Table Manners in the Ottoman Empire - Acem Pilav 

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

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".

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!

In my Soviet childhood in the Central Asia my favorite feast was a Muslim Ramadan when the ouigoure children brought out from home candies, pastries to share. My God it was the tastiest treat I ve ever tried.

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 ☺️

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!

The fact that you mute your chewing is why this is one of my favorite cooking channels (aside from the fact history is awesome). The sound of chewing makes my soul cry.

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.

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)

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!

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.

Thank you Max. I had made it this far in my life without consciously thinking about how many mouths a restaurant fork had been in.

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

It’s so, so reassuring to hear someone with considerable reach talk about their misophonia. So many people don’t know about it, and it’s always so hard for me to tell people about it, so I often just suffer through meals with groups without any music and just chewing noises and silence. Thank you for making people a little more familiar with this.

I used to frequent a restaurant that was the domain of a chef from Lebanon. You would pay a set price and your table was yours for the night. There would be course after course, always a surprise. I don't recall pilaf, but the end of the meal was always Turkish coffee. After the dishes were cleared there would be music and dancing, trading of jokes, and inevitability more food and more coffee. I'm so grateful to have had this unique experience, especially since it happened in Wisconsin.

In Russia, Ukraine and many Asian republics, this dish is called plov. Cumin, raisins, barberry and saffron are also added there. All this is done on fat tail fat.

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!

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.

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.

It's amazing how popular various pilav recipes are over such a large area, from Eastern Europe through the Middle East and into Central Asia.

Took my wonderful wife to a Turkish restraint a few years ago, never thought I could recreate the amazing flavors. Thank you Max, you bring the world to our tables.

There is a reason Uyghur etiquette kept being followed through Ottoman. "Uygur" or "Uygar" means civilized in Turkish, previous Turkish cultures were mostly nomadic while Uygur culture formed actual cities and settled. Same culture continued with Seljuks and Ottomans when they migrated to Anatolia and settled there. Turkish culture adopted the western method of everyone having their own plates now, but we still prefer having a lot of smaller side dishes and putting it into our plate rather than having 5 course meals. Closest example would be a thanksgiving meal where everyone eats small portions of their favorite dishes from a big selection from the table. Pilav is no longer the last dish of a Turkish meal tough it is still quite popular. And even when you eat meals with your hand you usually use bread to pick food up rather than trying to pick rice up with your hands. Drinking coffe after the meal is common and quite practical. Caffeine instantly moves the digestive tract by relieving stomach and instestine muscles. It is quite effective to drink coffee 40-50 minutes after a meal.

This was one of your most hilarious videos! Regarding the 'mess' thing: A) you seem to have no idea what a mess of this move actually could be. You actually did it so elegantly! B) i think a possible reason that they could it do it more neatly could actually be what you had said earlier, that their lids didn't really fit their pots. So they might have had a much larger lid for their pot which could have made the flipping part easier.

Hey! Thank you for doing this! I am Turkish and did not know about a lot of this. I was always taught strictly to never pick and choose from a serving dish - just take whatever is closest to you. I think about this every time I’m at a dinner… I know that in Chinese culture you are also not supposed to cut your food at the table, it was considered disrespectful to the food itself. Also, I had read (not sure where!) that back when Turks were still in Central Asia, it was customary for guests to bring their own spoons, which were often very ornate and carried in their own silk bag. Not sure if you came across that. Anyway, thank you, this was wonderful.

The dough might or might not be an improved lid but there is also "perde pilavi" - curtain pilaf - where the entire meal is encased in a crispy "curtain" of dough like some kind of a pie. That is in fact a fancier and rarer presentation of pilaf. I wonder if the original recipe might have been going for something like that.

Riso pilaf and arroz pilaf were quite popular in Italy and Spain as well. I remember my mamma (I am Italian) making it for guests at dinner quite often. But then, in the past twenty or thirty years it must have gone out of fashion since I never had it again. I had not thought about this recipe for a very long time until I saw this video. Thank you Max for bringing back childhood memories

8:40 - Believe Ye me .... I literally thought of George Costanza too when I heard of the infamous Double Dipper ..... Imagine having a knave like George in old Ottoman Turkish time too ..... truly a timeless character ......

