Çorum Cuisine
From leblebi to İskilip dolması, from keşkek to dried mantı — Çorum's millennia-old culinary heritage, with the story behind each dish.
Çorum Roasted Chickpeas (Leblebi)
Çorum's signature snack: double-roasted yellow leblebi made from soaked, rested chickpeas peeled with a wooden tool call
İskilip Dolması
A traditional İskilip wedding dish in which meat and rice are slow-cooked for hours in giant cauldrons, the rice steamed
Sırık Kebabı
A ceremonial Çorum kebab, especially famous around Kargı, in which a whole lamb or kid is skewered on a spit and slow-ro
Çorum Simit (Çorum Bagel)
A thin-ring simit with a glossy, molasses-coated sesame crust and a crisp bite — the companion of Çorum's morning tea; g
Çorum Tandır Ekmeği (Tandır Bread)
Thin flatbread baked on a saj over a wood-fired tandır oven sunk into the ground: the winter preparation ritual and tabl
Keşkek
A ceremonial wedding and special-occasion dish made by slow-cooking and pounding cracked wheat together with meat until
Çorum Dry Mantı (Kuru Mantı)
A geographical-indication dumpling unique to Çorum: rolled dough filled with minced meat in small pieces, dried for stor
Osmancık Rice
The Osmancık-97 variety, registered in 1997, became the flagship of Turkish rice: the grain-by-grain pilaf rice of Osman
Madımak
Wild madımak greens cooked with plain butter (and sometimes pastırma or meat) — a traditional herb dish of Çorum tables.
İskilip Pickles (Turşu)
A geographical-indication regional pickle unique to İskilip, made by preserving various vegetables using traditional met
Toyga Aşı
A nourishing yoghurt soup of cracked wheat, chickpeas and yoghurt — the soup of Çorum's winter and wedding tables.
Tutmaç Aşı
A hearty dish of lentils, small cut noodles and garlicky yoghurt — one of Çorum's most rooted aş (soup-meals).
Tatar Aşı
Parcel-shaped dough filled with minced meat, served in a garlicky yoghurt broth — a Çorum dish between mantı and soup.
Oğmaç Soup
A hearty village soup of Çorum and Central Anatolia: bits of hand-rolled dough simmered in a tomato-paste and butter bro
Kargı Tulum Cheese
A geographical-indication cheese unique to Çorum's Kargı district, matured in a skin (tulum) by traditional methods, wit
Oğuzlar Walnut
A geographical-indication regional walnut unique to Çorum's Oğuzlar district, known for its large kernels and high-quali
Hingal
A traditional dough dish of the Çorum region: rolled dough boiled and served with yoghurt and butter; the Alaca Hingali
Yanıç
A local saç (griddle) pastry from the gözleme-katmer family: thin yufka dough filled with minced meat, cheese or spinach
Kömbe
A traditional baked pastry of the Çorum region, usually made from plain or sweetened dough; often prepared for special o
Has Baklava
A traditional Çorum baklava made from thin layers of pastry with walnuts and syrup; the classic dessert of wedding table
Teltel
A pişmaniye-like sweet unique to Çorum, made by pulling sugar syrup with roasted flour and leblebi (roasted-chickpea) po
Hasıda
A traditional Çorum pudding-paste sweet made by thickening starch with water and sugar or grape molasses and butter.
Çorum Beşlisi (The Çorum Five)
Çorum's traditional wedding and engagement spread: wedding soup, yahni, pilaf, su böreği and baklava — a five-course fea
Beans with Egg (Yumurtlama)
A hearty Çorum village dish: cooked beans warmed in butter and finished with eggs cracked straight over the top.
Egg Salad
Hard-boiled village eggs mashed with butter or tossed with onion and parsley — the humble pride of Çorum's breakfast tab
Boiled Potatoes
Potatoes boiled in their skins and served with butter, red pepper flakes and cumin — the hearty hot dish of Çorum's vill
Eggy Bread
Bread slices dipped in beaten egg and fried in butter — the quick, beloved hot dish of Çorum breakfast tables.
Rosehip Pervede (Jam)
Rosehip jam the Çorum way: 'pervede' is the local dialect word for fruit marmalade, and this one is cooked from hedgerow
Hawthorn Molasses (Alıç Pekmezi)
A village molasses of Çorum made from alıç — the wild hawthorn fruit — simmered, strained and reduced on autumn firewood
İskilip Preserved Mushrooms
Wild mushrooms — kanlıca and morel among them — gathered in the forests of İskilip and jarred as winter stores in the di
Alaca Borani
A yoghurt-based traditional dish unique to Alaca, prepared with egg or mushroom; a GI-registered dish served at weddings
Alaca Cızlağı (Çizlak)
A liquid batter of flour, water, milk, egg and yeast cooked on a griddle or pan; a GI-registered Alaca specialty named a
Çorum Su Böreği
A layered pastry made by briefly boiling thin sheets of yufka dough and baking them in stacked layers; Çorum's GI-regist
Çorum Şekerlemesi
A dough of melted butter, powdered sugar and flour shaped into flowers and wheat-ear motifs and lightly baked; Çorum's G
İskilip Baklava (Gül Baklavası)
A baklava unique to İskilip, rolled in five traditional shapes — gül (rose), döşeme, şıkırdım, gazete and bülbül yuvası;
İskilip Ramadan Keşkek
Cracked wheat and bone-in meat slow-cooked for around eight hours in clay pots in a stone oven; İskilip's GI-registered
İskilip Vinegar Salad
The indispensable side to İskilip Dolması, dressed with İskilip's black grape vinegar; a GI-registered local salad.
