During Abdul-Medjid’s reign I visited the imperial kitchen, an immense establishment, giving employment to 500 cooks and scullions. Among some curious details I learnt respecting this department, one referring to the functions of the head-cook may not be uninteresting. This unfortunate individual was chained to the stove by being obliged to provide an hourly meal for the Sultan, whose repasts depended upon his caprice, and who required that food should be ready for him at any moment.
Abdul-Aziz was an enormous eater, and a great gourmet; he was often known to empty a dish of six eggs cooked in butter, with Pastourmah, a kind of dried meat, in a few minutes.
It was one of his peculiarities to throw his food at the heads of his ministers when displeased with them, and this favorite dish often experienced that fate. During the latter part of his reign his meals were prepared in the harem, under the superintendence of the Validé Sultana, who enveloped every dish in crape, and tied and sealed it with her own seal before sending it into the Selamlik.
Another illustrious man, A⸺ K⸺ Pasha, surpassed his august sovereign in gluttony; while in Albania, I was assured by more than one eye-witness that he frequently consumed the whole of a stuffed lamb at a meal.
Bread forms the fundamental part of a poor man’s food; with it he eats kattuk, which comprises cheese, treacle, halva, fruit, onions, garlic, etc., etc. Fruit is extremely cheap and good, and is largely consumed by all classes. Poor families can subsist upon from a shilling to one and sixpence a day.
In the Turkish quarter, where the rich live side by side with the poor, the latter have often the opportunity of eating a good dinner; they have only to drop in at the rich man’s door, and hospitality is at once extended to them. This kind of charity, however, is greatly on the decrease, owing, no doubt, to the financial embarrassment generally felt throughout the country.
The kitchen department, both in Greek and Bulgarian families, is superintended by the mistress of the house, who orders dinner, and daily or weekly regulates the expenses.
The food of the middle classes of the Christians differs only from that of the Turks in the addition of the Lent dishes. During this period the poorer orders consume more garlic, onions, olives, and dried fish.
The Greeks appear to have been the first of the natives of this country to adopt the custom of eating with knives and forks and making their meals at a table. Except in wealthy houses in the capital, their table arrangements are very deficient and inelegant; till very recently the napkins and table-cloths were either home-woven or made of unbleached calico. The knives and forks were of steel and iron, clumsy productions from Austria and Bohemia, and the glass and crockery from the same countries were of uncouth forms, sold at high prices. The competition in the sale of these articles that France and England have of late years established in the country has not only created a marked improvement in the quality of these necessaries, but has also reduced their prices and brought them within the reach of all. Most families are possessed of a certain amount of table silver, in the shape of forks, spoons, etc.; these are, however, being replaced by electro-plate, now abundantly introduced.
The Jews and Armenians have many strange and interesting customs in the matter of eating. The Armenians are renowned for their gluttony and extreme fondness for good things. Until lately they took their meals in a manner very similar to the Turks. They would use their knives and forks to a certain extent, but their fingers much more. The lower orders still sit on the floor round a table about eight inches high. Their dishes, with the addition of a few national ones, resemble those of the Turks, and they are famous for the manufacture of very rich sweets of various kinds. The kitchen, being the most important department in an Armenian house, demands the daily supervision of both master and mistress; the former has the supreme voice in selecting the dishes, and the latter often takes an active part in their preparation. I knew a wealthy Armenian who married the daughter of his cook in order to secure the permanent services of the mother. He assured me of the perfect bliss the alliance had brought him in the possession of a pretty wife and the daily enjoyment of the dolmas made by his mother-in-law. Some time ago a well-known and wealthy Englishman fell in love with and married a worthless Armenian girl, having seen her, from a neighboring house, preparing the same dish. He had, however, reason to repent thus making his appetite his only consideration; life became no longer endurable with such an unsympathetic helpmate, and he absconded and returned to his native land, it is to be hoped a wiser man.