Osmanlı Mutfak Kültüründe Şerbetlerin Yeri ve Tüketimi (The Place and Consumption of Sherbet in Ottoman Cuisine Culture)

Abstract

Turks have enriched the culture they have had by interacting with many communities in the wide geography in which they spread and also reflected this richness to the culinary culture. Turkish cuisine, which had lived its most splendid era during the Ottoman period, took its place among the world's leading cuisines in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Ottoman culinary culture, which has a great importance for beverages with food, the lack of alcohol consumption under the influence of Islam contributed to the formation of a rich sherbet and compote culture. The sherbet which is the subject of the study is an important beverage group of the Ottoman cuisine. Among the sherbets mostly mentioned in the Ottoman cuisine culture are tamarind, oxymel, licorice root, poppy, pomegranate, rose, violet, lemon, cherry, cranberry, honey and unriped grape sherbet. The sherbet, which has an important place both in the palace cuisine and in the folk cuisine, has also taken place in various traditions. In particular, serving puerperal syrup to the woman giving new birth and the guests who come to visit after the birth, drinking sherbet in the ceremonies such as affiance and engagement are among the traditions that can reach to the present day. In this study; by giving detailed information about the place, importance and consumption of sherbets known to the Turks in Ottoman cuisine culture; recommendations on the transfer of the sherbet consumption tradition which is facing extinction to the next generations are presented.