Türkiye

Recipes by the places recorded in their sources.

Türkiye

25 recipes

Photograph of Şalgam.
Elevated risk

Şalgam

A sour, red Turkish drink of black carrot, rock salt and bulgur or sourdough, fermented in a traditional two-stage method or a direct one, and drunk with food in southern Turkey.

Çukurova, Adana, Mersin and Hatay
Drinks
Clear pale-gold whey vinegar in a glass cruet beside a small tasting glass.

Whey vinegar

Vinegar made by fermenting the lactose of cheese whey to alcohol with a Kluyveromyces yeast and then to acetic acid; sold in Switzerland as Lactavinaigre from the 1950s.

Ballaigues · Modern adaptation
· Condiments
A firm pale-yellow kaşar cheese portion and two slices on an ivory plate.
High risk

Kaşar peyniri

Kaşar peyniri is a Turkish stretched-curd cheese. This entry documents a traditional raw-milk process described by the FAO and its regional history; it is not a home cheesemaking recipe.

Turkey · Traditional method
Dairy
Photograph of Simit.

Simit

This Turkish street-food bread is shaped from twisted yeast dough into rings, dipped in a diluted molasses sauce and sesame, then baked. This home recipe makes seven rings and includes a clear sesame-allergen warning.

Turkey
· Grains and starches
Illustrative Ramazan pidesi: a round Turkish Ramadan bread with a pressed lattice, yogurt-egg glaze, sesame and nigella.

Ramazan pidesi

This Ramadan pide is a large Turkish yeast bread patterned with a shallow lattice, brushed with egg and yogurt, and topped with sesame and nigella. This home method makes one 28–30 cm loaf and bakes it in a hot oven.

Turkey
· Grains and starches
Illustrative display of Orhangazi Gedelek cucumber turşusu with garlic in brine; not the registered commercial vessel or a household method.

Orhangazi Gedelek turşusu (cucumber)

Cucumber variant of the registered Gedelek pickle family from Orhangazi, Bursa: cucumbers in a salt brine with garlic and a small amount of acid, held for about 20 to 30 days.

Gedelek, Orhangazi district, Bursa
Vegetables
Photograph of Muhammara.

Muhammara

A Syrian red pepper and walnut dip usually linked to Aleppo, thickened with breadcrumbs and sharpened with pomegranate molasses, with Aleppo pepper and cumin.

Aleppo
· Condiments
Photograph of Tarhana and related dried fermented soup bases.
High risk

Tarhana and related dried fermented soup bases

Tarhana is a Turkish soup base: yoghurt, flour or semolina and usually onion, tomato and red pepper, fermented as a dough for days, rubbed into grains and dried.

Türkiye
Wrinkled ripe black olives with a light scatter of salt in a plain ceramic dish

Dry salt-cured ripe olives

Fully ripe dark olives are mixed with salt and turned weekly as salt draws out moisture. Distinct from existing brine-fermented and lye-treated olives.

Gemlik, Bursa
· Vegetables
A pale ceramic plate of whole and cross-cut olive-green Çubuk cucumber pickles.

Çubuk turşusu

Çubuk turşusu is a registered pickle from Çubuk district in Ankara. Its cucumber variant is sold as Salatalık Turşusu, and a commercial specification sets its brine and room-temperature period.

Çubuk, Ankara Province
Vegetables
Photograph of Sivas pezik turşusu.
Elevated risk

Sivas pezik turşusu

A preserve of pezik and other non-sugar beet stalks from Sivas Province, blanched, salted and acidified with lemon juice and vinegar, then held for one to three weeks as the registered specification directs.

Sivas Province, central-eastern Anatolia
Vegetables
A clear glass of white Turkish ayran topped with a soft cap of foam.

Ayran

Ayran is Turkey’s cold, savoury yogurt drink: plain yogurt is loosened with water and lightly salted, then whisked smooth or aerated into a soft cap of foam.

Turkey · Traditional method
· Dairy
A stack of thick Turkish bazlama flatbreads with lightly browned skillet spots on a plain ceramic plate.

