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“Recipe for Delicious Olives”: Cooking Recipes from Greek Medical Manuscripts of the Eighteenth Century

« Recette d’olives délicieuses ». Recettes de cuisine issues de manuscrits médicaux grecs du xviiie siècle
Penelope Seriatou

Résumés

Cet article s’intéresse à la question du régime alimentaire, des repas consommés et des ingrédients utilisés en cuisine dans les régions ottomanes du xviiie siècle, en se basant sur des sources d’origine médicale. L’analyse s’appuie sur les informations alimentaires et les données culinaires proposées par les médecins, trouvées dans les manuscrits médicaux grecs (iatrosophia en grec). Ces manuscrits comportaient principalement des prescriptions pharmaceutiques et médicales, ainsi que quelques recettes et instructions pour la préparation et la conservation des denrées comestibles. D’après les exemples présentés, les médecins, outre leur rôle de gardiens de la santé, étaient également des cosmopolites aisés, accoutumés aux excès et aux aliments de luxe. Ils pouvaient influencer, voire déterminer les habitudes alimentaires d’un groupe social étendu puisqu’ils prescrivaient, entretenaient et diffusaient des recettes de cuisine pour les mets salés et sucrés.

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Food and cooking of the past

  • 1 Pilcher Jeffrey M., “Introduction”, The Oxford Handbook of Food History, Oxford Handbooks online, O (...)

1The relation between food and exchanges among different cultural groups in the eighteenth-century Ottoman empire, the eating habits of doctors and their wealthy clients, inhabitants of the Balkan areas of the empire, are analysed here on the basis of cooking recipes. These recipes also inform about fasting and religion.1 The two medicinal manuscripts from the eighteenth century presented here are written in Greek and their origin is the Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire, areas that today are part of Bulgaria and Romania. One manuscript (MS r352) is kept in the National Library of Plovdiv, formerly called Philippopolis, while the other manuscript (MS 725) is kept in Gennadius Library in Athens.

  • 2  Matthaiou Αnna, Aspects de l’alimentation en Grece sous la domination ottomane. Des réglementation (...)
  • 3 Ludtke Alf, The History of Everyday Life, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1995.

2The reader can recognize the formation and adaptation of dietary choices in relation to place of residence and class status. Although nutrition is viewed as a set of adopted habits in the longue durée,2 it does not remain constant, and it is primarily a transnational experience. Cooking instructions also provide data about the everyday life of our subjects – regarding cooking equipment and ingredients.3

  • 4 For more about doctors and empirics, Ramsey Matthew, Professional and Popular Medicine in France, 1 (...)
  • 5  There is no evidence for the exact meaning of the Greek word όμορφα (ómorfa, “beautiful”) that aut (...)
  • 6 Antonakopoulos N. Georgios, “Τα σωζόμενα πρακτικά του βασιλικού ιατροσυνεδρίου ως πηγή ιατρικών πλη (...)

3At the centre of this work is the connection of a doctor’s profession4 not only with pharmaceutical recipes, therapeutic and preventive nutrition, and dietary instructions, but also with specific knowledge about cooking, preservation, and tasty ingredients for delicious meals.5 The word “doctor” was used until the end of the eighteenth century to describe empiricists and doctors by degree, and in this context, it is used here as well. Until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, people referred to doctors as both “empirics” (well skilled in therapeutics, with a good knowledge of pharmaceutical products) and empirical surgeons. After the second half of the nineteenth century, when medicine became experimental and delivered certainties through laboratory evidence and chemistry, the division of doctors into two main categories, graduate and empirical, became established. In the Greek State, after 1834, the Medical-Surgical School and Medical Council gained the authority to grant a license by examination to those who did not have a diploma, and the term doctor gradually referred to university graduates. The Royal Medical Council was founded by a law of 1834, and its members were responsible for the provision of medical services to the state and for the licensing of all health professionals.6 I mention the process of licensing and normalization of the medical profession because I am interested in the way doctors were professionally involved in providing food and dietary advice and also recorded cooking recipes in the context of, and alongside, their profession. I accept the idea that nutrition and food are two fields of the past where silent people speak through their meals, and I want to “watch” them eating and learn from their dietary behaviour. Moreover, in this case, it is the doctors who mediate the eating habits of their silent companions through the written culinary recipes.

Medicine and cooking in doctors’ texts

  • 7 Matthaiou, “Η καθημερινή αγορά …”, [The everyday market ...], op. cit., p. 515-548, (519).
  • 8 Matthaiou, Aspects de l’alimentation, op. cit., p. 330.
  • 9 For a comprehensive study of Greek medical manuscripts and their use, see Seriatou Penelope, Από τα (...)
  • 10 Lardos Andreas, “The Botanical Materia Medica of the Iatrosophikon: A Collection of Prescriptions f (...)
  • 11 Papadopoulos Christos, “Post-Byzantine Medical Manuscripts: New Insights into the Greek Medical Tra (...)

4According to Anna Matthaiou, diet (along with clothing) is one of the most important elements for the depiction of human societies and the determination of collective behaviour from the beginning of the fifteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century.7 There is an early link between medicine, cooking, and good witchcraft in terms of the preparation of tonic potions in huge pots, a link that the Enlightenment struggled to obliterate.8 Medicine – in a more holistic way than today – considered nutrition to be completely linked to good or bad health. Aspects of this therapeutic approach are recorded in Greek medical texts, in books, and in manuscripts from the large corpus of the so called iatrosophia.9 They are codices of medical and pharmaceutical interest10 that provide medicinal prescriptions and their raw materials, information about the human body and its function within the four elements and body juices.11 The four humours are the following bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, blond (or yellow) bile, and black bile. According to Hippocratic texts, blood is associated with what we still call blood today, phlegm is mucus (or similar discharges), blond bile appears to be gallbladder discharges (e.g. greenish-yellow or bitter vomit), and black bile has not been identified with any bodily fluid known today. Generally, we would say that the interactions between elements, humours, and qualities determine, according to this system of medical interpretation, health and disease. The balance of the humours was essential for good human health, while their disturbance led to health problems.

  • 12 Tselikas Agamemnon, “Η συνάντηση Ανατολής και Δύσης στους νεοελληνικούς ιατροσοφικούς κώδικες” [Eas (...)
  • 13 Kesling Emily, Medical Texts in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture, Martlesham, Boydell & Brewer, 2020, p (...)
  • 14 Lev Efraim, “Reconstructed Materia Medica of the Medieval and Ottoman al-Sham,” Journal of Ethnopha (...)

5The content of the iatrosophia manuscripts varies, including pharmaceutical recipes, information about illnesses, medicinal dietary instructions, cooking and preservation recipes for food, as well as practical advice for many aspects of life. They were considered particularly useful manuscripts and circulated in the Mediterranean and Balkan areas from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.12 They come from a very old tradition of written medical knowledge which was widespread in almost all cultures, from the West13 to the Arabic medical tradition.14

  • 15 Gerasimou Marianna, Η Οθωμανική μαγειρική [Ottoman Cooking], transl. Katerina Stathi, Athens, Potam (...)
  • 16 Faroqhi, Neumann, The Illuminated Table, op. cit., p. 40.

6In the frame of the same tradition, the oldest Ottoman text with dietary recipes is the treatise of Muhammed bin Mahmus Sirvani, who was a famous physician and served the court of Murat II (fifteenth century). The manuscript is a unique source for those interested in Ottoman cuisine.15 The relationship between medicine and nutrition is undisturbed and undeniable and has been emphasized by scholars,16 and in the Greek cultural context also.

  • 17 Table 4 of the Annex includes samples of recipes, pharmaceutical and culinary.
  • 18 Touwaide Alain, “Arabic into Greek: The Rise of an International Lexicon of Medicine in the Medieva (...)
  • 19 For the subject of pharmaceutical contents of iatrosophia and their use, see also, Barlagiannis Ath (...)
  • 20 Clark Patricia Ann, A Cretan Healer’s Handbook in the Byzantine Tradition, Text Translation and Com (...)
  • 21 There is a constant and old relationship between cooking and hygiene as necessary parts of food pre (...)
  • 22 De Vos Paula, “European Materia Medica in Historical Texts: Longevity of a Tradition and Implicatio (...)
  • 23 Seriatou, Από τα γιατροσόφια, op. cit., p. 199-210.
  • 24 Papadopoulos Christos, The Greek World and Medical Tradition Healers and Healing on the Eve of the (...)
  • 25 Benoist Jean, “La maladie entre nature et mystère”, in Raymond Massé, Jean Benoist (eds), Convocati (...)

