Introduction
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Turkish cuisine (Turkish: Türk mutfağı) is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Central Asian, Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Balkan cuisines. Turkish cuisine has in turn influenced those and other neighbouring cuisines, including those of Southeast Europe (Balkans), Central Europe, and Western Europe. The Ottomans fused various culinary traditions of their realm with influences from Levantine cuisines, along with traditional Turkic elements from Central Asia (such as yogurt and mantı), creating a vast array of specialities—many with strong regional associations.
Turkish cuisine varies across the country. The cooking of Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir, and rest of the Asia Minor region inherits many elements of Ottoman court cuisine, with a lighter use of spices, a preference for rice over bulgur, koftes and a wider availability of vegetable stews (türlü), eggplant, stuffed dolmas and fish. The cuisine of the Black Sea Region uses fish extensively, especially the Black Sea anchovy (hamsi) and includes maize dishes. The cuisine of the southeast (e.g. Urfa, Gaziantep, and Adana) is famous for its variety of kebabs, mezes and dough-based desserts such as baklava, şöbiyet, kadayıf, and künefe.
Selected general articles
Imam bayildi (Turkish: İmambayıldı, literally: "the imam fainted"; is a dish in Ottoman cuisine consisting of whole eggplant stuffed with onion, garlic and tomatoes, and simmered in olive oil. It is one of the zeytinyağlı (olive oil-based) dishes and is found in most of the formerly Ottoman regions. The dish is served at room temperature or warm.
Imam bayildi is also well known under minor variants of the Turkish name in Bulgaria, Israel, North Macedonia, Greece (ιμάμ μπαϊλντί imám baildí, also less commonly known as ιμάμ μελιτζάνα imam melitzána, imam aubergine), Albania, Armenia, and the Arab world (إمام بايلدي imām bāyuldi). A similar dish is popular in Iran, although various other vegetables and herbs may also be added to the filling. Read more...- Lakerda is a pickled bonito dish eaten as a mezze in the Balkans and Middle East. Lakerda made from one-year-old bonito migrating through the Bosphorus is especially prized. Read more...
- Lepsi (Turkish: Lepsi) is a dish from Düzce eaten by both Turkish and Circassian people. The ingredients are beef, onion, red pepper, rice, salt, and water. Read more...
Kanafeh (Arabic: كُنافة, [kunaːfa] (listen), dialectal: [knɑːfej]) (also numerous alternate spellings) is a traditional Arab dessert made with thin noodle-like pastry, or alternatively fine semolina dough, soaked in sweet, sugar-based syrup, and typically layered with cheese, or with other ingredients such as clotted cream or nuts, depending on the region. It is popular in the Arab world, particularly the Levant and Egypt, Yemen and especially in Palestine. In addition, variants are found in Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans, as well as in the Caucasus.
In Arabic, kanafeh (also knafeh, kunafa or similar spellings) may refer to the string pastry itself, or to the entire dessert dish. In Turkish, the string pastry is known as tel kadayıf, and the cheese-based dessert that uses it as künefe. In the Balkans, the shredded dough is similarly known as kadaif, and in Greece as kataifi, and is the basis of various dishes rolled or layered with it, including dessert pastries with nuts and sweet syrups. Read more...
Akçaabat meatballs (Turkish: Akçaabat köfte) is a grilled dish of minced meat, a type of köfte, found traditionally in Akçaabat, Trabzon, Turkey . Read more...- Çiğ börek and ayran at Turkish chain "Anadolu Mantı"
Chebureki, sometimes spelled chiburekki (Crimean Tatar: çiberek, Turkish: çiğ börek), is a deep-fried turnover with a filling of ground or minced meat and onions. It is made with a single round piece of dough folded over the filling in a crescent shape. A national dish of the Crimean Tatars and traditional for the Caucasian and Turkic peoples, it is also popular as snack and street food throughout Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, as well as with the Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey and Romania. Read more... - Libje lebje basta is a dish from Düzce eaten by both Turkish and Circassian people. The ingredients are chicken, flour, garlic, onion, paprika, salt. Read more...
Patlıcan kızartma or Patlıcan kızartması (Turkish for fried eggplant) is an eggplant dish from the Turkish cuisine. It is such a common dish during summer months that this season used to be called "patlıcan kızartma ayları" (fried eggplant months) in Ottoman Istanbul, where this generalized frying caused huge fires and destroyed entire mahalles due to the abundance of old wooden houses.
Turkish style patlıcan kızartması is usually eaten with a garlic yogurt or tomato sauce. In Arabic and Israeli cuisines, fried eggplant is typically served with a tahini sauce. In Israel, it is used to make sabich: a popular sandwich of fried eggplant and hard boiled egg in a pita. Read more...
Pişmaniye (Bosnian: Ćetenija) is a Turkish and Bosnian sweet in fine strands made by blending flour roasted in butter into pulled sugar. It is sometimes garnished with ground pistachio nuts. Although it is sometimes compared to cotton candy, both the ingredients and method of preparation are significantly different.
