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From Peynir Helvası to Hayrabolu Tatlısı

Most readers picture the Tekirdağ table as a table built on meat. Yet the sweet side of the province is at least as distinctive as its köfte, and the main ingredient on that side is, surprisingly, cheese.

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From Peynir Helvası to Hayrabolu Tatlısı

Most readers picture the Tekirdağ table as a table built on meat. Yet the sweet side of the province is at least as distinctive as its köfte, and the main ingredient on that side is, surprisingly, cheese. Two desserts made from fresh unsalted cheese, Tekirdağ peynir helvası and Hayrabolu tatlısı, today stand as two separate products in the geographical indication records of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. One is stirred in a pan until it turns into a stringy halva, the other is baked in an oven and soaked in syrup. This article describes the two desserts through their registration documents, the local cuisine page of the Tekirdağ Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the traditional recipes on the Culture Portal, and adds a third registered halva to the list.

A halva that parts ways with höşmerim

The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism writes that about 70 percent of the main ingredients of Tekirdağ peynir helvası is fresh unsalted cheese. In many parts of Anatolia a similar dessert is made under the name höşmerim. According to the directorate, two differences give the Tekirdağ product a name of its own. The first is the use of flour instead of semolina in the halva. The second is the formation of the stringy texture typical of this halva. This texture, which separates into thread like fibres when cut with a spoon, is the dessert's mark of recognition.

The recipe in the registration

Tekirdağ Peynir Helvası was registered on 9 September 2020 under number 525 as a mark of origin. The application was filed on 5 February 2016 by the Tekirdağ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the geographical boundary is the whole province of Tekirdağ. The document gives the proportions clearly. A little more than half of the mix is unsalted fresh cheese curd, nearly a third is white sugar, and the rest is wheat flour and a small amount of sunflower oil. Egg yolk or carotene is used for colour. According to the document the halva is bright yellow, even in texture and stringy or fibrous in appearance; it must not be sticky or crystallised. No preservatives are used in its production.

Making the curd

The quality of the halva starts with the cheese, and the registration therefore describes the cheese too. The milk comes from cows raised in Tekirdağ and is heated to between 36 and 40 degrees. It is then poured into a cheese vat lined with a straining cloth and rennet is added. The rennet is mixed with a measure of water and spread evenly through the milk, and there is a wait while it sets. The document puts this wait at between 13 and 30 minutes. Whether the curd is ready to cut is judged with a stainless steel knife dipped into it; if no trace of milk is left on the blade, the curd is ready. The curd is broken into pieces of about two centimetres, the whey is drained and weights are placed on top. The document asks for pressing for one to one and a half hours, so that most of the whey drains away.

A balancing act in the pan

The real skill begins with the cooking. The chopped cheese goes into the cooking pan, and a little sunflower oil is added so that it does not burn. Heating is done over a lively fire, and when the cheese reaches 83 to 85 degrees, egg yolk or carotene is added for colour. Once the cheese melts and thickens, the flour is added, and stirring continues until the smell of raw flour is gone. Here the document also gives a warning. If cooking goes on too long, the fibrous texture does not form; if it is too short, the cheese does not bind with the flour, and the halva weeps and looks dull. Finally the sugar is added and stirred until it dissolves. The halva is cooled to near room temperature and filled into containers.

Who does the checking

The registrations of both desserts also set out how the rules are monitored. For peynir helvası, inspection is carried out, under the coordination of the Tekirdağ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, by a three person board of experts from the chamber, the Department of Food Engineering at the Faculty of Agriculture of Namık Kemal University and the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry. The board traces through invoices whether the milk comes from cows raised in Tekirdağ, and checks the quantities of the ingredients, whether the colour is bright yellow and the texture fibrous, and the conditions of storage and transport. For Hayrabolu tatlısı, inspection is coordinated by Hayrabolu Municipality. The board includes one expert each from the municipality, the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry, the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the district chamber of tradesmen, and inspection takes place regularly once a year and at any time after a complaint.

