioica), to mention but a few plants that constitute the ingredients of people there. The modest range available in this country consists of cultivated herbs such as pre-heated dill, mints, chives, spring onions, parsley and celeriac leaves. To a smaller extent Turks living in Hungary use potted herbs also, mainly relying on the offer of the supermarkets. For flavouring they use lemons. Flavoured spreads from aubergines Turkish people like to mix the sweet and the savoury, this is why they usually end their breakfast with jam (fig, sour cherry, apricot, grape, melon or strawberry), honey and tahin pekmez, a traditional ending to breakfast. Pekmez is a very sweet grape MUST cooked until thick which they spread on bread and eat as a sweet. Honey is also eaten on bread, not in the tea. It is common to include menemen (similar to Hungarian lecsó) ont he breakfast table. The ingredients are the same as Hungarian lecsó – onions, tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika. It i made with eggs, the same as in Hungary, but they chop the ingredients much smaller than we do, and flavour it with chili, olive oil, garlic, oregano, parsley and black pepper. Turkish people chop their vegetables very small for any salad, claiming that the flavours come out much better that way – as anyone will testify who has tasted them. This is particularly true in the case of vegetables gown under a hotter climate, which arrive in the shops and restaurants all the way from Turkey. Lunch Soups 120 There are a number of similarities in the flavouring of the dishes these two nations make for lunch. However, Turkish dishes are lighter and not as fatty as ours, their soups are more sour. This is also related to the climate – in hotter weather it is refreshing to eat and drink slightly sour things. They are very fond of cream soups, but meat soups and bouillons are also a part of the cuisine. One basic ingredient much used for soups is bulgur. Bulgur is a type of durum wheat rich in fibres, which is harvested before it is fully ripe. It is then pre-cooked or steamed for a short time and dried in the sun. During that time the grain completes ripening. It is sold in two sizes – one variant consists of half and whole grains, another of grains crushed small to the size of semolina.) Further ingredients are sweet corn, different types of lentils, spinach, dried and fresh beans, mushrooms, cabbage, peas, parsley, carrots, celeriac and potatoes. Herbs used are peppermint, lemon, paprika (chili, hot, sweet, ground, pulbiber, garlic, red onions, spring onions, leaks, thyme, tomatoes (whole, pealed, puréed), celeriac, carrots, parsley, nutmeg, dill, oregano. Other flavour enhancing agents used as a spice include salt, sugar, vinegar, butter, yoghurt, sour cream and cheese. Second course: the subject of the present paper are mainly plants and their use in the diet of Turks living in Hungary. It is only in passing that I wish to speak about similarities in the cuisine of the two peoples and their causes but I do not aim to survey the entire repertoire, as we are looking at one of the richest and most varied cuisines of the world. The period of Turkish administration has brought many advantages. Dishes that the Hungarians adopted from the Turks probably include stuffed cabbage or sarma which plays a role in both Turkish and Transylvanian cuisine to this day; and is still referred in Transylvania as sarma.3 The same is true of pörkölt type dishes. The technique used in pörkölt is so ancient, that probably even the Hungarians of the age of the Takeover made most of their meat dishes in this way. To fry and seal the diced cubes of meat before further cooking is still the first move of any good mutton dish to this day, and as we know, mutton is the most important meat staple both in the Kunság area and in Turkish cuisine. Naturally, pörkölt was not made in the same way in the past as it is today, as paprika was not introduced to Europe, including Hungary, until the 16th century.4 The method of cooking pörkölt varies also from one province of Turkey to another, which is mostly related to the quantity of onions or water used. One informant from Yogzat province who was born in Akdagmadeni said that their pörkölt is similar to that cooked by the Hungarians – with plenty of sauce on top, made with lots of onions and chicken paprika is flavoured with yoghurt. One modification in Hungary is that we add sour cream, a richer and more creamy substance, and this informant claimed that this makes Hungarian pörkölt 3 Bartha https://www.szoljon.hu/jasz-nagykun-szolnok/magazin/a-magyaros-gasztronomia-torok-eredete398371 (2016.07.21.) 4 Bartha https://www.szoljon.hu/jasz-nagykun-szolnok/magazin/a-magyaros-gasztronomia-torok-eredete398371 (2016.07.21.) 121 more tasty and flavourful. Another informant who had come from a village near Istanbul described their local pörkölt as a drier dish made with less sauce and adding little onion. Ground red paprika, black pepper, tomatoes and paprika are indispensable spices in making both of these variants of pörkölt. It is interesting that the informant from Azerbajzhan mentioned marjoram and mint in place of paprika when describing their variant of pörkölt. As a side-dish to go with meat dishes they use either potatoes, also popular in Hungary (prepared in many different ways), rice, bulgur (the half and whole grains) or steamed vegetables. Of the cultivated plants the most widely used are aubergines (raw and dried), paprika (the type used for stuffing, dried or raw), red lentils, cabbage, chickpeas, dried beans and, last but certainly not least, grape leaves which are used in both a raw and a pickled form for their dishes. Turks living in Hungary also use a wide array of herbs. They prefer spice mixtures prepared and sold in shops. The range of herbs and spices used for main courses is similar to those used in soups, but it also includes cinnamon, basil, marjoram, capers, cumin, coriander, ginger, bay leaves, allspice, pine kernels and blueberries. They also use white wine to enhance flavours. Starters, salads, vegetable spreads Apart from the vegetables mentioned before, aubergines are also used frequently as an ingredient for salads. They use a wide range of spreads made from vegetables, but aubergines are certainly the most widely used plant. It is flavoured with any of the herbs and spices described above. Cakes, sweetmeats 122 Turkish cuisine, true to its standard, is also rich in cakes and sweetmeats. While Turkish people have a clear preference for ready-to-cook products and deep-frozen cakes, there is also a great deal they make at home. Turkish cakes are very sweet, they use lots of honey, sugar syrup, fruit syrups (date, pomegranate, carob etc.), fruit jams (fig, apricot, strawberry, rose). Dried and candied fruits also appear both as raw materials and as flavouring, as do seeds and nuts (pistachio, sesame seeds, walnuts, almonds, chickpeas). Cakes are usually flavoured with orange water, rose water, cinnamon, vanilla, grated coconut, yoghurt or cocoa. Turkish people also have pancakes and what Hungarians call lángos (savoury doughnut fried in oil). They had never tried eating pancakes with jam, sugar and cocoa etc. Even cottage cheese is eaten in savoury form only. They were used to eating pancakes with sour cream, savoury minced meat, etc. However, because they like sweet flavours, they soon came to like the Hungarian version and now prepare their pancakes in the same way. Their lángos is the same as the Hungarian variant. Besides sour cream, honey is the only thing that Turks living in Hungary regularly buy in our shops or at our markets. They find them much nicer. Turkish people used to the flavours of very white soft cheese have also grown fond of Hungarian hard smoked cheeses and made them a regular raw material in their kitchen. By contrast, as regards the quality of rice, Turkish people have such high expectations that even the most expensive rice available in this country does not hit the standard of the cheapest rice they would purchase in Turkey. I must make separate mention of the range of choice they expect in terms of chickpeas and olives – one reason they avoid Hungarian shops is that they fail to meet these expectations. As regards the chances of substituting green herbs and vegetables, all of my informants replied that they like the Turkish types and mostly shop in Turkish shops, but if they fail to get access to Turkish products, they will buy fresh products at Hungarian markets (paprika, tomatoes, cucumbers, celeriac, parsley, carrots, onions, garlic, aubergines, pumpkins or fruit), but are unlikely to buy them in the supermarkets. There are some cultivated plants which they can only access in Turkish shops: yardlong beans (Vigna unguiculata) or the fruit of the carob plant. It is worth mentioning briefly that some of the restaurants and fast food places run by Turkish people in Hungary and offering traditional Turkish dishes are not all that traditional any more. Due to business policy, some of these restaurants hope to increase their audience by altering some of the recipes. As they put it, they have ‘Hungarianised’ their cooking. This does not mean modifying the meat – using pork is out of the question even if the goal is to please us or to increase profits. ‘Hungarianising’ means they have introduced Hungarian flavours into dishes which allowed it. They transformed their dishes into more full-bodied, fatty and spicy courses. Herbs A brief description of the herbs most commonly used by Turks living in Hungary and their use Bay leaves (Laurus nobilis – Defne) This is an evergreen garden herb. The active agent is the leaf which is used in both raw and dried form. In folklore medicine its leaves were crushed and placed on wounds, scratches and burns because it contracts the blood vessels and reduces bleeding. If stored in oil, the leaves produce a unique flavour (Vermeulen 2005: 164-165). It is used for flavouring soups, vegetable purées, sauces, gravies, marinades, meat dishes and pickles. Black pepper (Piper nigrum – Karabiber): this is an indigenous shrub of the tropics. One of the most widely used herbs of Turkish and Hungarian cuisine. The Hungarian 123 word (bors) is of ancient Turkic origin and had come into Turkish from Iran through commerce (Rácz 2013: 155-156). They use it as a spice. It gives a hot, piquant flavour to soups, meat dishes (roast or grilled meats, stews and ragouts). It is a spice used for sauces, gravies, salads, side-dishes and savoury cakes. Lemon (citrus x limon – limon). In both popular diet and popular medicine this is a ver important plant. In cases of sore throat it is recommended to eat the flesh of a lemon mixed with