Until recently pişmaniye used to be made at home in most regions of Turkey, but this tradition is now rapidly disappearing. Today the manufacturing process is partially mechanised. Read more...
Boyoz is a Turkish pastry, associated with İzmir, Turkey, which is practically the only city where it is prepared for commercial purposes and follows the original recipe. As such, in the eyes of Smyrniots boyoz acquired the dimension of a symbol of their hometown or of their longing for it when away. The most widely preferred boyoz is plain, without addition of meat or cheese or spinach stuffings, and as cooked by a handful of master boyoz bakers in İzmir.
Boyoz paste is a mixture of flour, sunflower oil and a small addition of tahini. It is kneaded by hand and the ball of paste is left to repose for 2- hours. The paste is then flattened to the width of a dish and left to repose again. It is then kneaded and opened once more, before being formed into a roll and left to repose as such for a further period of several hours. When the tissue of the paste is still soft but about to detach into pieces, it is cut into small balls and put in rows of small pans and marinated in vegetable oil between half an hour and one hour. The paste then takes an oval form and acquires the consistency of a millefeuille. The small balls can then be put on a tray into a very high-temperature oven either in plain form or with fillings of cheese or spinach added inside. Read more...
Halloumi or haloumi (/həˈluːmi/) is a semi-hard, unripened, brined cheese made from a mixture of goat's and sheep's milk, and sometimes also cow's milk. It has a high melting point and so can easily be fried or grilled. Rennet is used to curdle the milk in halloumi production, although no acid-producing bacteria are used in its preparation.
Halloumi is often associated with the island of Cyprus, where it has been produced by a multiethnic population for many centuries. It is also popular throughout the region broadly known as the Levant. It became widely available in Turkey after 2000. Demand in the United Kingdom surpassed that in every other European country, except Cyprus, by 2013. Read more...
Arnavut ciğeri (literally "Albanian liver") is a Turkish dish made of oil fried lamb or veal liver cubes seasoned with hot pepper served traditionally with onion and parsley. Read more...
A cezve is a small long-handled pot with a pouring lip designed specifically to make Turkish coffee. It is traditionally made of brass or copper, occasionally also silver or gold. In more recent times cezveler are also made from stainless steel, aluminium, or ceramics. Read more...- Orcik candy (Turkish: orcik şekeri) is a confection made of walnuts and a slightly fermented juice called şıra that is made with grapes or blackberries. It is a regional specialty of Elazığ. It is similar to churchkhela (called cevizli sucuk in Turkish), but the walnut and grape mixture is stuffed into hand pulled candy. Read more...
Boortsog or bawïrsaq is a type of fried dough food found in the cuisines of Central Asia, Idel-Ural, Mongolia and the Middle East. It is shaped into either triangles or sometimes spheres. The dough consists of flour, yeast, milk, eggs, margarine, salt, sugar, and fat. Tajik boortsog are often decorated with a criss-cross pattern by pressing the bottom of a small strainer on the dough before it is fried.
Boortsog is often eaten as a dessert, with sugar, butter, jam, or honey. They may be thought of as cookies or biscuits, and since they are fried, they are sometimes compared to doughnuts. Mongolians and Turkic peoples sometimes dip boortsog in tea. In Central Asia, baursaki are often eaten alongside chorba. Read more...
The cuisine of the Caucasus includes the traditional cuisines of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan in Transcaucasia and of Adygea (Circassia), Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia and North Ossetia in Ciscaucasia. Read more...- Qatiq from Azerbaijan
Qatiq is a fermented milk product from the Turkic countries. It is considered a more solid form of yogurt than ayran.
Some of the local names include: katık in Turkey, qatıq in Azerbaijan, qatiq in Uzbekistan, ҡатыҡ in Bashkortostan, қатық in Kazakhstan, айран in Kyrgyzstan, катык in Tatarstan, gatyk in Turkmenistan. It is known as къатыкъ among the Crimean Tatars and as қатиқ among the Uyghurs. In Bulgaria, катък is a spread that has the consistency of mayonnaise. Read more...
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Selected images
Kazandibi, means the bottom of "kazan" because of its burnt surface.
Menemen (left) as part of a Turkish breakfast
Simit, a circular bread with sesame seeds, is a common breakfast item in Turkey.
Tuzlama, a tripe soup from Turkey.
Baklava is prepared on large trays and cut into a variety of shapes.
A variety of Turkish dishes on a "sini", or large tray, that was formerly used in the rural areas as a traditional alternative to a table.
Mantı with yogurt and garlic, spiced with red pepper powder and melted butter.
Lahmacun ready to be served.
Kaşkaval cheese
Typical Turkish pilav. Rice with orzo.
Tableside preparation of the gözleme pies in a (traditional) restaurant near Antalya
Börek, with a meat, caramelized onion and bell pepper filling
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