7In iatrosophia we can track numerous pharmaceutical recipes for many health issues,17 texts from ancient medicine, explanations and instructions for curing illnesses enriched through time and space. These manuscripts contain knowledge transported from one culture and medical tradition to another.18 Furthermore, the addition of newer content depended on the author’s medical knowledge and education, while the basic aim was to retrieve and further diffuse medical and pharmaceutical knowledge of use to doctors and for the benefit of society.19 The contents of each manuscript differ depending on the writer’s medical background, whether he was a doctor by degree or an empiric, but they were all doctors in the context of their work of curing illnesses with the same pharmaceutical recipes and ingredients.20 The distinction between doctors by degree and empirics gradually became sharp after the nineteenth century. Research has shown that iatrosophia can include a wide range of knowledge and can be large and detailed manuscripts, or small and simpler codices written to transfer easy pharmaceutical recipes for health problems. For the same purpose the writers often included in the texts extra information not directly related to human medical care, such as recipes and tips for diet and food, veterinary medicine, cleaning of houses and laundering of clothes, cosmetics, etc.21 Iatrosophia have not been extensively studied as historical sources22 because they have been linked to folk medicine, superstitions, prejudices, and religion.23 These connections are undeniable, as the fear of death was part of the struggle for a cure24 and drove people to turn to the divine for help,25 but this fact should not lead us to underestimate the content of the codices.

  • 26 Braudel Fernand, Υλικός πολιτισμός, οικονομία και καπιταλισμός 15ος–18ος αι., Οι δομές της καθημερι (...)
  • 27 Seriatou, Από τα γιατροσόφια, op. cit., p. 195.
  • 28 The manuscript records a series of dates from 1789 to 1795.

8Nowadays iatrosophia are considered important evidence for the history of medicine and provide data for what Fernand Braudel has called material life and material culture.26 Their connection to religion, together with the high utility of the knowledge they included, has led to the rescue of a large number of them, stored in public and private libraries in Greece and in other Balkan countries.27 The medical manuscripts considered for this work provide information about the eating habits of Greek-origin residents in the regions of the Ottoman Empire. The first manuscript considered here (MS r352) was written at the end of eighteenth century28 by Alexandros Kassimis, and it was found in the Public Library of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In a total of 432 recipes, 58 are for edible products, among them 24 for cooking and salty preparations, and 34 for sweet recipes. Moreover, the author has chosen to record information from other thematic categories such as grooming or house care instructions. He even noted historical data.

  • 29 The rules of the above community as written in 1903 show its strength. Apostolidis Myrtilos, “Η Ιερ (...)

9MS r352 is an example showing the interconnections and transcultural experience of cooking and eating culture, as Kassimis was probably a doctor who lived and worked in Filippoupoli, today named Plovdiv. We know that the Greek Orthodox community of Plovdiv was particularly active and vibrant in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while Filippoupolites (Greek-origin habitants of Filippoupoli) had their churches and central school, and were members of almost all classes and professional organizations.29 The titles of the food recipes and information about adopted and transmitted eating habits of the Balkan population contained in MS r352 have been transcribed and recorded in Table 1 of the Annex. The variety and qualities of the foods it records show that the culinary recipes Kassimis knew were not related to the simpler and humbler diet that was common in the Greek world. The influences of his dietary suggestions are from richer and heavier diets for people who had been exposed to a culinary and dietary variety.

  • 30  The author of the text of MS 725 added at the end of his document “1779 July 2, Aneza was dead,” a (...)
  • 31 Papadogiannakis Nikolaos, Κρητικό Ιατροσόφιον του 19ου αι. [Cretan Iatrosophion of the 19th c.], Re (...)

10The second manuscript examined for this article is MS 725 from the Gennadius Library in Athens, Greece, and includes 85 mainly medicinal and pharmaceutical recipes in total. Among them are 21 food preparation recipes (14 for pastry and seven for salty food). The titles of the cooking instructions and recipes of MS 725 have been transcribed and recorded in Table 2 of the Annex. As iatrosophia manuscripts vary in size, from larger and more professional to limited versions, this one is more like a notebook, not limited in pages but simpler in structure. It contains useful information such as instructions for grooming and cooking, besides medicines and pharmaceutical recipes.30 This codex probably comes from the area of present-day Romania. The author was probably living in the provinces of Wallachia or Moldova, as shown from personal information and notes he added in his manuscript, which belongs to the broader category of medical/recipe manuscript. Usually, authors of the manuscripts vary from formally educated to empirics.31 There is no evidence that this writer did practice medicine, and if so, whether he had received some sort of a formal training or was an autodidact.

  • 32 These provinces were ruled by Phanariots, old elite families of the Ottoman bureaucracy that occupi (...)
  • 33 Gostin Alina-Ioanna, Bogueva Diana, “History of Eating habits in the Balkans,” in Alina-Ioana Gosti (...)

11The population of these provinces was mostly Christians, native Vlachs, and Moldovans. Because of the absence of any Muslim population, Greek Orthodox people from Epirus and other regions had moved to the Danubian areas as early as the middle of the sixteenth century.32 The movements of these populations and their settlement in different Balkan regions caused a transfer of knowledge, perceptions, and habits, as usually happens when people migrate. Nutrition becomes an area that is subject to influences and changes more frequently as people dare to savour flavours and adopt new healthy and tasteful food choices. The eating habits of the Balkan regions have been shaped by the influences of east and west, of the great empires, Ottoman and Austrian, that formulated their cultural background in general.33

Sweet and salty recipes and eating habits in the medical texts

  • 34 Recipe 2 in Table 4 of the Annex.
  • 35 MS r352, Plovdiv National Library, p. 143, 144.
  • 36 Travelers’ accounts refer to food details and information about cooking in Greek regions of the nin (...)
  • 37 Besides MS r352 and MS 725, which are discussed here, there is also MS 5, which contains nutrition (...)

12The name of the recipe34 that I use as a title for this article is copied from MS r352,35 whose writer noted instructions for preparing edibles and conserving natural products such as olives. It is important to remember that when seeking historical answers for nutrition and food history, in the case of Greek history, we are often obliged to search for data scattered among other historical reference sources.36 Medical manuscripts are such examples, especially when we are seeking food materials rendered in weights and quantities with cooking instructions accurately cited. The number of rescued manuscripts is large but there have not been extensive studies or research into their content yet. From the Greek medical manuscripts of the eighteenth century, those considered here37 record food recipes that offer a view on the Balkan gastronomy of the era, possibly not that of the lower-class people, but for the cooking habits of the upper class of the region.

13Despite the variety of recipes and materials, these codices do not provide prices and financial data, nor information on the sourcing of the culinary ingredients. But doctors possibly had the means to obtain the necessary food materials for cooking and pastry recipes. Mainly, as doctors, they knew the importance of proper food consumption and a healthy diet, and they recorded their expertise on it.

14Although most of the medical manuscripts I have seen contain recipes for preservation, the two manuscripts I present here contain recipes for preparing sophisticated gastronomic goods, recorded with precision in materials and preparation instructions.38 One such example is the common recipe for olives in MS r352:

  • 39 Okka and dirhem are Ottoman measurement units. One okka is equivalent to 1.2829 kilograms. One okka(...)
  • 40 MS r352, Plovdiv National Library, p. 143, 144.

Choose thick green olives when they are unharmed, without worms, not beaten or rotten – the rotten harm the strong ones – and then put them in a bucket to soak with fresh water for up to 6 or 8 (six or eight) days (change the water daily) until their bitterness is gone. Carve them with a knife and make 4 or 6 cuts along the length of the olive. Then pour their water and instead put some oil in the engraved olives. Mix them with your hands and when they are all oiled, put them in rows, into a clean container. Place one layer of olives followed by one layer of lemon slices, fennel, and lemon leaves. When you finish the filling, put enough oil on it, and strong vinegar and salt on top. If the olives are 20 okkades [25.6 kilos] you need to put up to 300 dirhem39 [960 grams] salt and after they are prepared, you can eat them.40

  • 41 Greek regions according to Geographia Neoteriki of 18th c., Kolovos Elias, Στους καιρούς των σουλτά (...)
  • 42 Asdrachas Spyros, “Η αγροτική οικονομία. 1. Η σύνθεση των καλλιεργειών” [The rural economy. 1. The (...)
  • 43 Tulay Artan, “Aspects of the Ottoman Elite’s Food Consumption,” in Donald Quataert (ed.), Consumpti (...)

15People usually prepare olives to maintain a part of the production for eating throughout the year. Oil and olives were (and continue to be) consumed in Greek regions41 as a foodstuff and were also much used in soap making and oil lamps.42 Also, oil and olives were a common foodstuff in the Ottoman court and usually were found in more than one kind.43

  • 44 A region could belong to a country or include territories of more than one country. Bradata Cristin (...)
  • 45 Matthaiou, “Voyages, Space, Words…”, op. cit., p. 467.

