Lahmacun

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Lahmacun
Lahmacun.jpg
Lahmacun with salad
Alternative namesLahmajun, lahmajoun, lahm b'ajin, lahmajo, lahmajin, lahamagine, lahmatzoun
CourseMain
Region or state Levant [1]
Serving temperatureWarm
Main ingredientsMinced meat, vegetables and herbs
  •   Commons-logo.svg Media: Lahmacun

Lahmacun, [a] lahmajun or lahmajo [b] is a Middle Eastern flatbread topped with minced meat (most commonly beef or lamb), minced vegetables, and herbs such as onions, garlic, tomatoes, red peppers, and parsley, flavored with spices such as chili pepper and paprika, then baked. [3] Lahmacun is often wrapped around vegetables, including pickles, tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, parsley, and roasted eggplant. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Originating in the Levant region of West Asia, [1] where it is traditionally known by its Arabic name lahm bi ʿajīn ("meat with dough"). [8] Lahm bi ajeen or lahmacun is a popular dish in Lebanon and Syria. [9] [10]

Variants of lahmacun are also common in Armenia and Turkey., [11] [2] where the dish became popular in local cuisines. [11] In English, it is sometimes referred to as "Lebanese pizza", [12] "Armenian pizza", [13] or "Turkish pizza", [14] because of its round shape and superficial similarity to pizza, though it traditionally contains neither cheese nor tomato sauce and is made with a thinner crust. [11] [15]

Etymology and terminology

The name entered English from Turkish lahmacun, pronounced lahmajun, and from Armenian Լահմաջո (lahmajo), both derived from Arabic لحم [بـ]عجين (laḥm [bi-]ʿajīn), meaning "dough [with] meat". [16] [17] [9]

History

Flatbreads in the Middle East have been cooked in tandoors and on metal frying pans such as the tava for thousands of years. [17] They have been used to wrap meat and other foods for convenience and portability. However, until the wider adoption in medieval times of the large stone ovens, flatbreads stuffed or topped with meat and other foods were not baked together, cooking the bread and the topping at the same time. [17] [9]

A 13th-century Syrian cookbook compiled in Aleppo, Kitāb al-Wusla ilā al-Ḥabīb (Scents and Flavors), contains a recipe describing minced meat spread on thin dough and baked in a brick oven (furn). [18] It instructs to “cut up meat small, then spread it on a round piece of dough and bake it in the oven.” This recipe is identified by scholars as the earliest textual reference to laḥm bi ʿajīn (“meat with dough”). [19] [20] [21] [22]

A variety of such dishes exist such as sfiha and manakish , became popular in Levant , such as Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Syria. A thin flatbread, topped with spiced ground meat, became known as lahm b'ajin (meat with dough), shortened to lahmajin and similar names. [17] [9]

An 1844 French–Arabic dictionary of Syrian and Egyptian Arabic by the Swedish orientalist Jacob Berggren  [ sv ] defines lahm el-ʿajin (لحم العجين) as small baked pastries filled with minced meat, and mixed with sour milk or pomegranate juice before being cooked in an oven. [23] 2 recipes for lahma bi-ajin can be found in the 1885 cookbook titled Ustadh al-Tabbakhin by Lebanese writer Khalil Khattar Sarkis  [ ar ], along with a recipe for meat-filled fatayer. [24]

According to Ayfer Bartu, lahmacun was not known in Istanbul until the mid-20th century. [25] Bartu says that before the dish became widespread in Turkey after the 1950s, it was found in Arab countries and the southern regions of Turkey, around Urfa and Gaziantep. [1]

By region

In Assyrian tradition, lahmacun is served to those who are grieving the loss of a loved one, alongside Turkish coffee and other dishes. [26]

In The Netherlands lahmacun is often sold as a street food or snack, often under the name Turkish pizza. The lahmacun is rolled up and filled with salad, sambal and garlic sauce, often with added döner meat and/or cheese. [27]

