Introduction of cutlery in Turkey

by tonorto

Hello, The use of cutlery, especially forks, is relatively new in Western Europe and America. In America forks became popular in the early 1800s and in the mid 16th century they became popular in France. But in most Muslim countries, hands are the preferred tool, except for in Turkey, where western cutlery is used. When and how was the western cutlery introduced in Turkey or the ottoman empire? Thank you!

Zooasaurus

I'll try to answer your question, sorry if it doesn't satisfy you. With cutlery, i'll assume that it's spoon, forks, and knives

Spoons have been used since the medieval era. There's a passing reference to spoon usage in the translation of Qabusnama dated 1432. However, the use of spoon at this time was rather limited and the use of spoons and fingers isn't mutually exclusive. Spoons were used for some foods like soups and jam and fingers for some other. In the Ottoman era the use of spoon expanded, and courtiers adopted a more common use of spoons compared to their medieval counterpart which mostly used hands or bread for liquid foods. In the classical era, spoons were the only item of cutlery used at table, varying in shape and size depending on whether they were for soup, pilaf, stewed fruit or milk pudding. Pilaf spoons had tapering oval bowls, while those for soup and stewed fruit were hemispherical. Small triangular spoons were used for muhallebi (rice pudding), oval spoons for fruit preserves, and other special spoons whose shape is unknown for eggs and bone marrow. Ordinary families used only wooden spoons, sometimes decorated with painted designs or inlaid coloured beads while wealthy families used wooden spoons carved from ebony, fruit woods like arbutus, horn, tortoiseshell or ivory, and handles were ornamented with coral, mother-of-pearl, silver, gold or precious stones.

Forks started to enter Ottoman food tradition around mid 19th century, where high-class Europeans everywhere had become thoroughly used to forks. However, this self-conscious adoption of European manners did not come easily . In 1867, forks was still unusual enough even in the royal household that Leyla Saz, a female poet remarked their use during dinner in the harem of Dolmabahçe Palace. This dinner was eaten in otherwise traditional fashion, seated on cushions around silver dining trays on low stands because palace women continued to find forks clumsy and chairs uncomfortable. As late as 1876, there are elite Ottomans who frowned upon forks. When the British cavalry officer Frederick Burnaby ate with an Armenian merchant in Arapgir, knives and forks were placed on the table, but an Ottoman official who was among the guests declined to use them on the grounds that his own fingers were cleaner. Burnaby asked, "Which do you like the best, to eat with a knife and fork, or with your fingers?" The official replied "With my fingers. It is so much cleaner. I first wash my hands, and then put them into the dish, but I do not clean my own fork, that is the duty of the servant, who, perhaps, is an idle fellow. Besides this, who knows how many dirty mouths this fork has been stuck into before I put it in mine?". From the second half of the 19th century popular folk entertainers and satirical writers poked fun at the slavish imitation of European manners, even coining the word züppe to describe such imitators. Awkward attempts to use forks were a fertile source of comedy, which meant that people who failed to adopt European manners were as much a laughing stock as those who succeeded. Nonetheless, many affluent Ottomans in cities like Istanbul possessed European cutlery from knives and forks to French-style napkins.

Knives were also rarely used for eating in the classical Ottoman society, something many foreign visitors complained about. Neither the elites nor the common men used knives at the table, because knives were mainly tools to slaughter animals or cut up food in the kitchen. Knives such as the minced meat knife, carver, fruit knife, meat cleaver, and minced meat cleaver all were used in the kitchen before serving the food to the guests. In Ottoman etiquette, using a knife at table was frowned upon and food too was prepared so that none was needed. Meat and vegetables were cut up into small pieces or, in the case of whole roast lamb or birds, were so well cooked that pieces could easily be torn away with the fingers. Though as mentioned in the 19th century European cutlery started to be used, many still avoided using knives, and as late as 1911 many Ottoman cook-shops doesn't provide table knives to their guests.

Sources:

Bountiful Empire: A History of Ottoman Cuisine by Priscilla Mary Işın

Kitchen and Dining Table Utensils Used in The Ottoman Palace in The Classical Period by Arif Bilgin

Foodways and Daily Life in Medieval Anatolia by Nicolas Trépanier

tonorto

Thank you!