Bazlama

This Turkish bazlama uses yeast, plain yogurt and olive oil for a soft dough cooked in a skillet. Shape it into twelve small or six larger rounds, flip as bubbles appear, and wrap the breads to keep them soft.

Turkey
· Grains and starches
White brine-ripened beyaz peynir in two cut blocks on an ivory plate.

Beyaz peynir

Beyaz peynir is a Turkish white cheese matured in brine. Sheep milk, alone or mixed with other milks, gives a close-textured cheese cut into blocks and packed in cans.

Turkey · Traditional method
· Dairy
A çemen-coated whole Turkish pastırma cut open to reveal dark ruby cured beef, with thin slices beside it.

Pastırma

Dry-cured beef salted, air-dried and often coated with a spice paste called çemen before it is sold whole or sliced; a Turkish cured meat whose preservation rests on salting and drying.

Türkiye · Traditional method
· Meat
Illustrative yeast-raised Turkish spinach-and-feta gözleme folded into a thin rectangular parcel and griddle-browned.

Gözleme (spinach and feta)

A yeast-and-yogurt dough is rolled into a large thin sheet, filled with spinach, onion and feta, folded closed, then cooked on an oiled griddle. This is Özlem Warren’s spinach-and-cheese family-style version.

Turkey · Modern adaptation
· Grains and starches
Golden closed spinach-and-cheese pide with a sealed top seam; one cut piece shows the leafy filling.

Topped and filled pide

Turkish home-style yeast dough is shaped into closed boats around spinach and cheese, then baked hot until the crust is golden.

Turkey · Modern adaptation
· Grains and starches
A bowl of thick, chunky red-orange lyutenitsa, a cooked pepper and tomato relish, with bread as serving context.

Lyutenitsa (lutenica)

A Balkan relish of cooked peppers, tomatoes, aubergine and garlic in oil, sometimes made hot, served cold and named for its spiciness.

Bulgaria
Condiments
Photograph of Tzatziki.

Tzatziki

A cold dip, soup or sauce of strained yogurt, cucumber and garlic, eaten across Greece, Turkey and the wider Balkans and Levant under names that include cacık and tarator.

Greece
Condiments
Photograph of Taramosalata.

Taramosalata

A meze of salted cured fish roe, most often cod, beaten with olive oil, lemon juice and a starchy base of bread or potato, from Greece and the eastern Mediterranean.

Greece
Condiments
Illustrative still life of a small terracotta vessel and cup of dark amber fish sauce, inspired by ancient Mediterranean artifacts; not a reconstruction of one recipe or period.
High risk

Garum (garos, liquamen)

Garum, Greek garos and Latin liquamen, was the fish sauce of the ancient Mediterranean: fish and viscera salted and left in the sun, then drained off as a savoury liquid.

Greece · Historical attestation
· Fish and seafood
A glass of thick Istanbul-style boza with cinnamon, beside roasted chickpeas.
Elevated risk

Istanbul bulgur and rice boza

A thick, pale Turkish winter drink of bulgur and rice cooked to a soft cereal base, sweetened with grape molasses and fermented for two days.

Istanbul · Traditional method
· Drinks
A glossy dark garnet spoonful of Hatay pomegranate sour above a glass bowl, with fresh pomegranates beside it.
Elevated risk

Hatay pomegranate sour (nar ekşisi)

The registered Hatay method presses pomegranate arils and slowly concentrates the strained juice. Its 100 kg source batch and experienced-producer endpoint are retained; no home-scale time or shelf-life is inferred.

Hatay Province · Traditional method
· Condiments
Pale crumbly tulum cheese in irregular pieces and crumbs in an ivory bowl.
High risk

Tulum peyniri, yogurt-cultured method

Tulum peyniri is a Turkish cheese traditionally packed into animal-skin bags to mature. This sheep-milk method adds a thermophilic yogurt culture before renneting, draining and dry salting.

Turkey · Traditional method
· Dairy