Variations

Controversy

Due to the hostile nature of the relations between Armenia and Turkey, the opening of Armenian restaurants serving the food in Russia was met by some protests. [2] [30] In March 2020, Kim Kardashian, an American socialite and media personality of Armenian heritage, posted a video on her Instagram saying "Who knows about lahmacun? This is our Armenian pizza. My dad would always put string cheese on it and then put it in the oven and get it really crispy." This sparked outrage among Turkish social media users, who lashed out at her for describing lahmacun as Armenian pizza. [31]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ /ˌlɑːməˈdʒuːn/ LAH-mə-JOON, Turkish: [lahmaːˈdʒun] ⓘ ; Arabic: لحم بعجين, romanized: laḥm bi-ʿajīn, lit.  'meat with dough'.
  2. ↑ Armenian: լահմաջո. [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bartu, Ayfer (2001). "Rethinking Heritage Politics in a Global Context". In AlSayyad, Nezar (ed.). Hybrid Urbanism: On the Identity Discourse and the Built Environment. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 154. ISBN   978-0-275-96612-6.
  2. 1 2 3 McKernan, Bethan (27 October 2016). "A 'pizza war' has broken out between Turkey and Armenia". The Independent. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  3. ↑ Alkan, Sena (19 November 2016). "A delicious, fresh experience: try lahmacun". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 16 January 2020. The true origin of lahmacun is a mystery...
  4. ↑ Ghillie Basan (1997). Classic Turkish Cookery. Tauris Parke Books. p. 95. ISBN   1-86064-011-7.
  5. ↑ Allen Webb (2012). Teaching the Literature of Today's Middle East. Routledge. pp. 70–. ISBN   978-1-136-83714-2.
  6. ↑ Sally Butcher (2012). Veggiestan: A Vegetable Lover's Tour of the Middle East. Anova Books. pp. 128–. ISBN   978-1-909108-22-6.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. ↑ Jeff Hertzberg, M.D.; Zoë François (2011). Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day. St. Martin's Press. pp. 216–218. ISBN   978-1-4299-9050-9.
  8. ↑ Nawal Nasrallah, Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and History of the Iraqi Cuisine, Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2018 – a scholarly cookbook and food history that discusses laḥm bi-ʿajīn as a traditional Levantine meat flatbread.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Marks, Gil (1999). The World of Jewish Cooking. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 37. ISBN   978-0-684-83559-4.
  10. ↑ Dmitriev, Kirill; Hauser, Julia; Orfali, Bilal (2019-09-24). Insatiable Appetite: Food as Cultural Signifier in the Middle East and Beyond. Brill. ISBN   978-90-04-40955-2.
  11. 1 2 3 Carol Helstosky (2008). Pizza: A Global History. London: Reaktion Books. pp. 59–. ISBN   978-1-86189-630-8.
  12. ↑ Amari, Suad (2003-01-01). Cooking the Lebanese Way. Lerner Publications. p. 46. ISBN   978-0-8225-4116-5.
  13. ↑ "'Armenian Pizza' Is the Comfort Food You Didn't Know You Were Missing (Recipe)". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 16 January 2020. No one knows for certain whether lahmacun's roots lie in Armenia, or elsewhere in the Middle East. "The race to find where these ancient foods originated is not fruitful territory," cautioned Naomi Duguid, author of Taste of Persia: A Cook's Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan. After all, meat-enhanced flatbreads are ubiquitous throughout the region...
  14. ↑ "Turkish flatbread lahmacun – just don't call it pizza". South China Morning Post. 4 April 2015.
  15. ↑ The Routledge Handbook of Mobilities. Routledge. 10 January 2014. ISBN   978-1-317-93412-7 . Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  16. ↑ "Entry: lahmacun". American Heritage Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt . Retrieved 2020-01-07.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Marks, Gil (17 November 2010). Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. HMH. ISBN   978-0-544-18631-6 – via Google Books.
  18. ↑ Nasrallah, Nawal (17 Sep 2014). "In my Iraqi Kitchen: Recipes, History and Culture, by Nawal Nasrallah". In My Iraqi Kitchen. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  19. ↑ Perry, Charles (3 March 2020). Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook. NYU Press. p. 43. ISBN   978-1-4798-0083-4 . Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  20. ↑ Charles Perry (ed. and trans.), Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook, New York University Press, Library of Arabic Literature, 2017, pp. 200–201. Quote: "Cut up meat small, then spread it on a round piece of dough and bake it in the oven (furn)." NYU Press – Scents and Flavors
  21. ↑ Nawal Nasrallah, Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and History of the Iraqi Cuisine, 2nd ed., Equinox Publishing, 2018, pp. 450–451. Quote: "The earliest record of lahm bi ʿajin appears in a 13th-century Aleppine cookbook, Kitāb al-Wusla ilā al-Ḥabīb, where the recipe calls for minced meat to be spread on thin dough and baked in a brick oven." Equinox Publishing – Delights from the Garden of Eden
  22. ↑ Nasrallah, Nawal (2018). Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and History of the Iraqi Cuisine. Equinox Publishing Limited. ISBN   978-1-78179-457-9 . Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  23. ↑ Berggren, Jakob (1844). Guide français-arabe vulgaire des voyageurs dt des francs en Syrie et en Égypte: avec carte physique et géographique de la Ssyrie et plan géométrique de Jérusalem ancien et moderne, comme supplément aux voyages en orient [A French-Arabic guide for travelers and Franks in Syria and Egypt: with a physical and geographical map of Syria and a geometric plan of ancient and modern Jerusalem, as a supplement to travels in the Orient] (in Arabic and French). Leffler et Sebell. p. 263. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
  24. ↑ Sarkis, Khalil (1885). كتاب تذكرة الخواتين واستاذ الطباخين (in Arabic). المطبعة الادبية. p. 468. Retrieved 25 December 2025.
  25. ↑ Bartu, Ayfer Suna (1997). Reading the Past: The Politics of Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Istanbul. University of California, Berkeley. p. 149. We became a nation of lahmacun eaters. Fifty years ago no one in Istanbul knew what lahmacun was – or if we did, we called it pizza.
  26. ↑ Sabbağ, Çiğdem. "MARDİN YEME İÇME KÜLTÜRÜ" (PDF). ADIYAMAN ÜNİVERSİTESİ. p. 299. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
  27. ↑ Sturm, Melvin (2024-04-18). "3 Turkse pizza-recepten (+ alles wat je moet weten over dit comfortfood)". Culy (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-10-16.
  28. 1 2 Mahir, Hasan (3 March 2008). Geziantep: Gaziantep gezi notları (in Turkish). p. 148.
  29. ↑ "Halep işi lahmacun tarifi". Hurriyet (in Turkish). 24 November 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  30. ↑ "Lahmacun Kimin?". kapsamhaber.com/ (in Turkish). Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  31. ↑ "Kim Kardashian faces Turkish backlash after calling lahmacun 'Armenian pizza'". 27 March 2020.
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