A traditional helva in Turkey: Koz helva

WFL Publisher
Science and Technology
Meri-Rastilantie 3 B, FI-00980
Helsinki, Finland
e-mail: [email protected]
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment Vol.8 (2): 213-215. 2010
www.world-food.net
A traditional helva in Turkey: Koz helva
Nazan Aktaş * and M. Ali Cebirbay
Nutrition Education Department, Faculty of Vocation Education, Selcuk University, Alaaddin Keykubat Campus,
P. O. Box 42075, Konya, Turkey. *e-mail: [email protected]
Received 18 January 2010, accepted 18 April 2010.
Abstract
This study aimed to record the ingredients, recipe and production stages of koz helva, and to make it known internationally. The qualitative research
method was used in the study and the data were collected in the Western Black Sea Region in Turkey. The components of helva were sugar, drinking
water, Radix saponariae Albae sive L. root extract, sour salt and walnut. In production phase of koz helva production, some similarities and
differences were found between the traditional and industrial production methods. The standard recipes be determined, and research-development
activities be held to put this traditional product into international food market.
Key words: Helva, Turkish helva, koz helva, traditional food, helva process.
Introduction
Cuisine culture has increasingly been shared among the countries
in accordance with globalization, as a result of which people living
in remote places have had the chance of trying different foods
with different organoleptic peculiarities and production stages.
Turkish cuisine takes place among the richest cuisines in the world,
with its peculiar characteristics like its variety, tastes, kitchen
architecture, utensils, cooking, treating and keeping methods. The
geographical richness and geo-strategically position of Turkey
and the historical and cultural heritage of previous civilizations
which lived there have had significant impacts in the development
of Turkish cuisine culture 1-5. Helvas, one of the significant
components of Turkish cuisine, has a ritual, holly and cultural
significance among Turkish desserts as a food served on holy or
special days like birth, wedding and death ceremonies 1, 6.
In Turkey, helva primarily means a dessert made from wheat
flour and semolina roasted in butter with the addition of sugar
syrup. However, there are also many other helva concoctions
prepared industrially with different ingredients and various
sensory properties 1.
Helva is known as halawa, halva, halvah, halava, helva and
halwa in different languages, and considered as a special dessert
of Middle Eastern, Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asian
countries, African countries and Turkey 6-11.The name helva is
derived from hulv meaning sweet in Arabic 6. According to the
Turkish Food Codex, helva is counted in the desserts group, and
cited as a dessert prepared by cooking the sufficient amount of
Radix saponariae Albae sive L. root extract and white egg with
sucrose or glucose and walnut, nut or pistachio. The volume of
tahin helva production is in the range of 35,000 and 40,000 tons in
Turkey, which is one of the significant helva-producing countries
as regards the product variety 6, 12. In Turkey, there are many
types of helvas produced with different methods, such as tahin
(paste of sesame) helva, kâğıt helva, çekme helva and koz helva 12.
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.8 (2), April 2010
Koz is a Turkish word which means walnut in English. The main
aim of this study was to investigate the ingredients, recipe and
flow sheet of koz helva in order to introduce it as a traditional
product in literature and to make it known internationally.
Materials and Methods
In this study, the qualitative method was used and the data were
collected from 9 interviewees having source person peculiarities
in the West Black Sea Region of Turkey, some of whom are over
30 years old experienced foremen in different helva factories, and
some of whom are the factory owners. The semi-structured
interview form was prepared by the researcher and the data were
collected in the months between January and March, 2009. The
audio-visual data related with participants were also recorded
respecting their permission. The questions regarding the
demographic features of the interviewees, utensils, and stages in
helva production were included in the semi-structured interview
forms. The duration of the interviews varied from 40 to 60 minutes.
The data obtained by means of the survey form, and audio-visual
recordings were evaluated according to the descriptive analyzing
methods.