sugar (Vermeulen 2005: 87-88). They use the peel, the flower and the juice of the fruit alike. The juice is used against fever and high blood pressure, it improves digestion and is the No. 1 home remedy against stomach and liver complaints. People suffering from a cold are made to smell lemon flowers. In the region of Bursa people pour hot water over lemon zest and 7-8 leaves of mint (Menthae – nane) and drink the resulting drink. In the area of Döşemealtı it is common for wool dyeing masters to place ground lemon zest into the dye to render the colour more lasting (Bartha, no date: 42). If you place a slice of lemon over an insect bite it reduces the swelling (Vermeulen 2005: 87-88). It is used widely in the patisserie industry and medicine in a number of ways even today. Lemon is used to flavour soups, salads, sweets and cooling drinks. Lemon grass (Melissa officinalis - oğul otu, kovan otu, turuncan, limon otu): in popular medicine a herb tea made from the leaves of lemon grass is recommended against stomach complaints. It is used most commonly by people suffering from insomnia. It reduces profuse menstrual bleeding if administered as a bath (Bartha, no date: 42). It is considered an elixir of life for body and soul. Due to its antidepressant quality it gives the body a new lease of life. If made into a tincture and flavoured with honey it has a relaxing, soothing effect and is therefore recommended before seep. It has the capacity to reduce cramps and nervous stomach pains (Vermeulen 2005: 184-185). Besides its remedial effects it is used to enhance the flavour of refreshing drinks (szörbet-sörbetserbet), soups and sweets, which lends a lovely cool, refreshing flavour on hot days. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare - raziyane, rezene, tatlı anason): the seeds, flowers and roots are used likewise. A tincture of the seeds improves the appetite and helps get rid of winds. Nursing mothers also drink it hoping for plentiful milk. It is also good for people with kidney problems as it enhances urine secretion. The root, if boiled with honey and bandaged over the wound will cure the bite of a dog with rabies. In veterinary medicine it is known as an effective remedy against poisoning (Bartha no date: 42). In folk medicine the tincture of fennel is used to this very day as a remedy for the eyes, as it has the quality to improve the eyes. Women used to drink it to prevent obesity, men drank it after major feasts to help them feel better (Rácz 2013: 434-434). 124 Garlic (Allium sativum - sarmısak) Garlic is one of our most healthful plants. It medical qualities strengthen the body, cleanse the veins and thus it is used in the case of cardio-vascular diseases. It also restores the blood’s cholesterol level (Vermeulen 2005: 36-37). The juice of garlic boiled with pine leaves will stop a toothache. Head wounds are rubbed with a mixture of garlic, olive oil and honey. It is also good against coughs and a hoarse voice. Combined with fig leaves it is stuck on insect bites and the bite of dogs with rabies. If consumed with olive oil, it will start urine production and improve general health. The ashes of garlic mixed with honey will get rid of rashes and reduce blood pressure. People usually take its cloves, boil them, crush them, mix them with flour and make small balls of which they swallow a few each day. In Erzurum women in labour are made to smell garlic to help the placenta detach more easily (Bartha no date: 44). Garlic has long been one of the most characteristic flavoured herbs used in folk gastronomy. It is used to season meat dishes and vegetables purées (in Hungary, for these are not characteristic in Turkey), salads, cheeses and other dairy products cut into thin slices or crushed. It makes a delicious cream soup! It is used both as a seasoning and as raw material in cooking. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is both a medical and a cooking herb. It is excellent again nausea. It was also used against asthma. Its characteristic spicy, piquant and sweet flavour is known to many as the typical spice of oriental foods. It is often consumed with just a small bit of cheese (Vermelulen, 2015: 309-310). The rhizome of ginger is ground and added to fish dishes, meats, sauces, salads, cakes and drinks. Ginger can be the spice of any kind of food. Thyme (Thymus vulgaris - kekik, kekik otu): The active agent is in the flowers, the leafy stem and the leaves. The pressed oil is used for improving the appetite, in the case of indigestion, or is boiled with water and vinegar and used as a gargle or against toothache. The same tincture if used as a foot-bath will alleviate rheumatic pain. During epidemics it is used to disinfect clothes. The part of the plant above the root is used in fabric dyeing. Wool tanned first with alum will turn yellow, tanned first with chrome it will turn brown and tanned first with copper sulphate it will turn greenish grey. In Isparta if a woman wants to conceive she will tie some thyme over her womb. A tea made from thyme is supposed to render childbirth easier (Bartha no date: 43). Dill (Anethum graveolens – Dere otu): this plant is considered sacred in Egypt and was introduced to Europe during the Roman Empire. It was used in popular medicine to cure headaches and vascular disorders (Surányi 1985: 239). It is also known and used as a substance suited to strengthen the stomach, get rid of winds and gall and help lactation. Its tincture was also widely used against insomnia and colic. ‘Dill water’ is known as a carminative, digestive substance and as helping sleep, while today it is an important component of liquid medication for children (Rácz 2013: 384-385). Its culinary application is to use the flower and leafy stem in pickles. It is very good for enhancing the flavour of salads, soups, meat dishes, sauces, gravies and cakes. Coriander (Coriandrum sativum – Kişniş) – this is an ancient spice which is konwn to have been grown in Egypt as far back as 1500 BC and which was introduced to Europe by the Romans (Surányi, 1985: 240). Meats were stored and preserved after 125 rubbing ground coriander into them. The parts used are the seeds and the leaves. The oil pressed from the seeds is an additive to perfumes. As a spice it is used for seasoning meat dishes, pickles, soups, cakes and drinks. It is one of the important ingredients for curing ham. An indispensable spice of Oriental cuisine (Vermeulen 2005: 94-95). Cumin (Carum carvi – helps the secretion of stomach acid, cures digestive pain. Excellent against menstrual and intestinal cramps. Carminative and thus forms a part of tea mixtures for babies. The carvon contained in the seeds is excellent for disinfecting the intestines, it is known to kill bacteria and fungi. The young green leaves are mixed into salads and, directly before serving, into soups. Besides flavouring potato and cabbage based foods and meat dishes it is often sprinkled on top of bread and other bakery products (Vermeulen 2005: 78). Mint, peppermint (Menthae piperita – nane): it is grown and known worldwide for the active agent in its leaf and its essential oil. It was first transferred from the Holy Land to Greece and from there with the help of merchants to the countries and Asia and Europe. The active agent is in the leaf which is used in popular medicine as a tea for enhancing the appetite, as a carminative, a tranquiliser or against inflammations of the stomach and the intestines. Used as a gargle it helps sore throats, or as a compress against inflammations. Women tie a few leaves of mint over their womb to help fertility. In Erzurum women in childbed used to drink mint tea against cramps of the lower abdomen (Rácz 2013: 514-517). Oregano, wild marjoram (Origanum vulgare – keklikotu) this plant is grown both as a medical and a culinary herb. This is the herb grown and exported int he largest quantities in Turkey. In folk medicine its tea was given to people to combat internal infections. For sore throats and bronchitis or for aiding digestion they made a stronger tincture (Vermeulen 2005: 211-212). As a cooking herb it is used for sauces, on pizzas, for pasta and meat dishes (grilled or roasted), for salads (raw), or for flavoring vinegar, bear and other alcoholic beverages. Paprika (Capsicum annuum – Biber, Kırmızı biber, şili) Earlier we have already spoken about the spreading of paprika in Turkey and Hungary. Depending on its type it can be sweet (used for salads or too cook), very strong and hot (Cayenne or Chili paprika) which is used as a spice either raw or dried. Red pepper is also used in a dried form and crushed to larger flakes. It is used in a wide array of foods. Today, pörköl and gulyás are unimaginable without the flavour and colour it produces. It is a basic ingredient and spice in soups, meat dishes, pastas and salads in raw, boiled, steamed, fried, grilled or dried forms (whole, diced or ground). It is an important raw material and spice for various lecsó ype dishes. 126 Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum – Domates) tomato is another vegetable and herb which came to Hungary with Turkish mediation. Its first written mention occurred in a catalogue by one Heindel in 1651 (Surányi 1985: 216-218). Besides gastronomic use it also has considerable medical effects. The alkaloid called tomatin is used to produce creams against fungoid infections and inflammations5. In folk medicine a compress of green and red tomatoes was used to suck out open and poisonous wounds, swollen sores (Rácz, 2013: 585). Tomatoes first became popular as an ornamental plant, today they are one of the most wide-spread herb and vegetable. It is used widely – in sauces, salads, pickles, drinks, in a puréed form (often as raw material or flavouring for the former), in soups and lecsó types foods. It is excellent for enhancing the flavour of meats. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea – Ispanak) this is a cultivated pant with a slight laxative effect and a high iron content. It is used as a vegetable to cook and a salad. Turkish people eat it raw as a salad. Parsley (Petroselinum crispum – Maydanoz) this is a widely known medical herb in popular medicine due to its digestive and diuretic effect. There are many sub-species which differ either in the shape of the root (root parsley), or its length or thickness or in the leaf (leaf parsley), which can be smooth or frilled. In the kitchen they use both the root and the leaves as flavouring or raw material for soups, side-dishes, meat dishes, salads, but frilled leaves are also used for gastronomic decoration due to their bizarre appearance. Rosemary (Rozmarinus Officinalis – kuş dili) this plant is popular in Turkey both as a gastronomic and a medical herb. The tea is taken against stomach and intestinal complaints, the extract is rubbed to ease the pain of rheumatic joints. It probably came to Europe through Turkish mediation. The alcoholic extract or rosemary was the first distilled perfume used in Europe (Aqua Reginae Hungaricae). During the Great Plague there were many superstitious methods of protection existing among the general public and the medical profession alike. Melius himself warns, ‘…although its smoke will purify a house where Death is present, but it will only get rid of the smell, not the Death itself.’ In Hungary today it is known mostly from folk songs, but in Transylvanian folk cuisine its use as a herb is still widely known (Bartha no date: 41). Before the appearance of refrigerators people used to rub dried and ground rosemary leaves into meat which used to preserve it for a long time – it did not go off and received a fresh flavour. The preservative effect is also the basis of its medical quality (Rácz 2013: 635). It is used in many dishes, mostly to flavour meats, primarily roasts, soups and salads. Carrots (Daucus carota subsp. sativus – Havuç) are an important vegetable and vitamin source originally from Asia. Its use is versatile. In its raw form it is used as a 5 Technical Terms. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2003. Answers.com 28 Mar. 2010.https://www.answers. com/topic/tomatine 127 salad. In cooking it is a raw material or flavouring for soups, sauces, gravies and meat dishes. Baby carrots are used for pickling. Cloves (Syzygium aromaticum, formerly Caryophyllus aromaticus) is the scented bud of a tropical tree on the Spice Islands of the West Indies (Rácz 2013: 686-688). It will significantly modify the flavour and bring about a special aroma if added to ham or cabbage. In popular medicine chewing a clove stopped toothache (Vermeulen 2005: 281). It is also good against digestive problems. It is a versatile spice used for meats and sweets alike. Carob (Ceratonia siliqua - akasya) the fruit when ripe contains 30% saccharide as well as pectin, tannins and the essential oil which creates the flavour so characteristic of the fruit of the St. John’s fruit tree. Ground carob stops diarrhoea and protects the intestines from excitants. The pressed juice of the seed is used against vomiting and reduces hunger.6 It was first cultivated in the East and we have the Arabs to thank for spreading it, who make a fruit syrup from it called kaftan – a substance known to purify the voice and thus well known among singers. The seed when dried has a very constant weight and this was used for a long time in weighing precious stones – the word keration, meaning seed, is the root of the word karat still used today for the weight of gold (Rácz, 2013: 690-691). Carob syrup is one of the most commonly used syrups in Turkish cuisine when it comes to adding a sweet flavour to any dish. The candied variant of the fruit is also eaten. Vöröshagyma (Allium cepa - soğan) is a vegetable and flavouring of primary importance in Turkish households. It enhances appetite if consumed in yoghurt together with chicory (Cichorium intybus - hindıba) and vinegar. It makes the body more resilient and onion juice mixed with honey improves the eyesight. In Erzurum if a pregnant woman is threatened with premature birth they make her drink the juice of onion skin. The external, yellowy brown skin has long been known and used for dyeing wool and fabrics. It produces a pleasant yellow or olive green colour depending on the tan used first. It is highly valued, hence the proverbial warning that onion skin is the shirt of angels, it must not be burnt. Popular belief also holds other prohibitions – on Friday nights you are not allowed to eat onions and when there is a waning moon you are not allowed to plant onions or work the land in any way at all. Small children all know the riddle ‘A bearded old man grows underground – what is it?’ (Yer altında sakallı baba) the answer being none other than onion (Bartha no date: 44-45). Popular belief also holds that a string of onions worn around the neck is able to keep the devil at bay. It prevents disease and is an excellent medical herb (Vermeulen 2005: 34-35). It is used as raw material or flavouring in a number of dishes. Cream of onion soup is not only delicious – it is much recommended in the autumn and winter period against colds. 128 6 https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szentj%C3%A1noskeny%C3%A9rfa (2016.08.25.) It provides the basis for pörkölt and other stews and determines their thickness. It is used widely for soups, meats, pastas and salads, boiled, fried, steamed, raw or grilled. Sage (Salvia officinalis – ada çayi, kutas bitki, ada éayi) the active agent is in the leaves and the flowers. As a dyeing plant it will colour wool yellow if tanned with alum, light brown if tanned with chrome and greenish grey if tanned with iron sulphate (Bartha no date: 45). Pour hot water over the flowers and used the liquid to purify the urinary tract, to stop draining the strength by sweating or to cure stomach complaints. The leaf is used frequently as an element of herb mixtures both fresh and dried. It makes for excellent flavouring for roast meats and salads. Celeriac Zeller (Apium graveolens – Kereviz). In popular medicine it is used widely as a diuretic. It is not to be used by pregnant women. Commonly advised as a remedy against joint aches, rheumatism and asthma (Vermeulen 2005: 47). It is known to enhance sexual desire. Celeriac is grown both for its leaves and its root. The leaf is used fresh or dried and crushed; the root is used fresh cut into round slices or diced fine and dried. It is a flavouring and raw material used for soups, meat dishes, sauces, gravies and salads. These are the herbs and spices used most widely by Turkish people living in Hungary. To sum up, my investigations have led me to the conclusion that Turkish cuisine and gastronomy has always been rich in the use of herbs and spices which so magically enhance the flavour of our foods. These have remained constant as time passed, even though new ones have been incorporated due to various social, commercial and weather influences, but we can safely declare that overall the traditional and authentic kitchen of the Turks has retained its ancient gastro-culture passed down for centuries. Sun-drying is not a novel technique, as the migrant peoples of the Oriental Hun empire (Hungarians, Turks and other ethnic groups) already used this method to preserve a great portion of the food they produced. In Turkey this is natural to this very day. They sun-dry their tomatoes, paprika, aubergines and other cultivated plants. Sun-drying is also used for juicy fruits (plums, apricots, dates, figs, apples and grapes).7 References Balázs, Judit. Török „ízelítő” kézirat https://mek.oszk.hu/00100/00133/00133.htm, erişim tarihi: 2016.08.23. Bartha, Júlia. Adatok a török nép etnobotanikai ismeretéhez. Keletkutatás. (ősz), 1996. Bartha, Júlia (2011). szeptember 4. https://www.szoljon.hu/jasz-nagykun-szolnok/magazin/amagyarosgasztronomia-torok-eredete-398371 erişim tarihi: 2016.07.21. 7 https://receptjeink.blogspot.hu/2011/12/keleti-konyha-kincsei.html (2016.08.27.) 129 Bernáth, Jenő. Vadon termő és termesztett gyógynövények Budapest, Mezőgazda Kiadó, 1993. Hanna, Parrot. Gyógynövények és gyógyteák T-REX’94 Kft, 1998. Hergenç, Gülay. Bitkiler Beslenme, Sağlık ve Hastalıkta Istambul, Nobel TIP Kitabevleri, 2015. https://receptjeink.blogspot.hu/2011/12/keleti-konyha-kincsei.html, erişim tarihi: 2016.08.27. https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C5%B1szer, erişim tarihi: 2016.08.27. https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magyarorsz%C3%A1g, erişim tarihi: 2016.08.27. Jethro, Kloss. Gyógyító növények Törökbálint, GABO Könyvkiadó, 1988. Ketter, László. Gasztronómiánk krónikája Budapest, Mezőgazdasági Kiadó, 1985. Kıssné Dogossy Éva – Zsoldos Márton. A természet kincseskamrája – gyógynövényekről, magvakról, gyümölcslevekről mindenkinek Kisújszállás, Pannon – Literatúra KFT, 2007. Nıko, Vermeulen. Gyógynövények enciklopédiája Budapest, Ventus Libro Kiadó, 1998. özv. Szűcs, Antalné Bagossy Klára. Eredeti Magyar Alföldi Szakácskönyv Mező-Túr, Nyomtatott Gyiko k. Könyvnyomda, 1983. Rácz, János. Növénynevek enciklopédiája – Az elnevezések eredete, a növények kultúrtörténete és élettani hatása Budapest, Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2013. Sımon, Tibor - Seregélyes Tibor. Növényismeret – A hazai növényvilág kis határozója Budapest, Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, 2003. Surányı, Dezső. Kerti növények regénye Budapest, Mezőgazdasági Kiadó, 1985. Swahn, Jan-Öjvind. A fűszerek zamatos története Budapest, Gulliver Könyvkiadó Kft. Szalaı, Miklós. Halimbai füveskönyv Nyíregyháza, Black&Whıte Kiadó. Technical Terms. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2003. Answers.com 28 Mar. 2010. https://www. answers.com/topic/tomatine, erişim tarihi: 2016.08.24. Ünsal, Ayfer T. Ayintab’tan Gaziantep’e Yeme İçme, Eylül, 2009. 130 131 132 133 The Drinking Culture in the Shared Turkish and Hungarian Cuisine: Health, Rituals, Traditions Tuna Yıldız* “To eat” is not only a form of action realized for feeding oneself. Also, eating is not based only on the consumption of solid foods. Consequently, the codes behind eating food should be examined carefully. A reason for calling the cuisine culture the eatingdrinking culture most of the time is that the formation of the drinking culture is at least as rich as the cuisine culture. In this context, “beverages”, which sometimes remain in the shadow of the food eating action, are an important part of the cultural memory at least to the extent of foods. To drink alcohol has an important world of ritual from the sacrifice rituals presented to gods to the religious rites of fencing of the shaman. Consequently, the drinking action, whether it is alcoholic or nonalcoholic, is composed of practices, which remain in the memory from the rituals, which are based most of the time on rather ancient pasts. As it has been stated above, very little place has been given to the cultural accumulation, which is formed around and on beverages in most of the studies made on food. Consequently, to study carefully the beverages from the aspect of the Turkish and Hungarian cuisine and the cultural experience, which has formed around them, would also be helpful in eliminating the deficiency constituted in this field. In this paper, the place of the beverages, such as rakı (unsweetened, anise-flavored alcoholic drink), palinka (fruit brandy) and şerbet (sherbet, nonalcoholic drinks made with sugar and spices or