It is a popular dish served at religious ceremonies, weddings, and funerals, as it is also known as "hashl" in northern and central Anatolia in Turkey.
In Turkish, Iranian, Greek, and Balkan, Keşkek, commonly known as Kashkak, Kashkek, Keske, and Helîse, is a type of ceremonial stew made with chicken or pork and wheat or barley.
As early as the 15th century, it is documented in Iran and Greater Syria and it is still consumed by many Iranians around the world. The earliest written mention of the dish is found in a copy of Danishmendname dating back to 1360. It is eaten on Lesbos and among Pontians during festivals. In Lesvos, it is prepared during summer nights when a ceremonial bull is being slaughtered. It's also possible that the Slavic word kasha was derived from the Persian kasha: kishk.
Cooking Keşkek involves both women and men working together to cook wheat, meat, and rice in huge cauldrons, which are then served to guests. A day earlier, the wheat was washed with prayers, and then carried to a large stone mortar, when it is accompanied by music from a drum and a double-reed pipe called zurna. Using a fixed rhythm, two to four people hull the grain at the mortar.
The Keskek is typically cooked outdoors: the ingredients of hulled wheat, meat on the bone, onions, spices, water, and oil are added to the cauldron, and it cooks all night. As of noon approaches, it is time for the strongest of the village's youth to bang the Keşkek with wooden mallets.
A very old Turkish saying that the stronger and longer it is beaten, the better. A really well-beaten Keskek is similar to a "cheese-like” that has not formed a slurry but stretches slightly when it is removed with a spoon. Despite the fact that it is now beaten only with keskek mixers, the one that is beaten with mallets is always considered better. For this reason, it is still beaten by hand with mallets in villages.
In addition to the expressions during the procession of selection of wheat, the blessings, the praying, and carrying of the wheat, as well as the preparing and cooking of it, numerous expressions associated with the dish have become common usage today.
Moreover, the tradition also includes entertainment, plays, and musical performances. As of today, master chefs still transmit the traditional culinary techniques to apprentices in order to protect the cooking tradition and neighboring towns are invited to feast together on site.
References
(https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/ceremonial-kekek-tradition-00388) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ke%C5%9Fkek) (https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ke%C5%9Fkek) |Country=Turkey |SDG=(11) Sustainable Cities and Communities }}