Results
The findings showed that traditional koz helva was produced in
small factories at certain times of the year in the past, however,
nowadays, it is produced by small and medium sized enterprises
at all times throughout the year 13-16. In recent years, industrially
produced koz helva has had the production license given by
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs 16. The main ingredients
of traditional koz helva are sugar, drinking water, Radix saponariae
Albae sive L. root extract, sour salt and walnut. Today, in industrial
production, liquid glucose instead of sugar, citric acid (E330)
instead of sour salt and industrially produced Radix saponariae
213
Albae sive L. root extract instead of its traditionally produced
form can be used as components 17. In Turkey, Radix saponariae
Albae sive L. root extract has been used to bleach of helva, to
prevent the separation of sesame oil from helva, to improve the
textural properties and to increase the volume of helva 12.
Traditional koz helva production: A traditional copper cauldron
or an industrial agent in which Radix saponariae Albae sive L.
root is mixed, a wooden peel to mix the mixture, and metal, wooden,
or plastic moulds are the main tools used in koz helva production.
In traditional way of koz helva production, piren, a plant from
Ericaceae family, designed like a whisk, is used to mix and bleach
the Radix saponariae Albae sive L. root extract in the copper
cauldron. In the industrial way of koz helva production, mixing
machine has replaced the piren 13, 18-20, . Koz helva is traditionally
produced in three stages; supply of the ingredients and preparation,
heating process and mixing, moulding-packaging 14, 16, 21, 22. The
production stage of traditional koz helva is shown in Figure 1.
Water Sugar
Radix saponariae Albae sive
L. Root Extract
Weighing
Sour Salt
Heating
Mixing and
Bleaching
Mixing and
Boiling
~140-150°C
Walnut
Cooling
~ 85-90°C
Moulding
sour salt dissolved in water is added in the mixture before it boils,
and the other half is added after it boils 19, 20, 22. Radix saponariae
Albae sive L. root extract is added a few minutes after the boiling
process is stopped. The boiled mixture is added with walnuts and
cooled until it gets 85-90°C. Mixing is kept on until the ingredients
are spread homogenously 13, 14, 17, 22, 23.
Moulding-packaging: The mixture added with walnuts is poured
into rectangular moulds made of copper or plastic with capacity
of 5, 10 or 15 kg for 24 hours. The helvas taken out of the moulds
are cut into 500 g, 1 kg and 2 kg pieces with cutting tools like
chops and put into vacuumed packs. The wrappings made of
plastic are used in packaging. The claimed shelf life of the packaged
helva is stated as 12 months at +4°C in terms of the permission
license taken from the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Affairs. The production and consumption rates of the walnut
helva is said to increase before feasts, Muslim holy days. The
walnut helvas were also found to have been produced
industrially at all times throughout the year in recent years, and
exported to many other countries in the world, mainly to the
European ones 13, 14, 16, 17, 22, 23.
Conclusions
The findings revealed that the main ingredients and cooking
utensils used in koz helva production varied according to the
traditional and industrial production processes. The stages
followed in the production of koz helva are as follows; the supply
and preparation of components, heating process and mixing, and
moulding-packaging. Koz helva should be evaluated as an
alternative food among the other different helvas due to its simple
production process, its traditional characteristics and different
organoleptic peculiarities. It is also recommended that standard
recipes be determined, and research-development activities as
well as innovative approaches be held to put koz helva into
international food market as a traditional product.
Packaging
Storage
Figure 1. The flow sheet of koz helva.
Acknowledgements
The study is the revised version of the orally presented paper at
2nd Traditional Foods Symposium in 27-30 May 2009, Van-Turkey.
References
Supply of the ingredients and preparation: In this stage of koz
helva production, sugar, drinking water, sour salt, walnut and Radix
saponariae Albae sive L. root are supplied. As a first step in
traditional method of preparing the Radix saponariae Albae sive
L. root extract, Radix saponariae Albae sive L. root is washed
and broken into pieces, and soaked in water for 24 hours. Then,
these roots are boiled 4 times and then filtered 22. Radix saponariae
Albae sive L. root extract, whether produced traditionally or
purchased commercially, is prepared by beating the plant using a
piren or mixing machines. The sour salt is dissolved in water to
add into mixture 16, 19, 21.
