Kadayif

For a topical guide, see Outline of kadayif.

Kadaif, kadayif, kadayıf, kataifi, kadaifi, katayef or kataïf (Arabic: قطايف) is a family of Middle Eastern pastry products.[1] In modern Turkish usage, kadayıf often refers specifically to fine shredded pastry dough used in desserts such as knafeh and tel kadayıf.[2][3][4] Depending on context, the term may refer either to the dough itself or to finished desserts made from it.[5][4][6]

Etymology

The Turkish word kadayıf derives from Ottoman Turkish قطائف (ḳaṭāyıf / ḳaṭaʿif), from Arabic قطايف (qaṭāʾif).[2] In Arabic culinary usage, qaṭāʾif referred to an older family of pastries,[1][7] while in Turkish the term later came to denote both the shredded dough and the desserts prepared from it.[5][4]

History

Kadayif is of Middle Eastern origin. Medieval Arabic qaṭāʾif is generally regarded as an antecedent of Ottoman and Turkish kadayıf forms, which developed into a broader category of pastries and desserts.[3][8] In Turkish cuisine, kadayıf came to include several distinct preparations, including tel kadayıf and other regional or finished dessert forms.[8][4]

According to The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, the oldest known qaṭāʾif appear in a tenth-century Abbasid cookbook.[7] Mary Işın writes that kadayif originated as a griddle cake in medieval Arab cuisine and was transformed in early Ottoman times into pastry threads cooked on a griddle, a form that later spread widely in the Near East.[9][10] Turkish scholarship likewise treats kadayıf as an Arabic-derived sweet that later developed multiple forms in Seljuk, Ottoman, and modern Turkish cuisine.[8][11][12]

Preparation and usage

Modern tel kadayıf consists of very fine strands resembling vermicelli.[3] It is produced from a thin batter made with special-purpose kadayıf flour, poured through fine openings onto a heated rotating griddle, where it cooks into hair-like strands.[13][4] These strands may be sold fresh, refrigerated, or frozen as an intermediate product, or used in finished desserts.[4] In Türkiye, tel kadayıf is covered by standard 10344/T3 as a semi-processed flour-and-water product.[14]

Finished desserts made from kadayıf strands are typically baked or fried and then soaked in sugar syrup.[15][8] The strands are also known as kadayif noodles, string kadayif, wire kadayif, tray kadayif, and tel kadayıf, although some of these names are also used for finished desserts.[8][3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Qataʾif". The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press. 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b "kadayıf". Nişanyan Sözlük (in Turkish). Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  3. ^ a b c d Krondl 2011, p. 105.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Eckhardt 2017, p. 22.
  5. ^ a b Walczak-Mikołajczakowa 2023, p. 97.
  6. ^ Savlak & Köse 2013, p. 125–130.
  7. ^ a b "Qataif". The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. Oxford University Press. 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  8. ^ a b c d e Bezirgan 2024, p. 15.
  9. ^ Işın, Priscilla Mary (2013). Sherbet and Spice: The Complete Story of Turkish Sweets and Desserts. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1780761749.
  10. ^ "Sherbet and Spice excerpt". Academia.edu. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  11. ^ Güney, Sezen (2022). "Foods spreading from Turkish cuisine to the world". Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic Tourism. 7 (2): 217–228. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  12. ^ "Geçmişten Günümüze Türk Tatlı Tarihi". Journal of Food and Nutrition Research (in Turkish). 2025. Retrieved 21 March 2026.
  13. ^ Savlak & Köse 2013, p. 128.
  14. ^ Seyyedcheraghi, Kotancilar & Karaoglu 2019, p. 4007.
  15. ^ Başar & Boz 2023.

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.