Ottoman Kitchen Organization
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Refined Tastes in a Refined Place: Eating Habits an the Ottoman Palace During the 15th-17th Centuries

7 Nil Sarı, "Osmanlı Sarayında Yemeklerin Mevsimlere Göre Düzenlenmesi ve Devrin Tababetiyle İlişkisi", Türk Mutfağı Sempozyumu Bildirileri (October 31 - November 1, 1981), Ankara 1982, p. 245-257.

8"Ve cenâb-ı şerîfim ile kimesne taâm yemek kanûnum değildir. Meğer ki ehl [ü] iyâlden ola. Ecdâd-ı izâmım vüzerâsıyla yerler imiş. Ben ref‘ etmişimdir" (Abdülkadir Özcan, "Fâtih'in Teşkilât Kanûnnâmesi ve Nizâm-ı Âlem İçin Kardeş Katli Meselesi", Tarih Dergisi, XXXIII (Istanbul 1982), p. 45.

9 Özcan a. g. m., p. 35.

10 Otoman sources and certain other sources make mention of only two meals (Tayyârzâde Ahmed Atâ, Târih-i Atâ, I, İstanbul trs., p. 159; C. G. Fisher - A. Fisher, "Topkapı Sarayı in the Mid-Seventeenth Century: Bobovi's Description", Archivum Ottomanicum, X (1985-87), p. 30). Although some travelogue writers give the number of meals as three or four, this is not correct. Those who wished to eat at times other than the two main meals had to do this by their own menas. However it may be supposed that extra food needs of the upper-level residents of the Palace and the Harem (the sultan and his family, for example), were met by the inner kitchens (kuşhâne).

11 Metin And, 16. Yüzyılda İstanbul: Kent, Saray, Günlük Yaşam, Istanbul 1993, p. 180. Ambassadorial feasts were generally held on the day when the Janissaries received theirulufe payment, immediately following the meeting of the Divan. In this way, via the money paid the Janissaries, the state would show its financial strength to the foreign state representatives, and would make the extent of its wealth with the abundance of dishes served. In short, these feasts turned into displays of power; displays of wealth and ostentation. Despite the wealth of these menus however, it appears that a significant portion of the ambassadors participating in these feasts did not like the dishes. (Lucette Valensı,Venedik ve Bâb-ı Âli: Despot'un Doğuşu, transl. A. Turgut Arnas, Istanbul 1994, p 100; And, 16. yüzyılda İstanbul, p. 174). This was due to the difference in taste between the tastes of the Ottomans and those coming from other cultures. For information on the perception of food/cuisine as a means of display of power in 14th and 16th century Europe, see: Massimon Montanari, The History of Food in Europe (Avrupa'da Yemeğin Tarihi, transl. Mesut Önen, Istanbul 1995, p. 112-115.)

12 For information on kitchen utensils used in the palace, see: Tezcan Yılmaz, "Saray Mutfak Eşyaları", Sanat, VII (Ankara 1982), pp 88-89.

13 Busbecq states that the cost of food for a person in his country was equal to that for ten days for the Turks (Edward Seymour Forster, The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, London 1968, p 52-53). For evidence that Turkish foods were generally simple and oriented towards filling the stomach, see: Tülay Reyhanlı, İngiliz Gezginlerine Göre XVI. Yüzyılda İstanbul'da Hayat (1582-1599), Ankara 1983, p 67; Metin And, 16. Yüzyılda İstanbul, p. 174)

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