sugar and fruit juice) included in the Turkish and Hungarian cuisine have been mentioned in the cuisine culture of both countries and has set forth the similarity of the cultural codes formed around these drinks. No matter how much the alcoholic drink culture is shaped according to the consumption of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, the similarity of the cultural codes formed around the Turkish and Hungarian drinking culture is striking. The data used in this study was * Phd. Student at the Department of Turkish Folklore, Gazi University, Ankara/Turkey, [email protected] 135 obtained from the field studies realized between 17-23 April 2016 in Ankara, Eskişehir, Kütahya, İzmit, Tekirdağ and İstanbul, Turkey and between 9-18 May 2016 in Karsag, Kisujszallas, Jaszbereny, Jaszfenyszaru and Budapest, Hungary, within the scope of the “Turkish-Hungarian Traditional Cuisine Interaction Project”. The Turkish and Hungarian beverages, which appear to be different from each other at first glance, were observed to be rather similar from the aspect of the cultural codes formed with a deeper look. Beverages have been in a place surrounded by health and ritual since the oldest times and have been the part of a tradition. The connection between beverages and ritual can be observed in the events that we can be confronted with at every moment in our lives in the present-day, such as in the celebrations, festivals, special days and congratulations, the moments when family members come together and in the conversations held with close friends. Besides, beverages have been an important part of the traditions ever since the oldest periods of history. For example, in the work titled Shamanism Primitive Fencing Techniques by Mircea Eliade, when mentioning the shaman religious rites in Central and Northern Asia, he mentions that alcoholic beverages were offered sometimes to the spirits and sometimes to the gods by the shaman (Eliade, 1999: 225, 229). The “beverage” mentioned as the part of a ritual by Eliade, also continues its existence in different forms in the present-day. The şerbets used in the transition rituals, which emerge before us in the example of Turkey, are just like the alcoholic beverages presented for the transition to a different situation by the shaman in the shaman religious rites in the ancient periods of history. The loğusa (woman recovering from childbirth) şerbet, the wedding şerbet, the şerbets, which are offered at the mevlits (chanting of the night of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad in memory of a dead person), which are recited seven days after the funeral, are a part of a transition ritual. Besides, these, rakı, which has an important place in the Turkish culture, and palinka (fruit brandy), which has the same value in the Hungarian culture, are beverages that are also the part of a ritual. Although the alcoholic beverages called Rakı and Palinka have contents and production techniques different from each other, it is possible to say that both produce similar codes for the cultures to which they belong. Rakı has an important place in the Turkish culture of today for many reasons, such as rakı is not drunk without appetizers, rakı is drunk in the evenings, the fact that drinking rakı is a symbol of strength and status with the expression “lion’s milk”, it is drunk more at special moments with guests, it is an indicator of the national identity, it is consumed as a drink at festivals and due to reasons that it provides health on behalf of eliminating toothaches and shows that it represents an entirety of rules in its own context.1 Besides this power of representation 1 136 See: https://blog.milliyet.com.tr/raki-icme-kurallari-ve-tavsiyeler----/Blog/?BlogNo=71156 for a detailed list that describes the rules of drinking rakı. in the present-day, at the same time, it is one of the oldest Turkish drinks. In the book titled The Turkish Religions Prior to the Islamic Faith: Shamanism, Yusuf Ziya Yörükan said that the ancient Turks would sprinkle rakı on the graves when they passed the graveyard when going to sacrifice rituals and after eating the meat from an animal that has been ritually sacrificed, first the white shaman drank rakı and later, everyone who participated in the ceremony would drink rakı or kımız (koumiss, fermented mare’s milk). The author also added that the rakı or kımız drunk at this ceremony was obtained by boiling and distilling and that is was an alcoholic beverage, which had the name of araga/arakı (Yörükan, 2016: 70). As it can be observed, rakı, while it is produced with its own cultural codes and is drunk with its own unique rules in the present-day, is a beverage that was used for scattering in the shaman religious rites in the past, at the sacrificial ceremonies and for expressing respect for the ancestral spirits. First, it was observed that palinka was offered at every home visited during the field studies carried out in Hungary. Palinka is an alcoholic beverage that has a high ratio of alcohol and that is produced from various fruits. Whereas, the aspects that are shared by palinka and rakı, as was stated previously, are that they have similar codes. During the collections made in Kisûjszâllâs, the source persons said that palinka was the first beverage offered to guests for showing respect. Other than this, palinka is an indicator of strength and status that can be drunk a single time and is a drink that is consumed the most at national festivals. It is one of the most important images of Hungary and is an expression of the national identity. The source person named Judith Kis, with whom we talked in Jászberény, said that just like rakı, palinka is also used to eliminate toothaches and with the intention of health for stomach disorders. As it can be observed, even though the contents and the form of making rakı and palinka are different beverages from each other, they could produce similar cultural codes by passing through similar consumption stages. The alcoholic beverage culture in Hungary also presents rather different products. For example, in the discussion held at the Katlan Tóny Restaurant in Budapest, the source persons mentioned a beverage called marc or murci, which is obtained from raisin clusters or from a mixture of other types of fruits, honey, anise and water and generally, this drink is given to children and was used as a beverage at religious holidays in the past. Other than this, the varieties of wine in Hungary are quite a lot. Other than rakı and palinka, which are alcoholic drinks, the Hungarian and Turkish cuisines resemble one another from the aspect of nonalcoholic drinks. The şerbets are beverages that also enrich the nonalcoholic drinks section in both cuisines. There is the opinion of many researchers about the making of şerbet passing to Europe during the Ottoman period. One of these is Arif Bilgin. According to Bilgin, the spread to the West was via the Ottomans and similar words are used for the word şerbet in the Western languages today. Bilgin stated that the word şerbet passed to Italian in the sixteenth 137 century and later took the name of sorbetto and is the name of a beverage consumed in the Italian cuisine. The sorbetto of the Italians became sorbet in French and was derived to the word sorbete in Spanish. The Germans, just like the French, used sorbet, the Serbians and Croatians used the word serte and the Portuguese by using sorvete were acquainted with this drink (Bilgin 2012: 49). This similarity explained by Bilgin was also observed in the field studies made in Hungary. The source persons call şerbet, sörbet in Hungarian. Novotny Antal, from the source persons, said that şerbets, such as elderberry, lemonade and raspberry became widespread in Hungary in the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries and could be a clue for following the traces of the transfer mentioned. The source persons in the talks held at the Kisûjszâllâs Reader’s Association and at the Katlan Tóny Restaurant in Budapest stated that the varieties of şerbet in Hungary are generally sour cherry, elderberry, raspberry and lemonade. It was stated that şerbet in Hungary is generally drunk during the hot summer weather for cooling off. It is possible to say that both the varieties, production and the time of use of şerbet in Hungary resembles that in Turkey. While the source persons during the field studies made at the Aşağıçavundur Village in Çubuk County of Ankara Province in Turkey said that they made the sour cherry şerbet for cooling off, generally during the hot summer weather, whereas, they said that in winter they make stewed fruit from fruits, such as apples, pears, grapes and mulberries that they had dried in summer. 138 In the article called “Our Making of Şerbet from the Past to the Present” by Eren Akçiçek, by quoting from the article with the title of “Turkish Cuisine in the Eleventh Century” by Reşat Genç, he said that the Turks dried for winter the dried fruits called kak and gag in the eleventh century, whereas, in the summers, other than wine, they made and drank fresh fruit juices called çahir or süçik (Ayçiçek, 2002: 969, quoted from Genç). It is also possible to encounter the existence in the eleventh century of the şerbets that were consumed by making with different techniques as seasonal that also confront us in the field studies in Turkey and that continue in the present-day. The şerbet tradition, which continues its existence in Turkey, in the present-day, even if it is not used as frequently as in the past, whereas, it is not used very often in Hungary since alcoholic beverages are consumed in a more widespread manner. In the talks held at the Reader’s Association in Kisûjszâllâs, the source persons said that şerbets were generally consumed by women or were given to children. The reason for this was since the drinking of alcoholic beverages was not very widespread among women and children. Even if the expressions of this by the source persons in a small settlement region like Kisûjszâllâs did not present valid data for all of Hungary, it could be observed as one of the causes related to the use of şerbet not being widespread in Hungary. Other than these reasons, the offering in an extremely rapid accessible manner of the industrial closed fruit juices, is another cause of the use of şerbet not being widespread as in the past in both Turkey and Hungary. The şerbets used in Hungary and Turkey, other than the resemblance from the aspect of only the cultural codes to each other of the beverages, also resemble each other in the uses for health. There is the use for health by making şerbet by collecting the same herbs from nature in the culture of both countries, other than the similarities in the use of rakı and palinka for toothaches and stomach aches, which was mentioned previously. After the field study made by Dénes, Papp, et al., information was set forth about how some herbs collected from nature were consumed among the people in the article titled, “Wild plants used for food by Hungarian ethnic groups living in the Carpathian Basin” (Dénes, et al., 2012:381). For example, agrimony, which is expressed with the words párlófü, tüdüfü and bojtorján in Hungarian, is consumed as tea, both in the Hungarian culture and in the Turkish culture. It is believed in Turkey that it is beneficial for indigestion, diarrhea and rheumatism pains. Red centaury (Centaurium erythraea) is known with the names of cintória and ezerfű in Hungarian and is used as tea. In the same manner, this plant, which is used as tea, is thought to be beneficial in the treatments of stomach diseases, wounds and pain therapies in Turkey and Hungary. Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) and cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) are plants, which are thought to be healthful that are made into şerbet in both Hungary and Turkey. It is possible to increase the subject examples, both from the aforementioned article and from the article, which mentions the ethnobotanical similarity of Turkey and Hungary by Julia Bartha titled, “Adatok a török nep etnobotanikai ismeretehez”. In conclusion, besides the beverages in the Hungarian and Turkish cuisine being the window of a deep cultural accumulation, they are also consumed abundantly in daily life. It is necessary to state that the Hungarian cuisine has rich and various products from the aspect of culture, which have been formed by alcoholic beverages and around them. In contrast to this prevalence of alcoholic beverages in the Hungarian cuisine, the şerbets and other beverages are consumed rarely and are preferred mostly among women or among children has been understood from the statements of the source persons and from the observations during the field studies. Whereas, in the Turkish cuisine, the şerbet culture is still rather widespread in the summers and winters. Even if this culture has slowly lost is former vigor in recent periods, the making of şerbet continues, especially among housewives, and the existence of the tradition of offering it to visitors continues. Beverages have an important place in both countries from the aspect of rituals, health and traditions. Different types of beverages have produced similar cultural codes. This also presents a field of study to researchers that is suitable to the concepts of “shared cultural heritage” and “shared values” defended by the UNESCO. While the UNESCO defends the preservation of the shared cultural heritage of the world, it also adopts the development of cultural interaction among countries on the “shared codes and similarities”, which are also mentioned completely in this paper. In 139 this context, the similar codes produced by the drinking culture in the Hungarian and Turkish cuisines shows that the persons from two different geographies could come together around similar cultural elements. In this paper, the reflections of the drinking culture of both countries were mentioned briefly, but it is possible to find many more similar traces with a deeper study. References Akçiçek, Eren. “Dünden Bugüne Şerbetçiliğimiz (Our Making of Şerbet from the Past to the Present).” Koz, Sabri, ed. Yemek Kitabı Tarih-Halkbilimi-Edebiyat (Cookbook: HistoryFolklore-Literature). İstanbul: Kitabevi Yayınları, 2002 (in Turkish). Bartha, Júlia. “Adatok a török nép etnobotanikai ismeretéhez” Keletkutatás, Kőrösi Csoma Társaság periodikája. Budapest, 1993, Tavasz, 41-57. Oldal (in Hungarian). Bilgin, Arif. “Osmanlılarda Şerbet Kültürü ve Tatlıhâne-i Âmire’de üretilen Şerbetler (The Şerbet Culture in the Ottomans and the Şerbets Produced at the Imperial Dessert Factory).” Yemek ve Kültür 2012, 29: 48-57 (in Turkish). Dénes, Andrea, Papp, Nóra, Babai, Daniel and Molnár, Zsolt. Wild plants used for food by Hungarian ethnic groups living in the Carpathian Basin. Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae 2012, 81(4): 381-396. Eliade, Mircea. Şamanizm İlkel Esrime Teknikleri (Shamanism Primitive Fencing Techniques). Birkan, İsmet, trans. Ankara: İmge Yayınevi, 1999 (in Turkish). Genç, Reşat. “XI. Yüzyılda Türk Mutfağı (Turkish Cuisine in the XIth Century).” Türk Mutfağı Sempozyumu Bildirileri (Proceedings of the Turkish Cuisine Symposium). Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı MİFAD Yayınları, 1982, pp. 57-68 (in Turkish). Yörükan, Yusuf Ziya. Müslümanlıktan Evvel Türk Dinleri: Şamanizm (The Turkish Religions Prior to the Islamic Faith: Shamanism). İstanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat Yayınları, 2016 (in Turkish). 140 The Language of Food by Seasons: Preparations for Winter Zeynep Safiye Baki Nalcıoğlu* “A person who works in summer will have something to eat in winter.” Turkish Proverb Seasons in the relationship of mankind with nature play an important role, especially from the aspect of cuisine culture. The fact that vegetables and fruits are abundant in summer calendrically, whereas, since sufficient and fresh food cannot be found for nourishment in winter, then it is necessary to undertake preparations for winter at the end of summer and generally, during the first months of autumn. The preparations for winter, which aim to preserve with methods, such as the drying, putting to sleep, pickling, storing by freezing and canning of foods to be used in winter is based on guaranteeing the continuity of the life of persons by also taking into consideration the lifestyles at its foundation. However, when this preparation is evaluated as a process, then the storage techniques from the carriers of tradition in the process that passes from making the products obtained prepared for storing, indicates a multidimensional cultural structure to the spaces related to these techniques, the means and requisites, the transfer of traditions and providing for the sustainability of this tradition. In this study, within the scope of the Turkish-Hungarian Traditional Cuisine Interaction Project, the data obtained from the field studies realized between 1723 April 2016 in Turkey (Ankara, Eskişehir, Kütahya, İzmit, Tekirdağ and İstanbul) and between 9-18 May 2016 in Hungary (Karsag, Kisujszallas, Jaszbereny, Jaszfenyszaru and Budapest) were examined within the context of the process for the preparations for winter. From this aspect, first, it focused on the traditions kept alive in this process in both countries, whereas, it was concluded with an evaluation of the similarities related to the products obtained after the preparations. * Research Assistant in the Department of Turkish Folklore, Faculty of Literature, Gazi University, Ankara/ Turkey, [email protected] 141 Helping one another is one of the traditions, which plays a significant role in this process, besides the preparations, which are continued individually. This tradition, which is called imece (working collectively) in Turkey, is the undertaking of the work within cooperation and together with one person or a few persons. The statement by Halime Ünal from Aşağıçavundur Village of Çubuk County in Ankara Province, “We do it in a group, one day for one of us and one day for another one of us,” has the attribute of the summary of the “working collectively” in the context of the preparations for winter. As a result of the discussions held at the Reader’s Association in Kisujszallas, just as in the making of tarhana (a dried foodstuff made chiefly of curds and flour used for making soup), it was observed that for some foodstuffs made for preparations for winter, the association members came together and made them. The source persons at the Çeşmeli Hasan Baba Cemevi (house of gathering of the religious ritual called cem for Turkey’s Alevi-Bektaşi tariqa populations and traditions) at Çeşmeli Village of Çorlu County in Tekirdağ Province expressed that the preparations for winter were made with everyone together at the cemevi, whereas, later, they were brought to their homes by being shared. However, the tradition of “working collectively”, although it continues, it can be stated that it has changed partially by being adapted to the present-day conditions. Previously, this tradition, which continued in the form of helping acquaintances and strangers or without distinguishing between relatives, has been transformed today into the working together of relatives and moreover, only close relatives. To the question, “Is there the tradition of “working collectively” in the making of foodstuffs prepared for winter in your village?” Ayşe Özkan from Karatepe Village in İzmit Province replied, “Now, only close relatives are helping.” It has the attribute of proving the transformation of this tradition. The oral cultural products are also another of the traditions that could be evaluated in the context of the process of preparations for winter. In this context, women, who are observed to assume the most active roles of tradition carrier in both countries, create a suitable environment for the oral cultural products by spending time together and have provided for keeping the oral culture alive. In the discussions held at Alpu County in Eskişehir Province, it was expressed by the source persons that various folk songs and poems were sung or recited during the preparations for winter. In the discussions held as well at the Reader’s Association in Kisujszallas, it was stated that the oral cultural products were kept alive when preparing foodstuffs for winter. Singing or reciting the use of oral cultural products can be given as an example of the statements used by Hatice Kiraz from Çubuk County of Ankara Province when making yufka ekmeği (bread baked in very thin sheets) for the yufka ekmeği eaten without accumulating it, “The bride made it, the crow seized and devoured it” and when making cızlama (a flat sweet fried pastry), due to the fact that too much was eaten, “No one made them, those who ate were not filled”. 