Living in the Arab world and married to one, this dish has been one of my favorites. It’s called in Arabic ma’loubeh instead of pilaf because it’s pointing to the fact that the dish will be flipped upsidedown. I’ve never had a failure in flipping but one main reason may be that you need to beat on the bottom of the pot to loosen the food. I do it with my hands and/or a wooden spoon. I’ve also made many kinds of it besides the usual eggplant or cauliflower ones typical here (Jordan/Palestine). Now I’m into making vegan ones with mushrooms and allspice. I have never had one like you described in this video. I’m all for making it your way, ahem, the Ottoman way. Great video.

I'm with you on the chewing thing! I don't know if you've ever looked into it, but there's something something called misophonia, which is an auditory processing issue where certain sounds trigger the fight or flight response instead of reacting normally in your brain. I also have to listen to TV or music while eating, especially with family! I actually noticed that you don't usually have exaggerated or loud chewing noises in your videos and it's part of why I like your channel so much :) Plus you're always well-researched and as a foodie and an archaeologist, it always hits the spot. Great video!

Oh, and here I thought you were just being polite in your videos by chewing silently but THANK YOU FOR BEING THAT PERSON AND MUTING THE CHEWING - THE SOUND HURTS SO MUCH THANK YOU THANK YOU

Aha! Time for a bit of kitchen pedantry. Re.sealing your pot with dough. It is still done in some French dishes, even though our pots close well. I happen to have the same orange Le Creusot pot you can see in Max’s background. Yet some recipes call for a « cocotte lutée », the « lutée » bit meaning sealed with a dough of flour and water. It does concentrate the aromas. And for a pilaf, it will make your layers stick together. I use that pot, and that technique, for pilaf. Loved the video and the recipe. Brilliant research and so entertaining. Thanks Max!

OMG, while you were describing the table manners book, I was thinking to myself, "It's like an ancient Goofus and Gallant thing," and then you said it! I'm always surprised to hear someone much younger than me who knows about stuff from my childhood! This dish looks delicious, too. And regards the absence of knives, I once heard the use of chopsticks being explained to me by saying that it was extremely rude to expect your guest to have to do the butchery of their food at the table. And THANK YOU VERY MUCH for muting the chew noises! I used to feel so guilty when my elderly mom lived with me because I liked to eat with her but had to wear earplugs when we had dinner. I simply cannot tolerate chew noises, and it's very thoughtful of you to mute them in your videos.

As a Turk myself, we loove eating and creating and trying new dishes from different parts of the country. I really appreciate you mentioned ancient Turkish resources such as Kutadgu Bilig which is taught to students from middle school. And as a little tip for the turning the pilav - which is pronounced like pea-love instead of f - you cook it just enough to leave some water encapsulated in rice which adds cohesion to the meal and makes turning easier well done and thank you

Ode to Max and Tasting History Max Miller, what a history buff Also cooking up lots of tasty stuff, And on top of that, we get lessons in history Now many foods are no longer a mystery! Where did Lobscouse or Pilaf come from you ask? Max will explain, he’s up to the task. He makes us smarter, that Max Miller His content is not boring or empty filler He entertains with knowledge and wit And his culinary skills are quite legit The little Pokémon stuffies give us cuteness attack And do not forget the clack clack of the hard tack So thank you Max, you are the best To this all your subscribers can attest

Years ago I used to know a girl who was half Persian and she used to cook this. She called it Tadik, if I remember correctly. She always had rice at the bottom of the pan and round the sides. It was cooked slowly until the rice had absorbed all the liquid (got to get the amount of liquid right) then cooked on further so that the rice at the bottom and sides started to brown, but not burn, a bit like the delicious crust that you get at the bottom of a Paella, which the Spanish call the socarrat. It must be done in the oven so the rice browns all round. When it's ready it will turn out onto a dish, a dome or cylinder of toasted rice which reveals all when you cut into it.

there are actuaally a couple of tricks to getting the flip right, 1, tadig method, layer rice, meat, onions, nut, rice, toast the bottom and flip. 2, do as you have it, onions and meat, nuts, rice, but make sure everything is packed tight, also, make sure there's enough fat to fry whats in the pot so that it will release when flipping, 3 dont wait too long before flipping. also you gotta show the plate who's boss, confidence is key when unmolding

RU-vid recommended this channel and when I saw its content, I decided to watch it immediately. The Ottoman Empire has many legacies that have survived to this day, combined with modern Turkish cuisine, and it is truly proud to see a foreigner making one of them and also conveying its history! Thank you ❤

I learned so much from this video, thank you! An Iranian friend makes something very similar but uses a deep, cast iron (rather than stainless steel) pot. The cast iron better helps the rice create a thin shell which keeps it standing up tall when you flip it over.