16The authors or compilers usually owned the manuscripts and rarely gave information about the place they lived or detailed personal data besides their name and the year of creating the codex. Sometimes they referred to topics related to the medical profession or the natural world, or even the potential curing power of a recipe. By doing so, they also revealed their knowledge, or their possible medical expertise. When the manuscript changed ownership, the new owner sometimes noted his name as well. Specifically for the two manuscripts of our research, we have the name of one author, while we have some details of the living status of the other. It is likely they both lived in parts of the Ottoman empire where populations were of mixed origin, religion, and language.44 Even when language and religion are not identical in populations, the so-called tradition – the common manners or customs such as food consumption and culinary habits – play a decisive role in the search for common identities, as they create strong bonds between subjects.45

  • 46 Kolovos, Στους καιρούς των σουλτάνων, op. cit., p. 253
  • 47 Liata Εftyhia, Τιμές και Αγαθά στην Αθήνα (1839-1846) [Prices and Goods in Athens (1839-1846)], Ath (...)
  • 48 Modern Geography included a description of Europe and was a representative work of the Greek Enligh (...)
  • 49 Kolovos, Στους καιρούς των σουλτάνων, op. cit., p. 260.
  • 50 Matthaiou Anna, “Οι ντελικάτες τροφές και το λιτοδίαιτο” [Delicate foods and the frugal diet], Ta I (...)

17The recipes discussed here give us information about the variety of foods and eating habits that do not concern most of the Greek populations established in their homelands, as it seems the writers of our two manuscripts lived in areas of the Balkans,46 today’s Bulgaria and Romania, and not in the Greek peninsula, where spending for extravagant food supplies was not common even for those who could afford it.47 According to Modern Geography (Geographia Neoteriki) by Daniil Filippidis and Grigorios Konstantas, which was first published in Vienna in 1791,48 the Greek peninsula included the regions of Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, Arvanitia, Macedonia, Thrace, Crete, and the Aegean and Ionian Seas.49 In these regions there were two common religions, the Islamic, which was the hierarchically dominant one, and the Eastern (Greek Orthodox), which was the most widespread. As Anna Matthaiou has written, what happened in Europe with abundance did not happen in Greece. The populations in the regions of the present-day Greek lands during the period of Ottoman rule were used to a limited dietary daily life, as this model included both religious and economic constraints. The common limited diet could only be broken on occasions of religious festivals.50

Dietary excesses and fasting restrictions in recipes

  • 51 Quataert Donald (ed.), Consumption Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire, 1550-1922, Albany (...)

18In the written food recipes, it is obvious that a wide nutritional variety was not allowed to everyone. There are records of meals and desserts that belong to the category of extravagant food, eaten only for pleasure as sweets are. Sugar in the eighteenth century, beyond being an ingredient in some pharmaceutical recipes, was a food for the pleasure of the rich and powerful, and thus confirmed social recognition. Sugar is also a food intertwined with networks of production, consumption, and power. Along with coffee, chocolate, and rum, the areas that produced all three of them have been under imperial control since the fifteenth century.51

  • 52 Faroqhi, Neumann (eds), The Illuminated Table, op. cit., p. 161.
  • 53 Sakaoglu Necder, “Sources for our Ancient Culinary Culture,” in Faroqhi, Neumann (eds), The Illumin (...)
  • 54 For similar recipes see Gerasimou, Η Οθωμανική μαγειρική [Ottoman cooking], op. cit.; Yerasimos Ste (...)
  • 55 MS r352, Plovdiv National Library, p. 569, 570.

19Discussion about the new edible goods of the era brings us to the question about who could afford to consume these cooking and pastry examples. One of the main transitions of Ottoman society, along with clothing, furniture, etc., occurred from the eighteenth to nineteenth century in culinary and eating habits and transformed the food culture of the upper class. And as I have concluded that the kind of food given in these recipes was not common on lower social levels, we should examine eating habits of the Ottoman elite. The sultan’s court and the political elite of the Ottoman society incorporated key changes that were derived from European ways that influenced cultural life in the early nineteenth century.52 It was not only westernization, but modernization also that provided transitions in everyday life, habits, and consumerism. The consumption of western goods began in the eighteenth century, but it was around 1900 that the upper class incorporated new patterns from western culinary and eating models, not only in the products they consumed, but also in cooking and eating trends. Changes included the new tradition of eating around a high table instead of a tray, with chairs instead of sitting on the floor, carrying the food to the mouth using silverware instead of the fingers, and the use of western kitchen utensils. The new trends of the nineteenth century were emphasized, when referring to the two different known culinary models, with the common expressions “a la turca or “a la franca.” It was in 1844 that the first Ottoman cookbook was published, called Melceii’t- Tabbabin.53 Sources before and after that time were the palace menus from special occasions and of course the official kitchen record with the supplies and ingredients used for the court’s and the sultan’s consumption. MS r352 contains “A recipe [description] for how to make a kind of pastry dessert like paclavan [baklava]”.54 Boil separately one-half okka of butter and one okka of honey, and when they are boiling, clarify them, and when you have taken them down from the coals and they are half-cold, put them together and grind them until they are white. Crack 20 eggs, mix them with the honey and butter, and rub them all together again until they become like an ointment. Then add corn flour little by little into them and stir them all over until they become like a dough, and then grease the bottom of the pan with a little butter, spread the dough on top and cut it like a baklava, and bake it in the oven, and it shall be delightful.55

  • 56 The huge quantity of 20 eggs for one pan of the cake called “dessert like paklava” is common for ol (...)
  • 57 Faroqhi Suraiya, “Research on the History of Ottoman Consumption: A Preliminary Exploration of Sour (...)
  • 58 Tulay, “Aspects of the Ottoman Elite’s Food Consumption”, op. cit., p. 110.
  • 59 Ibid., p. 108, 111.

20The recipe56 is closer to the now-popular Greek sweet called ravani, while the author calls it “like baklava.” It is not a simple recipe, as it contains a list of sophisticated, rare, and expensive ingredients that could not be easily found in poor households and in rural Greek areas. Instead, baklava is included in many sources, such as in three lists of dishes prepared for elite Ottoman meals in the seventeenth century (three meals for Seyyid Hasan and his friends).57 We can admit that Ottoman society was a “heavy eating” one, not only for the large quantities of food but also for the way their food culture was shaped, that is, what accompanied their eating habits, rituals, rules, and manners.58 But how can consumption of edible goods (for this is our case) tell us the inside story of the Ottoman elite? We cannot talk about the food history of a society, about its culinary culture, without thinking about classes and their eating habits and transitions.59

  • 60 Matthaiou Anna, “Interdictions religieuses et indéterminations nationales : les habitudes alimentai (...)

21Changes occurred in Europe’s eating habits in the eighteenth century, while many cookbooks of European origin were already circulating from the end of the Middle Ages. In the Greek areas, little happened in food consumption until the nineteenth century, when the first cookbooks were published, although the issue of nutrition appeared in earlier medical texts, manuscripts, and books of the eighteenth century. According to travellers’ texts from the early eighteenth century, the society, at least the lower classes, faced economic difficulties, which significantly limited the variety of food they consumed.60

  • 61 Liata, Τιμές και Αγαθά …, [Prices and Goods …], op. cit, p. 52, 53.

22As Eftyhia Liata has shown, sugar, butter, eggs, and even more expensive foodstuffs were products that one could buy in the Athenian market of the nineteenth century, which was rich in terms of the great variety of different and rare edible products available, but not at low prices.61 The above-mentioned recipe for baklava was not relevant for the common and daily nutrition in Greek areas.

  • 62 Matthaiou Anna, “Διαιτητικές απαγορεύσεις στην τουρκοκρατία” [Dietary restrictions in Ottoman perio (...)
  • 63 The imperial order reads thus: “For a long time all people have been accustomed to comfort and luxu (...)

23Another factor related to the diet of Christian populations is the role of religious prohibitions and restrictions that imposed a certain way of life based on the value of fasting. Religion forbade gastronomic pleasures or the consumption of alcohol, as it was associated with lust. In these artificial conditions of restriction and fasting, people were trained to hope only for divine favour.62 These prohibitions concerned not only Orthodox Christians, but Muslims as well. For example, the divan determined and restricted the order of food in July 1821 and issued imperial orders to all authorities of the empire.63 The restrictions drew on religious motives and were directed against waste. The need to issue such an order, specifically for the officials of the empire, explains the range of nutritional disparities among Muslims, too.

  • 64 Matthaiou, “Διαιτητικές απαγορεύσεις …” [Dietary restrictions …], op. cit., p. 272, 273.

24Dietary instructions imposed by religion were common in the Greek regions of the Ottoman Empire, where people were not used to overindulgence in food and dietary products. When they could afford excess, they preferred to show their excellence by owning expensive items, jewellery, clothes, etc., rather than consuming delicious, expensive, and exotic food. This way of living brings up the moral superiority of the limitation in materials and the need to ensure the primacy of religion in all aspects of daily life.64 In addition to religious devotion, fasting establishes a framework of foods that are progressively excluded from the Orthodox Christian diet, thus defining them as unnecessary and outside the virtuous diet.

  • 65 Eating too much was considered a sin. Notaker, A History of Cookbooks, op. cit., p. 11, 14.
  • 66 Recipe in Table 4, Annex. MS 725, Gennadius Library, p. 16.
  • 67 A part of the manuscript includes several love poems.
  • 68 The Ghika family was an old, large, and wealthy family, with its members serving as great officers (...)
  • 69 Kolovos, Στους καιρούς των σουλτάνων, op. cit., p. 258.
  • 70 Vlachos Nikolaos, “Doctors of Thessaly (17th-19th c.),” Archeion Thessalikon Meleton, vol. 3-4, 197 (...)