142 Whereas, the most important indicator is the transfer to the future generations for keeping a tradition alive. In this context, throughout the field studies, one of the questions directed to source persons was, “Do your children or grandchildren know this tradition or do they implement it?” Whereas, the source persons expressed that even if their children or grandchildren did not implement these traditions, at least they tried to show these traditions to them. Halime Ünal at Aşağıçavundur Village of Çubuk County in Ankara Province stated that at the Pickle house in the garden of their houses, their grandchildren learned to make pickles by watching them. In the field study realized in Jaszbereny, it was expressed that when cooking the Tamas Kaszai chicken soup with vermicelli, they could make vermicelli since they learned at an early age and that this vermicelli was also made at their homes for winter. Furthermore, it was stated that the tool used for making this vermicelli and how it was made was shown to children at the museum. Whereas, in the discussions held at the Reader’s Association in Kisujszallas and at the Çeşmeli Hasan Baba Cemevi in Tekirdağ, the source persons expressed that when implementing these traditions themselves, they also attempted to bring their grandchildren next to them for their learning how to do it. From this aspect, the youth in both countries, who have still not passed to the role of implementer in the tradition of preparations for winter, are continuing to learn and the transfer of the tradition is provided with examples of this implementation. Whereas, the storage techniques are another tradition that could be evaluated in the process of preparations for winter. However, these techniques have also displayed some changes connected to the technological developments in the present-day. The storage method by freezing has become the most used method with the change in the storage conditions and the ease of preservation of foodstuffs with refrigerators and freezers. In Jack Goody’s book titled Yemek, Mutfak, Sınıf Karşılaştırmalı Sosyoloji Çalışması (Cooking, Cuisine and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology), he expressed that many activities that we thought to be connected with the preparation of foodstuffs were related to the preservation of foodstuffs against time in older societies (2013: 284). However, today, the preparations for winter process that can be accepted as an indicator of the preservation against time and adaptation to the timing of nature, has been transformed directly to the “freezing compartment” culture (refrigerator-deep freeze) and has also been reflected in changes in the storage techniques. Furthermore, the fact that today almost every vegetable and fruit can also be found throughout the four seasons together with the changing techniques has shown that our perception of time has also changed. In Mahmut Tezcan’s book titled, Türk Yemek Antropolojisi Yazıları (Anthropology Articles on Turkish Cuisine), he treats the vicious circle of the traditional-modern system that has become independent from seasons and that the consumption in the traditional systems was based on the harvest and season of the enterprises between abundance and demand and expressed that the choice was limited based on presence and location. Whereas, Tezcan stated that in the modern systems, the consumption activity of foodstuffs is always present at a certain price, that it has become independent from seasons and exists for everyone who can pay for the choice (2000: 4). Whereas, another viewpoint that questions our time perception is 143 related to women, who play a leading role in the process and transfer of preparations for winter. The timelessness concept has also emerged for the reasons of preparations for winter, such as the extension of the periods of education connected to a rise in the level of education of women in the present-day, their taking a greater place in work life and technological developments. The data obtained related to women from the field studies, such as “She has no time, because she is attending school”, “It is difficult work, it is a waste of time, because she is working” emphasizes the perception of time in the modern system and the importance of time in the process of preparations for winter. Whereas, another concept connected to the process of preparations for winter is the spaces where the foodstuffs are produced and preserved. The pickle house and tandır (oven consisting of a clay-lined pit or large earthen jar buried in the ground) house that are found in the gardens of the houses at Çubuk County in Ankara Province provide a suitable environment for the winter preparations and indicate the continuousness of these preparations. Istvan Ezsids stated that pickles, tarhana and tomato paste were made in the garden of the farm at Jaszfenyszaru. Whereas, Aynur Taşdelen, who lives in city center of Kütahya, expressed that now she bought prepared tomato paste, since she did not have a suitable garden environment for making tomato paste. These examples show the effect of space on preparations for winter and that the loss of space would also be the reason for the disappearance of the tradition. Whereas, pantries/larders are the special spaces where the foodstuff prepared are stored. It was observed that the pantry/ larder culture has been kept alive, both in Turkey and in Hungary. Erdoğan Korkmaz and Reyhan Bayram stated that they have rooms given the name of pantry/larder in their homes at Çeşmeli Village of Çorlu County in Tekirdağ Province. Whereas, the fact that Kis Judith stated that there were pantries/larders in some of the homes in Jaszbereny also drew attention to the role of space in the preservation of the foodstuffs prepared. 144 The changes in the concepts of techniques, spaces and time related to technological developments and a transition to a modern system makes one think at first glance, that it is difficult to continue the preparations for winter, especially in city centers. However, the preparations for winter, which are called an organic system in the present-day and actually can be described as an effort to return to a traditional system, has reopened to debate this process that is a continuation in a new system. Zehra Kipir, who works at the Hekim Sinan Medicinal Plants Store in Kütahya, stated, “We no longer do it because we work. Those who remain at home prepare for winter. We have become modernized.” It shows that not to prepare for winter has been evaluated as becoming modern. In the discussions held at the Reader’s Association in Kisujszallas it was stated that now the preparations for winter are generally not made at home and that prepared food is purchased from shops. While not to prepare for winter in the traditional system is observed as becoming modern, whereas, the persons who live today in the order called the modern system are orienting towards organic products and are seeing this as becoming modern. Actually, it is observed that this situation is an effort to return to the traditional system with the name of organic and has been transformed into the present-day modernism. Whereas, from this aspect, the sale of products for preparations for winter produced naturally, is both a return to the organic system, that is, the modernism and needs of today and also reflects the transformation to the culture industry of the preparations for winter. Murat Belge in his book titled Tarih Boyunca Yemek Kültürü (Food Culture Throughout History) stated that science and technology have increased foodstuffs, have broadened the opportunities for storing and that every one of these are excellent developments. Furthermore, Belge also questions this situation by saying, “However, is mechanization very good at the expense of unemployment?” (Belge 2001: 12). Whereas, the culture industry emerges at this stage about preparations for winter and it presents a new proposal for solution, both to implementers and also provides for the continuation of the tradition. In the discussion held with Balku Gyuline, who offers organic jams for sale at the Skanzen Hungarian Open-Air Museum, she stated, “We collect the plums at the end of August. We clean them and start to cook them. We remove their pits. This is a natural thing, we do not even add sugar.” The emphasis on natural has the attribute of proving this trend. Furthermore, the dried natural fruits and quince pestil (thin sheet of sun-dried fruit pulp) sold at the Skanzen Hungarian Open-Air Museum and the pickles, which are stated to be prepared with the traditional methods and presented for sale at Çubuk County in Ankara Province can be given as examples of the return to the culture industry of preparations for winter. Whereas, the shared foodstuffs in the traditional cuisine culture of Turkey and Hungary, which have lived together for many years and which have a shared history and cultural interaction, and moreover, attracts attention to the similarity of names of some of the foodstuffs used in the transformation to products of the preparations made for winter. When the data obtained from the field studies in Turkey were looked at in general, it was observed that pickles, vermicelli, tomato paste, tomato sauce, tarhana, jam, yufka ekmeği, couscous and ovma vermicelli were prepared and vegetables, fruits and plants were dried. Also, in Hungary, it was observed that pickles, tarhana, vermicelli, galuska (noodles), sucuk (sausage flavored with garlic), pastırma (pastrami-like beef that is smoked or sun-dried after being treated with spices), tomato paste and jam were prepared and vegetables, fruits and plants were dried to be used in winter. One of the foodstuffs that has a similar name is tarhana, which is called tarhonya in Hungarian. Even though tarhonya is a foodstuff made in preparations for winter, it is different from the tarhana known and made in Turkey. Edit Tasnadi, in the article titled “Macar Mutfağında Türk Yemekleri” (Turkish Foods in Hungarian Cuisine) drew attention to the sameness of Turkish and Hungarian cuisines and stated that tarhonya was mostly eaten with foods with meat in Hungary -like pilaf- as a garniture (Tasnadi 1993: 273). Whereas, it can be stated that the foodstuffs prepared other than tarhana, are similar, both for type and for flavor. 145 In conclusion, it was observed in the fields studies realized that the processing, production and consumption procedures of foodstuffs right along with the context of the preparations for winter of the storage culture were similar and continued in the cuisines of Turkey and Hungary. The process of preparations for winter also keeps alive the traditions together with itself and provides for their living by being transferred. Whereas, women have the most important role on the point of storage and transfer of traditions. Furthermore, in both countries as well, they have found a place for themselves in the modern system of the preparations for winter implementations and in this context, it has also opened to discussion new fields, such as organic nutrition, culture industry and cuisine tourism. Handling the sustainability of conservation culture in Turkey and Hungary as a whole with relation to social, environmental and economic sensibilities is of capital importance with regard to the safeguarding of the process of preparation for winter as a multidimensional cultural structure. References Belge, Murat. Tarih Boyunca Yemek Kültürü (Cuisine Culture Throughout History). İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2001 (in Turkish). Goody, Jack. Yemek, Mutfak, Sınıf Karşılaştırmalı Sosyoloji Çalışması (Cooking, Cuisine and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology). Güran, Müge Günay, trans. İstanbul: Pinhan Yayınları, 2013 (in Turkish). Tasnadi, Edit. “Macar Mutfağında Türk Yemekleri” (Turkish Foods in Hungarian Cuisine). In: Halıcı, Feyzi, ed. Dördüncü Milletlerarası Yemek Kongresi Kitabı, 3-6 Eylül 1992, Türkiye. Konya: Kombassan A.