Turkish cooking uses fruity dried chilli flakes, dried mint, sumac, cumin and oregano, with a dazzling regional range from Aegean olive-oil dishes to the chilli-rich south-east.
Overview¶
Turkish cooking inherited the kitchen of the Ottoman palace, which drew on Persian, Arab, Balkan, Greek, Armenian and Central Asian traditions, and it remains a meeting point of all of them. Spicing is moderate and precise. The flavours most associated with it are dried red chilli flakes (pul biber), dried mint, sumac, cumin, dried oregano or thyme (both called kekik), and red pepper and tomato pastes. Heat increases steadily as you travel south-east.
The core palette¶
- Pul biber: coarse, oily, moderately hot dried red chilli flakes, often sold as "Aleppo pepper" in the West. Maraş pepper, from Kahramanmaraş, is a closely related type. The flakes sit in a pot on many restaurant tables.
- Isot (urfa biber): sun-dried and "sweated" to a deep purple-black, smoky, raisiny and slow-burning; from Şanlıurfa.
- paprika (tatlı biber), sweet red pepper flakes, and biber salçası, a thick paste of sun-dried peppers, sweet or hot.
- Dried mint: more important than fresh in cooked dishes, sizzled in butter over soups and yoghurt.
- cumin: in köfte, sucuk sausage and lentil soup.
- sumac: on onions with kebabs and in salads.
- Warm spices: allspice, cinnamon and black pepper in stuffed vegetables and pilaf; cloves in sweets.
- For breads and sweets: nigella (çörek otu) and sesame on simit and pide, mahleb in çörek, and mastic in puddings and Turkish delight.
- Herbs: flat-leaf parsley, dill (especially with broad beans and courgettes), and wild herbs in Aegean cooking.
Regional differences¶
Aegean and Marmara¶
Olive oil, vegetables, wild greens, herbs and seafood. Zeytinyağlı dishes — artichokes, green beans or leeks braised in olive oil and served at room temperature — need little spice beyond a pinch of sugar, lemon and dill.
Black Sea¶
Maize bread, anchovies (hamsi), collard greens and dairy. Spicing is light.
Central Anatolia¶
Wheat, lamb, dried pulses and mantı (tiny dumplings with garlic yoghurt and chilli butter). Kayseri is known for pastırma, air-dried beef coated in çemen, a paste of fenugreek, garlic, paprika and cumin.
South and south-east¶
Gaziantep, Adana, Urfa and Hatay use far more chilli, cumin, pepper paste, pomegranate molasses and bulgur. Adana kebab is minced lamb with chilli flakes on a wide skewer; Gaziantep is also famous for pistachios and baklava. Çiğ köfte, lahmacun and muhammara-like dips show links with Syria and the Levant.
Key techniques¶
- Chilli butter: butter heated with pul biber (and often dried mint) until it foams red, then poured over mantı, çılbır (poached eggs on yoghurt) or lentil soup. See blooming-spices-in-oil.
- Zeytinyağlı braising: vegetables cooked slowly in olive oil with onion and a little water, then cooled.
- Charcoal grilling: kebabs and köfte, served with sumac onions, parsley and grilled chillies.
- Stuffing (dolma) and wrapping (sarma): rice spiced with allspice, cinnamon, currants, pine nuts and mint or dill.
🔁 No pul biber?
Mix 3 parts sweet paprika with 1 part chilli flakes and a few drops of oil. It lacks the fruitiness but gets close in cooked dishes.
Common mistakes¶
- Treating all chilli flakes as equal. Supermarket crushed chillies are drier, hotter and harsher than pul biber, which is moist, slightly oily and often salted. Use roughly half as much if substituting.
- Using fresh mint where dried is meant. Dried mint has a deeper, hay-like flavour that holds up in soups and butter; fresh mint in lentil soup tastes quite different.
- Burning the butter. Chilli butter should foam and turn red, not brown and bitter; take it off the heat as soon as the flakes are added.
- Over-spicing meze. Many Turkish dishes, especially the Aegean olive-oil vegetables, are meant to taste of the vegetable, lemon and oil. Resist adding cumin to everything.
Landmark dishes¶
Mercimek çorbası (red lentil soup with mint butter), mantı, İmam bayıldı, karnıyarık, Adana and Urfa kebabs, İskender kebab, lahmacun, pide, çılbır, ezme (a hot chopped salad), menemen, dolma and sarma, pastırma, sucuk, baklava and künefe.