Seyla retweetledi
The Ottoman sultans ate poached eggs for breakfast. Somehow, five hundred years later, the recipe is almost completely unchanged...
Çılbır is one of the oldest continuously documented dishes in Turkish culinary history. Palace records from 15th Century show versions of it being served in the royal kitchens of Topkapı Palace, where the chefs of Mehmed the Conqueror and the sultans who followed him were combining poached eggs with garlicky yogurt for the imperial table. This was not peasant food. This was a dish considered refined enough for one of the most powerful rulers in the world.
The basic concept is deceptively simple. Thick garlicky yogurt spread across a plate. A perfectly poached egg placed on top, whites just set, yolk completely runny. Then the moment that makes the whole dish: a ladleful of olive oil or butter, heated until shimmering and infused with paprika and crushed red pepper, poured over the top. The oil hits the cold yogurt and the warm egg simultaneously and the whole thing comes together in a way that somehow makes complete sense despite looking like it should not work at all.
The spiced oil is actually a later addition. The 17th Century traveller Evliya Çelebi documented egg and yogurt dishes across the Ottoman empire but the vivid orange-red spiced oil only arrived in the 19th Century when chili peppers from the Americas finally worked their way into Ottoman cooking. What had been a pale, subtle dish of garlic and butter became something visually striking and completely addictive. One of history's better accidental improvements.
© Eats History
#archaeohistories
English
