Encyclopedia of Food & Culture | Iran

IRAN. The art of sophisticated cookery in Iran can be traced to antiquity. It has, according to existing literature, preserved its basic mode of preparation for more than a thousand years, enhanced by refinement of dishes and new recipes created in the kitchens of royalty and ordinary folk. Iranian food is prepared with such delicate subtlety that every ingredient used can be tasted and every aromatic spice added can be appreciated.

Food of Ancient Persia

History. The Persian Achaemenid empire, founded by Cyrus the Great in 549 B.C.E., dominated the ancient world for almost two centuries. At the height of its power it extended from the Indus in the east to Asia Minor and Egypt in the west, uniting Medes, Persians, and Parthians, as well as many other tribes and peoples, in fealty to the dynasty. Presumably the people living in that vast expanse with its varied climates each formed their own culinary culture according to indigenous food products, naturally available, grown, or reared. Yet all cultures converged at the Achaemenid court and were elaborately manifested at the table of the king of kings.

There are no known recipes left of that period. The references to food in the Avesta and Elamite tablets from Persepolis dated 509–494 B.C.E. indicate that the Achaemenid diet consisted of dairy products from cows, sheep, goats, and mares; meat from oxen, rams, goats, and wild or reared fowls; grains for making bread; ales; wines; dried fruit; and nuts and seeds also used for pressing oil.

Each season, the nomad kings and the court moved from capital to capital. Winter was spent in Babylon or Susa, where the wine was fermented from dates and grapes; spring in Ecbatana, where meat, dairy products, and herbs were ample; and autumn in Persepolis, where fruit, wild vegetables, and seeds were in abundance.

Narratives by Greek authors of the period reveal the sumptuous preparation and the abundance of food in that fertile realm. Ctesias (405–397 B.C.E.) and Dinon indicate that 15,000 men ate daily in the court of the Achaemenid king of kings. The Greek writer Polyaenus (second century C.E.) recounts that the food brought to the court for distribution as well as for the preparation of three meals a day was formulated by Cyrus and engraved on a bronze column. It included great quantities of different grades of wheat, barley, and rye, floured or treated; grains of corn and parsley; salt; male livestock; gazelles; poultry; geese; pigeons; small wild birds; dairy; watercress; onions and garlic; pickled radishes and beetroots; cured capers; juice of sweet apples; conserve of sour pomegranates; honey; oils of almond, terebinth, sesame seed, and acanthus; raisins dark and light; nuts; sweetened seeds; vinegar; mustard, anise, cumin, celery, and safflower seeds; saffron; cardamom; and dill flower. Xenophon (430–355 B.C.E.) notes that what was served at the king's table was prepared in exquisite taste by expert cooks and bakers who were engaged in a constant search for new recipes and would invent a variety of pastries and cakes.

Herodotus (fifth century B.C.E.) relates that the Persians ate varied desserts and sweets. Birthdays were celebrated by giving great feasts. Side dishes, served at regular intervals, punctuated the introduction of the principal dishes. Large animals, including big fowl like ostrich, were stuffed and roasted whole; birds were stuffed and seasoned with capers. Meat cured in sophisticated fashion was served.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (first century B.C.E.) reflects on the variety of delicacies brought from Persia to Babylon, in particular fish from the Persian Gulf. Polyaenus remarks on the exquisite mixture of cardamom and other spices, vinegar, and pepper, and upon the use of aromatic herbs from which oil was also extracted for medicinal purposes.

It is said that soldiers normally received meat and bread, but on long journeys and campaigns were sustained by onion soup and bread. To this day eshkaneh, basically made with onions, flour, and turmeric, is cooked in different parts of Iran. Seasonal or dried herbs and fruit—dried or fresh—are added, and, combined with one or two eggs, the dish can serve a big family. It remains the food of the populace, while the stuffed beast or fowl, boghlameh, is served mainly at tribal feasts by those who can afford the luxury. Pierre Briant, quoting Polyaenus, remarks in Histoire de l'Empire Perse (p. 300) that when Alexander the Great defeated Darius III and seized Persepolis (331 B.C.E.), ordering the bronze pillars to be destroyed, he said with laughter that such a diet weakens the body and the mind and was the cause of the defeat of the Persians.