25In this way, the identity of the Christian Orthodox is strengthened, while the restrictions imposed by the lack of financial means for a richer daily diet are justified by religious ethics.65 MS 725 contains a recipe for fasting rusks66 without milk, butter, olive oil, eggs, etc., which are not permitted in fasting periods. I assume the writer had broader educational and linguistic skills67 and worked in the service of the Ghika family, for he noted some information about a member of the family: “December 5, 1779, the daughter of my late master, Zoitsa Ghika, left for Pogdania (Moldavia) to marry, when master Ioannis Gregoriou Ghika had the power.” This note shows the writer’s close relation with the family he was working for. The Ghika family belonged to the Phanariotes.68 In 1765, Konstantinos Karaioannis became the doctor of the ruler of Moldavia, Gregory Alex Ghika, a former great interpreter of Constantinople. The domination of the political families of Phanariotes in the Danuban regions began in early eighteenth century.69 There is no evidence confirming that Karaioannis was the initial author of MS 725, but it is a conjecture that cannot be excluded. Karaioannis was chief physician to the court of Gregory Alex Ghika, and during his stay in Moldavia he worked systematically for public health, but also for the development of Greek education. In 1777, he returned to his homeland after the death of Ghika. 70

  • 71 Tulay, “Aspects of the Ottoman Elite’s Food Consumption”, op. cit., p. 111.

26The contribution of doctors in recording cooking recipes and disseminating knowledge about nutrition reminds us that we study food through multiple perspectives because of its complexity as an item of consumption, one that is sometimes exaggerated and luxurious, even as it is primarily a necessity.71

Doctors and food – in sickness and in health

  • 72 Seriatou, “Η λειτουργία της εμπειρικής ιατρικής…”, op. cit., p. 71-88; Seriatou, Μαντζούνια και αλο (...)
  • 73 Lazaridis Kostas, “Από τη ζωή και το έργο ενός Ζαγορίσιου κομπογιαννίτη” [Life and work of a Zagori (...)

27In the eighteenth century, people valued food as an extremely essential need not only for survival, but also because it affected their physical condition. A bad diet caused malnutrition, i.e., an imbalance in the four humours of the body, which, according to the prevailing medical theories about the body, resulted in the appearance of diseases. Food may be varied and offer satiety and wellbeing, or it may be limited due to illness or lack of resources. Until almost the nineteenth century in Greek areas, doctors who consistently practiced their profession, whether empirics or educated, were important persons and their knowledge was respected and accepted. Poor people would prefer empirics because they were more numerous and cheaper than the licensed ones. All doctors used the same natural remedies, while experienced empirics were recognized, and not identified with charlatans, peddling impostors, or pseudo-doctors.72 Moreover, empirical healers – general practitioners as well as surgeons – although they did not have a university degree, usually were literate and had good knowledge of medicine and pharmaceutical materials (herbs, metals, or animal remains).73

  • 74 Chroni-Vakalopoulou Maria, “Υγιεινή διατροφή και Ιατρική στο Βυζάντιο” [Healthy diet and medicine i (...)
  • 75 MS 5, ELIA MIET, p. 68-70.

28In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Greek areas, in addition to medication, bloodletting, and purgative medicines, doctors were able to recommend a special diet depending on the patient’s health problem, as an important part of medical advice for prevention and cure. They also suggested, for preventive reasons, specific nutritional instructions for every season and month of the year, given as nutritional calendars. The control and restriction of body humours was achieved thanks to the dietary instructions in all hygienic treatises until the seventeenth century.74 An example of a dietary calendar prescribed by a doctor for his patients is listed in Table 3 of MS 5 of the Annex. The text was found in a page under the title Meals and nutrition for every month.75 The author seems to be aware of the edible goods produced throughout the year and their effects on health, and of course the beneficial or harmful habits associated with every season.

  • 76 Hionidou Violetta, “Popular Medicine and Empirics in Greece, 1900-1950: An Oral History Approach,” (...)
  • 77 Seriatou, “Η λειτουργία της εμπειρικής ιατρικής…”, op. cit., p. 75-77.
  • 78 Clark, A Cretan Healer’s Handbook, op. cit.
  • 79 Quinlan Marsha B., “Ethnomedicine,” in Merrill Singer, Pamela I. Erickson (eds), Α Companion to Med (...)

29After the nineteenth century, the predominance of graduate doctors and the spread of medical publications turned the doctors’ manuscripts into a folksy version, yet they were maintained by non-graduate empirical therapists who existed in Greece until 1950.76 Although the practical or empirical healers, general practitioners, and surgeons had no formal university knowledge and medical degrees, most of them were literate, had good knowledge of traditional folk healing with natural materials, and were considered good practitioners by the communities they were healing. These empirics learned their craft through apprenticeships and kept their medicinal secrets in their manuscripts.77 The empirics’ manuscripts78 are also good sources for learning about ethnomedicine79 and the local natural products of Greek regions that were used in therapeutics. Doctors were familiar with the detailed instructions, and the accuracy in weights that the pastry recipes mainly needed, from the pharmaceutical products they used to prepare for their patients.

  • 80 Although it appears that there was a higher rate of literacy than is usually taken for granted, at (...)
  • 81 Henry, “Doctors and Healers…”, op. cit., p. 208.
  • 82 Notaker, A History of Cookbooks, op. cit., p. 33.

30In the same period, only a limited percentage of subjects in Greek areas included literate people who could record and read instructions either for medicines or for food preparations.80 All doctors’ characteristics, as well as their literacy and arithmetical expertise81 in most cases, and their acquaintance with the accuracy of quantities, even for empirics, brings us to the conclusion that the authors of the specific manuscripts were doctors (in our two main manuscripts, possibly doctors by degree) and not cooks. By the eighteenth century, cooking knowledge was usually passed on orally without the help of texts. After the nineteenth century and the expansion of reading and writing skills to wider social groups, the cooks started taking notes.82

  • 83 Papathanasiou Maria, Διαδρομές και ταυτότητες περιπλανώμενων τεχνιτών, Δύο ζαχαροπλάστες στην Ευρώπ (...)
  • 84 Fine Leon G., “Meat Cookery for the 18th Century Female Household Cook: An Unrecognized Influence o (...)

31In the eighteenth century, professional cooking was mainly a male affair, particularly in bakery and confectionery shops in Europe.83 Female cooks started working in the kitchens of middle-class households in mid-eighteenth-century Europe.84 Working in the kitchen and preparing food in-house, either for their own home or as workers, were obligations that were assigned to women. Men would do it, of course, as professionals.

  • 85 Karanasios Charitonas, “Μαρτυρίες αναφορικά με τη χρονολόγηση γεγονότων του βίου του ιατροφιλοσόφου (...)

32A common characteristic of famous doctors of good expertise in the eighteenth century is that they used to travel to many areas of the Ottoman and Balkan world to cure their patients. For the most successful ones, their patients were economically well-off consumers, sometimes tycoons of the Ottoman empire (e.g. Ali Pasha) who were in a position to adopt and enjoy luxury food.85 The mobility of the doctors explains the quantity of the recipes they kept regarding food consumption and cooking, and in MS r352, one can trace elements from cuisines of different regions and eating habits of both Ottoman and Central Europe, in examples such as baklava or sponge cake, respectively. In these recipes, one can distinguish the variety of sweets and sorbets and the use of many different fruits and flowers, all of which were common in meals of the Ottoman palace and elite. Besides sweets, the author also recorded instructions for salty foods, such as pickles.

  • 86 MS r352, Plovdiv Public Library, p. 630.

33The above data that Kassimis kept in his manuscript were also useful for the preservation of fish and meat. Savory and salty preparations, sweets, and syrups were necessary to preserve excess food for the hard times of winter. The knowledge of the author reached as far as instructions for making yogurt, and sweets with flour dough that are known and popular to this day in Balkan areas (sponge cake and baklava). In a page of this interesting doctor’s notebook-manuscript, he inserted historical information about the death of Sultan Hamid I and his successor Sultan Selim III, son of Sultan Moustafa III.86 All these details suggest that he was a “man of the world,” a Greek speaking subject with many different interests, who had the ability to perceive what was important in the world around him.

34The limited reference in this article to the Ottoman elite and the possible use of these recipes by a financially and hierarchically prosperous group of the Ottoman upper class is because the emphasis has been on doctors and their relationship with diet and cooking. I have concluded that these recipes were kept, written, and consumed by upper class subjects of Greek origin and Eastern religion who lived in the Balkan regions. The search for evidence on the dietary and culinary habits of the different classes of Ottoman society probably will be a new study for the future.

  • 87 Tulay, “Aspects of the Ottoman Elite’s Food Consumption”, op. cit., p. 110.
  • 88 Ibid., p. 116.

