soot

Ingredients

linseed oil, oil lamp soot, bread paste

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Linseed oil (100 dirhams) is placed in earthenware pots buried in a windless place. A finger-thick wick is fired and covered with a second container. The soot deposited on the lid is swept onto paper with a feather periodically until the oil is exhausted. The collected soot is wrapped in paper, covered with bread paste, and cooked in an oven to destroy residual oil and hardness (p. 92). In mosques like Suleymaniye, soot was collected from vents in the soot rooms above the north gate, where air circulation accumulated residue from burning oil lamps (p. 91).

Evidence

"The production of ink with the conventional method is described by Nefeszâde (1650) as follows: “100 dirhams linseed oil is filled into earthenware pots... The collected soot is put into a piece of paper and cooked in an oven after covering it with bread paste. In this way, the oil and hardness in the soot is destroyed.”"

Remarks

Soot from linseed oil is preferred because it is 'thin and intense' (p. 92). Historical soot production facilities were located near Tekfur Palace in Istanbul to avoid city smoke problems (p. 91).