Bingöl çobantaşı kavurması
Slow-cooked kid meat
Bone-in kid meat cooked only with water, salt and its own fat, eaten hot or cold.
Eastern Anatolia
Bingöl
A good way into the Bingöl table is to follow the yogurt: ayran, kurut and garlic yogurt find their way into breads, rice and soups. Even so, the first plate is a strikingly plain one. Çobantaşı kavurması brings bone-in kid meat together with nothing but water, salt and its own fat, and it is eaten hot or cold. Then come the dishes where dough meets dairy: sörin, a baked dough dish dressed with garlic yogurt and browned butter, and keldoş, where hand-shaped bread baked in wood embers meets garlicky kurut and a pour of hot butter. For something sweet there is burma kadayıfı, its strands wrapped around walnuts into rose shapes. The Sivan mulberry molasses that goes into it leads to the Sivan area of Genç, where white mulberry juice is boiled down over oak fires with no additives. The larder holds two more names: Bingöl balı, a polyfloral honey protected in the European Union as a designation of origin, and the large white Yedisu horoz beans that cook without breaking apart. Following that molasses from burma kadayıfı to the oak fires of Sivan makes a fine start to discovering Bingöl and its districts.
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A mountain table of honey and yogurt
Mountain plateaus, lakes and a table rich in dairy.
Signature dishes
Begin with honey, then explore how dough and cultured dairy are combined in substantial dishes.
Bingöl burma kadayıfı
Walnut kadayıf roses
Kadayıf strands rolled around walnuts into rose shapes, baked with clarified butter and Sivan mulberry molasses, then soaked in syrup.
Sörin
Baked dough with garlic yogurt
Thin sheets of dough cut, stacked on a tray and baked, then dressed with garlic yogurt and browned butter.
Löl
Layered filled pastry
Thin layers of yeast dough filled with curd cheese, kavurma, parsley and potato and baked; made for holidays and weddings.
Keldoş
Ember bread with kurut
Hand-shaped bread baked in wood embers, broken up and dressed with garlicky kurut and hot butter.
Mastuva
Rice cooked in yogurt
Rice cooked with yogurt, eggs, a little flour and butter.
Ayran çorbası
Wheat and ayran soup
Wheat boiled in ayran with a local wild mint.
Şor çorbası
Dried yogurt soup
A winter soup made with kurut, yogurt boiled and dried, known locally as şor.
Locally cooked
Recipes from this city are coming soon.
Local ingredients
Bingöl balı
Polyfloral honey from Bingöl’s mountain meadows.
Guide not written yetYedisu horoz kuru fasulyesi
Large white horoz beans from Yedisu that cook without breaking apart.
Guide not written yetSivan dut pekmezi
White mulberry juice boiled down over oak fires in the Sivan area of Genç, with no additives.
Guide not written yetGuldar domatesi
Large, lobed red tomatoes grown from local seed in villages around the city.
Guide not written yetKurut (şor)
Yogurt boiled and dried, used in soups and on keldoş.
Guide not written yetFood culture
The provincial culture directorate records Kartal, a dance whose movements evoke an eagle, within a repertoire accompanied by drum and zurna. Its account connects dance with gatherings such as weddings. Different origin stories circulate, so they should be understood as stories rather than verified historical events. Food and performance both involve knowledge learned through participation. This guide introduces selected practices without suggesting that every community or household follows one uniform tradition.
Yogurt in everything
Ayran, kurut and garlic yogurt dress breads, rice and soups.
A mountain larder
Upland honey, mulberry molasses and Yedisu beans come from the province’s valleys and plateaus.
What to bring home
- Bingöl honey
- Sivan mulberry molasses
- Yedisu beans
- Kurut (dried yogurt)
History & landscape
A good way into Bingöl is through its natural setting. Located at a transition point in Eastern Anatolia, the province is marked by mountains, plateaus, plains, streams and lakes. At the Yüzen Islands, on a natural crater lake surrounded by mountains on three sides, the islands move independently, like rafts. Beside the Murat River, the Zağ Rock Shelter Rooms were carved directly into a steep rock and arranged on several storeys. They are thought to be of Urartian origin and to have been used later by Byzantine, Genoese and Persian civilisations.
In the provincial center, the İsfahan Bey Mosque in the Aşağı Bazaar was built of cut stone by İsfahan Bey in the early 16th century, during the Akkoyunlu period. Repaired many times because of the earthquakes that have affected Bingöl over the years, it is the only historical building in the city center. The Akkoyunlu legacy reaches beyond the center. In the district of Kiğı, the Balaban Bey Mosque also dates back to the Akkoyunlu period; built in the early 15th century, it holds the tomb of the Akkoyunlu bey Pir Ali Bey.
