Keşkül ( tr, keşkül) is an almond-based milk
pudding from
Turkish cuisine
Turkish cuisine () is the cuisine of Turkey and the Turkish diaspora. It is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Mediterranean, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Eastern Eur ...
.
Usually served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon, it is often garnished with coconut shaving or pistachio nuts and is off-white in colour.
Etymology
The dish's name is derived from the
Ottoman Turkish idiomatic expression "''keşkül-i fukara''" meaning "beggar's bowl". The word ''keşkül'' and it's respective idiom is ultimately traced back to
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
''kaşkūl'' (كشكول), meaning "beggar" or "beggar's bowl". The oldest written usage of the word in a
Turkic language
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic languag ...
is traced backed to
Franciscus a Mesgnien Meninski
Franciscus à Mesgnien Meninski (first name spelled also Francisci, François and Franciszek) (1623–1698) was the author of a multi-volume Turkish-to-Latin dictionary and grammar of the Turkish language, first published in 1680, which was groun ...
's ''
Thesaurus
A thesaurus (plural ''thesauri'' or ''thesauruses'') or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea:
Synonym dictionar ...
.'' According to Meninski the word originally meant ' or ''
scyphus''. The usage of the word to indicate the dessert is first attested in
Şemseddin Sami's 1900 work '.
See also
Muhallebi
Muhallebi is a milk pudding commonly made with rice, sugar, milk and either rice flour, starch or semolina, popular as a dessert in the Middle East. While the dessert is called Muhallebi in Greece, Turkey and Iraq, the Egyptian variant is calle ...
References
Turkish puddings
Turkish words and phrases
Almond desserts
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