Ben bir Türküm ve atalarım ve yemek kültürümüz hakkında hazırlamış olduğunuz bu güzel video için size teşekkür ederim. / I am a Turk and I would like to thank you for this beautiful video you have prepared about my ancestors and our food culture.

Fascinating! Just for cultural exchange, I feel compelled to point out that in many East Asian cultures, slurping soup and/or noodles is considered a sign of appreciation, not rudeness. The idea of food being cut up small enough to not need a knife reminds me a lot of how stir-fries are supposed to be made, though!

Great video , I am Egyptian and it was very interseting seeing that the original recipe used 'Egyptian ( short grain) rice ' ..We still cook that recipe in Egypt specially at banquets but the funny thing is that we use Basmati long grain Asian rice not the Egyptian one ...😸

As a Turk, thank you chief for providing real and objective information.🇹🇷🧿☕️🙏

the ottoment proverbs with characters with bad manners is such an interesting concept

The best pilaf I've ever eaten was in Uzbekistan. I was there for only a week and every single day I tried a different one in a different place. They were all awesome. It's something of a specialty for them. If you know a good restaurant with Uzbek cuisine, you got to do yourself a favor and try pilaf (plov) there.

Can you make an oldest dish ever recorded in history?

With a trip to Istanbul coming up, this was just what I needed! Thanks for everything as always!

When i washed dishes before covid, i was always very diligent in making sure everything was as clean as possible, especially the silverware.

There's just something wholesome about dishes made with simple ingredients, cooked well, and presented well. You might not have presented it as "properly" Turkish, but it looked excellent, and by your expression tasted quite nice, so I count that as a success. While some cultures went for incredibly exotic ingredients and mounds of spice, others used simple fare but in such a way as it appeared and tasted incredible. Maybe it's because I grew up on the poor side of things, but I've always enjoyed those simple dishes far more than the "fancy" ones. Another excellent episode Max!

I am a foodie by no means, but I love your videos so much! As a fan of Roman and Ottoman history, something about these videos really connects me with the people that I have studied for so long. Thank you for sharing all of this amazing content for free.

My mother’s family has a recipe for what we called holiday pilaf. It was served with roast leg of lamb for Easter and uses ground lamb and almonds and fideo browned in rendered lamb fat before the rice is added in. Seasonings are salt, pepper and allspice.

*"Cauphe" took long to transition into coffee...then into covfefe.* *Ottoman banquets, as described, must have been the most dazzling, filling, and magnanimous.*

It honestly blows my mind how much my (rural community in Mount Lebanon) shares and still retains from the ottoman empire in terms of culture. An example would be the part where people attending public feasts may wait for those of higher status to finish dining before sitting to the table. This still happens in some of the more populated traditional feasts especially in the less urbanized villages. Same thing goes for the tiny portions and taking away something for relatives or friends who couldn't attend. I understand how weird it may sound for a foreigner but after experiencing it myself for a solid part of my upbringing, the traditional etiquette has a very rustic snd homey feel that Eurocentric etiquette somewhat lacks

As someone who is also sensitive to chewing and slurping noises, Im super grateful to your editing job. Thank you!!!

hey, i think you nailed it by putting it in a bowl. as a turkish, the second picture is more fimiliar to my eyes than the first one. so, good job !

Once again, one of your very best! It was so interesting learning about a fascinating culture that we rarely hear about here in the West. Your story telling about the characters at the banquet, as well as the actual historical travelers and writers, was superb! I will likely never make the pilaf, but I loved your show. Thanks!

Oh boy! An ottoman episode? Neat! You always pick some really cool meals!

My grandmother still makes this, almost the same recipe. its soooooo good. You gotta make it with the meat of a free grazing sheep tho, farm grown sheep taste less(?). Don't know how else to describe it, less sheep-ey i guess. also the trick is to bang on the pot with a wooden spoon a bit before lifting it lol. comes out perfect every time.

