mumessek - musk coffee

[gethin]

I recently saw a reference -in Timeless Tastes ,Turkish Culinary Culture , Ersu Pekin amnd Ayse Sumer (Eds) - apologies for misspellings caused by the lack of a Turkish Keyboard- to mumessek, musk scented coffee , offered to guests at one of the celebratory meals following childbirth.

I'd just bought some musk at the Egyptian Market in Istanbul- so i'm planning to give it a go (the musk coffee, not the child birth).

Anyone got suggestions on proportions, method etc ?

Gethin

[sazji]

I just did a google search for mümessek (which on its own simply means "musk scented" with no specific reference to coffee). But aside from statements that it existed, which seem to be based mostly on references to it in Ottoman poetry, I can't find any actual recipe. They evidently added musk to certain halvahs as well. I'll do a little asking around.

Have you heard of this being made currently in any countries besides Turkey?

[helenjp]

I read about ambergris-flavored coffee in An Account of The Manners and Travels of the Modern Egyptians (Edward Lane, 1838 or so) that ambergris were dropped in the coffee-pot.

I feel dreadfully nostalgic for this wonderful book - where did my copy go?

Thanks to the internet, you can read it too - here's a small excerpt:

It is a common custom, also, to fumigate the cup with the smoke

of mastic; and the wealthy sometimes impregnate the coffee with

the delicious fragrance of ambergris. The most general mode of

doing this is to put about a carat-weight of ambergris in a coffee-pot,

and melt it over a fire; then make the coffee in another pot,

in the manner before described, and, when it has settled a little,

pour it into the pot which contains the ambergris. Some persons

make use of the ambergris, for the same purpose, in a different

way, sticking a piece of it, of the weight of about two carats, in

the bottom of the cup, and then pouring in the coffee; a piece

of the weight above mentioned will serve for two or three weeks.

This mode is often adopted by persons who like always to have

the coffee which they themselves drink flavoured with this perfume,

and do not give all their visitors the same luxury.

Well, not exactly musk...

[Richard Kilgore]

I recently saw a reference -in Timeless Tastes ,Turkish Culinary Culture , Ersu Pekin amnd Ayse Sumer (Eds) - apologies for misspellings caused by the lack of a Turkish Keyboard- to mumessek, musk scented coffee , offered to guests at one of the celebratory meals following childbirth.

I'd just bought some musk at the Egyptian Market in Istanbul- so i'm planning to give it a go (the musk coffee, not the child birth).

Anyone got suggestions on proportions, method etc ?

Gethin

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Have you been able to make this? If so, how did you do it?

[Carlo A. Balistrieri]

Yes...please follow up and let us know. Is anyone messing with musk in the states?