Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 160

is likely that both were composed for col-
leagues in the profession rather than as
collections of recipes to serve as guidelines
for the cooking of common people. For
the āār period, we have the informa-
tive Sufra-i aima , a compendim of cook-
ing and eating practices written for Nāir
al-Dīn āh's personal physician, the
Frenchman Tholozan, by the royal cook.
The menu in āār times does not
seem to have differed greatly from that in
the afawid period. Persian sources as well
as foreign observers still note the bread
and the cheese, the chilaw and pilaw, the
ā and the āb-i gut , the various legumes,
such as beans, cucumbers, aubergines
(egg plant), in addition to carrots, turnips,
radishes and cabbages, as well as condi-
ments in the form of turī , and the pro-
digious quantities of fruit. Confectionery,
too, continued to be an indispensable part
of the Persian diet. A new feature was that
food items originating in the New World,
such as tomatoes and potatoes, began to
make modest inroads into the country's
kitchens. Potatoes, which were apparently
introduced into Persia in the 18th century,
were long called ālū-yi Malkum “plums of
Malcolm”, after the British envoy Sir John
Malcolm, who is commonly but probably
erroneously throught to have brought
potatoes to Persia. Though potatoes were
cultivated in Persia, Muslim Persians in
the early 19th century did not particularly
care for them, and they mostly served the
Armenian population and European resi-
dents. This changed during the famine of
1861-2, when potatoes suddenly became
popular as a substitute for scarce cereals.
Strawberries, too, were gradually coming
into cultivation in the late 19th century.
Turkey at that point had become slightly
more common, as had small game such
as quail, partridge and pheasant, though
these still only appeared on the tables of
the rich. The Caspian provinces contin-

ued to stand out for their different diet,
including rice and the consumption of
garlic, which was thought to neutralise the
humid air. Public cookshops, known from
the afawid period, continued to exist all
over āār Persia, yet the first places
resembling real restaurants only opened
their doors at the turn of the 20th cen-
tury. Mostly patterned after Russian and
Caucasian examples, with terraces and
gardens, they first appeared in Tehran.
Rich and poor naturally continued to
eat differently both with regard to table
manners as to ingredients. Beginning with
the court, members of the élite began to
adopt western cutlery in the late āār
period, and the habit of sitting around
a table on chairs was introduced in the
early 20th century as well. The rich used
imported sugar while the poor made do
with syrup and honey. The rich consumed
different kinds of pilaw and ūri , stews,
with lamb meat, fowl or fish. The mid-
dling classes did not ordinarily eat pilaw
and ūri more than once or twice a
week, but mostly had to satisfy themselves
with āb-i gut (a stew on the basis of mut-
ton stock, which seems to have become
the staple of the poor in the course of
the 19th century). The poor ate mostly
bread (and in times of scarcity, even acorn
bread), cheese and fruit, could afford āb-i
gūt only occasionally, and in the winter
months rarely were in a position to eat
any meat. They served pilaw and ūri
only during holidays and festivals. All
ate large quantities of fruit, which was
cheap. Fish was a staple in the Caspian
provinces, and dried and salted fish was
also consumed inland. Fresh-water fish
was little esteemed. On the Persian Gulf
coast, prawn, mīgū , was eaten fresh, as it
still is today; it was transported inland in
dried form.
Even today, chicken and turkey con-
note the food of the rich, while bread