Following Alexander's demise, his successors, the Seleucid Greek rulers (323–64 B.C.E.), were overthrown by the Parthians of western Iran. The Parthians (250 B.C.E.–224 C.E.) revived the national spirit that came to full flowering under their successors, the Sassanians (224–652 C.E.). The culinary culture of the aristocracy and preparation of food in this period are revealed in a rare Pahlavi manuscript, "King Husrav and His Boy" (translated: J. Unvala, Paris), a reliable source that withstood the destruction of libraries by the Islamic army in 636 or 637. In the text Khosrow II and a companion discuss, among the pleasures of life, the variety of Epicurean cuisine. Some dishes are in certain ways similar to what is eaten in the early twenty-first century in certain parts of Iran. For example, the boy recommends that the meat of a two-month-old kid fed on mother's milk and cow's milk marinated with herbs be cooked and served with whey (kashk). In Yazd (central Iran), Kerman, and Azerbaijan, bōzghōrmēh is still a popular dish. It features chunks of goat's meat or mutton as a dominant substitute, fried with chopped onions, seasoned with turmeric and cinnamon, sprinkled with tarragon and mint or saffron, and topped by thick yogurt or kashk. As for sweets, almond, walnut, and pistachio are used in making delicate cookies, as they were many years ago. A jelly made with quince juice is now called mōjassamēh-ye beh. In jams and preserves the peel of baalang, a large citrus fruit, is still popular in Fars and Gilan provinces. Quince jam continues to be made in most parts. Cucumber and walnut jams and pickles are remembered recipes in Qazvin.

Other later sources, too, elaborate the sophisticated Sassanid cuisine. An eleventh-century scholar, Tha'alebi of Neishapur, describes in his "History" a variety of dishes including wild birds and other game, fish, lamb, and veal marinated in vinegar, mustard, stock, garlic, dill, and green and black cumin, or in yogurt, flavored with spices, and stewed, broiled, or roasted according to different recipes; barbecued chicken flavored with cane sugar, skewered and grilled; stuffed vine leaves; puddings made of rice, milk, honey, butter, eggs, and rosewater; and delicacies and sweets using countless aromatics. He mentions that peasants marinated their meat in brine and pomegranate juice.

Festivals. Festivals were frequent in ancient Persia. For the ancient Persian herdsmen and farmers, the revival of nature in the spring was a terrestrial renewal of life, so people equated the New Year with the spring equinox. Before the equinox, reverence for the seven Ēmshāspands(archangels) in the Zoroastrian religion was symbolized in seven cereals and pulses grown in clay pots to predict the quality of the next harvest. In the five leap days (the year being 360 days) preceding Nōwrūz (New Year's festival), festivities would begin. Food, including milk and honey, sweetmeats, nuts, and dried fruits, was prepared and bonfires were lit on rooftops to attract the Farvahars, or guardian angels of the ancestors, who would descend for the annual reception in which wining and dining continued for five days following Nōwrūz.

Yaldā is still celebrated, marking the birth of Mithra on the longest night of the year. Throughout the long night of Yaldā, fresh fruit specially preserved for the occasion, seven kinds of nuts, and a range of dried fruit were consumed in a joyous vigil held to drive out the darkness in anticipation of the sun's rebirth. Apart from Mēhrgān or Sadēh little is known of other such festivals.

After the Arab invasion in the seventh century, a great number of Zoroastrians migrated to India, taking with them their culinary culture. However, the art of Persian cookery and the etiquette of eating (ādāb-é sōfrēh) at a spread (sōfrēh) laden with a colorful array of food survived. These, in later years, highly influenced the Arab, the Ottoman, and the Indian culinary cultures.

