The history of modern Turkey began with people who migrated from the Altay Mountains in Central Asia towards Anatolia (Asia Minor), and who encountered different culinary traditions that they assimilated into their own cuisine. The Turks of historical times led a nomadic life, dependent on agriculture and on the breeding of domestic animals. Central Asian Turks consumed mutton, goat meat, and beef, and the meat was prepared in a tandir, an underground oven, or grilled over an open wood or charcoal fire as kebabs. Kavurma was another favorite - small cubes of meat cooked in its own fat, salted, stored in large earthenware containers, and eaten in the winter months. Pastirma, a preserved meat, was salted and spiced and dried in the sun. These foods are still a very popular part of Turkish cuisine. Interestingly enough, most Turkish food is prepared on top of the stove. The oven is hardly used.
Milk and dairy products had a special place in the nomadic diet. Mare’s milk in particular was valued over sheep or cow’s milk. Nutritionists have pointed out that mare’s milk has four times more vitamin C than cow’s milk. The milk was simmered in large shallow pans and the cream, which rose to the surface and formed a crust, was widely consumed. The remaining milk was then dried in the sun and stored as powder. Milk and thick cream were the basic elements in a nomad’s breakfast. Mare’s milk was also fermented to make a strong alcoholic beverage known as kimiz, which is still widely consumed among the Turkish peoples of Central Asia. The Turkish diet consisted primarily of yogurt, which is regarded as one of the most famous Turkish culinary contributions to the world.
Basic foods also included wheat and barley. Boiled, dried, and cracked wheat is called bulgur, and is still an important cereal in the nutrition of Turkish people. Flour, salt, and water formed dough that was rolled out in round layers and browned on a thin iron plate, dried and stored. This yufka ekmek (yufka bread) is still made in the same way in Anatolia.
Chinese and Mongolian influences to Turkish cuisine include homemade noodles and manti (like tortellini). The Uyghurs (mid-eighth century) were strongly influenced in their culture by China, and it is probably during this period that manti became part of the Turkish diet. But the Chinese borrowed from the Turks adding the use of stuffed dishes to their cuisine.
Fresh fruits were consumed in season and dried for winter months. To sweeten fruits, they were soaked and cooked in water and molasses (made from grape juice).
Even with the advancements in technology and agriculture, many of the methods of food production -preserving, cooking, and baking- are still in use in rural areas of Turkey. It is interesting to note that even today Turkish cuisine holds a place of its own, resisting the encroachment of fast food in the home and in restaurants.
Many other cultures have left their mark on Turkish cuisine. Arab influences, especially in the south and southeastern parts of Anatolia included many spices – hot peppers in particular. The Persian, Hittite, and Byzantine Empires introduced different vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, and parsley – all of Mediterranean origin. Turkish cuisine was greatly influenced by the Iranians use of a combination of meats and fruits in their stews as well as vegetable stews (yakni). The word “kebab” is of Persian origin. Pilav (pilaf) is the Turkish version of pulau (Persian). This confluence of Turkish and Iranian elements gradually led to a cuisine that the Moghuls transplanted to India, where it was enhanced and changed.
During the rise of the Ottoman Empire the culinary arts played an important part in court life, with the richest and most diverse flavors found in dishes prepared during the reign of Sultan Mehmet the Second, who conquered Istanbul in 1453. This enhancing of the culinary arts began (before the Ottomans arrived) with the Seljuqs, their cultural forebear. The introduction, in Anatolia, of many new foods included fruits, vegetables, and herbs that had been nonexistent in Central Asia as well as new sources of olive oil and seafood. It was not long before these new ingredients combined with the established foods like breads, dough products, and kebabs, to yield many new dishes. By the beginning of the 1700s, the sultan’s kitchen staff encompassed 1.370 people, all of them housed with the palace grounds. The preparation of each type of dish (soups, kebabs, pilafs, vegetables, fish, breads, pastries, candy, jams, etc.) was regarded as a separate skill. Alya Algar, in Classical Turkish Cooking, notes that “In 1661, a list showed that 36.000 bushels of rice, 3.000 pounds of noodles, 5000.000 bushels of chickpeas, and 12.000 pounds of salt were used in the palace; and in 1723, the annual meat supply of the palace was 30.000 head of beef, 60.000 of mutton, 20.000 of veal, 200.000 fowl, 100.000 pigeons.”
As time passed, olive oil gradually became an alternative for butter, and sugar replaced honey and grape molasses in desserts. Cumin, coriander, cinnamon, mustard, pepper, and saffron were the foremost spices used. Parsley, mint leaves, onions, and garlic were the primary herbs and seasonings.
In Anatolia, the Turks were now neighbors of the Greeks, and some Greek influence was felt, especially in the baking of round loaves of bread as opposed to flat breads of Central Asia. In addition, from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, many words of Greek origin were applied to fish and seafood dishes.
Today there are seven regions in Turkey, each with indigenous agricultural products, cultures, customs, traditions, and local dishes. A same dessert make in the Black Sea area with hazelnuts, would contain pistachio nuts if made in the southeast region of Turkey.
Neset Eren summed up Turkish cuisine best in The Art of Turkish Cooking: “Many of the well-known national cuisines rely on one basic element. For instance, French cuisine is based on the sauce. Pasta forms the essence of the Italian cuisine. There is however, no single dominant feature in the Turkish kitchen. Meats, fish, vegetables pastries, and fruit are cooked in an infinite variety of ways.”
Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq, a sixteenth-century ambassador, remarked of Istanbul, “Nature seems to have created this place as the capital of the world.” Since Istanbul was the capital of the huge Ottoman Empire, was so well situated it became geographically the marketplace for a large assortment and variety of food products and spices that came as far away as Wallachia and Yemen via the Bosphorous and the Dardanelles.