Skip to main content
Radar Türkiye
Discover events in the app
Open
Radar Türkiye

The Safranbolu Table, From Saffron to Turkish Delight

Safranbolu takes its name from a flower. For centuries the red stigmas of that flower dyed the town's dishes yellow and lent their scent to its sweets.

Radar TürkiyeRadar Türkiye25 Ekim 2026
No ratings yet

Sign in to like and rate

The Safranbolu Table, From Saffron to Turkish Delight

Safranbolu takes its name from a flower. For centuries the red stigmas of that flower dyed the town's dishes yellow and lent their scent to its sweets. Today most visitors leave with a box of lokum, Turkish delight, but the Safranbolu table is far wider than lokum. The Karabük Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism writes that research on the province's cuisine has recorded more than 100 dishes. This article follows, through the sources, a table that runs from saffron to zerde, from bükme to peruhi and on to the registered lokum, and explains how to seek out these flavours in town.

The flower behind the name

Saffron is a bulbous plant closely related to the crocus. According to the Safranbolu Tourist Information Office it grows to an average height of 20 to 25 centimetres. The bulbs are planted in August and September, and in October the plant opens funnel shaped purple flowers. In the centre of each flower sit three part, reddish orange stigmas. These stigmas are what is used as the spice. They are picked before sunrise, separated one by one by hand and dried. The same source states that about 1430 stigmas are needed for roughly 10 grams of saffron. This labour is what explains the value and the high price of saffron.

The dyeing power of saffron is extraordinary. The Tourist Information Office writes that it can colour water weighing 100 thousand times its own weight yellow. Until synthetic dyes appeared it was used in pharmacy and in the dye industry. According to the source, in the mid 19th century a large share of the saffron exported from the Ottoman state was produced in Safranbolu. The town's name comes from this history. English Wikipedia reports that the name derives from saffron and the Greek word polis, meaning city.

Production declined over time. Today saffron is grown in the villages of Davutobası, Geren and Aşağı Güney. As Anadolu Agency reported in 2024, in 2023 twenty eight producers in eight villages of the district planted saffron on 81 decares. Safranbolu saffron received a geographical indication registration from the European Union on 17 January 2024 and became Türkiye's first spice registered in the European Union. The application had been made in 2022 by the Safranbolu Chamber of Craftsmen and Tradesmen. If you want to see saffron in the field, choose October. According to the source the stigmas are picked before sunrise, so work in the fields starts very early in the morning.

Zerde, the sweet of saffron

The best known form of saffron at the table is zerde. The Tourist Information Office says that in town a rice pudding called zerde is made with saffron. According to the recipe on the Culture Portal, the saffron is soaked in advance, the rice is boiled and the soaked saffron is added to it. For a jelly like consistency, starch is diluted and stirred into the mixture, and sugar is added. The pudding is poured into bowls and decorated with pistachios. The Karabük Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism adds in its recipe that the saffron is soaked until its colour comes out and that the sugar goes in shortly before the pot comes off the heat. According to the Culture Portal zerde is served in town above all on holidays. Its colour shows at the first touch of the spoon. A good zerde is a bright, translucent yellow.

A town of pastry

The sources say that Safranbolu cuisine is rich in dough dishes. The list of the Karabük Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism includes gözleme, stuffed vine leaves, yayım, peruhi, bandırma, sini çöreği, çullu börek, bazlama, su böreği, home made baklava, höşmerim and haluşka. Among Safranbolu dishes it also names long green beans, sliced beans, ekşili kelle, kuru çörek, göbü, flour halva, delioğlan sarığı and oklava dolaması.

Bükme is the best known name on this list. According to the Culture Portal, Safranbolu bükme is an important part of the family weekend table. A filling of fried minced meat, finely chopped onion, spinach or chard, parsley and black pepper is placed inside thinly rolled pide dough and baked in the oven. Once cooked it is brushed with butter and served hot. The source also writes that bükme is served together with kiren sherbet.

At first glance peruhi looks like mantı, but its filling is different. According to the recipe of the Karabük Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, a dough kneaded with flour, water and egg is rolled out 2 millimetres thick and cut into 5 centimetre squares. Strained yoghurt prepared with mint and salt is placed in the middle and the dough is closed into a triangle. It is boiled in water, drained and drizzled with sizzling butter. Yayım is home made pasta. It is boiled and drained, and topped as desired with minced meat, walnuts, dried curd or yoghurt, then drizzled with butter. The dish takes its name from the topping.

