(kadayif, kunafa, knafeh), a family of Near Eastern PASTRIES which can take the form of PANCAKES or a sort of dry-baked vermicelli.
The original meaning was pancake, and this is still what qataʾif (locally pronounced ʾatâyif) are in Egypt and Syria. A usual recipe is to pour leavened batter onto a greased pan and cook slowly on one side only, just until the batter is set. This half-cooked cake is folded over a sweetened cheese or nut stuffing; the raw side is tacky and the edges readily seal. The semicircular filled cakes are then deep fried. Stores sell both cooked stuffed ʿatâyif and the raw pancakes (crêpes) for stuffing and frying at home. This pastry is also found in Turkey, where it is known as dolma kadayif.
Medieval Arabic cookbooks record this recipe, and also describe leavened qataʾif which were served simply with honey and sesame oil.
However, at least as early as the 9th century the most highly regarded medieval qataʾif were unleavened and made as thin as possible, and the batter might consist of an ounce of thickener (in the form of wheat starch which in its dried form was called nisha), an ounce of water, and an egg white. They were not fried in a greased pan but very slowly cooked on a sheet of polished metal (sometimes referred to as a mirror) wiped with a cloth full of wax and walnut meats. The resulting thin crêpes were wrapped around a sort of marzipan called lauzînaj, and by extension the crêpes themselves were sometimes confusingly called lauzînaj.
This paper-thin crêpe cooked on the ‘mirror’ was also known as kunafa in Arabic. The 13th-century recipes for kunafa do not wrap these crêpes around a filling but serve them hot with butter and honey, pancake fashion. Some of the recipes call for the crêpes first to be cut up with scissors: ‘the size of rose petals’ or even ‘as small as possible’.
The modern Egyptian or Syrian kunâfa is clearly descended from this dish, but it is made in a different way. Instead of being cooked as a crêpe, the batter is dribbled on to the heated sheet of metal from a perforated container (kunafiyya), making threads that look like vermicelli. The heated metal sheet dries them and they are subsequently baked or fried with plenty of butter in various forms, but always with a filling.
The filling is usually of walnuts, almonds, or pistachios—chopped or ground, perhaps moistened with a little rosewater and sugar. Or a filling of sweetened cheese or clotted cream (see KAYMAK) may be inserted after cooking.
Sometimes the threads are baked to form flat baklava-like cakes (basma), with the filling sandwiched between layers of dough.
More often the threads of dough are wrapped around the filling into small, individual rolled pastries, which are baked and then have syrup poured over them. This is the form commonly found in Middle Eastern pastry shops.
In the Arab countries, kunâfa became the name for this dry-cooked vermicelli. In Turkey, the vermicelli pastry was called tel kadayifi, which literally means ‘string qataʾif’, a nicely expressive term. This name, with, or more often without, the word tel, has passed into usage in neighbouring countries such as Iran (where it is ghatayef) and Greece (kataifi).
By extension, the Turks use the name ekmek kadayif (bread kadayif) for a rich sweet made by soaking bread in syrup and butter. In Egypt it is known as ʿeish al-sarâya (palace bread) and ʿeish ekmek kadayif.
Charles Perry
(or confit dʾagneau) is minced lamb preserved in fat from the tail of the FAT-TAILED SHEEP (called Awassi). Until not so long ago it was the main winter meat preserve of Lebanese mountain dwellers. Each family set aside one or two six-month-old, or younger, sheep—usually castrated males to safeguard the meat from bad smells during the sheep’s period of heat, or else sterile ewes whose flesh is not as tough as that of fertile ones. The sheep are fattened during the summer months and force-fed by hand with grain and mulberry and vine leaves. They are butchered after 14 September (the Feast of the Cross) when the weather becomes cooler, and the best cuts of meat and offal are removed and prepared for the feast which follows the slaughter. The fat from the tail is chopped coarsely and set aside whilst the rest of the meat (a third meat to two-thirds fat) is chopped in 2 cm (1″) cubes, salted, and also set aside.
