Simit (Istanbul) vs. Gevrek (Izmir)
Simit + braided +dipped in cold molasses mixture +rolled in toasted sesame + baked.
Gevrek + flat +boiled in hot molasses mixture +rolled in toasted sesame + baked. [ more bagel like]
Introduced by Tartar Turks from Crimea. Approximately 5.000 Crimean and Caucasian refugees were settled in Izmir during the period between 1854 and 1861. After the Ottoman-Russian War (1877-78), a Turkish and Muslim population from Crimea-Caucasia and Rumelia (the West Thrace) and a small group of Jewish population from Russia immigrated to Izmir. SOURCE
Bursa style "kazan simidi". As pictured non roasted sesame being used. Possibly introduced after the settlement of Albanian refugees.
Greek simit: ( koulouri Salonikis) And though Thessaloniki seems to be credited as its birthplace, it can now be found throughout Greece available in many variations (multigrain, filled with chocolate spread, cheese or tahini or even without sesame seeds), the traditional sesame-seed koulouri was first introduced by Greek refugees from Asia Minor who were flooding Greece’s second city.
(picture showing Greek simit as flat and with less sesame seeds)
Koulouria (plural of Kουλούρι koulouri) were sold early in the morning by street vendors – who had baskets (tavades) precariously resting on their heads – located in highly frequented areas. Some historians trace koulouri’s origins back to antiquity – taken from the ancient kollyra, a type of round bread served to the slaves – and to the origin of street food. Greek word σιμίτι simiti derives from turkish simit σεμίδαλις semidalis = semolina, hard/durum wheat. The Minor Asian Greeks refugees brought with them their dialects, their cultural tradition and an extraordinarily rich culinary tradition that was an amalgamation of Byzantine, Ottoman and urban French cuisine. When they moved to Thessaloniki they brought, among others, the recipe of simiti. That’s why the simiti is also called koulouri Thessalonikis.
Mavi Boncuk |
Simit[1] : from AR samīd سميد ince bulgur veya irmik ; fine flour or semolina[2] EN Aramaic samīdā סמידא un Akadian samīdu from samādu öğütmek, ground, mill EN.
semid "beyaz ekmek, irmik ekmeği" [ Meninski, Thesaurus (1680) ]
semid "ince bulgur, irmik" [ Ahmed Cavit, Kenz-ül İştiha Tercemesi (1803)
semid "beyaz un, beyaz ekmekten yapılan halka" [ Ahmet Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani (1876))
[1] Simit (Turkish: simit, Arabic: سميط, translit. samītˤ, Persian: سیمیت, translit. sīmītˤ, Bulgarian: симит /simit/), gevrek (Turkish: gevrek, Bulgarian: геврек, Macedonian: ѓеврек, Serbian: ђеврек), bokegh (Armenian: բոկեղ), or koulouri (Greek: κουλούρι) is a circular bread, typically encrusted with sesame seeds or, less commonly, poppy, flax or sunflower seeds, found across the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire, and the Middle East. Simit's size, crunch, chewiness, and other characteristics vary slightly by region. It is widely known as Turkish bagel in United States. In İzmir, simit is known as gevrek ("crisp"), although it is very similar to the Istanbul variety. Simit in Ankara are smaller and crisper than those of other cities. Simit in Istanbul are made with molasses. Simit has a long history in Istanbul. Archival sources show that the simit has been produced in Istanbul since 1525. Based on Üsküdar court records (Şer’iyye Sicili) dated 1593, the weight and price of simit was standardized for the first time. The 17th-century traveler Evliya Çelebi wrote that there were 70 simit bakeries in Istanbul during the 1630s employing about 300 bakers, existed in Istanbul.
Jean Brindesi's early 19th-century oil paintings about Istanbul daily life show simit sellers on the streets.[Warwick Goble, too, made an illustration of these simit sellers of Istanbul in 1906. Simit and its variants became popular across the Ottoman Empire.
Cookbook author and food writer Clifford A. Wright, notes that according to Turkish food historian Tulay Artan, it was a loaf of the Ottoman elite as early as the middle of the 16th century.
See also: Artan, Tulay “Aspects of the Ottoman Elite’s Food Consumption: Looking for ‘Staples,’ ‘Luxuries,’ and Delicacies’ in a Changing Century” (Albany: State University of New York, 2000. pp. 107-200.)
[2] semolina (n.) meal from hard kernels of wheat, 1797, alteration of Italian semolino "grits; paste for soups," diminutive of semola "bran," from Latin simila "the finest flour," probably from the same Semitic source as Greek semidalis "the finest flour" (compare Assyrian samidu, Syrian semida "fine meal").
simnel (n.) "sweet cake," c. 1200, from Old French simenel "fine wheat flour; flat bread cake, Lenten cake," probably by dissimilation from Vulgar Latin *siminellus (also source of Old High German semala "the finest wheat flour," German Semmel "a roll"), a diminutive of Latin simila "fine flour".