Culinary Glossary — Turkish cuisine terms, tools, techniques

Techniques and verbs

The verbs Turkish recipes use constantly but rarely stop to explain.

Kavurmakto sauté / brown until aromatic: Cooking an ingredient in fat over medium-high heat, without releasing water, until its aroma rises and its colour deepens. Soğan kavurması (onions to glassy-translucent or just-browned) and et kavurması (meat browned for stews) are the two textbook uses.
Demlemekto steep / brew / rest off heat: After taking the pot off the heat, keeping the lid on so trapped steam continues to do work. Tea is demlenir, pilaf is demlenir; the cook continues after the burner is off.
Haşlamakto blanch / boil: Cooking in salted or plain water at boiling point. Short for vegetables (1–3 min), long for legumes (35–45 min).
Kızartmakto deep-fry / shallow-fry: Cooking in oil at 160–180°C until the surface turns golden and the inside is done. Oil too cold → soggy and oil-logged; too hot → burnt outside, raw inside.
Yoğurmakto knead: Pressing and folding dough to develop the gluten network. Bread dough: 8–12 min; mantı / börek dough: shorter.
Mayalamakto leaven / proof: Letting yeasted dough rise in a warm spot. First rise 60–90 min, second rise (after shaping) 30–45 min as a classic baseline.
Terbiye etmekto temper (yoghurt/egg sauce): Adding a yoghurt or egg-lemon mixture to hot soup spoonful by spoonful so the dairy is acclimatised to heat. Done right, the yoghurt doesn't split and the texture stays smooth.
Süzmekto strain / drain: Separating liquid from solid. Yoghurt straining (kese yoghurt), draining the parboil from pilaf, throwing the water off pasta — each with a different purpose.
Dinlendirmekto rest: Letting cooked meat, dough or filled pastry sit. Meat resting (juices redistribute through fibres) and dough resting (gluten relaxes) serve different ends.
Sıkmakto squeeze / wring out: Pressing water out of watery vegetables (zucchini, spinach, cabbage) by hand or in cloth. Required for mücver and börek fillings; skip it and the batter becomes runny.
Yağsız kavurmato toast / dry-roast: Bringing out the aroma of an ingredient (sesame, hazelnut, spices) in a pan with no added fat, using only what's in the seed. This is how tahini begins.
Beyaz pişirmeto poach / cook without colour: Cooking meat or fish without browning — not searing, but gentle heat in water or under a lid. Useful when preparing cold mezze plates.

Cuts and shapes

How something is cut often decides what the dish becomes. The same onion as julienne or as dice ends up in different recipes.

Küp doğramadice / brunoise: Even-sided small cubes (5–10 mm). Standard for salads, sautés and soup bases; everything cooks at the same rate.
Jülyenjulienne / fine strips: Long thin matchsticks (~3 mm × 5 cm). Carrot julienne is the classic case; good for raw salads or a quick sauté.
Halka doğramato ring / slice into rings: Slicing a round vegetable (onion, zucchini, pepper) into equally thick rings. Controls surface area for grilling or roasting.
Yarım ayhalf-moon slice: Halving a round vegetable first, then slicing into thin half-circles. Ideal for sautéing — cooks evenly.
Piyaz doğramasıthin slice for piyaz: Half-moon onion, but ultra-thin (1–2 mm). Salted, rubbed, drained — bitterness pulled out before it goes into piyaz or salad.
Kıyma kıvamıminced / finely chopped: An almost dust-fine chop for parsley, dill, garlic. Done with the blade rocked side to side over the pile.

Tools and vessels

Turkish-kitchen-specific tools, or any tool a recipe names that a reader might pause on.

Kevgirslotted spoon / spider strainer: A wide perforated ladle. Lifts food from boiling water; rescues fritters from frying oil.
Oklavarolling pin (long, thin): A thin wooden pin, 60–100 cm long. Used to roll yufka, baklava and mantı dough; the thin diameter gives precise control.
Sacconvex griddle: A slightly domed, thin metal cooking surface. Gözleme, yufka and sac böreği are cooked on it as thin sheets.
Tandırtandoor / pit oven: A clay oven sunk into the earth or built as a cylinder. Used for tandır bread, tandır kebab and whole-lamb roasting.
Cezveibrik / coffee pot: Small narrow-topped, long-handled copper or brass pot used to brew Turkish coffee directly over flame.
Güveçearthenware pot: A clay pot for slow-cooked dishes (et güveci, fasulye güveci). Holds heat gently and evenly; happy in the oven for hours.
Mangalcharcoal grill

Pantry ingredients

What's always on the Turkish-kitchen shelf — the things that give many dishes their baseline flavour.