The preparation of qawarma takes place in the afternoon after the family and guests have feasted on a variety of dishes made with the better cuts of meat and offal. The fat is put in a large pan called dist and placed over a medium-low heat. It is stirred until melted and golden before the salted chopped meat is added and cooked for 10 to 15 minutes. The qawarma is poured hot into earthenware jars and left to cool before being covered with a cloth on top of which go weighted lids. The jars are stored in a cool place and the stock of qawarma will last until the summer when fresh meat becomes more readily available. Qawarma is still prepared, though far less at home than commercially, and is now more of a delicacy than a winter preserve. It is cooked with kishk (see KASHK) to produce a hearty breakfast soup, or fried with eggs, or eaten plain with bread as with RILLETTES.
Anissa Helou
Mercenaria mercenaria, one of the most popular CLAMS in N. America, is known also as littleneck, because the ‘neck’ on which its syphons protrude is much shorter than that of its principal rival, the SOFT-SHELLED CLAM; and as hard(-shelled) clam, because its shell is much stronger and thicker than that of the other.
The name quahog (pronounced co-hog), or quahaug, is of American Indian derivation. The species is a native of N. America, with a range extending from Canada down to Florida, but has established for itself (via the kitchens of ocean liners) English colonies in Southampton Water and Portsmouth harbour; and has also been introduced to the south of Ireland and the basin of the River Seudre in France. The French, in deference to its American origin, call it ‘clam’.
A quahog may measure up to 13 cm (5″). The shell is dull in colour—dirty white, brown, or greyish, sometimes with zigzag red markings near the margins—and is purplish inside. Quahogs are marketed in different sizes, each with its own name. In New York the list runs thus, the numbers indicating how many to the bushel: littlenecks, 450–650; cherrystones, 300–25; mediums, 180; and chowders, 125.
The name wampum clam may also be met. Wampum was American Indian bead money, and the purple interior of the quahog shell was used for high-denomination wampum.
The manner of eating quahogs depends on their size. Those up to the size of cherrystones are best eaten raw. Mediums are to be steamed open and served on the half-shell, or used in a CHOWDER. The largest are also for chowders; but may be stuffed. Cap’n Phil Schwind (1967) relates the amusing tale of how Captain Ben Nickerson advertised for a bride, who had to be a good cook and a true Cape Cod girl; of how he gave each applicant a bucket of quahogs to cook, as a test; and of the nice discrimination shown by the winner in serving the small ones raw and the larger ones, minced, in a chowder.
The OCEAN QUAHOG is of a different family.
Coturnix coturnix, the smallest of the European game birds, belongs to the same family, Phasianinae, as the PARTRIDGE and indeed looks like a very small partridge. Its numerous relations around the world include birds known as blue quails, brown quails, and bush quails; plus, in N. America, mountain quails, California quails, and the bobwhites, Colinus spp.
The derivation of the word ‘quail’ has been charmingly explored by Francesca Greenoak (1979) who points out that it is an imitative name, cognate with ‘quack’. The same author comments that quail were not eaten much in classical times, apparently because they were thought to be unwholesome because of eating poisonous plants such as hemlock as they paused for refreshment in their migratory flights across the Mediterranean. This problem, under the medical term ‘coturnism’, may still arise as a sort of poisoning by proxy.
The migration of these birds could be a remarkable sight. As the Book of Exodus has it, ‘and it came to pass at even, the quails came up and covered the camp’. The writer Claudia Roden recalls, ‘My favourite [picnic] was on the dunes of Agami in Alexandria. It was timed to coincide with the arrival of migrating quails on the beaches. The birds fell exhausted, to be caught in large nets and collected in baskets. They were cleaned and marinated in a rich cumin and coriander sauce and grilled on the beach over small fires.’
In England, the quail was a summer visitor, though the name was also applied to the corncrake, a permanent resident.
Nowadays quails are appreciated as food, despite their small size, and in Europe are commercially reared, for both eggs and meat. In Pakistan they are prepared in curry-type dishes and they also appear further east, for example in Laos, as a popular food whenever available.
is a PUDDING with a light, frail texture which is halfway to being an egg CUSTARD. Most of what solidity it has comes from breadcrumbs. This is one of the oldest of the puddings made in a cloth. A recipe for it was recorded early in the 17th century, and it also appears in Samuel Pepys’s diary; he recalls having eaten a particularly good ‘shaking pudding’. This pudding is often served with a sweet white wine sauce.
the fruit of the S. Australian SANDALWOOD tree, Eucarya acuminata = Santalum acuminatum, known also as native peach or (in W. Australia) wolgol. This is round and red, as large as a small plum, and has soft, sweet, red flesh which is made into jam or chutney and used as pie filling. The stone is hard to crack, but yields a kernel which is rich and whose flavour when roasted ranges from somewhat bitter or pungent to acceptable.