Heating process and mixing: In the stage of heating process and
mixing, sugar, drinking water and sour salt dissolved in water are
put into a copper cauldron, mixed continuously and boiled at
approximately 140-150°C for 20-30 min 16, 17. According to some
data, all of the sour salt dissolved in water is put into the mixture
before it boils. However, some interviewers say that half of the
214
1
Baysal, A. 2002. Beslenme Kültürümüz. Ministry of Culture and
Tourism, Publish Number 1230/389,3rd edn. Department of Cultural
Monuments, Ankara, pp.121-122.
2
Sürücüoğlu, M. S. and Özçelik, A. Ö. 2008. Türk Mutfak ve Beslenme
Kültürünün Tarihsel Gelişimi. 38th International Congress of Asian
and North African Studies (ICANAS). Congress Book 3:1289-1310.
3
Şanlıer, N. 2005. Yerli ve Yabanci Turistlerin Türk Mutfaği Hakkindaki
Görüşleri. Gazi University. Gazi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi 25(1):213227.
4
Tezcan, M. 1982. Türklerde Yemek Yeme Alışkanlıkları ve Buna Ilişkin
Davranış Kaliplari. Türk Mutfağı Sempozyum Bildirileri, Ankara
University Publishing, Ankara.
5
Yücecan, S. 1992. Türklerde Beslenme Kültürü. Dördüncü Milletlerarası
Yemek Kongresi Bildiriler Kitabı, Ankara, pp.291-297.
6
Birer, S. 1985. Tahin Helvasının Yapılışı ve Beslenmemizdeki Yeri. Gıda
10:133-135.
7
Abdülkadiroğlu, A. 2002. Yemek Kitabı. M. Sabri Koz. Kitapevi
Publishing, Çalış Offset, İstanbul, pp. 524-525.
8
Abu Jdayil, B. 2004. Flow properties of sweetened saseme paste
(Halawa Tehineh). European Food Research Technology 219:265-272.
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.8 (2), April 2010
9
Davidson, A. 1999. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University
Press Included, New York, United States of America.
10
Sarıçoban, C. and Karakaya, M. 2004. Geleneksel Gıdalardan Köpük
Helvanın Endüstriyel Ölçekte Üretimi. 1st Traditional Food Symposium,
Symposium Book, Van.
11
Şavkay, T. 2000. Türk ve Dünya Tatlıları-Tatlı Kitap. Şekerbank
Limited Company and Radikal Newspaper Publications, Detay Press,
İstanbul, pp. 154-155.
12
Offical Paper 2008. Official notification for Tahin Helva (Paper No:
2008/6). Publish Date: 05 March 2008. Ankara, Turkey.
13
Özkök, İ. 2009. Interview (59 years old). Zevk Şekerleme Company,
Yeniçağa, Bolu, Turkey.
14
Maden, Ş. 2009. Interview (60 years old). Zarif Tat ve Lokumları
Company, Safranbolu, Karabük, Turkey.
15
Sezer, A. 2009. Interview (53 years old). İmren Lokumları Limited
Company, Safranbolu, Karabük, Turkey.
16
Varol, T. 2009. Interview (36 years old). Varol-Helva Candy Limited
Company, Gerede, Bolu, Turkey.
17
Çelik, R. 2009. Interview. (51 years old), Safran-Tat Gıda Turizm
Limited Company, Safranbolu, Karabük, Turkey.
18
Baytop, T. 1994. Türkçe Bitki Adları Sözlüğü. Atatürk Kültür, Dil ve
Tarih Yüksek Kurumu, Türk Dil Kurumu Publications, Publication
No: 578, Ankara.
19
Bilen, H. 2009. Interview (57 years old). Bilen Helva Limited Company.
Gerede, Bolu, Turkey.
20
Cavlak, İ. 2009. Interview (43 years old). Bereket Helva Leather and
Food Products Limited Company, Gerede Sanayi Sitesi A Blok No:8/
5, Gerede, Bolu, Turkey.
21
Yaman, I. 2009. Interview (63 years old). Tabakhane Mevkii, Gerede,
Bolu, Turkey.
22
Dilber, A. and Karakaya, M. 2009. Tak Tak Helva. 2nd Traditional
Food Symposium, Symposium Book, Van, pp. 377-379.
23
Güngör, H. 2009. Interview (31 years old). Safran-Tat Food-Tourism
Limited Company, Safranbolu, Karabük, Turkey.
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.8 (2), April 2010
215