Breads, Savoury Doughs and Pastries

Bread, the food of friendship, is the traditional staple of the Turkish diet. Bread is treated with respect, kissed and held to the forehead before being thrown away. Rarely wasted, stale bread is ingeniously used to swell soups such as kôy çorbası; soaked in water, squeezed dry and pounded with olive oil, vinegar and crushed garlic to make sarmısaklı sos to accompany deep-fried seafood; or soaked in syrup like the popular Palace pudding, ekmek kadayıf. In the villages of Anatolia bread is often baked in outdoor clay kilns by burying the dough in the ashes or by sticking it to the sides. Both leavened and unleavened breads are eaten with every meal, broken up and used as a scoop, a shovel or a mop to ensure that every juicy morsel of food is devoured. For some, a meal can only be enjoyed and savoured with bread.