The quandong is a parasitic tree, capable of attaching itself to any of numerous hosts and able to survive in very arid conditions. In the 1990s a start was made in cultivating it.
(pronounced ‘kvahrk’ and meaning curd) is a fresh CURD CHEESE made from skimmed milk and is consumed by Germans on a very large scale.
Various kinds of quark can be ripened to form a different cheese. Thus Sauermilchquark, which is made from SOUR MILK, is the basis for Sauermilchkäse (see HAND CHEESE). A family tree showing all the varieties and products of quark would be extremely complicated. This is inevitable, given the extraordinary importance of quark; it accounts for about half the cheese eaten by Germans themselves, and has been spreading abroad steadily, helped by its reputation as a suitable food for slimmers (although its fat content varies according to the type) and by its versatility in the kitchen.
A version with some of the fat restored to it is called Speisequark (Speise means food). Quark with cream mixed into it is Rahmfrischekäse (see CREAM CHEESE).
Plain quark has a neutral taste which makes it suitable for use in sweet dishes. It is sometimes sold with fruit pulp already mixed into it.
The growing popularity of quark outside Germany is perhaps partly due to its name; to non-German ears, this is memorable, faintly mysterious, and suggestive of an invention by Lewis Carroll.
a small rich cake made from a creamed mixture with currants, lemon zest, and sometimes chopped almonds, baked as individual cakes. They have been popular since at least the 18th century. Now usually baked in paper cases, traditionally little fluted tin moulds in fancy shapes were used; Eliza Acton (1845) said that heart-shaped moulds were usual for this mixture.
Laura Mason
also called talang or leatherskin, Scomberoides commersoniannus and close relations, are members of the carangid (JACK) family with a widespread distribution in the Indo-Pacific area; their range includes southern Africa and Australia. These fish, which have a maximum length of over 1 m (40″), are rated only fair for edibility. Some Chinese prefer not to eat them, believing that the dark blotches along their sides are marks left by the fingers of a god who claimed them for his own.
or queen of puddings, as the name of a PUDDING, seems not to have a very long history. As a dish, however, it apparently goes back to the 17th century. Sir Kenelm DIGBY (1669) gave a recipe for a dish like modern queen’s pudding: breadcrumbs combined with milk and egg yolks, part baked, and then topped with jam and meringue made from the whites and baked until done.
What queen may have been involved or how is unclear. There is a recipe for ‘Queen Pudding’ in Garrett (c.1895); but it is not the same as queen’s pudding above. This same book does, however, have a recipe for Manchester Pudding, which matches one given by Mrs BEETON (1861) and may provide a clue. A Manchester pudding has a layer of puff pastry at the bottom of the dish and does not have a meringue topping. Otherwise it is more or less the same as queen’s pudding and indeed Helen Pollard (1991) says that it is simply a variation of queen’s pudding. This evidence perhaps suggests that queen’s pudding received its name at about the beginning of the 20th century; and at that time there was only one queen who could have inspired the name (no doubt after commenting favourably on a helping of Manchester pudding, possibly in the course of a royal visit to that city) and that of course was Queen Victoria.
Be this as it may, queen’s pudding in its modern form is one of the best British puddings.
a French term which came from the German Knïdel, meaning DUMPLING, refers to small dumpling-like items made of finely minced fish or meat with some bread and seasoning incorporated. The texture is fine, the shape is usually round or variations such as a short sausage shape. Cooking is done by poaching.
Among the best-known quenelles are those of VEAL and those of PIKE (quenelles de brochet).
the Spanish for ‘cheese’, forms part of some names of cheese of Spain and Latin America. In Portuguese the word queijo plays a similar role.
