Tzatziki

• 1. Introduction

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  Tzatziki, spelled τζατζίκι in Greek, is a cold dish that travels under at least three names: tzatziki, cacık and tarator. In some kitchens it is a dip, in others a soup, in others a sauce. It belongs to the cuisines of Southeastern Europe and West Asia. The base is salted strained yogurt, or yogurt thinned with water, mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar. Some cooks add lemon juice, and herbs such as dill, mint, parsley and thyme. It appears as a cold appetiser called meze, as a side dish, and as a sauce for souvlaki and gyros sandwiches. How can one dish carry so many names, and where do those names come from? Who first wrote a recipe down, and how long ago? And why does the same pairing of yogurt, cucumber and garlic arrive as a spoonable dip in one country and a chilled soup in another?

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• 2. A Name Across Languages

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  The Persian word zhazh, written ژاژ, refers to various herbs used for cooking. The Kurdish word jaj, also written ژاژ, refers to the caraway herb. These words are the likely root of cacık, which attaches the Turkish diminutive suffix -cık. Armenian has a related word, cacıg, which may itself come from Turkish or Kurdish. Modern Greek borrowed the Turkish word as τζατζίκι, and English then took it from Greek around the mid-20th century.

  In 1665, Evliya Çelebi's travelogue, the Seyahatnâme, defined cacıχ as a kind of herb added to food. That definition names an ingredient, not a finished dish. The modern spelling cacık, written جاجیك, first appeared in print in 1844. It was in Hoca Kâmil Pasha's Melceü't-Tabbâhîn, which means The Sanctuary of Cooks. This was the first Ottoman cookbook, and it described the dish simply as "yogurt with cucumber and garlic", in Turkish hıyar ve sarmısaklı yoğurt.

  The name tarator took a different road. According to Sevan Nişanyan, it entered Turkish directly from the Venetian word trattor, which means cook. In Turkish the word came to mean a type of sauce, and its first use in that sense is again in the Seyahatnâme. Turkish likely lent the word onward, and forms of it are now found in languages from the Balkans to the Levant.

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• 3. Roots in Yogurt

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  Central Asian yogurt culture is the starting point for tzatziki and similar yogurt-based dishes. Turkic migrations carried that culture to Anatolia, the Balkans and the Middle East. Medieval Turks brought yogurt-based cold soups and sauces with them into Anatolia.

  The 10th century gives the earliest known written trace. The Abbasid author Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq included 3 recipes for jājaq, which were yogurt salads, in his Arabic-language cookbook. Food historian Nawal Nasrallah sees them as ancestors of the modern cucumber salad jajik, and she dates this as the earliest known recipe. Egyptian cookbooks of the 14th and 15th centuries mention the dish again.

  Under the Ottoman Empire, yogurt and garlic condiments became part of the meze tradition. One notable example was tarator, prepared with yogurt, cucumber and garlic, or sometimes walnuts. Çelebi's Seyahatnâme describes dishes made with yogurt and garlic, which shows how firmly they were established in Ottoman cuisine. Once the dish spread across so many regions, each began to build it on a different base.

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• 4. Turkish Cacık

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  In Anatolia, the version made with yogurt, cucumber, garlic and sometimes walnuts became known as cacık. Turkish cacık is made by combining water and yogurt with garlic and different combinations of vegetables and herbs. Labne may be substituted for some of the yogurt. Across Turkey it is widely eaten as a refreshing dish, especially in summer.

  The list of additions is long. Recipes call for wheat berries, carrots, scallions, mint, radish, red pepper, parsley, dill, basil, chondrilla juncea, vinegar, walnuts, hazelnuts and unripe almonds.

  Cacıklı arap köftesi serves kofta made from a mix of bulgur and ground meat over a bed of cacık. Here the cacık is made with chard instead of the usual cucumber. Spinach or parsley may be substituted for the chard, and some recipes use purslane.

  The most unusual relative may be bulgurlu madımak cacığı. It is made with cracked wheat, cucumber and a type of knotweed called madımak.

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• 5. Balkan Summer Soups

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  Tarator took two other paths beyond Anatolia. In the Levant it is usually made with tahini. In the Balkans it may include yogurt and walnuts.

  In Bulgaria, tarator is a traditional cold soup and a popular summer dish. Across the Balkans it is often served as a soup or liquid salad. It is typically made with yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, oil and salt, and commonly includes dill and walnuts. Water may be added to thin it, and it is served chilled.

  A thicker relative is called Snezhanka. It is made with strained yogurt mixed with cucumber, garlic, dill and oil, and walnuts are sometimes added.

  In Albania, tarator is likewise a cold summer dish made from yogurt, cucumber, garlic and herbs, often with olive oil. Its consistency can run from soup-like to dip-like, depending on the yogurt used and the amount of water added.

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• 6. Greek and Cypriot Tables

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  On a Greek table, tzatziki is commonly served as a meze, to be eaten with pita bread, olives, fried eggplant, zucchini or other vegetables. Regular tzatziki is made of strained yogurt, usually from sheep or goat milk. The yogurt is mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil, vinegar, dill, mint and parsley.

  Purslane, called glistrida in Greek, inspires a variation that may carry a different name. It can be called glistrida me yiaourti, meaning purslane and yogurt salad, rather than tzatziki. One simple recipe calls for purslane, olive oil, red wine vinegar and dill. Another version adds walnut oil, crushed nuts such as walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds, and red peppers to the standard yogurt base.

  In Cyprus, the dish is called ταλαττούρι, written talattouri in Latin letters. It is similar to the Greek recipe, with a more characteristic flavour of mint and added acidity from lemon juice. Cooks use strained yogurt, sliced cucumbers and minced garlic cloves, then sprinkle the top with dried mint, oregano or olive oil.

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• 7. Eastern Names, Distant Cousins

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  In Iran, the dish is known as mast o khiar. In Iraq, it appears as jajeek and is often served as meze. It may accompany alcoholic drinks, especially arak, an ouzo-like drink made from anise. In some parts of the Arab world it goes by salaṭat ḵiyār bi-l-laban, a name for a salad of yogurt and cucumbers.

  In the Caucasus mountains, a similar dish called ovdukh uses kefir instead of yogurt. It can be poured over a mixture of vegetables, eggs and ham to make a variation of okroshka, sometimes called Caucasus okroshka.

  Mizeria is a Polish dish of sliced cucumbers mixed with sour cream or another fermented milk product. It often includes herbs such as dill or chives. It is served as a savoury or sweet side salad with typical dinner dishes.

  In South Asia, a similar dish called raita is made with yogurt, cucumber, salt and ground cumin, sometimes with onions.

  Back in Iran, ash-e doogh is a yogurt soup that swaps the cucumbers for herbs such as basil, leek and mint, with black pepper and raisins. In this style, dried bread chips, chopped nuts or raisins are sometimes added to the bowl just before serving.

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