Turkish Cuisine: Meze, Kebabs and the Imperial Heritage of Ottoman Cooking

Turkish culinary history has two principal strands: the nomadic Central Asian tradition of the Turkic peoples who migrated west from the steppes in the 10th and 11th centuries, and the settled agricultural and imperial cooking of the Ottoman Empire from the 14th century onward. The nomadic tradition contributed yoghurt, dried and fermented dairy, grilled meats, and bread baked in open-air ovens (tandir). The Ottoman imperial tradition contributed the complex pastry arts, elaborate rice pilafs, layered meats, and the concept of the palace banquet as political display.

The geographic diversity of modern Turkey — snow-covered mountains in the east, Mediterranean coastline in the south, Black Sea forests in the north, Aegean olive groves in the west, Anatolian steppe in the centre — produces a corresponding diversity of cooking traditions. Gaziantep in the southeast is famous for its superior pistachios and the most elaborate baklava in Turkey. The Aegean coast produces olive oil-based dishes (zeytinyağlı) that emphasise vegetables and herbs. The Black Sea region cooks almost exclusively with corn and hazelnuts. The southeast is distinguished by its intensely spiced, chilli-rich food influenced by neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

The philosophy of Turkish cooking is characterised by two seemingly opposed qualities: restraint and abundance. In zeytinyağlı cooking (vegetables in olive oil), a few excellent ingredients are handled with minimal intervention, allowing natural flavours to emerge slowly. In palace-derived cooking, dozens of ingredients and techniques combine in intricate layering. Both extremes reflect a deep respect for ingredient quality — the Turkish bazaar, with its specialised shops for each category of food, embodies this quality-focused approach to sourcing.

Sumac is ground from the dried berries of a bush (Rhus coriaria) native to the Middle East and Turkey. It is tart, fruity, and astringent — a souring agent used where lemon would be too sharp. It appears as a finishing seasoning on salads, kebabs, and yoghurt dishes. Available widely in Middle Eastern stores and online.

Isot pepper (Urfa biber) is a dark, raisin-coloured dried chilli from Şanlıurfa — smoky, oily, and mildly hot with a deep, almost chocolatey character. It is among the most complex chillies in the world.

Pul biber (Aleppo pepper or Turkish chilli flakes) is the standard chilli in Turkish cooking — brick red, medium heat, slightly oily, and almost everywhere on the Turkish table.

Salça is Turkish pepper paste — either sweet (tatlı biber salçası) or hot (acı biber salçası). Deeply concentrated, it is cooked briefly in oil to bloom before adding other ingredients and provides the colour and depth backbone of many stews and sauces.

Yoğurt (Turkish yoghurt) is full-fat, strained to varying degrees, and crucial both as a condiment and a cooking medium. It marinates meats, forms the base of cold meze dips, and is ladled over dishes such as çılbır (eggs on yoghurt).

Bulgur wheat (bulgur pilavı) exists in fine, medium, and coarse grades. Fine bulgur rehydrates with boiling water alone for salads like kisir (Turkish tabbouleh). Coarse bulgur is cooked as pilav.

Nar ekşisi (pomegranate molasses) is tart, sweet, and intensely fruity — used in southeastern Turkish cooking for marinades, dressings, and glazes. Lebanese pomegranate molasses is an identical product.

Kuru fasulye (dried white beans) and mercimek (red and green lentils) are everyday pantry legumes — the basis of Turkey's most beloved comfort soups.

Mahlep (mahaleb cherry kernels) and mastic (resin from Pistacia lentiscus, grown primarily on Chios island) are unique flavour agents in Turkish confectionery and bread-baking.

Tandır cooking (from the clay tandoor oven) produced the iconic slow-roasted lamb dishes of central Anatolia. Whole lamb legs are rubbed with yoghurt, garlic, and spices, wrapped in parchment, and cooked for six to eight hours at low temperature — 150°C — until the meat falls from the bone with no encouragement. The technique can be replicated in a domestic oven in a tightly sealed roasting pan.

Menemen making requires the confidence to cook eggs slowly and with patience. Diced tomatoes, peppers, and onions are sautéed in olive oil until completely collapsed and jammy, then eggs are added and stirred very gently over low heat until barely set — still soft and creamy. Aggressive stirring or high heat produces rubber.

Köfte shaping requires the proper preparation of the meat mixture first. Ground lamb (or a lamb-beef blend) is kneaded with grated onion, soaked bread, egg, and spices until the mixture becomes almost paste-like and sticky — this kneading develops the proteins and produces the characteristic tender-yet-dense texture of good köfte. Chilling the mix for 30 minutes before shaping makes the work easier.

Zeytinyağlı cooking (vegetables cooked in generous olive oil) is a technique of patient, low-heat confit. Vegetables — artichokes, green beans, leeks, courgette — are placed raw in a wide pan with enough good olive oil to half-cover them, a little water, a pinch of sugar, and sometimes a handful of fresh dill or mint. The pan is covered and the vegetables cook gently for 45 to 60 minutes until completely tender. They are served at room temperature or cold — never hot.

Simple syrup preparation for baklava and pastries is a technique of critical precision. The syrup must be at the correct concentration and, most importantly, either the hot syrup must go onto cold pastry or cold syrup onto hot pastry — never both hot, which makes the pastry soggy.

Adana kebabı is named for the southern Turkish city where it originates — a bold, heavily spiced ground lamb kebab hand-moulded onto wide flat skewers and grilled over charcoal. It is considered by many the finest kebab in Turkey and is protected by a geographic indication that requires use of specific chilli varieties.