In the eighth century, Iranians who helped the Abbasid caliphs gain power passed on the refined Sassanid recipes to Baghdad. This is apparent in a range of cookery books written in Arabic in subsequent centuries.

In the fifteenth century, the haute cuisine that evolved at the Ottoman court was in the style of the Teimurid court of Persia. From the sixteenth century, when a descendant of the Teimurid dynasty in Iran established the Moghul empire in Delhi, the first cookery books, written in Persian and Urdu by Iranian scholars of the imperial court, appeared. In parallel, cookery books were written in Iran by master chefs in the Safavid court and in the nineteenth century in the Qājār court of Na-ser od-Dīn Shāh, showing further refinement in the art of cooking, of rice, in particular.

Modern Iranian Cuisine

Rice. Rice in Iran is steamed to a unique perfection, bringing out its full flavor and fragrance, turning the grains into light, fluffy chēlōw (plain rice) that may be eaten with khōrēsh (stew) or grilled meat (chēlōw kabāb). Rice can be steamed with meat, herbs, vegetables, sour cherries, or pulses in many varieties, colors, and mixtures (pōlōw) as a crisp crust (tah-dig) is formed at the bottom of the cooking vessel. It can be garnished with saffron, barberries, and slivers of orange peel, pistachio, and almond. Rice with beaten eggs, yogurt, and saffron, steamed with layers of cooked meat, eggplant (aubergine), or spinach turns into yet another sumptuous dish known as tahchin.

The best rice is grown in the Caspian provinces of Gīlān and Māzandarān; it is also cultivated in limited quantity in the Lenjān district of Ēsfahān and along the Qēzēl Ōzan River near Zanjān. The major grades of quality long-grain rice, with their elongated form and characteristic fragrance, Sadri Dōmsīah and Tārōm, are the best known for perfume and taste.

Stews. Iranian cuisine in general is the art of cooking the available nutrients in a way that pleases the eye and the palate and balances the functions of the body. Recipes consider food's properties and elements to formulate an equation in which the ingredients blend harmoniously, each counterbalancing the excess effect of the other on the digestive system.

Khōrēsh, derived from the Persian verb khōrdan (to eat), is a kind of stew prepared to these rules. The base for every khōrēsh is fried onions (garlic is added in the northern and southern regions), meat or poultry, the appropriate spices and seasoning. These are left to simmer in water to a desired consistency, then lightly fried vegetables, herbs, or fruit are added. Depending on vegetables and herbs in season, countless varieties are made all over Iran. For example, chopped mint and parsley would make khōrēsh-é na'najafari with celery, or, in the spring, rhubarb, greengages, acanthus, or young green almonds with verjuice (sour grape juice) as seasoning. The famous khōrēsh-é fēsēnjān, which turns into a thick light or dark brown sauce, is made of ground walnuts seasoned with pomegranate juice or paste and has a sweet and sour taste. The cooling effect of pomegranate juice balances the warm and rich property of walnuts. This is an autumn and winter khōrēsh customarily made with duck, or with chicken or meatballs as substitutes. In late autumn it can be made with ripe walnuts and pomegranate juice. In winter chunks of eggplant or pumpkin, dried prunes, and apricots may be added. It is then called mōtanjan. A further derivation is anār-āvīj (pomegranate paste or juice and herbs), prepared in the Caspian region. Another speciality is khōrēsh-é ghōrmēh-sabzi made with mixed herbs and red kidney beans (in the south, blackeyed beans) with whole dried limes used for fragrance, freshness, and seasoning. Also common is khōrēsh-e gheimeh (diced meat) with split peas, served plain or with fried potato sticks and dried lime as seasoning or eggplant, zucchini (courgettes), or celery with sour grapes as seasoning, quinces, or apples with sweetened vinegar as seasoning, etc. A luxury, known from the imperial court of the Qājārs (nineteenth century), is gheimēh-mōrassa' (jeweled diced meat), which in place of split peas uses skinned whole pistachios with ample saffron for aroma and color.