Ş. Yayınları, 1993 (in Turkish). Tezcan, Mahmut. Türk Yemek Antropolojisi Yazıları (Anthropology Articles on Turkish Cuisine). Ankara: T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 2000 (in Turkish). Resource Persons Aynur Taşdelen, 49, Kütahya, Turkey, Expert Teacher at the Public Education Center. Ayşe Özkan, 39, Karatepe Village, İzmit Province, Turkey, Runs a grocery store. Balku Gyuline, 62, Budapest, Hungary, Works in the Tourism Sector. Erdoğan Korkmaz, 51, Zile County, Tokat Province, Turkey, Teacher. Halime Ünal, 60, Çubuk County, Ankara Province, Turkey, Housewife. Hatice Kiraz, 46, Çubuk County, Ankara Province, Turkey, Housewife. Istvan Ezsids, 60, Jasfenyszaru, Hungary, Farmer. Kis Judith, 28, Jaszbereny, Hungary, Personnel at the Jasz Museum. Reyhan Bayram, 48, Çeşmeli Village, Çorlu County, Tekirdağ Province, Turkey, Housewife. Tamas Kaszai, 56, Jaszfenyszaru, Hungary, Chef. 146 Zehra Kipir, Kütahya, Turkey, Works at the Hekim Sinan Medicinal Plants Store. Nogays of Turkey: Their Ethnic Identity and Acculturation David Somfai Kara* Introduction In the last 150 years quite a few Turkic ethnic groups migrated to the Asian part of Turkey, mainly due to the expansion and colonisation of the Russian and Chinese empires. Nowadays we find diaspora groups from Easter Turkestan (Uighur, Kazak and Kyrgyz from Tarim, Jungaria and Pamir), Khorasan (Özbek and Türkmen from Northern Afghanistan) and from the Caucasus (Tawlu or Karachay-Balkar, who arrived with the Cherkes and a few Kumuk from Dagestan). But one of the most significant of these groups is the Crimean and Nogay Tatars from the territory of the former Crimean Khanate (1449-1783). There are only estimates about the Tatar population of Turkey (about 500 thousand) because they have a triple identity: primarily they are Turks (since in Turkey officially all Turkic groups belong to one nation and people) but they also identify themselves as Tatars (kırımlı) and Nogays. Short History of the Nogays Nogays originated from those nomadic Kypchak Tukric tribes (Cumans) who lived in the Eastern European territory of the Golden Horde (Jochi Ulus) and they considered themselves the Muslim people of Nogay khan (1260-1300) during the time of disintegration of the nomadic state. Until recent times the memory of the Cumans and th their leader Köten-batyr has been preserved among Nogays. At the end of the 14 century Edige Emir (1390-1419) from the Manghit clan made alliance with Temür Emir (1370-1405) from the Barlas clan against Chingisid Toktamysh and together they defeated the Khan of the Golden Horde (1391 and 1395). After the death of Edige (1419) nomadic clans led by the Manghit again rebelled against the central power of the Jochi Ulus, which resulted that the Chingisid state was disintegrated due to the lack of sufficient nomadic army. Edige’s son Mansur although supported Barak Khan, whose sons Kerey and Janybek later founded the Kazak Khanate, but in 1427 Ulug-Mohamed defeated * Dávid Somfai Kara, PhD Turkologist, research fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, [email protected] 147 them. After this the rich commercial centres of the Golden Horde started to break away from the central of the state (Saray: Edil and Yaik rivers or Volga and Ural in Russian). 1) Kazan Khanate (1438) 2) Crimean Khanate (1441) 3) Hajitarkhan (Astrakhan) Khanate (1466) The territory of the Nogay Horde and the Crimean Khanate A younger son of Edige, Nureddin Mirza returned from Central Asia and led the Nogay Horde until 1440 but Ismail Mirza (grandson of Toktamysh) defeated him. Meanwhile the eastern part of the Jochi Ulus (Ak Orda) also disintegrated; the Özbek Khanate was formed led by Abulkhair (1412-1468) Khan from the Shibanid (Sheybanid) linage who gave the title of beklerbek to Nureddin and later to his son Waqqas. After the fall of Abulkhair the Kazak Khanate (1465-1480) broke away from the Özbek Khanate. Then in 1490 the Sibir (Tümen) Khanate (Taibuga’s clan chased away the Shibanid Abak Khan) also separated. 148 In 1480 Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III managed to stop Ahmed Khan’s (1465-1481) troops of the Golden Horde. Later Moscow made alliance with the Crimean Khanate and the Nogai Horde (with two sons of Waqqas: Musa and Yamgurchy) against the Golden (Great) Horde and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Musa’s younger brother Yamgurchy Beg became the leader (mirza) of the Nogay Horde in 1502. The same year their alliance defeated the Great Horde of Saray and those territories were administration by the Nogays in 1509. Moscow betrayed their alliance in 1519-ben and in 1521 the Kazaks pushed the Nogays out of their central territory around Saraychuk by the Yaik (Ural) River. The Crimean Khanate administration Astrakhan but the Nogays pushed them back so the Nogay and Crimean alliance was also broken. Mamay the Nogai mirza killed the Crimean khan in 1523, established his centre by the Edil (Volga) River and even regained Saraichuk. In 1533-ben Ivan IV the Terrible became the grand duke of Moscow and encouraged by the broken alliance of the Tatars he decided to become Tsar of All Russia in 1547 and started an offensive against them with the support of Cossack army. Meanwhile Narik-ulu Chora (1526-1547) from the Nogay Tama clan gained great influence in the Kazan Khanate but Russians managed to kill him. In 1552 Ivan the Terrible occupied Kazan, where the daughter of a Nogay leader Yusuf Beg, namely Süyünbike was ruling (1549-1551). In 1556 Hajitarkhan or Astrakhan was also occupied. In 1557 Kazy mirza broke away from Yusup and founded the Little Nogay Horde along the Koban (Kuban) River (Ak-Mecsit). In 1560 the Little Horde and the Crimean Khanate made alliance but could not regain Hajitrakhan. Meanwhile Sultan Suleiman (15201566) also employed Nogay troops in his military campaign against Hungary. Between 1567 and 1571 Cossacks reached the Terk (Terek) River and in 1580 Cossacks of the Yaik destroyed Saraichuk so numerous Nogay clans join the Bashkirs and Siberian Tatars or the Kazaks (Little Horde). In 1588 some of the Nogays migrated to the Don region and conflict erupted between the Great and Little Nogay Hordes. In 1619 Ishterek (the last independent Nogay mirza) died and civil war struck the Nogay Horde. Kalmak-Nogay wars: In 1634 the Tsar invited Oirat-Mongol or Kalmak nomads (led by Khoo-Örlög of the Torgaut clan) from the Altay Region to the Volga to wipe out the Nogay Horde. The Great Nogai Horde disintegrated while the Small Nogai Horde united with the Crimean Khanate (Jeti-san, Jem-boyluk, Jeti-üshkül). In 1643 Nogays stopped the Kalmak expansion but they attacked again in 1693. Meanwhile the Nogays of the Crimean Khanate attacked Hungary (Transylvania) in the service of the Osman Empire. In 1683 they reached Karcag, but the last raid to Transylvania occurred in 1717. Extract from the preacher of Karcag, Ferenc Harsányi’s lamentation song A’ tatárok miatt hogy lőn nagy romlásod, Mert hijába vala erős biztatásod: Fiaid, leányid tatár kézbe látod Vélek együtt vagyon rabi állapotod. In 1711 Kalmak-Russian joined forces defeated the Nogays so in 1720 new Nogay groups migrated to the Koban River. Between 1736 and 1739 Russians occupied the fort of Azaw (Azov). From 1770 the Nogays of Crimea accepted Russian authority led by the Jeti-san group. In 1783 the whole territory of the Crimean Khanate was occupied by the Russians and some Nogays migrate to the Koban River but a large number of Nogays were massacred by General Suvorov. Meanwhile the war for the Caucaus started lasting for a hundred years (1763-1864). Eventually Cherkes-Nogai (Kabard) and the Daghestani-Chechen alliances were all defeated. This caused a great exodus so the majority of the Nogays moved to Doburdja and Anatolia (Osman Empire). 149 After the fall of the Crimean Khanate (1783) a great number of Russian settlers moved to the Dnepr, Don and Volga rivers so indigenous peoples were removed from the region. Nogays from the Dnepr moved to the Koban and Nogays from the Volga moved to the Terk and Kum rivers (North of Daghestan). After the Russian administration in Caucasus some of the Koban Nogays (ak-nogay) also migrated to Dobrudja and further to Anatolia in 1880s. In 1867 there was an ethnic cleansing in Kabardiaban and in 1878 Russian troops also occupied Dobrdudja but it was given to Romania by western treaties. Around twenty thousand Crimean and Nogay tatars live in Dobrudja nowadays. Most of the Tatars migrated to Anatolia settled down around Eskişehir but there are Tatar villages around Konya, Ankara and Adana as well. The formerly nomadic Nogay’s western groups (ak-nogay) had been sedentary already and led a peasant way of life like the Crimean Tatars. Easter Nogays (kara-nogay) lived north of the Terk (Russian Terek) River (present day Daghestan) but nomadic way of life (living in felt houses or terme in Nogay) disappeared after the collectivization of the Soviets (1930s). We can find Nogays in two villages around Eskişehir: Aktepe (former name Rıfkıye) and Işkören (former name Aziziye)1 besides around 36 Crimean Tatar villages (köy) in Alpu District. In the Centre of the district we met the members of the local Nogay association (Eskişehir nogay türkleri derneği ‘Union of Nogay-Turks of Eskişehir’). They invited us to the restaurant belonged to one of their members. We soon found out that th Nogays, who had been living in Anatolia for 130 years (4 generation), could hardly speak the dialect of their ancestors (they mostly speak the Turkish of Turkey) and most of their traditions were also lost. Nogays from Alpu and Eskişehir. But this restaurant is very popular among them, where they can eat traditional Tatar meals. They meals are known also in Turkish cuisine as Tatar meals (tatar yemekleri) and especially two types are well-known: köbete and börek. We interviewed Nogay ladies working at the kitchen of the restaurant who also sang some Tatar songs popular at weddings (düğün), for