Ingredients (serves 4): 700 g ground lamb (minimum 20% fat — lean mince will be dry); 1 medium onion, grated and squeezed dry in a cloth; 2 tsp pul biber (Aleppo pepper flakes); 1 tsp isot pepper (Urfa biber); 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp fine salt; ½ tsp black pepper; ¼ tsp cinnamon; 1 green long pepper (sivri biber) or jalapeño, very finely diced; 4 flat metal skewers, at least 30 cm long.

Method: Combine the ground lamb, squeezed onion, all spices, salt, and diced pepper in a large bowl. Knead vigorously for five minutes until the mixture is completely homogeneous and slightly sticky — this kneading is essential for texture. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Divide the meat into 8 equal portions. With wet hands, mould each portion around a flat skewer, pressing firmly and shaping into a flat, elongated sausage approximately 15 cm long and 3 cm wide. Refrigerate the shaped kebabs for 15 minutes to firm up. Cook over very hot charcoal (or under the highest possible grill setting) for 4 minutes per side until charred in places but still juicy within. Serve immediately on lavash bread with sumac-seasoned onion rings, fresh tomatoes, and flat-leaf parsley. A spoonful of full-fat yoghurt alongside is traditional.

İmam bayıldı — 'the imam fainted' — is perhaps Turkey's most famous vegetable dish and one of the great recipes of Mediterranean olive oil cooking. An entire aubergine is stuffed with a fragrant mixture of onion, garlic, and tomato cooked in abundant olive oil, then the aubergine itself is braised in more olive oil until completely yielding. Whether the imam fainted from pleasure or shock at the quantity of oil used remains, legendarily, disputed.

Ingredients (serves 4): 4 medium aubergines; 4 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced; 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced; 4 ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped (or 400 g canned); 1 tsp sugar; 1 tsp salt; 100 ml extra-virgin olive oil; 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped; 100 ml water.

Method: Peel the aubergines in alternating lengthwise strips (striped pattern) and cut a deep longitudinal slit in each, without cutting through. Salt the aubergines inside the slit, leave for 20 minutes, then pat dry — this draws out bitterness. Heat 50 ml of the olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, for 20 minutes until very soft and golden. Add the garlic and cook 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, and half the salt. Cook for 15 minutes until the mixture is thick and jammy. Remove from heat and stir in most of the parsley. Heat the remaining 50 ml olive oil in a wide, deep pan. Brown the aubergines lightly on all sides for 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and open each aubergine slit with a spoon. Fill generously with the onion-tomato mixture. Pour 100 ml water into the pan, cover tightly, and cook over the lowest possible heat for 40 minutes until the aubergine is completely collapsed. Cool in the pan. Serve at room temperature, scattered with remaining parsley.

Southeastern Anatolia (Gaziantep, Adıyaman, Şanlıurfa) is Turkey's most intensely flavoured culinary region, directly influenced by Syrian and Arab cooking traditions. Baklava here uses only local Antep pistachios (protected by GI status), kebabs are spicier with more isot and Antep red pepper, and katmer (flaky pastry with clotted cream and pistachio) is a Gaziantep specialty served for breakfast.

The Aegean coast (İzmir, Bodrum, Muğla) practices the lightest Turkish cooking — zeytinyağlı dishes, fresh fish, wild greens foraged from hillsides (like purslane, nettles, and chicory), white wines, and the meze culture of long tables facing the sea. The food here tastes markedly more Greek in its simplicity and use of herbs.

The Black Sea coast (Trabzon, Rize) subsists on corn, anchovies (hamsi), and hazelnuts. Mısır ekmeği (corn bread), hamsi pilavı (anchovy rice), and muhlama (cornmeal fondue with cheese and butter) are characteristic dishes of this rainy, forested region. Tea — Turkey's national drink — is grown exclusively in the eastern Black Sea hills.

Central Anatolia (Konya, Kayseri, Sivas) is the heartland of tandır cooking, pastry arts (Kayseri's mantı — tiny dumplings in yoghurt — are famous nationwide), and the etli ekmek flatbread of Konya. This is the conservative, meat-centred interior.

A proper Turkish meze table is one of the greatest pleasures in communal eating. The word meze (from the Persian māze, meaning taste or snack) refers to the array of small cold and warm dishes served before or alongside rakı (anise-flavoured spirit), and the experience of the meze table is as much social ritual as nutritional event.

For a home meze spread for six: arrange four to six cold dishes — cacık (yoghurt with cucumber and dried mint), haydari (thick yoghurt with garlic and dill), acılı ezme (spicy tomato-pepper relish), patlıcan salatası (smoked aubergine with garlic and lemon), white beans in olive oil, and stuffed vine leaves (yaprak sarma). Follow with two hot meze items: borek (phyllo pastry parcels with cheese and herb filling) and sucuklu yumurta (fried egg with spiced sausage).

For a full dinner: serve meze table for 30–40 minutes, then bring the main course of Adana kebabı with pilav (rice or bulgur), grilled peppers and tomatoes, and a large green salad. Finish with Turkish tea and baklava.

Drinks: rakı, drunk diluted with cold water (which turns the clear spirit milky white) is the traditional companion to meze. Serve in tulip-shaped glasses alongside a glass of ice water and never on an empty stomach. Ayran (chilled salted yoghurt drink) is the non-alcoholic companion to grilled meats.