The Spanish cheese MANCHEGO is often referred to as queso Manchego. The same applies to numerous other SPANISH CHEESES. Other examples of the usage, from Latin America, are:
a French term derived from the German word kuchen (see TORTE AND KUCHEN), most prominent in Lorraine and indeed the phrase ‘quiche Lorraine’. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that the term became current, and it then meant a tart with a filling of egg and cream. (In this connection see the IPCF volume on Lorraine, 1998.) The version now well known, which includes bacon (and sometimes cheese) in the filling, was originally a variant known as quiche au lard. Whereas the original could be eaten on meatless days, this variant—now known around the world as quiche Lorraine—could not. Nonetheless, a quiche Lorraine is perceived as something with only a slight meat content. This may account for the reputation it acquired in some English-speaking countries, where it only became familiar in the latter part of the 20th century, as a dish not suitable for ‘he-men’ or ‘real men’.
At the end of the 20th century the quiche has become the subject of innumerable variations, which are usually and correctly given names which do not incorporate ‘Lorraine’.
Cydonia oblonga, a relative of the APPLE and PEAR, originated, as they did, in the Caucasus, where small, twisted quince trees still grow wild. The most usual type of quince resembles a large, lumpy, yellow pear. It has hard flesh and many pips and is too sour and astringent to eat raw; but it has a delicious fragrance and when cooked with adequate sweetening develops a fine flavour and turns pink. There are also round varieties. Quinces are nearly always used for cooking. However, a few are mild and sweet enough to eat raw; these include some new varieties being developed in the 1990s, e.g. one referred to as ‘apple quince’.
The scent of quinces was greatly appreciated, and cultivation spread to the Levant and SE Europe before that of the apple. The fruit was known in Palestine around the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, and the ‘apples’ mentioned in the Song of Solomon were almost certainly quinces.
The ancient Greeks held the quince sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Indeed, the golden apple of Hesperides given by Paris to Aphrodite, leading to the downfall of Troy, is generally believed to have been a quince. Its first mention in Greek writings dates from just after 600 BC, when it figures in a marriage ceremony prescribed by the ruler Solon.
The common quince was called strythion. The Greeks successfully developed a superior variety from Kydonia in Crete, whence comes the generic name Cydonia.
The Romans, who also rated the quince highly, had a different name for it: melimelum, which comes from the Greek for ‘honey apple’. This was not because the quince was supposed to be sweet but because it was preserved in honey to make an early example of the numerous QUINCE PRESERVES (see below).
The quince continues to be well liked in its native region, the Caucasus, and is important in Turkey. In Persian cuisine, with its tradition of meat and sour fruits cooked together, there are many recipes for meat and quince stews, and for quinces with meat stuffing. The combination is also common in Moroccan cooking and in parts of E. Europe such as Romania.
In Britain, quince sauce was a traditional accompaniment to PARTRIDGE. However, the most usual use for quinces in Britain was in TARTS and PIES. Quinces were often added to apple pie, giving it a pink colour and interesting flavour. Quinces were also cored, filled with sugar, and roasted like apples; and quince MARMALADE and JELLY remained popular until a decline in popularity in Britain during the 20th century.
There are no native American quinces but the quince was still at the height of its popularity when Europeans began to settle in America, and immigrants soon began to grow the fruit. Interest has since declined in N. America, but the fruit remains popular in many Latin American countries, especially Uruguay, where there are large plantations.
are important because in their original forms they were the ancestors of modern JAM and MARMALADE. The various names derive from classical languages. In ancient Greece, quinces were known as apples of Cydonia, mela Kudonia. The French cotignac, Italian cotognata, and Greek kidonopasto, along with the 17th-century English words ‘quidony’ or ‘quidoniac’, can be traced back to this Greek origin. The Portuguese word marmelada (from which the English word MARMALADE is taken) and the Spanish membrillo derive from Latin melimelum (honey apple, referring to QUINCE or a preserve thereof).
Thus modern European quince preserves can be traced back to two sweetened quince preserves known to the classical world, both of which were based on quinces stored in honey, sometimes with vinegar and spices added. This method was applied to other fruits (and vegetables such as turnips), which were placed uncooked into the honey. When kept for a year like this, they became soft. Observation taught the cooks that to produce a reliably acceptable result from quinces, it was necessary to cook the fruit first; if the raw quinces were the slightest bit under ripe, they remained extremely hard during storage. Hence the discovery was made that cooked quinces combined with sugar (in the form of honey), and acid (in this case vinegar) would produce a solid gel; and thus the properties of PECTIN were first exploited. The discovery that other fruits gelled when treated this way does not seem to have come until much later, as they softened on storage without cooking.
