What is the oldest cake in the world? Also preferred by Albanians

It was a cold January day and rainy in Istanbul and I was looking for inspiration in Goreme , a pastry shop in the Kurtuluş district of Istanbul, Turkey. Known for their baked puddings and excellent milk-based cakes, they also offer what is thought to be the oldest cake known to mankind, ashurja.

According to Islamic tradition, ashura, often called “Noah’s Pudding”, was prepared as a festive dish by the Prophet’s family after surviving the great flood and was left on Mount Ararat, on the edge of what is today the northeastern border of Turkey. Legend has it that this dessert, which includes various grains, fruits, nuts, and legumes, was invented by combining any ingredients that were still left in Noah’s Ark.

The dish is a little sweet, rich and delicious. When prepared hot, the ashura takes the form of porridge; when served cold, it conceives and acquires a cream-like texture.

Ingredients that can be used when preparing ashura

In addition to being remembered as the oldest cake in the world, ashura retains a significant spiritual importance today throughout Anatolia, the lands that make up most of modern Turkey.

“Ashura means ’10’ in Arabic and refers to the 10th day of the month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. “The cake is baked at home during the week and distributed to friends, symbolizing the spread of love and abundance,” wrote Vogue and GQ Turkey’s food editor Cemre Torun in an article for Fool Magazine, noting that ashura is ” probably the most symbolic dish in this part of the world.

“This date is of particular importance to Shiite Muslims and has a special significance to Alevis and Bektashis because it represents the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s nephew, Hussein, an event that sparked Shiite-Sunni division in Islam.”continued Torun.

The Torun part explored the culinary culture and customs of her late grandfather, a spiritual leader of the Bektashi faith, a Sufi-inspired sect influenced by Shiite traditions.

Although the Bektashis have their roots in Anatolia, their headquarters moved to Albania after Sufi orders were banned in 1925 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish republic.

Their belief system is close to that of Alevis, a heterodox, non-Sunni religion itself. Although Alevis make up 20-25% of the Turkish population, their faith is not legally recognized by the government.

“The presence of ingredients like wheat shows the importance that is given to balance and taste, the emphasis on abundance and prosperity, how nutritious is the cuisine in this region and the importance of the cellar in our kitchens. They are always packed with all kinds of beans, lentils, cereals and seeds“, She said.

In Turkey and beyond, there are countless varieties and recipes for ashura, due to the list of ingredients that can be used. It usually is full of nutrients and is an ideal dessert for the winter because it is healthy and delicious.

Suna Cagaptay, professor of History of Architecture and Archeology at Istanbul Bahçesehir University, describes in her article for New Lines magazine how the cake was also introduced into the traditions of Greek and Armenian cuisine and how other variants exist in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, although as a child she associated it with the place where she grew up: the southeastern Turkish city of Malatya, in a neighborhood inhabited by Sunnis and Alevis.

“When I was a naive seven-year-old, I just assumed that pudding was a specific dessert for Alevis. “As a teenager, I realized that the Sunnis did the same,” Cagaptay wrote.

I asked Capaptay to recall her and her family’s experiences with the traditions surrounding Ashura, and she explained how the dessert, which her mother served hot using a minimalist recipe with eight ingredients wheat, sugar, chickpeas , white beans, water, cinnamon and nuts is synonymous with separation, good health and warm neighborly relations.

“My earliest memories of creating ashura are just two. The first takes me back to the moment when I hold a small copper bucket filled with a cinnamon / walnut mixture and accompany my mom who had a large copper bucket with hot steam and knock on our neighbors’ doors. After my mom poured it into each neighbor’s bowl, I garnished the pudding. That’s definitely a way to share it. “she told me.

“In Istanbul or other cities, you will use your bowls to separate and decorate it before you take it.”she added.

As a dessert with an ancient history and cultural significance that transcends most sweets, it was a scary topic to treat.

That’s why I ended up in Goreme, a place in Kurtuluş, historically a Greek neighborhood that retains a cosmopolitan feel and still has a significant Armenian, Greek and Jewish population.

Consistent with that cultural influence, owner Ilhan Yalcin said the store’s recipe, created by his grandfather, was based on a cold Armenian soup that could be described as a Ashura variant.

His version was simple, but still boasted an abundance of ingredients: dried figs, dried apricots, raisins, chickpeas, white beans, berries, oats, salt, rice starch, a sprinkling of crushed hazelnuts and a small amount of turmeric, which gave a pleasant yellow tinge. The sweetness was natural and not excessive, with the apricot giving a surprising taste.

Confectionery shops are probably the best place for visitors, as I understood it. I stopped at the famous Ottoman restaurant Hunkar only to discover that he was available the day before, but not during my visit. I called eat in Abdullah , another Istanbul restaurant inspired by Ottoman cuisine, and they told me they were not currently offering ashura, although it is listed in the menu of their website. Torun said the reason for this is that some restaurants only serve ashura during the month of Muharram and there may not be much demand in other periods.

No matter what ingredients are used, this is a dish full of nostalgia for many of those who prepare it. After Cagaptay’s mother died in 2000, she cooked ashura every year during the month of Muharram for two decades. She adds nuts and fruits and serves cold.

“I think that when eaten cold, it tastes much better because the wheat thickens and all the ingredients are mixed very well. As I started cooking for the first time, I found myself adding fresh chopped pears and apples, dried figs and apricots, tossing a cinnamon stick, cloves or peeled almonds and adding a handful of rice to make the juice more white“, Explained Cagaptay.

After years of researching recipes and cooking the dish, Cagaptay has drawn a number of conclusions.

“I liked how ashura or its light variants symbolize sweetness, remembrance, new beginnings and so on. “I think very few recipes have the power of ashura: widely known, containing biblical and Muslim references and instructing us to think along similar lines.”

Adapted from BBC.

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