Turkish delight

Turkish Delight

Origin
Alternate name(s)	(Rahat) Lokum Loukoumi
Place of origin	Ottoman Empire
Dish details
Course served	Dessert
Serving temperature	Cold
Main ingredient(s)	Starch, sugar
Variations	Multiple

Turkish Delight (Lokum) is a confection made from starch and sugar. It is often flavored with rosewater, mastic or lemon; rosewater gives 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 dusted with icing sugar or copra to prevent clinging. 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

Lokum on a plate

A tray of Turkish Delight

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 1900 book A System of Medicine, edited by R.C. Albutt, describes an event in 1886 when some students at the University of Cambridge obtained an imported "hashish candy" called Turkish Delight, and fell ill after overdosing on it.^[1] 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 reputedly 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 words lokma and lokum come from the Arabic لقمة luqma(t) 'morsel' or 'mouthful', plural لقوم luqūm.^[4] The alternate Ottoman name rahat hulkum, from Arabicراحة الحلقوم raḥat al-ḥulqum 'contentment of the throat'.^[5][6] In Libya, for example, it is known as حلقوم ḥalqūm. In Bosnia, its name "rahatluk" and its Romanian name "rahat" clearly relates this etymology. Its name in Cypriot Greek, "λουκούμια" (loukoumia), shares a similar etymology with the modern Turkish; and in parts of Cyprus, where the dessert has protected geographical indication (PGI),^[7] it is branded as "Cyprus Delight".^[8]

In English, it was formerly called "lumps of delight".^[9]

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. Nory Candy company of California has been producing their "rahat locum" version of Turkish Delight for 30 years. 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.^[10] In Greece and its islands it is often branded "Greek Delight", possibly because of the historic hostility between Greece and Turkey.

It is known in Brazil as Delícia Turca, Bala de Goma (Síria/Árabe).

Other cuisines also have sweets similar to Turkish Delight:

• Cypriot, Greek: "λουκούμι", loukoumi (sometimes "λουκούλειο γεύμα", loukouleio gefma).
• Albanian: "llokum"
• Bulgarian and Macedonian: "локум", lokum
• Romanian: "rahat"
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: "rahatluk"
• Serbia: "ратлук", ratluk
• Arabic: "ملبن", malban
• Indian: "पेठा", petha
• Korean: "tteok"
• Japanese: "kuzumochi"

In Ireland, a Turkish immigrant founded a confectionery company called "Hadji Bey et Cie" which made Turkish Delight until the 1990s.

Protected geographical indication

Despite its worldwide popularity and production in several countries, at present, the only protected geographical indication (PGI) for such a product is for Loukoumi made in Cyprus.^[7]

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.^[11]

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.

Turkish Delight is the main subject of the song "Rahadlakum" from the Broadway musical Kismet. Turkish Delight is also mentioned in the song "Candy Shop", the first song off the album Hard Candy by American singer Madonna.

See also

• Big Turk
• Botan Rice Candy
• Fry's Turkish Delight

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Turkish Delight

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lokum

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Turkish Delight

• Buy Turkish Delight, Oguz Uzun
• Turkish Delight, Bayco Confectionery
• Turkish Delight Recipe
• Buy Turkish Delight in the UK

link Turkish Delight in London

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