Melted Cheese and Cornmeal
A warm cornmeal, butter and melting-cheese dish inspired by Trabzon cooking.
The Turkish pantry
Butter (unsalted)
Butter sold without added salt is the default butter in our recipes.
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Dairy butter without added salt. When our recipes say butter, they mean unsalted butter. Salted butter, margarine and clarified butter remain different products.
Types & forms
Unsalted butter
Salt is controlled separately in the recipe.
Salted butter · comparison
Adds a product-dependent quantity of salt.
Clarified butter · comparison
Has most water and milk solids removed.
What to look for when buying
- Look for butter explicitly labeled unsalted.
- Check the ingredient list rather than identifying salt content by color or packaging style.
Prepare & cook
- Weigh before melting. Heat gently and watch the milk solids.
- For çılbır, add pul biber at the recipe’s stage and avoid scorching it; for halva, use the stated flour-to-fat ratio.
Store it well
- Keep wrapped and refrigerated following the label.
- Protect from strong odors and use clean utensils.
Substitutions depend on the dish
Salted butter
May work in some dishes, but adjust added salt to the product and recipe. Do not assume a universal salt correction.
Nutrition
Butter, without salt [1]
| Nutrient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Energy | 717 kcal |
| Protein | 0.85 g |
| Total fat | 81.1 g |
| Saturated fat | 50.5 g |
| Carbohydrate | 0.06 g |
| Dietary fiber | 0 g |
| Total sugars | 0.06 g |
| Sodium | 11 mg |
| Cholesterol | 215 mg |
| Calcium | 24 mg |
| Iron | 0.02 mg |
| Potassium | 24 mg |
| Vitamin D | 0 µg |
Dairy butter without added salt, not clarified butter, margarine or a spread. Values are rounded for readability; “not reported” does not mean zero. A “<” value is below the source’s measurement limit.
Nutrition values come from the reference source named above. They are published reference values, not our own measurements. Actual products and cooking methods may change the values.
At the Turkish table
Unsalted butter is specified in our flour halva and poached-egg recipes, where its cooking behavior and flavor matter.
Cook with Butter (unsalted)
Turkish Poached Eggs with Garlic Yogurt
Çılbır pairs warm poached eggs with thick garlic yogurt and a red-pepper butter drizzle.
Toasted Flour Halva
Un helvası is a soft, spoon-shaped sweet made by toasting flour in butter before adding a simple syrup.
Baked Lentil Dumplings (Home Version)
Small, closed lentil dumplings baked first until golden, then finished in hot water. Serve with garlic yogurt and red-pepper butter, with extra yogurt and herbs on the side.
Beef and Chickpea Rice
Layers of shredded beef, caramelized onion, rice and chickpeas, cooked in broth and turned onto a platter.
Beef Döner
Thin layers of seasoned beef and mince, chilled into a roll, sliced and quickly browned in a skillet. This is a skillet adaptation of layered döner. A restaurant spit uses a different cooking process. Slice only when the roll is firm but safely cuttable; never force a knife through a solid frozen block.
Bread Pudding with Clotted Cream
A porous, golden-brown bread absorbs plain sugar syrup and is served in wedges with buffalo-milk clotted cream. The bread is baked and dried before its final stovetop cooking.
Bread with Beef and Garlic Yogurt
Warm pide topped with garlic-mint yogurt, ground beef in tomato sauce and red-pepper butter.
Chickpea Rice
Buttery rice with tender chickpeas, inspired by Istanbul’s street-side pilaf carts. This version uses cooked chickpeas and water, with no chicken topping.
Cornmeal Soup with Croutons
A smooth cornmeal and milk soup served with tomato-paste sauce and butter-toasted bread cubes.
Dolaz
Aksaray’s savory dolaz: milk thickened with flour to a smooth, pudding-like consistency, salted and finished with butter melted with pul biber. Unlike the sweet dolaz made elsewhere in Central Anatolia, it has no sugar or molasses.
Dolaz
Kayseri’s finely textured flour-and-molasses dessert, cooked with butter and spread on a shallow dish. Served warm with walnuts, it is a simple sweet for winter evenings.