🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Turks

Turks are a Turkic people, the main population of Turkey, living in Anatolia, one of the oldest dairy regions in the world. On this site their traditions are yogurt and ayran, white cheese and kaymak, the Gemlik and Memecik olives, and among cured meats pastırma: pressed, air-dried beef under a spicy fenugreek paste.

In Anatolia traces of milk processing have been found on pottery more than eight thousand years old, and dairy is everywhere in Turkish cuisine. Yogurt is the basis of many dishes: it dresses soups, sauces and meat and is served with pilaf and mantı. Ayran — yogurt diluted with water, with salt — is drunk at any time, especially in summer, and is considered almost a national drink.

Strained yogurt becomes süzme, and a dried mix of yogurt and grain becomes tarhana for winter soup. Popular foods include white brined cheese, kaymak with honey for breakfast, and kaşar and other cheeses. Turkey is one of the world's largest producers of sheep's milk, and scientists study Turkish fermented milk products, including as an example of a local "microbial terroir".

The Turks have their own olives too: the Gemlik variety accounts for 48.7% of the country's olive trees, and the International Olive Council counts Memecik among the most important varieties of the Aegean region.

Pastırma is made from chunks of beef that are salted, washed, pressed, dried, coated with fenugreek paste and dried again. Kayseri Pastırması comes from the chuck, shank and round of male cattle aged 2–5 years and weighing at least 250 kg. Its paste is mixed from fenugreek seed flour, vetch and wheat, paprika, cumin and garlic; the cumin and spices give it a dominant spicy taste. The meat dries in outdoor areas enclosed with wire, or in bad weather in chambers at 20–25 °C. In the 17th century Evliya Çelebi mentioned Kayseri pastırma as a valuable gift sent to Istanbul, and in 1938 it was first shown at the 8th İzmir International Fair. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/725 of 24 March 2026 registered it as a protected geographical indication (PGI).

Afyon Pastırması is made from cattle and Anatolian buffalo fattened for at least three months in Afyonkarahisar province; its paste has no cumin — just fenugreek, paprika and garlic. In autumn, the "pastırma summer", days stay at 19–25 °C and nights at 6–8 °C while the meat dries and matures. Inside it is dark reddish-brown; slices of 2–3 mm melt quickly in the mouth, and the taste of the meat dominates. The EU protected this name by Regulation 2025/1136 of 10 June 2025. Both pastırmas contain no more than 50% moisture.

Why it matters to you: on pastırma, look for the name Kayseri Pastırması or Afyon Pastırması and the PGI logo. For a spicier, sharper taste choose Kayseri; for a softer one where the meat speaks first, choose Afyon. And serve yogurt with meat or mantı, the Turkish way.