I get so excited whenever a new video pops up from Tasting History and I’m not even a foodie. Greetings from across the ocean (Japan)

Ottomans use finger for eat with bread only. The tool was "spoon". Not fork, not knife. Knife is related to murder attempts in table. Meals already choped up at the kitche right before come to the table and people use spoon to eat that. Fingers for bread and they were use a lot because most of the Turkish meals are juicy so while they were eating the meal with a spoon, they were also dipping the bread into the juice of meal.

Cool to see this. I usually cook a Uzbek style plov, and I see the cooking method is very similar, just a little difference in the spices, the addition of pistachios and currants, and the removal of the carrots and garlic.

Acem Pilav (pronounciation ah-jem pi-louw, pi like pe from Peter and lou in "loud") literally means Persian Pilav. I may also add that the dishes from the Imperial palaces, including those from the governors and princes, had different variations to the usual recipes you'd find from the rest of the Turkish population. The ingredients and the cooking techniques were often complicated or very unusual. One example is Tavukgöğsü, it's a milk pudding made with chicken breast (the name of this desert is literally named after its key ingredient.) P.s. Long time fan of your videos. So I am even more surprised and happy to see a recipe from my own culture!

I never expected a Goofus and Gallant reference in my Tasting History 😂! Love this channel and your cook book!

It is fascinating to see these mannerisms are engrained in our daily Turkish family life still to this day😊

This is so different from today's common etiquette followed in Turkish homes, which usually start with the coffee as the first thing when a guest arrives, then the starters (usually cold like stuffed vine leaves, or yogurt salads, and the soup is the only hot starter to eat before the main dish which could be Pilaf ( common in all Middle East and Euroasia ) and any kind cooked koftes, kebabs, stuffed veg.and a lot of people would prefer tea after food rather than Turkish coffee, cause tea seen as a drink which aids digestion, still some people prefer coffee though.

2:16 That spelling of coffee stunlocked me irl

From a misophonia sufferer, thank you for muting your own chewing on these videos! It makes a huge difference and is appreciated.

The Crimean Tatars often cook it in a giant wok type pan over flames and add lots of garlic and chopped carrots. Delicious!

Another amazing video, Thank you! In Romania (like in many other balkan countries) we have a variation of this food, called Pilaf :D it was a main course for us usually made with chicken or olives/ mushrooms during feast (when people are not allowed to eat meat).

6:46 "Humans are not rare, but humanity is rare" an excellent proverb. Thank you for sharing this

Max, I cannot thank you enough for intentionally muting chewing sounds. I have the same issues and now that I know that you go above and beyond to edit the vid makes me appreciate this channel alot more

The goops they lick their fingers, The goops they lick their knives, They spill their broth on the tablecloth Oh, they live such untidy lives! The goops they talk while eating, And loud and fast they chew, And that is why I’m glad that I Am not a goop. Are you? This was one of the first etiquette poems I learned as a kid from my grandmother.

Pilaf is very common in the Indian subcontinent. It is the cousin of biryani and while in the pilaf or pulao as it is also known as, the rick cooks in the stock with the meat, in the biryani rice is semi cooked separately and then added to the meat. This pilaf is very well done and reminds me of Kabuli pilaf. I would only sear the meat a bit more till a brown crush forms and slice the onions and brown them for the caramelized flavours.

this sounds so good... why do I watch before bed, though, and make myself crave every tasty dish you prepare???

Great piece! The details you are giving are perfect. Really appreciate these Ottoman series! 👏🏻