35Each part of urban and rural Ottoman society and classes had its own life, and different eating habits and cooking culture, as is the case even for the examples of the Ottoman court and the Ottoman elites. The same perspective applies when studying the food history of different areas of the Ottoman Empire with their variations in traditions, culture, customs, etc.87 But here I am considering the food consuming habits of the upper class, and as Jack Goody said, the culinary cultures of major societies of Europe and Asia are associated with wealth, power, and hierarchy.88

Food and power

  • 89 Matthaiou, “Οι ντελικάτες τροφές...”, op. cit., p. 52.

36In most Greek medical manuscripts, one can find instructions for healthy and safe nutrition, and not for the pleasures and delights of food that the “progressive” nations of that time knew.89 Orthodox Christian society in the Ottoman-occupied regions did not consider that dietary excess had a positive impact in terms of social approval and that it was an element of social and cultural advancement.

  • 90 Anemodoura Maria, Πολιτικές και οικονομικές δομές στην επικράτεια του Αλή πασά Τεπεντελενλή: από το (...)

37Apart from the population as a whole and its weak or silent groups, the eating habits and choices of the economically and politically powerful subjects give us evidence of their degree of power, their financial status, and the kind of cultural exchanges they were able to consolidate and process. Doctors belonged to the upper class, and were closely associated with powerful officials, as they worked for them and knew their private health secrets and those of their families. Being among selected members of the inner circle of power, the doctors were in contact with the habits of the powerful as expressed through food. The powerful people who were the doctors’ clients or patients provided nutrition for the lower strata of their workers and at the same time they honoured their chosen upper-class relations with luxurious food. One such example is the life of Ali Pasha of Ioannina, a famous tycoon of the Ottoman bureaucracy. He used to hire the most qualified doctors, by degree or empirics, to support him and his family and harem with the needed medical care, and he treated them with special care and hospitality. He also took care of the diet of his workers.90

  • 91 Matthaiou Αnna, “Ο Βριλιά Σαβαρίν και το ψάρι του αρχιναυάρχου Κανάρη: τα ελληνικά βιβλία μαγειρική (...)
  • 92 Matthaiou Anna, The Cookery, Athens, Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive, 1992, p. 5, 6, 21.

38Despite the existence of our examples, before the Greek Revolution of 1821, the need for economy and limitations to excess food was important for the subjects that lived in Greek areas, while after the revolution, the newborn nation was probably in greater need of guidance for healthy living. As we can understand from the appearance of the publications of cookery books, the broadening of the dietary norm, the enrichment of the diet, the diffusion of a variety of gastronomic habits, and innovations in culinary consumption all took place in the nineteenth century, first among the upper classes in Greece.91 Published in 1828 in the island of Syros, the first cookbook was a translation from an Italian prototype and its author was Panagiotis Zontanos, also a doctor by profession, who studied medicine in Italy at the University of Pisa and went to live in Syros after the Greek Revolution as a refugee of the Ottoman regions.92

39Empirical medical tradition and the impact of the doctors’ manuscripts with handwritten remedies and recipes that included food and diet information are important elements of the Greek culture and their usage is common even today. Understanding and applying dietary and culinary instructions to make a good meal is a knowledge that reproduces authoritarian and social relationships of power as well. The doctors’ texts show that they had the opportunity to influence or even determine the eating habits of an extended social group as they not only maintained, and probably spread, pharmaceutical products (drugs) and treatments, but also wrote cooking instructions for food and confectionary. Whether it is therapeutic nutrition, fresh food storage, or dietary guidance for patients and society in general, doctors had the answers.

Conclusion

40The examples analysed in this article reveal gastronomic variety and enjoyment, as well as the possible dietary choices of upper-class subjects of Greek origin in the wider Ottoman-Balkan region. Moreover, the present work offers a clue about the doctors’ power and knowledge not only for medicines and curing, but for everyday life advice too. I have investigated these doctors’ potential as wealthy men of their time with different experiences in taste and new adventurous cooking and eating habits. The owners or writers of the manuscripts probably belonged to the group of doctors that worked in the courtyards of senior officials of the Ottoman hierarchy and wealthy families who lived far above the economic average of the same period in Greek regions. Their lifestyle gave them the opportunity to encounter different rich cultural and spiritual environments.

  • 93 Matthaiou Anna, “Προλογικό Σημείωμα: Ιστορία της Διατροφής. Η δυναμική των Προσεγγίσεων” [Preface: (...)

41The existence of high cuisine is associated with a high degree of inequality and social stratification and occurs in the upper social strata.93 Τhe two manuscripts discussed here belong to subjects who are familiar with dietary recipes and foods that are part of a luxurious diet. Although our examples give information about a wealthy way of eating, we can see there was always the restriction of religion and fasting for every faithful Christian of the Orthodox faith, not as a rule caused by lack of means, but as an exception to recipes for delicious meals. But habits and culture do not remain stable, even in traditional societies where changes occur very slowly.

42It is easy to comprehend the purpose of a doctor collecting and recording cooking recipes in his work handbook. It was for himself to recall the cooking details, but also to diffuse the recipes more widely, for his tablemates who could afford to taste them. But their cooking and food notes also have a medical perspective, as it was part of their professional accuracy to note and keep detailed pharmaceutical recipes. It had to do with professional habits, literacy, and the obligation to control people’s diet for ensuring health. For the culinary, excellent, innovative recipes for food and sweets, the purpose was only the pleasure of enjoying good food.

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Annexe

Table 1. Cooking and confectionery recipes in MS r35294

1.

Recipe for delicious olives

2.

Recipe for eggplants

3.

Recipe for peppers

4.

Recipe for zucchini with vinegar

5.

Recipe for pickled cucumbers

6.

Recipe for pickled... [probably fruit]

7.

Recipe for pickled collard

8.

Pickled cucumbers [another recipe]

9.

Recipe for pickled dead birds

10.

Recipe for pickled caper

11.

Recipe for pickled grapes

12.

Recipe for fishes

13.

Recipe for pickled ... [unspecified ingredient]

14.

Recipe for retzeli95 with quince

15.

Recipe for sweet [dessert] with pumpkin

16.

Recipe for sweet with plum

17.

Recipe for sweet with citron

18.

Recipe for sweet rose.

19.

Recipe for retzeli with nuts

20.

Recipe for sweet with sour cherry

21.

Recipe for rose honey [honey with flavouring of herbs and wild rose]

22.

Recipe for quince jelly

23.

Recipe for retzeli of loquat

24.

How we make tahini [sesame paste]

25.

Recipe for halvah [confection based on sesame]

26.

Recipe for lentil pilaf

27.

Recipe for making yeast, that is, the yogurt yeast

28.

Recipe for yogurt

29.

Recipe for cream [caymak]

30.

Another for yogurt

31.

Recipe for smoked mackerel

32.

Recipe for salted mackerels, bonitos, and sardines

33.

Recipe for soutzouki [type of sausage]

34.

Recipe for split peas (easy)

35.

Recipe for dried fruits with syrup [hosaf]

36.

Recipe for pickled peppers

37.

Recipe for sweet apple with syrup

38.

Recipe for sweet with linden

39.

Instructions for making sweet of plums

40.

Instructions for making sweet of water lilies

41.

Instructions (nice and fast) for making salted fishes

42.

Instructions for making sweets of citron

43.

Instructions for making citron sweet [chopped citron]

44.

Another for citron sweet

45.

Another recipe for making sweet sherbet [cold drink sweet as syrup]

46.

Instructions for making sweet of violet

47.

Instructions for making sherbet

48.

Instructions for making sweet of moshomila

49.

Instructions for making sponge cake

50.

Instructions for making baklava

51.

Instructions for making sweet of sour grape

52.

Instructions for making sherbet

53.

Instructions for making gioul sherbet

54.

Instructions for making revani [like sponge cake with syrup]

55.

Instructions for transforming sour citron into a sweet

56.

Instructions for making pickled cucumbers

57.

Sweet Oulebi [quince syrup and sugar]

58.

Instructions for making a sweet of cornus cherries (dogwood)

Table 2. Cooking and pastry recipes in MS 72596

1.

Aromatic quince syrup

2.

Rhubarb syrup

3.

For sponge cakes

4.

Recipe for milk powder

5.

Gelatin

6.

For koumpia [biscuits]

7.

How to make a sugary pie

8.

Cheese pie without dough and pie sheet

9.

For foam [meringue]

10.

Another foam [meringue]

11.

For kourapie [kourabie-biscuits]

12.

Another recipe for nuts

13.

Another recipe for nuts with stuffing

14.

Another for nuts with sugar

15.

The pasta from Moscow

16.

Fasting nuts

17.

Finikia [little sweets like melomakarono]

18.

Recipe for koumpia [sweet]

19.

Soft goat’s milk cheese

20.

Candies with almond

21.

Recipe for Revani [like sponge cake with syrup]

Table 3. Doctor’s instructions for beneficial nutrition97

Meals and nutrition for every month

In March every man should eat food of sweet taste and drink sweet wine and eat boiled leeks. It is beneficial to take baths with the water of boiled herbs, take care and do not apply bloodletting for any reason, do not take laxatives and if someone must purge anyway it is better to drink rue juice.