Khōrāk and side dishes. Khōrāk, also derived from the verb khōrdan ('to eat') cooked with or without meat, cover an extensive range and reflect the significant contributions of Gīlān and Azerbaijan provinces. Among these dishes are kabāb, a variation of charcoal-grilled meat, fowl, or fish; shāmi—meat cooked with split peas pounded and kneaded with eggs, ground cumin, and saffron, shaped in a round patty and deep-fried; kūkū, a form of thick puffed omelette or soufflé of different vegetables or herbs; dōlmēh—stuffed vegetables or vine or cabbage leaves; tās-kabāb, meticulously arranged layers of onion, meat, tomatoes, carrots, eggplant, potatoes, and quinces or apples (depending on the season), sprinkled with cardamom and cinnamon, chopped dried lime, and prunes steam-cooked in its own juice on low heat; kashk-bādēm-jān—fried eggplant topped with kashk (whey) and tastefully garnished; mīrzāghāsēmi, grilled eggplant cooked with garlic, tomatoes, and eggs. Side dishes are prepared with various vegetables cooked or raw and mixed with yogurt seasoned with aromatic herbs.

Fish. Fish is cooked in a variety of ways in the Caspian Sea provinces and alongside the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. In the Khuzistan region well-spiced baked fish seasoned with tamarind is among the specialities whereas in the Caspian area it is barbecued or stuffed with herbs, including dried pomegranate seeds, baked and served with bitter oranges. The Caspian caviar is an important item for export, and the large grey and the rare golden of the Iranian coast are famous among connoisseurs.

Bread. Bread or nān is revered as a gift from God. Except in the rice-growing areas along the Caspian coast, it is the staple food of Iranians. Khōrēshs and khōrāks are eaten with nān as well as rice. Made in a flat form, the most common varieties of bread are sangak (baked on pebbles), tāftūn, thin lavāsh, thick barbari, nān-é shīrmāl (dough mixed with milk), and crispy nān-é rōghani (dough mixed with butter).

Soups. Āsh is the general name for a thick soup made with herbs, rice, or pulses with or without meat, served plain or variably seasoned. It is another prominent and universal feature of Iranian cuisine. The recipe for āsh-e sac (spinach soup) has been passed down from the Sassanid era. Āsh cooked using barley, wheat, or noodles and kashk is a convenient dish in tribal life. Ābgūsht (literally meat juice) is made with mutton, onions, turmeric, chickpeas, pinto beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and dried lime; the stock is separated and the rest is pounded into a paste. It is the sustaining food of all classes. Other variations of ābgūsht are derived from this basic form. Another soup is known as kallēh-pācheh (sheep's head and pig's feet in a bouillon); when homemade, tripe is often added. Halīm is a homogeneous porridgelike soup made with wheat and pounded meat of lamb, turkey, or goose, garnished with melted butter and powdered cinnamon. Kūftēh refers to tiny to very large meatballs in onionbased soup. The kūftēh tabrīyi of Azerbaijan is so large that it can hold a chicken, an egg, prunes, barberries, orange peel, and almonds in its center.

There are cold soups for summer. Ābdūgh, a soup made from cucumber, raisins, and herbs in diluted yogurt is everybody's meal. Ēshkanēh, made with fresh fruit such as sour cherries, is both refreshing and filling.

Confections and preserves. A common confection is hālva, prepared from flour, butter, diluted sugar, saffron, and rosewater. Tar hālva, a sophisticated version of hālva, is prepared with ground rice instead of flour and with crushed orange peel or yellow rose petals. Other well-known desserts are shōllēhzard, made with rice, water, butter, sugar, saffron, and almond slivers and garnished with cinnamon and crushed pistachio; masqati, made with starch, water, sugar, butter, cardamom, and almond slivers; and yakhdarbēhēsht, prepared with starch, milk, and sugar. All are perfumed with rosewater or orange-blossom water.

