My father never considered cooking a form of art nor a mean to rejoice the soul of man. Although he had gifted to my mother the cooking guide of Tselementes and even though my mother constantly cooked new things (she had the privilege you see, not to work) he was only interested in having a plate of food each noon, preferably with meat. How I got interested in fine dining later on, since when I was young I didn’t care at all, is another story.

I was surprised, when, while I was arguing with my mother who was cooking becasue I didn’t agree with the choices of the materials and thechnique she was using, I heard my father’s voice telling me “Michael, did you know that our family has it’s own recipe, which is traditionally cooked only by men?”. I was speechless. Not becasue our family had it’s own recipe but mainly because it was made by men. As a consequence it got my attention and I was interested in the recipe which was named “Loukoum Pilaf”. However, because my father had never touched kitchen utensils in his life except from spoons and forks, I was doubting the “male affair” part. Until he cooked it himself. Then the various stereotypes were shot down. Yes, men can cook. Yes, men can cook tasty food. No, men can’t clean the mess they have made in the kitchen.

I accepted that the recipe came from my family without questioning, where it came from, it’s authentication or the truth in my father words. However, I recently decided to search the origin of the recipe. My only sources are however, internet and the recipe itself.

I’ll begin with the description my father gave me in order to do a comparison with the sources from internet.

Pork cut into dice-sized pieces, orange peel cut into small pieces, cinnamon, black pepper, pasta and olive oil.

Saute the pork in plenty of oil, add the orange, then the pepper and the cinnamon with some water and cook slowly until it becomes dry. Meanwhile we have boiled the pasta and when we strain it we add it at the pork and stir well.

After searching the web for “Loukoum pilaf” I found that a recipe with the same name exists in Turkey. However, they make it with ground beef and noodles. Instead of using oil they use butter and in a few recipes they use cinnamon and onion but not orange since it doesn’t pair well with beef.

This recipe also exists in Greece mostly in Dodecanese with the same name and the same materials. I also found a variant of the recipe which is made from pork, cinnamon and pasta which is made in Rhodes (they didn’t use orange).

In Kos “Loukoumi” is a local pasta which has a shape similar to noodles but they knead it without eggs. I do not know if the name of the pasta gave the name to the recipe or vice versa.

Since the origins of my family are from Symi, I personally believe that the recipe was made from my ancestors. We used pork since it’s cheaper than beef and also not forbidden for Greek people because of religious prohibitions in contrast to Muslims . I didn’t find any clues for the addition of orange however, it seems unlikely that my family added it, since everyone knows that orange matches well with pork. Because my family moved to Athens, they probobaly couldn’t find “loukoumi” so they replaced it with pasta, which was easy to find in the capital and it looks like the traditional material. Even so, I have seen “loukoum pilaf” with pasta in some photos.

Finally, the “man recipe” part was probably an exaggeration of my father. During my lifetime I’ve made it two times and I am proud but ever since I have assigned the job to my wife. Who has changed the recipe with two interesting differentiations. She added cumin and replaced pasta with screws. The screws are clearly better since they hold scented with cumin, orange and cinnamon oil between their plis making them delicious.

Loukoum pilaf