Aşure

Aşure is a Turkish sweet made mainly from wheat, simmered with a combination of ingredients such as beans, rice, dried fruit and nuts. Soft grains and beans, along with fruit that keeps its shape, sit in a thick, silky liquid. In versions where the grains stay whole, a single bowl lets you taste the different textures of ingredients of different sizes.

There is no single set of ingredients and no single way of sweetening it. Some versions combine white beans with chickpeas and wheat with rice, while others use a concentrated fruit syrup instead of sugar. Aşure is closely tied to the custom of making a large pot at home, serving it to visitors and sharing it with relatives and neighbors. Who receives it, and when, varies between religious communities and regions.

Cooking separately before everything goes into one pot

Aşure is made by simmering many kinds of ingredients, but they are not always all cooked together from the start. Wheat, chickpeas and dried white beans absorb water and cook at different rates. To keep the fruit from falling apart while the beans are still hard in the center, or to keep the wheat from cooking down too much on its own, one method is to soak each ingredient separately and cook each one on its own before combining them.

In the recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method) from Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, hulled wheat called dövme is simmered until its starch is released into the cooking liquid. This forms the base of the sweet’s thickness. The beans are each cooked until soft in advance, and the dried apricots, dried figs and raisins are also soaked in water. After everything is simmered together, citrus is added, sugar goes in toward the end, and rose water is stirred in after the heat is turned off.

In this order, the thickness drawn from the grain and the softness of the beans are settled first, and the aroma and sweetness of the fruit are layered on afterward. Walnuts or pomegranate placed on top of the bowl add the texture of fresh seeds and nuts to the softness of the long-simmered ingredients. The finished dish depends not only on the number of ingredients but also on the state in which each one is combined.

A palace-style version made with strained wheat

Besides the methods that keep the grains whole, there is also Süzme Saray Aşuresi, made by straining well-cooked wheat. In the method given in Istanbul cultural records, the wheat is soaked in water overnight and cooked until soft, then strained and returned to the pot, and small raisins and sugar are added. It is scented with rose water or similar flavorings, divided into bowls, scattered with almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios, and served chilled.

Regional flavors that depend on more than sugar

The sweetness of aşure does not come only from white sugar. Some styles use a concentrated fruit syrup called pekmez, which also changes the color and flavor. The Çorum region has a style called “Pekmezli Hedik,” and in Gaziantep, the addition of anise has been recorded.

The grains vary as well. Rice may be mixed with the wheat, and sometimes rice replaces the wheat. Almonds or hazelnuts may be added among the nuts, and broad beans or black-eyed peas among the legumes. The combination of grains, legumes and fruit changes depending on local ingredients.

A cookbook from Muğla Province lists, as a local feature, aşure made by simmering cracked wheat, beans and fruit and then sprinkling it with sesame seeds or pomegranate. The cookbook also records the custom of sharing it while it is still warm and sprinkling sesame seeds on it when serving.

Apart from the plant-based aşure widely known today, in some regions a small amount of meat from the Feast of the Sacrifice is preserved and added.

Recipes made in Japan also vary. The culinary researcher Kyoko Ogino teaches a method in which rice, bulgur (a cracked wheat), cooked beans, dried fruit and nuts are simmered together, with milk added at the end. Unlike the method of soaking dried beans separately, this example uses beans that are already cooked and also adds milk.

“The tenth day” and the story of Noah’s pot

The name aşure is linked to ʿĀshūrāʾ, which means “the tenth day” in Arabic. The sweet is associated with the 10th day of Muharrem, the first month of the Islamic calendar, and there is a custom of making and sharing it during this month. Because this calendar follows the cycle of the moon, the time of year when aşure is made shifts from year to year on the solar calendar.

One story about aşure says that when the food on Noah’s Ark was running low, people gathered the grains, fruit and other ingredients they had on hand and cooked them together. According to the story, they made it to express their gratitude to God after the flood subsided and the Ark came to rest on a mountain. The sweet, which brings many ingredients together, is linked to this story of sharing scarce supplies.

Separate from the story of Noah’s pot, aşure also has a context of mourning and fasting. The killing of Husayn, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, together with members of his family and others at Karbala in 680, is linked to the mourning observed in the month of Muharrem.

Among the ways of sharing aşure recorded in Anatolia are customs of offering prayers over the sweet and giving it first to the sick and to children. The bowl received is returned unwashed, and leftover aşure is poured at the base of fruit trees in the hope that they will bear more fruit. In these customs, prayer is connected not only to the people who eat the aşure but also to returning the bowl and dealing with what is left over.

The custom of sharing is not limited to households, either. Records from the Ottoman court from the 18th to the early 19th century show that aşure was prepared and distributed on the 10th of Muharrem. The court account books make it possible to trace everything from the procurement of ingredients to the bowls, the recipients and payments to those who carried it. The sweet, simmered in large pots, was used in court ceremonies and also distributed outside the court.

In the Tunceli region, where the Alevi faith is widespread, there is a custom of mourning the dead through the Muharrem fast, during which people do not eat meat and avoid harming living creatures. After the 12-day fast, some people make and distribute aşure to give thanks that Husayn’s son Zayn al-Abidin survived and that the Prophet’s lineage continued.

The name connected with the 10th day, the 12 days of mourning and the sweet distributed afterward each carry different meanings. The same sweet carries not only the story of Noah’s gratitude but also customs of mourning the dead and remembering those who survived.

The custom of sharing also continues in concrete form in Istanbul today. In the household where the pastry chef Shusaku Hayashi learned to make aşure, the cook gathered 41 kinds of ingredients, counting even water and a single sesame seed. This number is not shared by every household; it was a number that this particular cook held important. Where Hayashi stayed, he also heard about students who put up notes on their mailboxes asking for aşure, and neighbors who learned it was being made came with bowls to collect some.

Sweet wheat dishes that connect different calendars and celebrations

Dishes of grain cooked sweet also appear on the tables of other religious communities in Anatolia. Armenian anoushabour is a Christmas and New Year sweet made by simmering wheat or barley with dried fruit. The Armenian Institute’s method uses no beans; the cooked grain is left to rest overnight, and fruit and sugar are added the next day. Although both involve sharing a soft, sweet grain dish, they differ in their ingredients and in the calendar dates on which they are made.

The Orthodox Church’s koliva is wheat cooked without leaving any cooking liquid, spread on a plate and decorated with fruit and nuts in patterns such as a cross; it is used in rites mourning the dead. The Sephardic Jewish trigo cocho combines cooked wheat with sugar, ground walnuts and cinnamon and is served at Tu BiShvat, the New Year of the Trees. The common technique of simmering wheat takes on a different form and meaning in each community.

Diş buğdayı, which celebrates a child’s first tooth, is another wheat dish that survives in Turkey. There are sweetened and savory versions, and it is shared with the people around the family in celebration of the child’s growth after birth.

Glossary