Markook bread ( ar, خبز مرقوق, khubz marqūq), also known as ''khubz ruqaq'' ( ar, رقاق), ''shrak'' ( ar, شراك), ''khubz rqeeq'' ( ar, رقيق), ''mashrooh'' ( ar, مشروح), and
saj bread ( ar, خبز صاج), is a kind of
Middle Eastern
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (European ...
unleavened
flatbread
A flatbread is a bread made with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pizza and pita bread.
Flatbreads ran ...
common in the
Levant and the
Arabian peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
. It is baked on a convex metal griddle (a
saj) or in a ''
tannour
The primitive clay oven, or earthen oven / cob oven, has been used since ancient times by diverse cultures and societies, primarily for, but not exclusive to, baking before the invention of cast-iron stoves, and gas and electric ovens. The genera ...
''.
''Markook shrak'' is a type of thin bread. The dough is unleavened and usually made with only flour, water, and salt, and after being rested and divided into round portions, flattened and spread across a round cushion until it is thin then flipped onto the saj. It is often folded and put in bags before being sold.
It is commonly compared to
pita bread, also found in Middle Eastern cuisine, although it is much larger and thinner. In some Arab countries, such as
Yemen, different names are given for the same flatbread, such as ''khamir'', ''
maluj
Maluj () or Malooga ( ar, ملوجة, link=no) is a leavened Yemeni flatbread eaten with bean
A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in man ...
'' and ''ṣaluf'', depending on the regional dialects. By Israelis, markook may also be referred to as
laffa
Laffa, also known as lafa or Iraqi pita, is a large, thin flatbread in Israeli cuisine with an Iraqi origin. Laffa is a simple bread that is traditionally dairy-free and vegan and cooked in a ''tannur'' (tandoor) or ''taboon'' oven. It is most ...
, though markook and laffa are distinct types of flatbread.
Etymology
Markook () comes from the Arabic word () meaning delicate, and also comes from the verb ().
History
Markook was also mentioned in the tenth-century cookbook of
Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq
( ar, أبو محمد المظفر بن نصر ابن سيار الوراق) was an Arab author from Baghdad. He was the compiler of a tenth-century cookbook, the ( ar, links=no, كتاب الطبيخ, ''The Book of Dishes''). This is the earlie ...
under the name ruqaq.
He describes it as large and paper-thin, unleavened bread.
German
orientalist Gustaf Dalman described the ''markook'' in
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
during the early 20th-century as being also the name applied to flatbread made in a ''
tannour
The primitive clay oven, or earthen oven / cob oven, has been used since ancient times by diverse cultures and societies, primarily for, but not exclusive to, baking before the invention of cast-iron stoves, and gas and electric ovens. The genera ...
'', although, in this case, it was sometimes made with leavening agents.
[ (reprinted from 1935 edition), Photographic illustration no. 30 reizehn Brotarten (Thirteen bread types)/ref>
]
Gallery
File:Markouk from Jerusalem Israel.png, Markouk prepared by Syrian Jews
Syrian Jews ( he, יהודי סוריה ''Yehudey Surya'', ar, الْيَهُود السُّورِيُّون ''al-Yahūd as-Sūriyyūn'', colloquially called SYs in the United States) are Jews who lived in the region of the modern state of Syri ...
in Jerusalem
File:Woman Baking Bread on Saj Oven in Artas, West Bank, Palestine.JPG, A Palestinian woman baking ''markook'' bread on Saj oven in the village of Artas near Bethlehem
File:Markouk - Bread on Saje.jpg, Markouk being prepared and cooked on a saj
See also
* Chapati
* Gözleme
* Lavash
* Khubz
Khubz, alternatively transliterated as ''khoubz'', ''khobez'', ''khubez'', or ''khubooz'', ), date=February 2022, is the usual word for "bread" in Standard Arabic and in many of the vernaculars.
Among the breads popular in Middle Eastern countri ...
* Naan
* Pita
Pita ( or ) or pitta (British English), is a family of yeast-leavened round flatbreads baked from wheat flour, common in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and neighboring areas. It includes the widely known version with an interior pocket, als ...
* Piadina
''Piadina'' or ''piada'' is a thin Italian flatbread, typically prepared in the Romagna historical region (Forlì, Cesena, Ravenna and Rimini). It is usually made with white flour, lard or olive oil, salt and water. The dough was traditional ...
* Pane carasau
''Pane carasau'' (, ; "toasted bread" in Sardinian language, from the past participle of the Sardinian verb "to toast", referring to the crust) is a traditional flatbread from Sardinia. It is called in Italian, meaning "sheet music", in referen ...
* Rumali Roti
* Yufka, another bread called "saj bread"
References
*
*
{{Flatbreads
Arab cuisine
Mediterranean cuisine
Levantine cuisine
Lebanese cuisine
Palestinian cuisine
Syrian cuisine
Jewish baked goods
Jewish breads
Jordanian cuisine
Iraqi cuisine
Israeli cuisine
Saudi Arabian cuisine
Flatbreads
