Table Manners in the Ottoman Empire - Acem Pilav

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"The Disgusting One", "The Annihilator", "The Reacher", and to a lesser extent "The Shuffler" sound like eldritch gods worshiped by evil sorcerers in some dark fantasy story.

Kinda crazy how many examples of "bad manners" are still relevant. Apparently double dipping has been an issue for much longer than I suspected.

I must say I love the sound of the Ottoman approach to turning a feast into a tasting party. Everyone gets a little bit of everything but we still get nice and full. Sounds exciting and makes me wonder if the pilaf was developed as a way to fill up if you'd been a bit too polite earlier in the meal.

The intended nut in the recipe book may be pine nut instead of pistachio. In the transcript, the recipe simply says "fıstık", which is the common word, at least in modern Turkish, for all kinds of nuts, including pistachio and pine nut. In modern recipes, currant is often paired with pine nut in pilavs. Funnily enough, the words "fıstık" and "pistachio" are both derived from the Middle Persian "pistag".

Hello from Kazakhstan 🇰🇿. We in my country eat Pilav a lot, my grandfather always cooks a huge pot of pilav for our family. He always says that what makes pilav so special is the combination of different rare spices. In my country we normally say that it comes from the south, or the Uzbeks, I don’t know much history on that part, but I can definitely say that pilav today is a national dish for all of the Turkic people. Really pleased to see a video on a dish, that is really important to my culture and my family! ❤ Edited: also a small fact about the dish that I want to add, that we in Kazakhstan eat horse meat, so sometimes instead of lamb, chicken or beef we might use horse meat for this dish!

Okay, that story of the old man filling the bag is genuinely really funny, I’m glad there seemed to be good spirits about it rather than embarrassing either person involved.

As a Turk, I'm so proud of you Max the way you told the history of the food and the different events in the history of the Ottoman Empire is absolutely SO fascinating. You were also really but I mean really respectful which I truly admire of you. Please do more of the Ottoman Empire series, really loving it! Wish you a excellent day!

As a Romanian I gotta say I'm fascinated about ottoman cuisine and culture. Not to mention modern Turkish cuisine and culture. Great people the turks.

Acem is the Turkish rendering of Ajam. In the original Arabic, it's literally "deaf-mute," but used to refer to someone whose first language isn't Arabic. Initially, it was a racial pejorative. But later on, it was used by Non-Arab Muslims to refer to Persians. So, an Arabic insult for Persians became the name of a Turkish dish.

I LOVE the idea that George Costanzas have existed in every culture, and in every time period. So even hundreds or thousands of years ago, there was always That Guy that everyone dreaded seeing at a party😂

I’m first gen American, parents from Albania. This was a regular dish in our home growing up! We ate it with salad and spicy pickles on the side. For dessert we had homemade yogurt topped with honey and walnuts. I have thought of this dish for years but never learned how to make it. I’m so glad you made this episode! Thank you ☺️

Romanian here, but as a person from the former ottoman empire with gastronomic influence, to help it get off the pan, when it is turned face down to fall from the pan to the plate, you are supposed to hit the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon (to avoid dents)

Beautiful storytelling and research. Thank you. I am Turkish and I only ate this dish once when I was a child at a wedding that my parents attended. Turns out it was so memorable that I sometimes have dreams about it.

Pilaf dishes are how I survived when I was completely broke. I'd poach a piece of chicken use the poaching liquid to cook the rice with vegetables, cut up the chicken and mixed it all together when I was done. I'd have that for both lunch and dinner at least five days a week sometimes more. They're a great way to eat a complete meal with meager means... though making it with lamb I would consider very fancy. I can't wait to try this!

As a Turk, your pilav looked delicious. The pilav as it is known today in Turkey usually accompanies another dish such as beans or dried chickpeas, or it is eaten with meat (red or white, many different recipes). Yours is a less known or made variant in modern Turkey but it is among one of the best in my opinion.

I have never watched a better cooking video in my life. Not even from any of the "celebrity" chefs who lack any intellect in the first place. Thank you for this unmatched beautiful and entertaining "lecture".

I suspect a lot of Mrs Ramsey’s displeasure with the meal would have been that there was no conversation to distract her while everyone else was eating. Since she filled up on the second course, she basically had to sit and watch everyone else eating for three hours, so I’m not particularly surprised that she found it unpleasant.

Pilaf is a very common dish in my country (Romania), my mom makes it rather often and it was a surprise for me when I first learned that it comes from the Ottomans, even though it does make sense seeing how much of a influence they had over our culture. I am really curious to see how similar (or different) this is to what I am used to!

I appreciate that you do not edit the videos to just show the end presentation, but show us the initial mess of the dish falling. It's encouraging that none of us are impervious to cooking mishaps