In the month of April one can apply bloodletting and eat stewed meat and take laxatives and boil betony and drink its decoction

In the month of May wash your hair and head often and eat hot meals and do bloodletting from the king’s vein (a main vein of the hand). In May get used to eating fennel, as it is beneficial to purge juices of the body.

In the month of June drink every day in the morning one glass of white wine, eat lettuces with vinegar to purge stomach, and do not apply bloodletting nor laxative.

In the month of July do not have sex with a woman and do not apply bloodletting nor take laxatives and boil rue and sage and drink the decoction frequently and drink clean water also.

In the month of August eat sour foods and take care not to eat cabbages that produce black bile humour from which occurs the four days fever. Eat sage and do not apply bloodletting and do not take laxatives.

In the month of September eat whatever you like and prefer as in this month everything is in order. Drink the decoction of the herb betony every month and if it occurs, do bloodletting from the liver vein and take laxatives.

In the month October do not drink raki [a strong alcoholic drink], do not eat porika,98 and do not do bloodletting or take laxatives.

In the month November it is good to work hard, to do bloodletting from the liver vein, and do not go to baths as the blood is thick in this month and do not stay very hot and do not go to baths because you stir body juices and then you get scabies and many more illnesses.

In the month December eat cabbages because in this month black bile humour is not produced as it happens in August, and cabbages are very good for the body. Do not apply bloodletting and do not use laxatives.

In the month January do not apply bloodletting for any reason and eat sweets because they are healthy, and every morning drink good wine with black pepper. Do not bathe and wash your hair in this month, it is not healthy.

In the month February do bloodletting and eat honey and take laxatives and if you apply these instructions, you should not afraid any illness of the body.

Table 4. Indicative Recipes

1. Medical: Recipe for mazun99 to stop “coughing and phlegm”
Take incense, mastic, ... and saffron per 5 dirhem, ... per 8, cane 10, almond oil 6, liquorice 6. Mix them all, make mazun with sugar and it’s very good for the stomach, put aniseed for the stomach’s air.100

2. Cooking: A recipe for fasting rusks
Five ounces of semolina, one ounce of sesame oil, one ounce of mace, one ounce of aniseed, a dash of sesame and mastic and cloves and a little salt.

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Notes

1 Pilcher Jeffrey M., “Introduction”, The Oxford Handbook of Food History, Oxford Handbooks online, Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 4.

2  Matthaiou Αnna, Aspects de l’alimentation en Grece sous la domination ottomane. Des réglementations au discours normatif, Frankfurt, Peterlang, Europischer Verlag de Wissenschaften, 1997, p. 12; Matthaiou Αnna, “Η καθημερινή αγορά και η βίωση του Οικονομικού” [The everyday market and the experience of the economic], in Spyros Asdrachas (ed.), Ελληνική Οικονομική Ιστορίαιε΄- ιθ΄ αιώνας [Greek economic history, 15th-19th c.], Athens, Piraeus Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP), 2003, p. 519-548 (525-526), p. 664-673.

3 Ludtke Alf, The History of Everyday Life, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1995.

4 For more about doctors and empirics, Ramsey Matthew, Professional and Popular Medicine in France, 1770-1830: The Social World of Medical Practice, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988; Costis Costas, Στον καιρό της πανώλης. Εικόνες από τις κοινωνίες της ελληνικής χερσονήσου 14ος-19ος αιώνας [In the time of the plague. Images from the societies of the Greek peninsula 14th-19th century], Heraklion, Crete University Press, 2013; Lindemann Mary, Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999.

5  There is no evidence for the exact meaning of the Greek word όμορφα (ómorfa, “beautiful”) that authors of the manuscripts used to describe food recipes in the eighteenth century (e.g. MS r352). In translating the text, the word “delicious” was chosen to give the emphasis of the described food quality (title recipe, p. 1). As reconstruction of the past senses is not a valid procedure, when I try to transfer the taste of the cooking recipes, I assume that “beautiful” means that the food would please the consumer. Moreover, the use of “delicious” or “tasty” in the article relates to today’s vocabulary on food. Taste is a cultural value, while it is also a sense that the body understands, accepting or denying the messages it receives when eating. In eighteenth-century culinary texts, the work of understanding and evaluating the senses involved in food consumption was done by people who were acquainted with food and eating, the differences in taste, or the role of the senses in eating. For them, a rich meal engaged all the senses, although in the eighteenth century, taste and touch were considered carnal and rude senses. This changed after the nineteenth century, when cookery books gave “taste” an important place in the writing of the new culinary books. For more details, see: Vabre Sylvie, Bruegel Martin, Atkins Peter, Food History, A Feast of the Senses in Europe, 1750 to the Present, New York, Routledge, 2021; Sutton David, “Food and the Senses”, Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 39, 2010, p. 209-223.

6 Antonakopoulos N. Georgios, “Τα σωζόμενα πρακτικά του βασιλικού ιατροσυνεδρίου ως πηγή ιατρικών πληροφοριών” [Τhe preserved reports of the royal medical council as a source of medical information], in Katerina Gardikas (ed.), 200 Χρόνια του Ελληνικού Κράτους, Δομές και Θεσμοί. Υγεία, Κοινωνία, Κράτος [200 years of the Greek state, structures and institutions, health, society, state], Athens, Piraeus Bank and University of Athens, 2023, p. 53-60 (53, 54); Kouzis Aristeides, “Εκατονταετηρίς 1837-1937. Γ΄ Ιστορία της Ιατρικής Σχολής” [Centennial 1837-1937. C’ history of medical school], National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Centenary 1837-1937, Vol. A, Directory of University Publications, Athens, 8, 1939, p. 3-4.

7 Matthaiou, “Η καθημερινή αγορά …”, [The everyday market ...], op. cit., p. 515-548, (519).

8 Matthaiou, Aspects de l’alimentation, op. cit., p. 330.

9 For a comprehensive study of Greek medical manuscripts and their use, see Seriatou Penelope, Από τα γιατροσόφια στα ιατρικά εγχειρίδια. “Η διαδρομή προς την επιστημονική ιατρική γνώση και περίθαλψη στον ελληνικό χώρο κατά τον 18ο και 19ο αιώνα.” [From iatrosophia to medical books. The path towards scientific medical knowledge and care in the Greek areas of the 18th and 19th centuries], PhD diss., University of Athens, 2021.

10 Lardos Andreas, “The Botanical Materia Medica of the Iatrosophikon: A Collection of Prescriptions from a Monastery in Cyprus”, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, vol. 104, 2006, p. 387-406.

11 Papadopoulos Christos, “Post-Byzantine Medical Manuscripts: New Insights into the Greek Medical Tradition, its Intellectual and Practical Interconnections, and our Understanding of Greek Culture”, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, vol. 27, no 1, 2009, p. 107-130 (110).

12 Tselikas Agamemnon, “Η συνάντηση Ανατολής και Δύσης στους νεοελληνικούς ιατροσοφικούς κώδικες” [Eastern and Western traditions meet in the Neohellenic iatrosophia], Topics of Hellenic Palaeography, vol. 34, 2004, p. 556; Tselikas Agamemnon, “Τα ελληνικά γιατροσόφια. Μια περιφρονημένη κατηγορία χειρογράφων” [The Greek iatrosophia. A neglected category of manuscripts], in Thanassis Diamantopoulos (ed.), Ιατρικά βυζαντινά χειρόγραφα [Byzantine medical manuscripts], Athens, Domos, 1995, p. 57-70; Touwaide Alain, “Byzantine Hospital Manuals (Iatrosophia) as a Source for the Study of Therapeutics,” in B. S. Bowers (ed.), The Medieval Hospital and Medical Practice, Cornwall, Ashgate, 2007, p. 147-173; Papadopoulos, “Post-Byzantine Medical Manuscripts…,” op. cit.

13 Kesling Emily, Medical Texts in Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture, Martlesham, Boydell & Brewer, 2020, p. 130-147.

14 Lev Efraim, “Reconstructed Materia Medica of the Medieval and Ottoman al-Sham,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology, vol. 80, no 2-3, 2002, p. 167-179; Ferre Lola, Veit Raphaela, “The Textual Traditions of Isaac Istraeli’s Book on Fevers in Arabic, Latin, Hebrew, and Spanish,” Aleph, vol. 7, 2007, p. 1-26.

15 Gerasimou Marianna, Η Οθωμανική μαγειρική [Ottoman Cooking], transl. Katerina Stathi, Athens, Potamos, 2004, p. 18-19; for more detailed information, see also Faroqhi Suraiya, Neumann Christoph K. (eds), The Illuminated Table, The Prosperous House: Food and Shelter in Ottoman Material Culture, Wurzburg, Ergo in Kommission, 2003, p. 35-49.

16 Faroqhi, Neumann, The Illuminated Table, op. cit., p. 40.

17 Table 4 of the Annex includes samples of recipes, pharmaceutical and culinary.

18 Touwaide Alain, “Arabic into Greek: The Rise of an International Lexicon of Medicine in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean?” in Robert Wisnovsky, Faith Wallis, Jamie Fumo, Carlos Fraenkel (eds), Vehicles of Transmission, Translation, and Transformation in Medieval Textual Culture, Turnhout, Brepols, 2011, p. 196.

