confection
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Also known as: lokum
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Last Updated: •Article History
Turkish delight, jellied confection with origins in the late 18th century.
This soft jewel-like sugar treat became popular among the people of Turkey—who know it as lokum—about the turn of the 19th century. The confectioner Hacı Bekir Effendi, who arrived in Constantinople (now Istanbul) from Anatolia in 1776, is often credited with its invention. Some claim that an Ottoman sultan was so enamoured with it that he deemed Hacı Bekir the palace’s chief confectioner.
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Until refined sugar reached the region at the end of the 19th century, the sweets made there had been a sticky mix of honey or dried fruit and wheat flour. Lokum transformed the culinary scene. It earned world fame from the 1830s when an English traveler brought a sample of “Turkish delight” back home. The author C.S. Lewis played up the sweet’s alluring properties by giving it an important role in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, in which the child Edmund becomes so intoxicated by Turkish delight that he betrays his siblings in an effort to get more.
The sugar-dusted jelly that is Turkish delight collapses into a sticky paste in the mouth. Rose water provides a heady fragrance and floral taste. Lemon, mint, coconut, and nuts are common additions.
