Scherbet - Turkish and Greek, 1838

Several types of Scherbet were described by Friedrich Unger, the German confectioner to King Otto of Greece, in his 1838 book. The Scherbet street vendor used snow to chill the water dripping onto the moving fan, then added the water to a glass with flavored syrup from the bottles.



This post was written six years ago as a continuation of a post on the marvelous book and illustrations of Unger.

 

Ordinary Scherbet seller - during the summer, snow was brought to Athens and Constantinople from mountains stored in caves, and put in the basket. Chilled water in the hanging container dripped onto the fan below sending it spinning and hitting a nearby glass with a "bell-like sound." The small white bottles contained flavors to add to the glass - grape or raisin syrup. Syrup poured into a glass, the chilled water added, then poured back and forth between glasses to mix. More info and excerpts from previous post HERE

Chapter 11 Scherbet

The religion of the Turk forbids the use of alcoholic drinks, so he tries to compensate in some other way by adding different ingredients to his water to stimulate his palat.

Every drink is called scherbet.  In the narrow sense it means water flavoured with some added ingredient, but it also includes medicinal potions, yes even spirits, with which the Moslem...evades the word of the Koran, as he declares it to be a healthful remedy.

For this reason the guild of the scherbet makers is divided into several groups.

Here we are not dealing with the preparation of medicinal scherbet, and mention only those makers who belong to the confectioner's craft, and the differences in treatment of the scherbets themselves.

The scherbetdschian, who exlusively deal with the preparation of scherbets, serve them in their shops, and also the sugar bakers (schkerdschian) prepare a few, especially the finer types.

Snow-cooled water mixed with the most inferior type of fruit shcerbet is sold in the streets from purpose-built tables."

Saving snow in 18th century Naples for iced drinks and food. blog post HERE
Greek and Turkish confectionary 1838, more on Friedrich Unger and King Otto, originally from Bavaria. post HERE
Ice harvesting in 19th and 20th century America. post HERE

SOURCE

Translated book: A King's Confectioner in the Orient: Friedrich Unger, court confectioner to King Otto I of Greece. Friedrich Unger ; translated from the German by Merete Cakmak and Renate Ömerogullari; edited with a commentary by Priscilla Mary Işin. London: Kegan Paul, 2003. Interlibrary loan.

THIS WEEK'S TALKS deleted

List of past taped talks - CALENDAR OF VIRTUAL FOOD HISTORY TALKS HERE

©2023 Patricia Bixler Reber
Researching Food History HOME