Salçatomato/pepper paste: Tomato or red pepper concentrated by long simmering and sun-drying. The base of soups, stews and kebab sauces.See also:
Tarhanafermented yoghurt-grain mix, sun-dried: A winter-pantry powder made by fermenting yoghurt, wheat, vegetables and spices, then drying it in the sun. Cooked with water it becomes tarhana soup.
Pestilfruit leather: Fruit juice (grape, mulberry, apricot) cooked down and dried in thin sheets in the sun. A snack with tea; energy-dense.
Sucukspiced dry sausage: Beef minced with garlic, cumin, sumac and red chilli, stuffed into natural casing and cured. Fried for breakfast.
Pastırmacured beef with çemen crust: Beef cured in salt and spices, then coated in çemen (garlic + red pepper + fenugreek paste) and dried. Sliced paper-thin.
Bulgurcracked parboiled wheat: Wheat parboiled, dried and cracked. Fine grade for köfte, coarse for pilav, dark for çiğ köfte.

Measurement units

What the household measures in Turkish recipes translate to in grams and millilitres.

Su bardağıwater glass: Standard kitchen reference — twice a tea glass: 200 ml. Anchors pilaf and dough measurements.See also:
Çay bardağıtea glass: The narrow-waisted Turkish tea glass: 100 ml. Used for oil in dough, for small portions.
Kahve fincanıcoffee cup: Turkish coffee cup: 60–70 ml. For very small liquid measures (water, milk, cream).
Yemek kaşığıtablespoon: Standard tablespoon: 15 ml liquid; dry, levelled: 10–12 g. Heaped is roughly double.
Tatlı kaşığıdessert spoon: Between tablespoon and teaspoon: levelled 5–6 g, liquid 7 ml.
Çay kaşığıteaspoon: Smallest spoon: levelled 2–3 g, liquid 5 ml. Spice and yeast measurements.
Tutampinch

Dish types

Category names — most carry a method hidden inside the name.

Pilavpilaf: Rice or bulgur sautéed in fat, then cooked in measured water. Many variants: with vermicelli, with meat, with vegetables.See also:
Çorbasoup: A hot starter. Turkish soups split into meat-broth (düğün, işkembe), legume (mercimek, ezogelin) and vegetable (yayla, tarhana) lines.See also:
Dolmastuffed (cold or hot): Vegetable (pepper, zucchini, cabbage leaf, vine leaf) stuffed with rice/bulgur/meat. Olive-oil cold version and meat hot version both exist.
Sarmarolled / wrapped: Filling rolled in a thin leaf (vine, cabbage, chard). Differs from dolma in that the leaf is wrapped, not a vegetable hollowed and filled.
Böreksavoury filled pastry: Yufka or rolled dough layered with cheese, mince, spinach or potato and baked / pan-cooked / sac-cooked.
PideTurkish flatbread / boat pizza: Two meanings: (1) the round leavened Ramadan bread; (2) a boat-shaped dough topped with cheese or mince and baked.

Regional terms

Terms tied to a specific region — not necessarily familiar across the whole country.

MıhlamaBlack Sea fondue-style dish: Black Sea: cornmeal, soft cheese (kolot or lor) and butter cooked into a stretchy soft mass. Served hot, eaten with a spoon.
Kuymakregional name for mıhlama: What other parts of the Black Sea call mıhlama. Same idea: cheese + flour + butter.
Çağ kebabıhorizontal döner from Erzurum: Erzurum: marinated lamb on a horizontal (çağ) spit, cooked over a wood fire. Historically the ancestor of the vertical döner.
Cağhorizontal spit: A horizontally mounted spit. The defining feature that separates çağ kebabı from a vertical döner.
İçli köftestuffed bulgur kibbeh: Southeast: a fine-bulgur shell stuffed with browned onion + mince + walnut, then boiled or fried. Antep and Urfa each have their own variant.
Kısırbulgur salad: Raw fine bulgur kneaded with salça, vegetables and spices. A tea-time classic in Çukurova / the Mediterranean; pomegranate-sour or lemon-led variants exist.