Melceü't-tabbahîn [The Chef's Refuge]

Istanbul: Saye-i Sahane-i Humayûn, 1844. First Edition. The first edition of the first Turkish cookbook, which was the foundation of Turkish cuisine through (at least) nine 19th century editions. Türabi Efendi's Turkish Cookery Book, which had two 19th century editions, was a translation that didn't credit Kamil's book. Kamil provides the first printed recipes for well-known Turkish dishes like kebabs, kofte, dolmas, pulao rice, and baklava. A number of the recipes call for tomatoes, which were still relatively uncommon in European cuisine.

The author was on the medical school faculty in Istanbul.

The book is lithographed from a manuscript written in Ottoman Turkish written with the Arabic alphabet. There is a printed gloss in the margins of many pages, in the style of Arabic manuscripts of the era. The colophon concludes (in English translation), "completed and printed in the shadow of HMS [Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid I], in the year 1260 [i.e. AD 1844], in the last days of Sha'ban month."

2-132 pages (complete, with first page blank). First edition. Bound in modern full leather. The outer margins of five leaves have been trimmed to the edge of the text. A comparison with the copy at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek shows that none of these pages had printed glosses in the margin, so the book is textually complete. Many pages have manuscript notations in the margins, which seem to be unrelated to the text, including mathematical calculations and what seem to be lists of names. Nevertheless, the first edition of Melceu't-tabbahin is rare. OCLC locates two copies, both in Germany. The Culinary Arts Academy in Istanbul also has a copy and there are likely others in the Republic of Türkiye.