example the song Seydosman, a four line song type called şın. We made a short visit to Aktepe (Rıfkıye) Nogay village, which is almost deserted nowadays since most of the population of these small villages moved to the city. We only found an elderly man at home who established a little private museum for visitors by hanging traditional peasant tools on the fence of his house. Nevertheless the former Nogay 150 1 The villages were named after the wives of the founders. inhabitants of the village are attached to the village community. They visit their old family houses and sometimes do farming as well. They have also preserved the local cemetery where they bury their dead and visit the tombs. This urbanisation process can be observed among other Turkic ethnic groups. Not surprisingly the process of acculturation (due to urbanisation and modernisation) got faster and stronger in the last twenty years. Nogay women who work at the local restaurant, one of them sang the song Seydosman. We also visited a Nogay family who had already moved to Eskişehir living in a block of flats. They again served us with some Tatar food and we interviewed the oldest member of the family. He told us about the old customs, the patri-linear and patrilocal clan system of the Nogays and wedding customs attached to this system (Nogay did not marry inside a clan up to th seventh generation; wives moved to the villages of their husbands, which were inhabited by usually by one clan). There had a custom of improvised oral poetic competition between the boys and girls (aytıs). Tatar (Nogays) meals Traditional meals in Anatolia were prepared from vegetables and fruits cultivated around the house or the village. But Tatar meals are made of meat and flour more suitable to the pastoral life in the steppe. In the Tatar restaurant we could observe how they prepare the köbete a layered pastry type (like Austro-Hungarian strudel) filled with meat (different types: cayma, sozma, şıplama, şoban). A smaller type of this meal is kalakay. We also tried tabak-börek or üyken-börek as well (It is called mantı by its popular Sart or Dungan name in East Turkestan). This is a cooked pastry filled with meat and made in triangular forms (like Russian pirog, Hungarian derelye). A smaller type of this food (kaşık börek) is consumed as a soup Old Nogay man from Alpu now lives in Eskişehir. Köbete and kalakay. 151 (çorba/şorpa) consumed with sour cream or peppered olive oil. Another important Tatar meal is çiybörek where the pastry bag is fried in oil or fat. Nogays and Tatars like to have various soups like alişke and ovmaş. They also like to eat various fried pastries while drinking tea (e.g. kapaklama and sarburma). Finally I would like to share the famous Tatar song (şın) mentioned above. It is about a mysterious person called Seydosman. The song is performed often in weddings and other feasts by Tatars of Turkey. These wedding songs, along with some Tatar meals, have resisted acculturation so far. Seydosman saray saldırgan Seydosman saray saldırgan ay boydan da boyga Sen nişanda jok eding ay xoş kelding toyga 152 Siyt Osman saray saldırgan ay töbesi şişe Oynaganım külgenim ay esime tüşe Kazan kazan et asıp ay soganıng yok mu, Öz basınga toy yasap ay tuwganıng yok mu. Seydosman built a Seray Seydosman built a Seray by the river, You weren’t on the engagement party (nişan), welcome to the wedding. Seydosman built a Seray with a pointed roof, My happy times and fun comes to my mind. You cooked many pots of food, don’t you have onion?2 You make a feast for yourself, don’t you have relatives? About the melody The melody is constructed with repeated motifs and verses of pace pairs formed by replacing the verses. Not only the form but the resemblance of the motifs and similar musical ideas makes the Nogay wedding song related to melody of the Hungarian Pentecost ritual song starting “elhozta az isten piros pünkösd napját” from Rábaköz (see collections from Vitnyéd). The relation between Nogay and Hungarian melodies can be explained by the fact that Nogays were fromed from the same KypchakTurkic population who also lived in the territory of Moldva (Romania) formerly known as Cumania and settled down in the territory of Nagykunság and Kiskunság of the Hungarian Plain. They were assimilated to the local Hungarian and Romanian population. In the same time Moldva was directly in contact wirh Budjak of the Crimean Khanate aslo populated by Nogays. These contacts can explain the numerous similar melodies of Hungarian of Moldva and Nogays. Research related to this has been conducted by Gergely Agócs and the author between 2007 and 2016. 2 Collected by János Sipos and Dávid Somfai Kara, transcribed and translated by Dávid Somfai Kara (Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences). 153 155 156 Fotoğraflar Fotók Photographs 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Çubuk Turşusu / Cubuki savanyúság 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Çubuk Turşusu / Cubuki savanyúság 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Erişteli Yeşil Mercimek Çorbası / Zöldborsó leves 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Yarmalı Yoğurt Çorbası / Joghurt leves 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Tandırda Gözleme Yapımı / Kovásztalan lepény sütése 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Ekmek Tahtası / Kenyérdagasztó teknők 159 160 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Tavşan Ayağı İle Yağlanan Gözleme / Nyúl lábbal zsírozzák a kovásztalan lepényt 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Halep Dolması / Szárított töltött padlizsán 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Vişne Hoşafı / Meggykompót 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Kabak Tatlısı / Édes sütőtök 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Tarhana Çorbasının Yapılışı Anlatılırken / A tarhonya készítésének mesélése 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Sarılık Kesmesi Ritüeli / A sárgaság levétele 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Yaprak Sarma / Töltött szőlőlevél 17.04.2016 / Ankara-Çubuk / Helva / Helva 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir-Alpu / Hamur Açma / Tésztanyújtás 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir-Alpu / Mantı Bükme / Manti csippentése 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir-Alpu / Mantı Yapımı / A manti készítése 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir-Alpu / Mantı / Manti (húsosderelye) 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir-Alpu / Mantı / Manti (húsosderelye) 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir-Alpu / Kalakay / Alpu jellegzetes étele a kalakay, a rétestészta hússal töltve 161 162 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir-Alpu / Çiğ Börek Yapımı / A csíbörek készítése 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir-Alpu / Çiğ Börek Yapımı / A csíbörek készítése 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir-Alpu / Çiğ Börek / Csíbörek (eszkisehiri jellegzetesség) 18.04.2016 / Eskişehir / Tava Lokum / Szultánkenyér 19.04.2016 / Kütahya / Baharatlar / Fűszerek 19.04.2016 / Kütahya / Kossuth Evi Müzesi / A kütahyai Kossuth Háznál 19.04.2016 / Kütahya / Cimcik Yapımı / Csipetke készítése 19.04.2016 / Kütahya / Cimcik Yapımı / Csipetke készítése 19.04.2016 / Kütahya / Cimcik / Csipetke 19.04.2016 / Kütahya / Sıkıcık Çorbası / Zöldség- leves 19.04.2016 / Kütahya / Güveç Yapımı / Pörkölt készítése 19.04.2016 / Kütahya / Güveç / Pörkölt 163 164 20.04.2016 / İzmit / Pişmaniye Yapımı / Török édesség, a pismanije készítése 20.04.2016 / İzmit / Pişmaniye Yapımı / Török édesség, a pismanije készítése 20.04.2016 / İzmit / Pişmaniye Yapımı / Török édesség, a pismanije készítése 20.04.2016 / İzmit / Pişmaniye Yapımı / Török édesség, a pismanije készítése 20.04.2016 / İzmit / Türk Kahvesi / Török kávé 20.04.2016 / İzmit / Erişteli Mercimek Çorbası / Zöldséges borsóleves 20.04.2016 / İzmit / Bağ Pidesi (Bağ Karmacası) 21.04.2016 / İzmit / Tökeli İmre Anı Evi / / A barátság tésztája Thököly Imre Emlékmű 22.04.2016 / Tekirdağ / Rákóczi Müzesi / Rákóczi Múzeum 22.04.2016 / Tekirdağ / Keşkek / Kása 22.04.2016 / Tekirdağ / Kuru Fasulye / Száraz bab 22.04.2016 / Tekirdağ / Yemek Sunumu / Az étel kínálása 22.04.2016 / Tekirdağ / Sofra Kültürü / A terítés 22.04.2016 / Tekirdağ / Patatesli Tavuk / kultúrája Tyúkhús krumplival 165 166 10.05.2016 / Karcag / Mézeskalács 10.05.2016 / Karcag / Mézeskalács 10.05.2016 / Karcag / Mézeskalács 10.05.2016 / Karcag / Mézeskalács 10.05.2016 / Karcag / Lahana Sarması / Töltött káposzta 10.05.2016 / Karcag / Yaprak Sarması / Töltike (töltött szőlőlevél) 10.05.2016 / Karcag / Birkapörkölt 10.05.2016 / Karcag / Birkapörkölt 10.05.2016 / Karcag / Birkapörkölt 11.05.2016 / Karcag / A török-magyar kutatócsoport Németh Gyula szobránál 11.05.2016 / Kisûjszâllâs / Tarhonya Yapımı / Köleskása 11.05.2016 / Kisûjszâllâs / Darı / Köleskása 167 168 11.05.2016 / Kisûjszâllâs / Tarhonya Yapımı / Köleskása 11.05.2016 / Kisûjszâllâs / Darı / Köleskása 11.05.2016 / Kisûjszâllâs / Pide / Pite 11.05.2016 / Kisûjszâllâs / Olvasökör 12.05.2016 / Jaszbereny / Pörkölt- galuska 12.05.2016 / Jaszbereny / Mücver 12.05.2016 / Jaszbereny / Pörkölt 12.05.2016 / Jaszbereny / Mücver Yapımı / Lapcsánka készíése 12.05.2016 / Jaszbereny / Sebzeli Tavuk Çorbası / Tyúkhúslevese 12.05.2016 / Jaszbereny / Langos 13.05.2016 / Jaszfenyszaru / Marmelat / Lekvár 13.05.2016 / Jaszfenyszaru / Kalâcs 169 170 13.05.2016 / Jaszfenyszaru / Kalács Yapımı / Kalács készítése 13.05.2016 / Jaszfenyszaru / Pörkölt 13.05.2016 / Jaszfenyszaru / Pörkölt 13.05.2016 / Jaszfenyszaru / Kışa Hazırlık / Készülődés a télre 13.05.2016 / Jaszfenyszaru / Tandır / Udvari kemence 13.05.2016 / Jaszfenyszaru / Mutfak Araç Gereçleri / Konyhafelszerelések 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Balık Çorbası Yapımı / Halászlé főzés 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Balık Çorbası Yapımı / Halászlé főzés 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Kürtőskalács 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Kuru Fasulye Çorbası / Bableves főzése 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Pide / Pidza kemencében 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Pörkölt 171 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Pörkölt 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Pörkölt 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Marmelat / Szilvalekvár 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Ostyasütés 172 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Pörkölt 15.05.2016 / Budapest / Kuru Fasulye Çorbası / Bableves főzése 173 174