Jams, preserves, torshis (pickles), and sherbets (soft and refreshing cold drinks) such as sērkangēbin, made of sugar water, vinegar, and mint, and others prepared with the juice of rhubarb or various fruits, are prominent features of Iranian culinary culture. The techniques of long conservation of herbs, vegetables, meat, fish, and dairy have been passed on from one generation to another and have been developed in homes mainly by women, the keepers of the household.

Cookies and pastries. Cookies and pastries in Iran are generally delicate in form with a subtle aroma, prepared with variation on basic recipes in different regions. Bāghlava, made with phyllo pastry, finely ground almonds or pistachio, sugar and light syrup, flavored with cardamom and rosewater, finely cut into small diamond-shaped pieces, is a popular confection. Now commercially produced, it was conventionally a homemade product except in Yazd, where confectioners, as a cherished tradition, have specialized in its production. Similarly, numerous petit fours, made with finely ground rice or chickpeas or coconut or almond, are produced. Apart from Yazd, as examples, Esfahān specializes in the production of gaz (nugat); Qum in sōhān (a kind of fudge made of germinated wheat, garnished with crushed pistachio); Kērmānshāh and Qazvīn in nān-é bērēnji (rice cookies) and kāk or nān-é yōkhēh (a fine phyllo made of flour, butter, eggs, and milk, rolled and cut into small pieces, baked and sprayed with powdered sugar); the specialty of Shīrāz is nōghl (sugared slivered almond or pistachio, or muskwillow seed). In rural and tribal areas, kōlūcheh, a kind of shortbread, is popularly produced, mainly for festivities.

Street food. Hot steaming beetroots, grilled pumpkins, baked potatoes, boiled broad beans, and cooked lentils served with powdered Persian marjoram seed sold by peddlers in winter, and liver kabābs rolled in flatbread with or without fresh herbs and chopped onions sold all year round are characteristic features of the popular culture. As further examples, a number of puddings and sweetmeats as well as dried barberry or prunella soaked in water for the juice can be added to the list.

Persian food has not reached the international market. Until the early decades of the twentieth century, people holding high functions or the aristocracy saw to their business in the outer quarters of their home. They were fed together with their employees, assistants, and guests by the kārkhānēh (workshop), as the kitchen was known in a big household. It was in such kitchens that great chefs trained cooks who specialized in certain branches of cooking and accepted apprentices to ensure the continuity of the tradition.

Commercial sale of food was limited to qahvēhkhē-neh (coffee or, in fact, tea houses), where basic dishes are prepared; chēlōw-kabābīs, where only rice and kabobs are served; and certain shops that function only very early in the morning or late in the evening, selling one item like rice pudding, halīm, or tripe. Restaurants are a post–World War I phenomenon mainly introduced by Armenian, Caucasian, and Russian émigrés from the former Soviet Union. They introduced their own cookery rather than commercializing the Persian cuisine.

Feasts and rituals. Cookies, dried fruit, nuts, and sweets are prepared for Nōwrūz (the New Year festival). The traditional dish for New Year's Eve is sabzi-pōlōw (rice with herbs) with fried or smoked fish. On New Year's Day rēshtēh-pōlōw (noodles with rice), spiced and artfully garnished, is served. Festivities end with a picnic on the thirteenth day, at which āsh-é rēshtēh (noodle soup made with herbs, pulses, and kashk) and bāghēla-pōlōw (rice steamed with broad beans and dill) are the main features.

Observation of religious mourning is customary during the first ten days of the first month of the lunar Islamic calendar to commemorate the martyrdom of Hossein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad. The occasion includes offerings in the form of food and puddings to the poor. Rice and khōrshs are served in the evenings. On the tenth day, the well-to-do offer puddings such as shōllēhzard or hālva to ensure good health for the loved ones. In the month of Ramadan a whole range of sophisticated condiments of fine quality are made available for those fasting and feasting during daylight hours.

See also Bread; Feasts, Festivals, and Fasts; Herbs and Spices; Herodotus; Islam; Mesopotamia, Ancient; Rice; Soup; Stew; Zoroastrianism.

Maryam Matine-Daftary