Maraş dondurması

Maraş dondurması is a Turkish ice cream variety with a firm, stretchy and very sticky texture, made with milk, sugar, salep and mastic. It takes its name from Maraş, the former name of the city of Kahramanmaraş, and it is one of the best-known ice creams in Turkish ice cream shops.

History

Ice cream in Turkey dates back to the Ottoman period, when its recipe was kept secret for around 300 years, according to the sources. At a later stage, a Syrian merchant took the technique from Istanbul to Damascus, where a local version called booza emerged, lighter and fluffier than the Turkish one. Persia also developed its own ice cream, bastani sonnati, which included egg and was served with Persian desserts.

Food historian Priscilla Mary Işın notes that it is unknown when salep-based ice cream was first made. The oldest recipe she documents appears in a cookbook from 1882: sugar, milk and salep are cooked together, the mixture is beaten with snow and served at the desired texture. While Italian recipes thickened ice cream with eggs, Turkish makers used salep. The ice cream was made in a lead and tin container with a lid and a turning crank, set inside a larger bucket with a drain tap, so it could be stirred without opening the lid.

Culture

Dövme dondurma, a name linked to the Turkish verb dövmek (to stick), is prepared by beating the mixture with a wooden or metal stick. Its high salep and mastic content gives it an elastic texture that can be eaten with a knife and fork. The food writer Holly Chase calls it one of the sensual pleasures of Turkish gastronomy, and the Lonely Planet guide describes it as "insanely rich".

It is sold from street carts and from shops. Vendors are part of the attraction, performing magic tricks and practical jokes, such as presenting the cone on a long pole and taking the ice cream away as they spin it, or serving it with an extra cone that falls off when the pole is lifted. These routines attract customers and entertain people waiting in line. In some places it is customary to treat the ice cream like a shawarma and cut it with a butcher's knife. Today the Turkish company MADO produces it with modern techniques and raises goats for the milk it needs.

Trivia