19 For the subject of pharmaceutical contents of iatrosophia and their use, see also, Barlagiannis Athanasios, Seriatou Penelope, Seirinidou Vaso, “From the Greek Medical Manuscripts of the Ottoman Empire to the Pharmacopeia I of the Greek State: Pharmacy and Political Change in Southeastern Europe,” The Historical Review/La Revue historique, vol. 19, no 1, 2022, p. 187-228, (188, 189).

20 Clark Patricia Ann, A Cretan Healer’s Handbook in the Byzantine Tradition, Text Translation and Commentary, Ashgate, Routledge, 2011; Seriatou Penelope, “Η λειτουργία της εμπειρικής ιατρικής, οι θεραπευτές και τα χειρόγραφά τους” [The practice of empirical medicine, healers and their manuscripts], Ta Historika, vol. 70, 2019, p. 71-88 (72).

21 There is a constant and old relationship between cooking and hygiene as necessary parts of food preparation and consumption. Notaker Henry, A History of Cookbooks, From Kitchen to Page over Seven Centuries, Oakland, University of California Press, 2017, p. 8.

22 De Vos Paula, “European Materia Medica in Historical Texts: Longevity of a Tradition and Implications for Future Use,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology, vol. 132, 2010, p. 28-47.

23 Seriatou, Από τα γιατροσόφια, op. cit., p. 199-210.

24 Papadopoulos Christos, The Greek World and Medical Tradition Healers and Healing on the Eve of the Greek Revival (1700-1821), London, University College, 2008.

25 Benoist Jean, “La maladie entre nature et mystère”, in Raymond Massé, Jean Benoist (eds), Convocations thérapeutiques du sacré, Paris, Karthala, 2002, p. 1-20.

26 Braudel Fernand, Υλικός πολιτισμός, οικονομία και καπιταλισμός 15ος–18ος αι., Οι δομές της καθημερινής ζωής: το δυνατό και το αδύνατο [Material culture, economy and capitalism 15th-18th century, The structures of everyday life: the possible and the impossible], Translated by Aikaterini Asdrachas, Athens, Agricultural Bank of Greece, 1995.

27 Seriatou, Από τα γιατροσόφια, op. cit., p. 195.

28 The manuscript records a series of dates from 1789 to 1795.

29 The rules of the above community as written in 1903 show its strength. Apostolidis Myrtilos, “Η Ιερά της Φιλιππουπόλεως Μητρόπολις και οι κώδικες αυτής” [The Holy Metropolis of Philippopolis and its codes. (Continuation of Volume V)], Archive of Thracian Folklore and Linguistic Treasure, vol. 6, 1959, p. 25-112.

30  The author of the text of MS 725 added at the end of his document “1779 July 2, Aneza was dead,” a note obviously unrelated to dietary instructions.

31 Papadogiannakis Nikolaos, Κρητικό Ιατροσόφιον του 19ου αι. [Cretan Iatrosophion of the 19th c.], Rethymnon, Rethymno historical and folklore society, 2001.

32 These provinces were ruled by Phanariots, old elite families of the Ottoman bureaucracy that occupied the positions of Dragoumanos (“interpreter”), Navy Interpreter, and Ruler of Vlachia or Moldavia. The Greeks were a significant part of the hegemons and were privileged to operate in the principalities. Members of the Ghika family, which was one of the strongest and richest at the time and whose activities spread into the wider area of what is now Romania, occupied posts as Rulers and Grand Dragoumanoi (Grand Interpreter of the High Gate). Papastamatiou Dimitris, Kotzageorgis Fokion, Ιστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού κατά τη διάρκεια της Οθωμανικής πολιτικής κυριαρχίας [History of modern Hellenism during the Ottoman political domination], Greek Academic Electronic Textbooks and Aids, www.Kallipos.gr, ESPA, 2016, p. 142-148.

33 Gostin Alina-Ioanna, Bogueva Diana, “History of Eating habits in the Balkans,” in Alina-Ioana Gostin, Diana Bogueva, Vladimir Kakurinov (eds), Nutritional and Health Aspects of food in the Balkans, London, Elsevier, 2021, p. 9-20, online: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-820782-6.00012-8.

34 Recipe 2 in Table 4 of the Annex.

35 MS r352, Plovdiv National Library, p. 143, 144.

36 Travelers’ accounts refer to food details and information about cooking in Greek regions of the nineteenth century. Matthaiou Anna, “Voyages, Space, Words: Identity and Representations of Food in 19th-Century Macedonia”, in Angela Jianu, Violeta Barbu (eds), Earthly Delights, Economies and Cultures of Food in Ottoman and Danubian Europe, c. 1500-1900, Leiden, Brill, 2018, p. 459-477.

37 Besides MS r352 and MS 725, which are discussed here, there is also MS 5, which contains nutrition recipes; for diet and cooking recipes in medical manuscripts, see Seriatou, Από τα γιατροσόφια, op. cit., p. 122-131.

38 Table 4, Annex.

39 Okka and dirhem are Ottoman measurement units. One okka is equivalent to 1.2829 kilograms. One okka can be divided into 400 dirhem. One dirhem is 3.2073 grams. https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9F%CE%BA%CE%AC (accessed in June 2022).

40 MS r352, Plovdiv National Library, p. 143, 144.

41 Greek regions according to Geographia Neoteriki of 18th c., Kolovos Elias, Στους καιρούς των σουλτάνων. Οι κοινωνίες της ελληνικής χερσονήσου υπό οθωμανική κυριαρχία, 14ος-19ος αι. [In the time of the Sultans. The Greek peninsula societies under Ottoman rule, 14th-19th century], Athens, Asini, Editor, 2023, p. 260.

42 Asdrachas Spyros, “Η αγροτική οικονομία. 1. Η σύνθεση των καλλιεργειών” [The rural economy. 1. The composition of crops], in Greek Economic History, 15th-19th c., vol. 1. Asdrachas Spyros in collaboration with Karapidakis Nikos, Katsiardi-Hering Olga, Liata Eftichia, Matthaiou Anna, Sivignon Michel, Stoianovich Traian, Athens, PIOP, 2003, p. 289-356 (307).

43 Tulay Artan, “Aspects of the Ottoman Elite’s Food Consumption,” in Donald Quataert (ed.), Consumption Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire, 1550-1922, Albany (NY), State University of New York Press, 2000, p. 127, 143-153.

44 A region could belong to a country or include territories of more than one country. Bradata Cristina, “Cuisine and Cultural Identity in the Balkans,” Anthropology of East Europe Review, vol. 21, no 1, 2003, p. 43-47 (44).

45 Matthaiou, “Voyages, Space, Words…”, op. cit., p. 467.

46 Kolovos, Στους καιρούς των σουλτάνων, op. cit., p. 253

47 Liata Εftyhia, Τιμές και Αγαθά στην Αθήνα (1839-1846) [Prices and Goods in Athens (1839-1846)], Athens, MIET, 1984, p. 52.

48 Modern Geography included a description of Europe and was a representative work of the Greek Enlightenment with critical, anticlerical ideas. Kontogeorgis Dimitrios, “Daniil Filippidis”, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος [Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic world, Black Sea], online: http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11889 (accessed in June 2022).

49 Kolovos, Στους καιρούς των σουλτάνων, op. cit., p. 260.

50 Matthaiou Anna, “Οι ντελικάτες τροφές και το λιτοδίαιτο” [Delicate foods and the frugal diet], Ta Istorika, vol. 40, no 200, p. 37-52 (43).

51 Quataert Donald (ed.), Consumption Studies and the History of the Ottoman Empire, 1550-1922, Albany (NY), State University of New York Press, 2000, p. 4; Ochoa Enrique, “Political Histories of Food,” The Oxford Handbook of Food History, Oxford Handbooks online, Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 1-23 (4); Mintz W. Sidney, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, New York, Penguin Books, 1986, p. xv-xxix.

52 Faroqhi, Neumann (eds), The Illuminated Table, op. cit., p. 161.

53 Sakaoglu Necder, “Sources for our Ancient Culinary Culture,” in Faroqhi, Neumann (eds), The Illuminated Table, op. cit., p. 162, 163.

54 For similar recipes see Gerasimou, Η Οθωμανική μαγειρική [Ottoman cooking], op. cit.; Yerasimos Stefanos, Sultan Sofralari/15/ve 16 yzylda Osmanli Saray Mutfagi [The Sultan’s table: 15th and 16th century Ottoman palace cuisine], YKY, 2000.

55 MS r352, Plovdiv National Library, p. 569, 570.

56 The huge quantity of 20 eggs for one pan of the cake called “dessert like paklava” is common for old recipes. Until the twentieth century, the use of many eggs was necessary for cakes to rise.

57 Faroqhi Suraiya, “Research on the History of Ottoman Consumption: A Preliminary Exploration of Sources and Models”, in Faroqhi, Neumann (eds), The Illuminated Table, op. cit., p. 38.