I've loved your channel from the very beginning. I'm a retired chef and love cultural history, so you check nearly all the boxes for what I find entertaining to watch. I find your repertoire fascinating, but I must admit, I am left yearning to see more pre-Columbian recipes from the Americas, and more recipes from the period of Western expansion, though you really nailed hard tack. 😅 I'm most interested in learning more recipes that used indigenous plants, especially from North America. I'm quite familiar with acorn flour, corn of the period, and many varieties of squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and wheat. I know some vegetables and their prep that have remained in use, especially in the rural midwest, like polk greens, lamb's quarter, and sunchokes, as well a the common edible berries that foragers know, like pawpaw, blackberry, elderberry, mulberry, and huckleberry. I am vaguely familiar with a few others. I'd like to learn of more foragable ingredients used in North America before modern agriculture, foraging guides and recipes that would have been available to early pioneers, and recipes used by North American tribes which predate colonialism. I didn't mention game, as I have been a practicing vegetarian for 11 years, due to protein allergies to several kinds of flesh, especially red meat, including elk, moose, and venison. From a culinary professional perspective, I do still find watching such dishes prepared fascinating, so please don't feel any pressure to not include them. I do still prepare non-vegetarian dishes for non-vegetarian family members, so they would still have merit to me. Anyway, forgive my yammering and oversharing, please, and consider more content on these locales and dishes, in the future. Early American cultural history is an arena in which I feel undereducated, and that feels wrong, being an American- born individual. I met survivors of the Civil War, and I feel comfortable with my cultural knowledge after that point in our history, and naturally, the American Education system did a great job teaching about pivotal political and geographical history, but that's just a framework upon which society could flourish. The meat and bones of how people lived, produced their food, clothing, shelter, and entertainment, and were motivated outside institutional factors like religion and government is much more interesting to me, and yet, it almost seems easier to learn about the rest of the world in those bygone eras than our own American frontier. There's so much fiction about that era that a lot gets muddied. I want to know more of the typical day of somebody on the Oregon Trail or the Yukon gold Rush, or even the California Gold Rush. It inspired so much media for decades, but Hollywood is Hollywood, and even the writers of great works from that era were known to embellish their tales to varying degrees. That makes pinning down realistic examples of something like a real chuck wagon meal during the various western expansions difficult. It was overlapping the Victorian Era, where high-fashion was recounting tales with extravagant embellishments, so getting a real, down-to-earth picture of the survival lifestyle those people endured is challenging, even to a professional writer, like myself. I've commenced yammering again, and apologize, so let me conclude by simply saying I love your content, and you're better off having left Disney. I have lived in the shadow of that deified rat, myself, if you catch my drift. Celebrate your creative independence and keep cranking out this wonderful content.

I remember having books with fairytales from different parts of the world. I had to have a one with persian stories where pilaf played a role in the story and I wanted to try it so much. I still haven't but I might attempt to finally make it myself after all those years. Thank you Max 😊❤

Max!! This is why i can watch you eat and NO one else! Thank you so much from the bottom of my misphonic heart. ❤

Excellent video as usual Max! This style of pilaf was interesting to compare to my dad's recipe. As far as spices; cumin, coriander, and black and red pepper are what he uses. The primary cooking oil he uses is ghee, and he usually adds chickpeas. When it's in season, he uses quince apple for it's fragrance and unique flavor. The meat can vary between beef, lamb, and more rarely pork; and I recall when he used rabbit meat as an experiment. For the rice, he uses parboiled, long grain Uncle Ben's.

THANK YOU FOR MUTING THE SOUND OF CHEWING!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY FOOD CHANNELS I CAN'T WATCH BECAUSE OF IT!!

We cook a dish here in South Carolina called pileau. Its name is of French origin and the dish can be traced back to the arrival of the French Huguenot's in SC. The dish in the video just reminded me of it.

8:51 Max, have you heard of Misophonia? That sounds like Misophonia, I have it, and i think many people do without knowing.

Max, it's OK that your Ottoman chef career never took off. We're thrilled that you are so much better at your day job! Keep the great videos coming!

I enjoy your channel so much. I'm a vegetarian and I really don't drink alcohol, but I watch all the videos. Your presentation is engaging, and I love the history.

I absolutely love the quotes and how animated you are while reading them. Definitely a wonderful story teller!

As a fellow misophonia sufferer, your efforts in editing out chewing noises are much appreciated.

My nephew introduced me to the delight of adding a bit of cardamom to my coffee. It was so delightful, I have continued to do that each morning. I agree it’s a wonderful spice!

This dish still is made throughout the Middle East esp the Levant with variations ,where it’s called makloubeh ( which means upside down )or Kabsa in the gulf countries . The rice is aromatic and the meat is succulent .

