Foodways touch on many aspects of daily life—agriculture, cuisine, diet, health, religion (including fasting), and trade. Trépanier’s engagingly written study of fourteenth-century Central Anatolia is based primarily on passing references in contemporary written sources that are relevant to these subjects—narratives (hagiographies and chronicles) and waqfiyas, which, as legal documents that established charitable foundations, were preserved and sometimes recopied. Trépanier mines these sources, taking into account how social relationships of the writers and presumed audiences may have biased the information contained therein. A smattering of archaeological evidence informs some of the discussion. The study provides a detailed analysis of textual sources, but it does not reach broader conclusions.
Having chosen a topic that is admittedly limited by time, space, and available documentation, Trépanier teases out information from documents the original purpose of which bears little relationship to the subject of interest. He asks, for example, did a food item or culinary...