Turkish delight: Difference between revisions
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== Around the world == |
== Around the world == |
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In [[North America]], Turkish Delight is not especially common, though it forms the basic foundation of the [[Big Turk]] ([[Nestlé]], Canada) and |
In [[North America]], Turkish Delight is not especially common, though it forms the basic foundation of the [[Big Turk]] chocolate bar ([[Nestlé]], Canada) and is also the basis for most of [[Liberty Orchards]]' line of [[confectionery]], including ''Aplets & Cotlets''. [[Fry's Turkish Delight]] is produced by [[Cadbury plc|Cadbury]] in the United Kingdom and Australia. The interior jelly of jelly beans may trace its origin back to Turkish Delight.<ref>{{cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=The History of Jelly Beans | date= | publisher=National Confectioners Association | url =http://www.candyusa.org/Candy/jellybeans.asp | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2009-09-24 | language = }}</ref> |
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Revision as of 18:37, 2 October 2008
Turkish Delight, lokum, or loukoum is a confection made from starch and sugar. It is often flavored with rosewater and lemon, the former giving it a characteristic pale pink color. It has a soft, jelly-like and sometimes sticky consistency, and is often packaged and eaten in small cubes that are dusted with icing sugar or copra to prevent sticking. Some types contain small nut pieces, usually pistachio, hazelnut or walnuts. Other common types include flavors such as cinnamon or mint. In the production process soapwort may be used as an additive, serving as an emulsifier.
Origin
Food historian Reay Tannahill suggests that the Persian confection ahbisa (a sweet jelly) was the ancestor of Turkish rahat loghoom, the long name for the sweet.[1] According to the Ali Muhiddin Hacı Bekir Confectioners company of Istanbul, founded in 1777, lokum has been produced in Turkey since the 15th century. Originally, honey and molasses were used as sweeteners, and water and flour were the binding agents. The recipe for lokum as we know it today, using the new ingredients of sugar and starch, was invented and popularized by the Hacı Bekir company during the 19th century.[2]
Lokum was introduced to the west in the 19th century. An unknown Briton became very fond of the delicacy during his travels to Istanbul, and purchased cases of lokum, to be shipped back to Britain under the name Turkish Delight. It became a major delicacy not only in Britain, but throughout continental Europe.[3]
Name
The Turkish word lokum may come from lokma in Turkish or لقوم luqūm, the Arabic plural of لقمة luqma(t) 'morsel' or 'mouthful'.[4] Alternatively, it may have derived from Ottoman rahat hulkum or Arabic راحة الحلقم raḥat al-ḥulqum 'contentment of the throat'.[5][6] In Libya, for example, it is known as حلقوم ḥalqūm. In Bosnia, its name "rahatluk" clearly relates this etymology.
In English, it was formerly called "lumps of delight".[7]
Turkish Delight should not be confused with Turkish Taffy, a packaged nougat candy sold in the United States from the 1940s through the 1980s.
Around the world
In North America, Turkish Delight is not especially common, though it forms the basic foundation of the Big Turk chocolate bar (Nestlé, Canada) and is also the basis for most of Liberty Orchards' line of confectionery, including Aplets & Cotlets. Fry's Turkish Delight is produced by Cadbury in the United Kingdom and Australia. The interior jelly of jelly beans may trace its origin back to Turkish Delight.[8]
It is known in Brazil as Cacete due to Lebanese immigration.
Armenian, Cypriot, Greek (called "λουκούμι", loukoumi), Albanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian (Albanian: "llokum", Bulgarian and Macedonian: "локум", lokum), Romanian (called "rahat"), as well as in some former Yugoslav states like Bosnia and Herzegovina (called "rahat lokum"), or Serbia ("ратлук", ratluk), Iranian and other Middle Eastern cuisines also have sweets similar to Turkish delight. In Southern Cyprus, Turkish Delight is marketed in English as Cyprus Delight.
A Japanese confection, Botan Rice Candy is also similar to Turkish Delight but instead of a powdered sugar coating, each candy is wrapped in edible rice paper to keep the candies from sticking together.
Protected geographical indication
Despite its worldwide popularity and production in several countries, at present, the only pending protected geographical indication (PGI) for such a product is for loukoumi made in Cyprus.[9]
In popular culture
Turkish Delight features as the addictive confection to which Edmund Pevensie succumbs in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. Sales of Turkish Delight rose following the theatrical release of the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.[10]
The song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", by Jimmy Kennedy and Nat Simon and perhaps most famously covered by They Might Be Giants, mentions "now it's Turkish delight, on a moonlit night".
In the Broadway musical Kismet, Hajj and Lalume sing a song of "erotic discourse" about "Rahadlakum" ("'Tis sweet with the meat of the leechee nut/Combined with a kumquat and rind/The kind of confection to drive a man out of his/Mesopotamian mind!").
In an episode of The Powerpuff Girls, the Mayor is bribed to hand over ownership of the city. He refuses all initial cash offers, but gives in to a room full of Turkish Delight.
Madonna's 2008 album Hard Candy has a track called "Candy Shop" with the lyrics "I've got Turkish delight, baby, and so much more."
There are "gourmand" perfumes that use Loukoum or Loukhoum in their names and that are said to smell like the confection, as Loukhoum by Ava Luxe, Loukhoum by Keiko Mecheri and Loukoum by Serge Lutens.
See also
- Big Turk
- Botan Rice Candy
- Fry's Turkish Delight
- Liberty Orchards Aplets & Cotlets
Related
- Chuckles
- Dots
- Good & Fruity
- Gumdrop
- Gummi bear
- Gummi Savers
- Fruit Gems
- Hot Tamales
- Jelly baby
- Jelly beans
- Jelly Belly
- Jujube
- Jujyfruits
- Mike and Ike
- Swedish Fish
- Wine gum
References
- ^ Tannahill, Reay (1995). Food in History (revised edition ed.). Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-517-88404-6.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help) - ^ Hacı Bekir Efendi
- ^ Awarded a Silver Medal at the Vienna Fair in 1873.
- ^ Diran Kélékian, Dictionnaire Turc-Français (Ottoman Turkish), 1911
- ^ Maan Medina, Arabic-English Dictionary, 1973
- ^ Claudia Roden, A Book of Middle Eastern Food (Roden is Egyptian)
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ "The History of Jelly Beans". National Confectioners Association. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Turks riled as Cyprus set to win EU trademark on Turkish Delight". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. December 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Turkish Delight Sales Jump After Narnia Chronicles
External links
- Turkish Delight, Bayco Confectionery
- Turkish Delight Recipe