It's a great video Max, thank you very much for it. Many of the ways you have explained are still living. While it's lost more in city, that type of table (sofra, yer sofrası) , that way of sitting ( bağdaş kurmak) using only spoon, having one plate for each type of dish still lives, this can often be observed at village wedding meals. Since everyone eats from each plate, you should to eat not more than a reasonable amount from each plate, because you are taking your share from it. The sofras I see can be used to serve like, more or less 5-6 people, determined by the space you take and the circumference of the table. So plates would be serving that many people. At many regions, yufka ekmek (? phyllo bread) is also often used in place of spoon. It depends of the type of the locally preferred type of the bread. It's said that people bring their own spoon, putting it in their kuşak (waistband or cummerbund) when going to wedding meals. For presenting the pilav you make, a wide, thinned copper plate would be best. Not making the pilav be too tall on the plate will be a wise choice. that way, when people take pilav, it will not fall out of the plate, to sofra...

I loved this episode so much, since I'm fascinated by the food and art of that era, in that area. The quotes and paintings you found where a highlight. I love that you dive so deep to find obscure yet interesting quotes.🤗💯🥰

Reminds me of my year in Iraq, back in 2008. I was with the marines and a contractor we worked with served a vegetarian version... one of my favorite dishes out there

Max, I have never stopped to think how relaxing are your videos... Thanks for the no chewing sounds 😂😂

Hi there! Thanks for the recipe. I saw the video yesterday morning and decided to try out the recipe. We had the Pilav for dinner last night. It was delicious! I used a cast iron cocotte to cook it. As meat I used a lamb shoulder. I trimmed it - our dog was happy to feast on the trimmings. What I did different: I added 3 Gloves of garlic (I could not resist) and I added some fresh lime juice at the and. I could not get the pilav rice, so I used standard parboiled rice. I cooked the dish in layers as recommended but towards the end I mixed it with a spoon to get the salt and pepper level right. We ate it with joghurt on the side. The joghurt has been seasoned with fresh mint, lime juice and cest, pepper&salt and a little bit of olive oil. It was a wonderful dinner taking us away towards the eastern mediterranean. cheers mate, Harro.

Hi Max, I love your channel "Tasting History"! I recently watched your episode on "Acem Pilaf" and was really impressed. I have a suggestion for you: In Turkey, particularly in the Balıkesir region, we have a special type of lamb known for its unique flavor and tenderness. It’s called "Balıkesir lamb." I highly recommend trying to make Acem Pilaf with Balıkesir lamb. The rich and distinctive taste of this lamb could add an interesting twist to the dish. I believe it would be a delightful experience for both you and your viewers. Thank you for bringing history to life through food! Best regards,

It will all stick together a lot better if you don’t rinse the rice before throwing it in. The rice starches, which are washed off during rinsing, will stick things together like in a paella.

Hey! I love your videos, both as a lover of history and a foodie. I had a potentially fun video idea for you: the famous French Toast of the Santa Fe Railroad’s super chief service! The super chief was known as one of the most famous rail services of all time, connecting the Midwest with the west coast. Famous for its Hollywood mystique and gourmet meals, typically staffed by workers from the famous Harvey Houses (a chain of trackside dining lodges). There’s a lot of avenues you could talk about, from the Santa Fe Railroad itself to the history of Dining cars.

As a turkish fan, this video was a joy to watch! Thanks for the effort, the pilaf looks delicious. And the little snippets of the history were really fun😊

Three hours of tasting different dishes. Sounds quite delightful.

Me and my extended family always make plov and we also serve it in the end before serving tea.

Pilaf can be made so many ways that it’s a shame that it has gone out of passion to make. Now, the trick to get it out of the pot and onto the plate right away, is simply to gently but firmly press the rice down. You then add a plate that’s slightly smaller than the one you used, so it fits on top perfectly. Then I use a towel and turn it out, like you did. In places like Azerbaijan, they will cover the bottom, side and top with dough, before making the layered pilaf. This keeps the moisture in very well too. As for long meals. The tradition lives very well in Denmark, the traditional Christmas “Lunch” usually take 6-8 hours, and I have been at weddings where the time between dishes and the amount of them, meant that the dinner including dessert, itself wasn’t finished until after midnight. This was followed by 2 hours of dancing, then the groom and bride will cut the cake. About an hour or two after that, another meal was served. In Denmark this party meal is called the “please go home meal”. It’s usually a soup or a light stew.