Balkan cuisine

Balkan Cuisine is a commonly used generic term for various national cuisines, which geographically the Balkans. These include the Bulgarian cuisine, Romanian cuisine, the regional cuisines of the former Yugoslavia, the Albanian, Greek and Turkish cuisine. The cuisine of the Balkans was coined from the 14th to the 19th centuries by the culture of the Ottoman Empire and the appropriate kitchen, so that a relatively homogeneous regional cuisine arose. The farther east you get in this region, the stronger also the influence of oriental cuisine can be seen.

The Balkan countries are climatically no unity but divided into a Mediterranean region, a continental level and a mountain region. On the Mediterranean cuisine contains many elements of the so- called Mediterranean cuisine. In the hinterland of the Mediterranean region agriculture and livestock play an important role. Widely used are sheep, goats and poultry, while cattle and pigs are kept not so common. The most common crops are wheat and corn, sometimes rice; important is the cultivation of sesame and poppy seeds. The continental plain north of the Balkan Mountains is heavily agricultural. Here are several types of grain are grown including buckwheat. In the Dinaric Alps, sheep farming is widespread.

Among the typical dishes of this cuisine, which are known in all relevant countries and include moussaka, kofte, borek, baklava, dolma and sour soups. The meat is often grilled or roasted on a spit, but breads and cereals form the basis of the diet. Traditionally based the cuisine of the countries of the Balkans and Eastern Europe much more on cereals than the kitchens in Central and Western Europe, which have a higher meat content. Widespread vegetables are legumes, cabbage, root vegetables, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and eggplant. In the dairy products yogurt and feta dominate.

Especially in rural areas is often cooked with lard and exuberant fat of geese and chickens. In the Mediterranean area also herbs are used generously. Typical of the Balkan cuisine are onions, garlic, capers, parsley and paprika. There are several varieties of sweet peppers, but also hot chiles. The pods are used filled and next mixed mainly as a spice powder as salads, vegetables, pickled in oil or vinegar antipasto or with rice and meat.

For a variety of pastries fruits and dry fruits are used. Almonds, walnuts, figs and raisins are popular ingredients. The pastries are often soaked in rose, orange flower water or honey.

Swell

• Alan Davidson: The Oxford Companion to Food, 2nd. ed Oxford 2006, article Balkan food and cookery, pp. 53 f
• Article Balkan Countries in the Encyclopedia of Food and Drink

• Balkan cuisine