Copper pot and wooden spoon

The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the Culture Portal also describe the traditional way of making the same dessert at home. In this method the fresh cheese is melted in a copper pot over a normal flame, stirred with a wooden spoon or a thin wooden rolling pin. As soon as the cheese, now as thin as milk, begins to firm up, flour is sprinkled in little by little and stirring never stops. The Culture Portal bases this recipe on a symposium paper presented at Namık Kemal University and notes that roughly 200 grams of flour and 300 grams of sugar can be used for a kilogram of cheese. The same page writes that egg yolk may be added before the flour. The halva is poured into a tray and served hot or cold.

From kadı göbeği to Hayrabolu tatlısı

The province's second cheese dessert comes from Hayrabolu district. According to its registration document, the dessert began to be made in Hayrabolu in 1972 and in its early years was known as Kadı Göbeği Tatlısı. Over time it took the name of the district; in the Thracian dialect it is also pronounced Hayrabol, and because it contains cheese it is also called peynir tatlısı. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism writes that the dessert soon became known all over Turkey, but because it could not be kept for long it was produced in small quantities for many years. According to the directorate, new production and packaging methods have in recent years made it available in every month of the year. Hayrabolu Tatlısı was registered on 9 August 2021 as mark of origin number 839, on the application of Hayrabolu Municipality, and its geographical boundary is the district itself.

From the oven into the syrup

The main ingredient of Hayrabolu tatlısı is fresh unsalted cheese made from the milk of cows fed on the plains of the district. More than half of the mix in the registration is cheese; semolina, egg, a little flour and bicarbonate of soda go in alongside it. The cheese, drained of all its whey, is broken up in a machine, kneaded with the other ingredients, and without resting the dough is cut into half spheres and set out on trays. The pieces are baked quickly in a very hot oven and cooled at room temperature. They are then boiled in a syrup of sugar, water and lemon juice. In the syrup recipe of the registration, sugar and water are equal in weight and the lemon juice is only a spoonful. While the pieces boil in the syrup, they are turned from time to time so that every side takes in the syrup. The home recipe on the Culture Portal follows the same path, but uses equal amounts of semolina and flour and bakes the dessert longer at a medium heat.

On the plate and taking it home

According to the document, Hayrabolu tatlısı may be topped, as you prefer, with crushed walnuts, hazelnuts, tahini and clotted cream. On the plate at the top of this article you see a Hayrabolu tatlısı coated in tahini and covered with crushed hazelnuts. The dessert is sold in two forms. The syruped version should be eaten within ten days, provided it is kept cold. The version that is dried in the oven and packed keeps for up to eight months and is the easiest choice to take home. At home you only need to boil the dry dessert in syrup. Peynir helvası, on the other hand, is a fresh product; according to its registration it is kept cold, carried without breaking the cold chain, and its use by date is thirty days from production.

A third halva on the list

The registered sweets of Tekirdağ do not end with these two. Tekirdağ Bulama, registered on 24 December 2024 under number 1678 on the application of Süleymanpaşa Municipality, is also listed in its document as a kind of halva. Bulama is made not with cheese but with grape must or grape molasses, and it is also called solid molasses. What gives the molasses its firmness and pale colour is a liquid obtained by boiling the roots of soapwort, known locally as çöven. Traditionally the Yapıncak grape is used, and when it is made with this grape no sugar needs to be added. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism describes bulama as a cream coloured dessert with the consistency of clotted cream, and writes that its making is spread over three days.

How to taste them

The best time to taste peynir helvası is the day it is made, because the fibrous texture is most pronounced when it is fresh. Taste it warm and you find a soft, stretchy consistency; taste it cold and you find a firmer texture; both forms are true to the tradition. Trying Hayrabolu tatlısı with tahini or with clotted cream is a way to get to know the serving styles listed in its registration. When you buy, look for the mark of origin emblem on the packaging or in the business; both registrations require the logo to be clearly displayed. If you are heading to Hayrabolu, check your route and visiting days in current announcements. On the way back to the city centre, a short walk along the shore rounds off this sweet break.

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