58 Tulay, “Aspects of the Ottoman Elite’s Food Consumption”, op. cit., p. 110.

59 Ibid., p. 108, 111.

60 Matthaiou Anna, “Interdictions religieuses et indéterminations nationales : les habitudes alimentaires des populations grecques sous la domination ottomane”, in Giovanna Motta (ed.), I Turchi Il Mediterraneo e l’Europa [The Turks, the Mediterranean and Europe], Milano, FrancoAngeli, 1998, p. 340-348.

61 Liata, Τιμές και Αγαθά …, [Prices and Goods …], op. cit, p. 52, 53.

62 Matthaiou Anna, “Διαιτητικές απαγορεύσεις στην τουρκοκρατία” [Dietary restrictions in Ottoman period], Ta Istorika, vol. 21, 1994, p. 259-288.

63 The imperial order reads thus: “For a long time all people have been accustomed to comfort and luxury, and because of this they have gone so far as to exaggerate in every matter of lifestyle. There is no doubt that they have chosen to list food in abundance to the point of being wasteful. It is known that waste is hated always by God, and there is a need to moderate this situation by establishing a limit for all Muslims to obey. Therefore, to abandon waste and louche henceforth in the palaces of all ulemas, officials, and servants, and in all their houses, Muslims should cook and eat only from five kinds of food up to seven. It is considered appropriate with the consent of [everyone] that the limit should not be violated and henceforth everyone in his house should cook from five to seven dishes, and anyone who violates the prohibition should become a recipient of criticism and censure. Take heed and warn all those who need to be warned.” Şânî-zâde Μehmed ‘Âtâ’ullah effendi (2008). Şânîzâde tarihi (1223-1237/1808-1821). ΙΙ [History of Şânîzâde (1223-1237/1808-1821)], Transcription by Yılmazer Ziya, İstanbul, Çamlıca, p. 1260-1261 (Greek translation by Nikos Vaitsis).

64 Matthaiou, “Διαιτητικές απαγορεύσεις …” [Dietary restrictions …], op. cit., p. 272, 273.

65 Eating too much was considered a sin. Notaker, A History of Cookbooks, op. cit., p. 11, 14.

66 Recipe in Table 4, Annex. MS 725, Gennadius Library, p. 16.

67 A part of the manuscript includes several love poems.

68 The Ghika family was an old, large, and wealthy family, with its members serving as great officers in the Ottoman senior bureaucracy. Their ancestor Gregory III Ghika (1724-1777) was a Phanariot, of Northern Epirus descent, Prince of Wallachia and Moldavia. Available online: http://www.ghika.net/Branches/Gheorghe.pdf (accessed in June 2022).

69 Kolovos, Στους καιρούς των σουλτάνων, op. cit., p. 258.

70 Vlachos Nikolaos, “Doctors of Thessaly (17th-19th c.),” Archeion Thessalikon Meleton, vol. 3-4, 1974-76, p. 7-73 (15, 16).

71 Tulay, “Aspects of the Ottoman Elite’s Food Consumption”, op. cit., p. 111.

72 Seriatou, “Η λειτουργία της εμπειρικής ιατρικής…”, op. cit., p. 71-88; Seriatou, Μαντζούνια και αλοιφές. Συνταγές ίασης της λαϊκής ιατρικής σε ένα γιατροσόφι του 18ου αι. [Mazun and ointments. Healing recipes of folk medicine in an 18th-century doctor’s manuscript], Master’s thesis, University of Athens, Department of History and Archaeology, 2013.

73 Lazaridis Kostas, “Από τη ζωή και το έργο ενός Ζαγορίσιου κομπογιαννίτη” [Life and work of a Zagorian empirical doctor (kompogiannitis)], Epeirotiki Estia, vol. 31, 1982, p. 179-188; Gentilcore David, “Was there a ‘Popular Medicine’ in Early Modern Europe?,” Folklore, vol. 115, 2004, p. 151-166.

74 Chroni-Vakalopoulou Maria, “Υγιεινή διατροφή και Ιατρική στο Βυζάντιο” [Healthy diet and medicine in Byzantium], Deltos, vol. 42, 2012, p. 61-70.

75 MS 5, ELIA MIET, p. 68-70.

76 Hionidou Violetta, “Popular Medicine and Empirics in Greece, 1900-1950: An Oral History Approach,” Medical History, vol. 60, no 4, 2016, p. 492-513.

77 Seriatou, “Η λειτουργία της εμπειρικής ιατρικής…”, op. cit., p. 75-77.

78 Clark, A Cretan Healer’s Handbook, op. cit.

79 Quinlan Marsha B., “Ethnomedicine,” in Merrill Singer, Pamela I. Erickson (eds), Α Companion to Medical Anthropology, Chichester, Wiley Blackwell, 2011.

80 Although it appears that there was a higher rate of literacy than is usually taken for granted, at least in terms of basic reading and writing skills. See: Lappas Costas, “Η εκπαίδευση. Οργάνωση και λειτουργία των σχολείων, 1770-1821” [Education. Organization and operation of schools, 1770-1821], in Vassilis Panayotopoulos (ed.), History of Neo Hellenism, Athens, Ta Nea, Editions Ellinika Grammata, vol. 2, 2003, p. 75-100 (85).

81 Henry, “Doctors and Healers…”, op. cit., p. 208.

82 Notaker, A History of Cookbooks, op. cit., p. 33.

83 Papathanasiou Maria, Διαδρομές και ταυτότητες περιπλανώμενων τεχνιτών, Δύο ζαχαροπλάστες στην Ευρώπη του 19ου αιώνα [Routes and identities of wandering artisans, two confectioners in 19th-century Europe], Athens, Smili, 2012, p. 261-262.

84 Fine Leon G., “Meat Cookery for the 18th Century Female Household Cook: An Unrecognized Influence of Menon’s La Cuisiniere Bourgeoise (1746),” International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, vol. 25, 2021, p. 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2021.100367.

85 Karanasios Charitonas, “Μαρτυρίες αναφορικά με τη χρονολόγηση γεγονότων του βίου του ιατροφιλοσόφου Γεωργίου Σακελλαρίου” [Testimonies regarding the dating of events in the life of the physician-philosopher George Sakellariou], The Gleaner, vol. 22, 1999, p. 117-135.

86 MS r352, Plovdiv Public Library, p. 630.

87 Tulay, “Aspects of the Ottoman Elite’s Food Consumption”, op. cit., p. 110.

88 Ibid., p. 116.

89 Matthaiou, “Οι ντελικάτες τροφές...”, op. cit., p. 52.

90 Anemodoura Maria, Πολιτικές και οικονομικές δομές στην επικράτεια του Αλή πασά Τεπεντελενλή: από τον “ανατολικό δεσποτισμό” έως τη νεωτερικότητα [Political and economic structures in the territory of Ali Pasha Tependelenli: from “Eastern despotism” to modernity], PhD Thesis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 2020.

91 Matthaiou Αnna, “Ο Βριλιά Σαβαρίν και το ψάρι του αρχιναυάρχου Κανάρη: τα ελληνικά βιβλία μαγειρικής του 19ου αι.” [Brillat-Savarin and the fish of the chief admiral Kanaris: the Greek cookery books of the 19th century], Ta Historika, vol. 15, no 28-29, 1998, p. 109-122 (117).

92 Matthaiou Anna, The Cookery, Athens, Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive, 1992, p. 5, 6, 21.

93 Matthaiou Anna, “Προλογικό Σημείωμα: Ιστορία της Διατροφής. Η δυναμική των Προσεγγίσεων” [Preface: History of nutrition, dynamics of approaches], in Anna Matthaiou (ed.), Ιστορία της Διατροφής, Προσεγγίσεις της σύγχρονης Ιστοριογραφίας [History of nutrition, approaches to modern historiography], Athens, EMNE MNIMON, 1998, p. 116.

94 18th c., Plovdiv Public Library, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

95 Retzeli is a traditional sweet of Thessaly, Greece made from pumpkin and grape must. The compiler of the manuscript probably comes from the area of Thessaly.

96 MS 725, Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies, Athens (1769-1795).

97 MS 5, ELIA MIET, p. 68-70.

98 Porika [πορικά] probably means edible species (fruits).

99 Mazun is a medicinal product in the form of a pulp or ointment, derived from the Turkish word macun, meaning “sticky substance.” Mazun contains honey as a sweetener and adhesive, as well as the medicinal substance that is necessary for the treatment in question. Seriatou, Μαντζούνια και αλοιφές... [Mazun and ointments.], op. cit., p. 129.

100 MS 5, ELIA MIET.

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Penelope Seriatou, « “Recipe for Delicious Olives”: Cooking Recipes from Greek Medical Manuscripts of the Eighteenth Century »Balkanologie [En ligne], Vol. 19 n° 2 | 2024, mis en ligne le 01 décembre 2024, consulté le 17 mai 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/balkanologie/6206 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/13wam

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National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
seripo[at]windowslive.com

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