Origin of cacık (tzatziki) :)?

Question

Is cacık (tzatziki) Greek or Turkish?

A friend of mine said that it is Greek but i know cacık from my mum. she makes it quite often
what do u think?

Answer 1

I dont care if its greek or turkish and I wont fight for those dumb things, lol. I just love it, especially with fried zucchini, fried potatoes and ouzo at the beach..... hehawwwww!

Answer 2

All mums (Greek and Turkish) make it often. You know, when we have lived together for so many centuries, it is hard to find out if the "chef" who first made something was Greek or Turk. The fact is that we both make it, eat it and enjoy it. The same goes for other foods, that we should stop putting labels to. Like loukoum, or loukoumi as we call it. I think that the fact the Turks promote this as "turkish delight" abroad is not fair, because these delicacies were made in Greek areas even at very old times, since they were using Chios mastiha (sakiz). That is why still it is made in Chios and Syros, where the inhabitants of Chios fled after the slaughter by the Turks during the Greek war of independence.

Answer 3

There are a lot of Turkish foods in a Greek cuisine, due to the fact that Greece was under Turkish rule for 400 years.There are Greek foods, the traditional ones that survived the turks.
I would guess, that tzatziki, is of turkish origin, or Asian.

Answer 4

Actually it is both! The food you are describing has different versions through out the world! It is actually very common to add cucumber into yogurt and make a dessert.
Cacik is the Turkish version and Tzatsiki is the Greek version of the same idea!
Both use as a base the yogurt but the Greek Tzatziki is thicker and stronger. In tzatziki we also use more olive oil and it is great for dishes with pita such as Souvlaki.
The Turkish version “cacik” is more diluted (thinner) than Tzatziki and it is excellent for accompanying lamb meet!(which makes sence for the nomadic way of life of central Asia!
There is also a Bulgarian similar dish which is called "dry tarator"r "Snezhanka" salad which means "Snow White salad", and is served as an appetizer.
There is also a version that is found in Iraq and it is know as jajeek.(which is closer to the Greek word!)
A variation in the Caucasus Mountains, called ovdukh, uses kefir instead of yogurt, and it is used a refreshing summer drink. This can be poured over a mixture of vegetables, eggs and ham to create a variation of a soup!!! (interesting!!)
A similar dish is made in Iran called mast-o-khiar, literally meaning yogurt with cucumber. It is made using a thicker yogurt, which is mixed with sliced cucumber, garlic, and mint (sometimes chopped nuts are also added).
From the Greek/Americans the Greek Tzatziki became famous in US but the American Greek version often use sour crème instead of Yoghurt!!!
I think that there is also a similar dish in India!!
As for other common dishes some are of Greek origin, some are of Turkish origin, and others are simply eastern Mediterranean!
Eduardo was correct to mention that we do have references about traditional Greek dishes from ancient authors! (Artistofanis, Athinaeos, “Deipnosofistes” and others,) We know that traditionally Greek are dishes which includ stuffed vegetables and we do know that the Greeks were using vine leafs with smashed wheat grains (correct that rise was introduced later)We also know that ancient Atheneans made yogurt and mixed it with spices and garlic or onion (something like Tzatziki).
Such dishes can be found around all the Eastern Mediterranean. Greeks call them Gemista(which means “stuffed”) and the Turks call them “Dolma”. The same type of food can be found in Syria, Armenia, Romania(were they are called “sarmale în foi de viţă”, Iraq (were the Chaldo-Assyrians of Iraq call it “prakheh” which is the Aramaic term for stuffed grape leaves.)
As I said before in Greece there are several dishes called “Gemista”. One of them was the one with stuffed vine leaves. They did not use rise at that time! The same dish was introduced by the Greeks to the Ottomans and it was involved by the Ottoman Turks. The Ottomans introduce a new version with chopped lamb meet. It was reintroduced in Greece with the Greeks of Constantinople and Asia Minor and today in Greece we also use a Greek world “Ntolmadakia” which is from the Turkish “Dolma” originally from the Greek “Gemista ampellofula” as it is the proper Greek name!
As for “Baklava” it is again a estern meditterenean desert!
In Greece we had a Greek version which was first mentioned in a Greek text
Called “Deipnosophistae “written by Athenaeus in the early 2nd century AD.
Athenaeus describes a dessert which is called “gastris”,” kopte”, “kopton”, or “koptoplakous”, and it contained a filling of nuts and honey, very similar to modern “Baklava”
But there was a Turkish version that was involved in central Asia and it was called Baklava! ("baklava" may come from the Mongolian root baγla- 'to tie, wrap up, pile up' composed with the Turkic verbal ending -v.)
The Turks here are masters!!! The Turkish Baklava is the best probably in the world!! Although Greek baklava is excellent the Turks are making it like a masterpiece!
And the original Greek is now not in use and the Turkish recipe is followed!
So as you can see an idea for a dish can be invented simultaneously in every part of the world. At the same time in different areas similar dishes were involved from the same materials!
Everyone gave to the others and everyone took from the others!

