Jews in the Ottoman Empire shared eating and drinking customs with the surrounding non-Jewish population, with some modifications to accommodate dietary laws. As the empire ruled over vast lands in three continents, it is impossible to speak of one Ottoman-Jewish culinary tradition that reflected practices throughout the Empire; the every-day menu of Jews in Egypt was quite different from that of Jews living in Turkey or Greece.

To date, the academic study of Ottoman Jewish food has not been undertaken in any meaningful, sustained way. Most information on the s…