Quince preserves with honey were known in the medieval Arab world, and they reappear in Europe in an early French cookery book, Le Menagier de Paris (c.1394—see MEDIEVAL CUISINE: THE SOURCES). The tradition of quince sweetmeats appears to have been so strong because they were regarded as having medicinal properties, which could be varied by adding different spices. They were thought to be particularly good for the digestion. Their medieval English name was chardeqynce (flesh of quince).
In 16th- and 17th-century England many recipes for quince preserves were published under the names of quidoniac, quiddony, marmelade, or sometimes paste of Genoa. These pastes (by now sometimes made from other fruits) could be cast in fancy shapes, ‘a Dog, or Dolphin, a Syren, or a Vessel full of Flowers’ (G. Rose, 1682), and gilded, or set in little boxes. They seem to have gone out of favour in England in the late 18th century, but have remained popular sweetmeats on the Continent. The coarser quince pastes, such as membrillo, are served in Spain with cheese.
Cotignac d’Orléans is a superior form of cotignac, a clear jellied sweetmeat made of the juice of quinces boiled with sugar and poured out to set in little round wooden boxes. It has an attractive colour, likened by one French author to that of ‘the most beautiful rubies’. Larger pieces are moulded with figures such as Joan of Arc. Cotignac in this form has been associated with Orléans from at least the 16th century.
Chenopodium quinoa, provided the principal grain crop in the region of the Andes before the conquest of America, and is still an important staple food there. It is not a typical cereal but is used as if it were. The plant has green leaves like SPINACH (a relative), grows to 150–60 cm (5′), and produces great quantities of tiny white or pink seeds in large sorghum-like clusters. These are typically white or pink, but among the numerous cultivars are many which display other bright colours, including black, yellow, and orange.
Quinoa, which is found in a belt stretching from S. Colombia to NW Argentina and N. Chile, can withstand extreme conditions and grows at altitudes too high for maize. It was a major agricultural commodity of the Aztec and Inca and has played an important ceremonial role over long periods of time in both N. and S. America.
Much of the harvest is now gathered by machine. Processing involves threshing the seed heads to remove the seed, winnowing to remove the husk, and washing in an alkaline solution to remove bitter, apparently toxic, compounds that occur in the seed. Once processed, quinoa grain is used in the preparation of bread, biscuits, tortillas, stews, and soups. Its flour can be added to wheat flour for enriching baked goods. The leaves can be eaten as a green vegetable.
In recent times, the potential value of quinoa beyond its current range of cultivation has been widely recognized. The quality of its protein is roughly equivalent to that of milk, due to a high concentration of essential amino acids.
Huauzontle, C. nuttalliae, is a distinct species and resembles broccoli. It is native to Mexico, where its immature seed heads are eaten whole, fried in batter. The mature seeds of this and of other species in the USA, Australia, and Siberia have also been used as food.
is a C. Asian dried curdled milk product similar to the KASHK of Iran. Yoghurt or buttermilk are dried and formed into hard pebble-like balls which are stored for winter use. The word quroot comes from the the Turkish word qurumak meaning to dry.
Quroot is a popular product in Afghanistan and they have a special bowl which they use to reconstitute the balls which is called a targhora-e-qurooti. The bowl, which is made from pottery, has small stones/pebbles embedded in the clay at the bottom. These form a rough surface over which the hard balls are rubbed while adding water until a thick creamy consistency is reached. The reconstituted quroot is used in a number of dishes, mainly as a sauce served with noodle, and burani dishes (see BURAN). It is also added to the soup called mashawa and a short-grain rice dish called mastawa. Afghans also prepare a simple dish, called qurooti, by adding lots of crushed garlic and salt and pepper to reconstituted quroot, then boiling the result and enjoying it with NAN. It is often flavoured with mint.
Qara quroot is a strong-tasting dried black (qara means black) curdled product made from whey which is boiled down and then dried.
See also TARHANA.
Helen Saberi