Answer 5

Well i can tell you that a friend of mine you is Syrian says they have that too. So i don't really know of its exact origins. They have something similar in India too. So many have it but everyone in their own way. It is just the Greek tzatziki is more famous due to tourists that come to Greece and taste it for the first time.

Answer 6

Personally I don't care. It might be Greek or Turkish, even it might belong to another culture. I call this 'Ottoman cuisine', which I have every reason to believe is a combination of many cultures. For example, although the name 'yalanci dolma' is Turkish, I believe Turks learned it from the people living in Anatolia. Because there was no vine leaves in central Asia, nor did they have the time to sit down and grow grapes and prepare the dolma.
As for cacik, years ago we used to call it 'talatur' in Cyprus. Talatur, or Cypriot style cacik, is thicker than the one made in Turkey. I was surprised to find out that Bulgarians also call it talatur.

Answer 7

From referrences of ancient authors, among which Artistofanis, Athinaeos and others, we do know that dishes like stuffed vegetables (like courgettes) and vine leafs with smashed wheat grains (rice came to Europe later) were ancient greek. We also know that ancient Atheneans made yogurt and mixed it with spices and garlic or onion.
The Bysantines inherited all these recipes and improved them, that is, made them more complicated, while Turks went on, keeping the traditional recipes and inventing new variations.
Let's not forget that sweets covered with honey (sugar to make syrop with was not easy to find) were very popular in Bysantine times, known with the term "plakountia"...
Therefore, a lot of recipes which are common in Turkey and in Greece are of ancient greek origin, though the turkish terms predominated because of the formal language of the Ottoman Empire...
So, yes, dolma, yaprak, lukum (a), baklava, and cacik are of ancient greek origin, at least in their simplier version, adopted by the bysantines, improved by the Turks, and returned to Greece with the refugees in 1922...

Answer 8

To my understanding, there is not anymore such thing as "original Greek cuisine" but just a light version of the Turkish one. Simply, none of the words describing the foods are Greek or originate from the Greek language. They also "sound" quite strange if not bad in Greek. I am not aware of any Turkish food with a Greek name...do you?

For cacik, this is based on yogurt, a traditional Turkish delight and a classic Turkish word. That should tell you much about its origin.

The original Greek cuisine was probably similar to that of Sicily and South Italy in general but perished together with the culture of Greece during the Ottoman era.

Along this notion, Greece and anything associated with it re-invented itself as a nation in 1821. Before that and for many centuries it was simply absent.

Cheers!

Answer 9

there's a be conscious in chemistry talked approximately as OSMOSIS(The be conscious is Greek additionally).Osmosis additionally occurs in neighboring languages That handed off in some little degree for the period of our coexistence i ought to negotiate the be conscious tzatziki yet i does not negotiate words like Democracy and ,Philosophy,which i'm particular are additionally used interior the Turkish language

Answer 10

Yoghurt is a Turkish invention. Even the word yoghurt entered in other languages from Turkish. Turkish people make many things from yoghurt and cacik is one of them. In Turkey foreigners always remark that we drink,eat and do many things with yoghurt. Cacik passed to Greece and that's good because our food is nearly the same. Turks will never have food problems in Greece,Greeks will never have food problems in Turkey:)