Muhallebi

Muhallebi (from Persian: مهلبی) and muhalabiyya (Arabic: مهلّبية) refer to a milk-based pudding. Its usual ingredients are rice, sugar, and milk, and it is thickened using rice flour, starch, or semolina. Across the Middle East, it is a common dessert.

A story from the late 7th century credits a Persian cook from the Sasanian Empire with introducing the dish to Arab cuisine. He served it to the Arab general Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra, who enjoyed it so much that he gave it his name. The earliest known recipes, from the 10th century, describe three versions: one thickened with ground rice, another with whole rice grains and chicken, and an egg custard without any rice. Early written recipes for muhallabiyya appear in a work attributed to Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq of Baghdad, as well as in two 13th-century Arab cookbooks—one by al-Baghdadi and another from Al Andalus, which includes a spiced pudding variation using mutton instead of chicken. During the Middle Ages, both muhallebi and its European counterpart, blancmange, were made with shredded chicken.

The Ottoman Empire adopted muhallebi from the earlier Byzantine Greeks. Records from that period show two versions: one with shredded chicken (tavuk göğsü), served during the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror, and a later recipe from 1530 for a meatless version flavored with rose water. A 19th-century English cookbook gives a recipe for muhallebi under the name "Ramazan cakes." It instructs the cook to boil milk with rice flour and sugar until the mixture thickens, then flavor it with rose or jasmine extract, let it cool, and sprinkle it with powdered sugar.

Different names distinguish the corn flour and rice flour varieties. In Arabic, a rose-flavored cornstarch milk pudding is often called balouza (Arabic: بالوظة, romanized: bālūẓah). That word comes from the Persian pâlude (Persian: پالوده), which itself refers to a Persian confection called faloodeh.

In modern times, the traditional tavuk göğsü is rarely found outside Turkey. The pudding does not taste like chicken, but the shredded meat gives it a distinct texture.