Culinary Culture and Special Day Meals of Elazig

Abstract

The Purpose of Study: Elâzığ province and its nearby region is investigated because of its being home to historically ancient civilizations. This study was conducted with the idea that detailed information can be obtained about the attitude of the families form Elazig to the concept of local food and whether they include local dishes in their homes.Literature Review/Background: The features that distinguish local dishes from the others are that they are a part of special day celebrations and rituals in traditional meals. Elâzığ, which hosts one of the societies that existed in Türkiye and settled down from the oldest known civilizations, is the heir of a rich culture and one of the most important gastronomic values worth exploring.Method: In this study, data were collected using the semi-structured interview technique, which is one of the qualitative research methods, to promote the local heritage and tastes with gastronomic identity and culinary culture of Elazig and contribute to raising awareness. Content analysis method was used in the evaluation of the data. The recipes for four of the dishes were preserved and recorded as the participants learned from their ancestors. The application of ‘içli köfte’, ‘zilfet’, ‘kofik dolması’ and ‘lobik soup’ was made in Başkent University Gastronomy Laboratories.Results: Analyzing the data, it was observed that the local dishes were cooked by the whole of the participants (N=11) at home, however. when evaluated in terms of the frequency of doing them at home, it could be highlighted that there were significant differences between the two generations.Conclusion: The main findings of the study are that families from Elazig have a high level of local culinary awareness, but there is a significant difference between the two generations.Keywords: Elâzığ, culinary culture, local heritage, products with geographical indications, local dishes.