Höşmerim belongs to the sweet side of this table. According to the same source, flour and egg are blended and shaped into small balls, which are fried in fat until they turn pink. Shortly before the pan comes off the heat crushed walnuts are added, and then warm sugar syrup is poured over.

Pit kebab and the highland table

The pit kebab made in the south of Safranbolu calls for special craftsmanship. According to the Culture Portal, wood is first burned in specially built pits to prepare embers. A seasoned lamb is lowered into the pit on hooks, and the top of the pit is closed and sealed with mud. The meat cooks in its own steam and is then pulled apart and served hot.

The tables of the province's other districts have their own character too. The Karabük Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism lists tarhana, uğmaç soup, mıhlama and starch halva in Eflani, black cabbage, corn soup and a walnut halva made only in Yenice, and göce soup, çul böreği and walnut bread in Ovacık. In the black cabbage dish known as kara mancar, the cabbage is cooked with cracked corn, dried beans, leeks and squash. In autumn, saffron milk caps and other mushrooms gathered from the forests go into dishes and pastries. The sources also write that households prepared dried mince, preserved meat, tarhana, grape molasses, fruit leather, dried fruit and all kinds of jams, from cornelian cherry to quince, for the winter.

The registered lokum

In the words of the sources, Safranbolu lokum is as famous as the Safranbolu houses. According to registration certificate number 183 of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, Safranbolu lokum was registered as a designation of origin on 15 July 2014. The application had been filed on 22 May 2006, and the registration is deemed valid from that date. The geographical boundary is the district of Safranbolu.

Lokum itself has an older story. According to the Safranbolu Tourist Information Office its name derives from the phrase rahat ul-hulkum, meaning that which soothes the throat. It has been known in Anatolia since about the 15th century and became widespread across Ottoman lands in the 17th century. Lokum had earlier been made with honey or grape molasses and flour, and both its making and its taste changed with the arrival of refined sugar and starch. Europe came to know it in the 18th century as Turkish Delight, through an English traveller.

The certificate describes in detail how the lokum is to be made. Production uses water drawn from underground sources within the district, semi hard and slightly astringent to the taste. Sugar, corn starch, water and citric acid are mixed in a copper cauldron. According to the certificate copper is chosen because it cooks the mixture slowly and conducts heat evenly. The mixture is boiled for 3 to 3.5 hours until it reaches the right consistency, poured into smooth surfaced wooden moulds and left to rest for at least 16 hours. It is then taken onto a marble counter spread with coconut, hazelnuts are laid inside, and it is shaped into a long roll called lokum somağı and cut. A single piece is cylindrical and contains at least one hazelnut. Production requires masters with at least five years of experience, and no artificial flavouring, essence or food colouring may be used.

The recipe for saffron lokum is separate. According to the certificate the saffron is steeped in warm water, soapwort water and sugar are whipped into a cream, the cream is folded into the cooled lokum, and then the saffron water and pistachios are added. This variety is cut into cubes. The certificate also records the measures for the rose, mastic and pistachio varieties. The Karabük Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism also mentions a double roasted variety. The Tourist Information Office stresses that Safranbolu lokum is lighter than other kinds and does not leave a sugary taste in the mouth.

Kıtır and other registered flavours

Another registered product of Safranbolu is kıtır. According to a municipal statement reported by NTV in 2021, Safranbolu kıtırı, made with saffron, almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios and flour and keeping its freshness for a long time, earned registration after being published in the geographical indication bulletin of the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. Kıtır is prepared at the municipality's culture and education centre. The Tourist Information Office adds that leaf halva is also a much sought after treat.

How to sit down at the table

You will find most of these flavours in the bazaar quarter of Safranbolu. The Karabük Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism writes that many places to eat and drink have opened in restored houses. On a day trip, keeping bükme for lunch and zerde for the end of the evening makes a good order. Before buying lokum, taste a few varieties and look for the texture described in the registration certificate. The cut surface should be glossy, it should not stick to the teeth or the palate, and it should spring back when pressed between two fingers. When buying saffron, remember the shape of the stigmas the sources describe. Real saffron is fine, three part, reddish orange threads.

If you come in October, the villages where the saffron fields flower and the autumn mushrooms make the table richer still. In the winter months you can trace the winter preparations the sources describe in molasses, fruit leather and jams. Whatever the season, do not limit the Safranbolu table to a box of lokum.

Sources

Comments

0/1000

Be the first to comment