İskilip Strawberries
Strawberries grown in İskilip's distinctive microclimate, protected as a GI-registered local agricultural product.
Alaca Purple Onion (Alaca Moru)
Dark red-purple, with a shiny, tough skin and a sharp, tangy aroma; Alaca's GI-registered agricultural signature crop.
Alaca Yarma Aşı
Cracked durum wheat cooked with chickpeas, kidney beans and braised beef, locally known as 'diri aş'; a GI-registered Al
Alaca Çılbır
Eggs poached in a tomato-paste sauce, enriched with minced meat or onion versions; a GI-registered Alaca dish, distinct
Çiğdem Aşı (Crocus Soup)
A traditional Çorum spring dish made from wild crocus (çiğdem) gathered in the mountains, kept alive through festivals a
Çorum Yırtma Yemeği
Grape leaves cooked together with bone-in lamb and cracked wheat, named after the leaves being torn by hand; a GI-regist
Çorum Mayalı Breads: Tava and Saç Mayalısı
Çorum's everyday yeasted flatbreads: thin tava mayalısı fried in oil, and the thicker griddle-baked saç mayalısı, locall
Çatal Aşı Soup
A green lentil and cracked-wheat soup simmered with butter-fried onion, mint and red pepper — a simple winter soup from
Sıkma Baklava
A twisted, walnut-filled baklava shape — one of three traditional forms of the GI-registered Çorum Baklavası; the thick
Gül Baklava
Strips of yufka rolled around walnuts into a rose shape — one of three traditional forms of the GI-registered Çorum Bakl
Katık Dolması
A Çorum Ramadan dolma: dried eggplant and peppers stuffed with a minced-meat rice filling, served with warm yoghurt pour
Kaypak (Osmancık Kaypak Yemeği)
A GI-registered Osmancık dough dish: stiff dough cut into squares, boiled, then topped with tulum cheese or yoghurt.
Efelik Sarması
A wild dock-leaf sarma: efelik (labada/evelik) leaves rolled around a rice filling, a spring dish of Çorum's villages on
Kargı Kirli Saç Kebabı
A Kargı specialty of lamb slow-cooked with vegetables on a large griddle over an open fire; the dish's geographical indi
Dodurga Kapari Turşusu
A regional pickle made from the buds of the caper plant grown on Dodurga's arid land; its geographical indication applic
Kışlacık Pırasası
A geographical-indication leek grown mounded in soil in the village of Kışlacık, Mecitözü, prized for its soft white sta
Laçin Kızılca Armudu
Also known locally as 'Orak Armudu,' an early-ripening native pear variety from Laçin whose geographical indication appl
Baharatlı Bayat Dolması
A spiced stuffed dish from Bayat district, made with rice or bulgur and olive oil — distinct from İskilip dolması, with
Alaca Cuisine: Flavours Awaiting Geographical Indication
A dozen Alaca dishes — from bread to mantı, from casserole to keşkek — that Alaca Municipality applied for as a batch wi
Söbelek Dolması (Stuffed Morel Mushrooms)
Wild morel mushrooms stuffed with a bulgur or rice filling, a seasonal dish native to Çorum, especially the Kargı distri
Borhani
A traditional Çorum dish with three versions — dough-based, egg-based and mushroom-based — cooked and then served with y
Helise
Cracked wheat cooked with a little oil, pounded together with separately cooked lean meat — a Çorum dish related to keşk
Hedik
Whole, unground cracked wheat mixed with a little chickpea and bean, cooked to a thick soup, then topped with grape mola
Unutma Beni (Poor Man's Baklava)
Dry yufka bread topped with a boiled molasses-and-butter mixture and walnuts — a Çorum dessert also known as "züğürt bak
Karaçuval Helvası
Flour lightly fried in oil, brought together with grape molasses into a halva and shaped into small pieces — a tradition
Kargı Flower Okra
Okra picked when just one day old, still bearing its flower, and dried strung on lines in the Kargı district — favoured
Lesser-Known Flavours of Çorum Cuisine
Six Çorum flavours named in official sources but with limited detailed recipe information: Helle Aşı, Düğül Aşı, Çullama