''Teste de Turke'' (translated as "Turks head") is a dish of

medieval cuisine Medieval cuisine includes foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, which lasted from the fifth to the fifteenth century. During this period, diets and cooking changed less than they did in t ...

, which had its origin according to today's knowledge in the Arab area. Through the cultural exchange after the

Norman conquest of Sicily The Norman conquest of southern Italy lasted from 999 to 1139, involving many battles and independent conquerors. In 1130, the territories in southern Italy united as the Kingdom of Sicily, which included the island of Sicily, the southern th ...

, which was formerly under Arab influence, this dish also reached England and France, where similar to

Poume d'oranges ''Poume d'oranges'', also referred to as ''pome dorreng'' and ''pommedorry'', is a characteristic gilded (coated) pork meatball dish from Medieval cuisine that was a part of the food culture during the Middle Ages. The dish was prepared to resemble ...

, it appeared in various medieval

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

manuscripts. Several forms of preparation existed for the dish. Outside of the

fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...

period, it was made from pork and chicken. The meat was finely chopped or ground and mixed with

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in ...

, eggs, bread crumbs, almonds and spices. It was then boiled in a

saumagen Saumagen (, " sow's stomach") is a German dish popular in the Palatinate. The dish is similar to a sausage in that it consists of a stuffed casing; however, the stomach itself is integral to the dish. It is not as thin as a typical sausage casin ...

(pig's stomach), after which the saumagen was removed, the meat mass was coated with an egg yolk and the dish was then baked until the egg and bread crumbs solidified. In its form, this dish may have been prepared to resemble a human head. In another variant handed down by a preserved Anglo-Norman manuscript, a dough was filled with rabbit and poultry meat mixed with dates, cheese and honey. The head-like appearance was achieved, among other things, by sprinkling the pastry mold with dark nuts and the sides with pistachios, to create the semblance of human hair. Both variants can be traced back to a Moorish-Spanish dish called Rās maimūn.

Notes

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , last=Arjana , first=S.R. , title=Muslims in the Western Imagination , publisher=Oxford University Press , year=2015 , isbn=978-0-19-932492-7 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHWbBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 , access-date=June 15, 2017 , page=79 {{cite book , last=Adamson , first=M.W. , title=Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe: A Book of Essays , publisher=Taylor & Francis , series=Garland Medieval Casebooks , year=2013 , isbn=978-1-135-30875-9 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gepSAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 , access-date=June 15, 2017 , page=27 {{cite book , last=Walker , first=H. , title=Food on the Move: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 1996 , publisher=Prospect Books , series=Oxford Symposium on food & cookery , year=1997 , isbn=978-0-907325-79-6 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uYqTiD7SbcQC&pg=PA122 , access-date=June 15, 2017 , page=122 Medieval cuisine Meat dishes