Rediscovering and translating my mom’s Persian food bible
Growing up, my mom frequently used a Persian cookbook written entirely in Farsi. It was somewhat of an iconic cookbook–my mom had a copy, as did all my aunts, and I learned from them that it was a common gift given to new brides. I think of the book as our Persian version of The Joy of Cooking.
For almost 20 years, I’ve searched for an English translation of this book. While I do speak Farsi, I can’t read or write in it, and I wanted to find a copy in a language I could easily navigate. Unfortunately, I have not been able to track one down. I haven’t been able to track down another original Farsi version either. I’m not sure if it has just fallen out of popularity or if I have been searching for it incorrectly, but I’ve had no luck.
All this to say, my mom’s book is the only one I can get my hands on, and in a stroke of luck and good timing, she was happy to gift it to me!
With my mom’s Persian cookbook "bible" in my hands, I'm excited to integrate it into my future cooking and recipe testing. As I mentioned in my last Substack, I want to revisit some of my old favorite family recipes, comparing them to the traditional versions I can find in this book. I’m particularly curious to see how my family’s dishes may have diverged from what was considered “traditional” in the past, and this cookbook will be key for that exploration.
There’s still the issue that all the recipes are in Farsi, but I figure that with the knowledge I already have, the assistance of Google Translate, and my mom, I will probably manage just fine with the Persian version.
So, I’m setting out on a mission to cook my way through this cookbook. Keep an eye out for Persian recipe bible content coming in the new year. And if anyone has heard of this book before and has leads on where I can get another copy, please share!