Ayva Tatlısı

Ayva Tatlısı is a Turkish sweet made by cutting quince, simmering it with sugar and serving it with rich dairy or walnuts. Ayva means quince, and tatlı is a word for something sweet. Unlike jam, in which the flesh is finely mashed, the fruit is cut in halves or quarters and plated as single servings with its shape intact.

Kaymak in the hollow left by the core

The quince is cooked with its central seeds and core removed, leaving the hollow in place. When kaymak is placed on the cooked fruit, the hollow holds the dairy. Kaymak is a dairy product in which milk fat is richly concentrated; it adds the rich depth of milk fat to the fruit’s aroma and the sweetness of the sugar. When crushed walnuts are added, the soft flesh and the crunch of the walnuts can be enjoyed together.

In a recipe (a set of ingredient proportions and method) from Bursa, medium-sized quinces are cut in two and large ones into four. The fruit is cut according to its size, and the toppings are placed in the hollow left by removing the seeds and core when it is plated.

The hardness and astringency of the raw fruit

Quince is a strongly fragrant fruit, but its flesh is hard and also strongly sour, astringent and bitter. Tannins are among the components involved in the astringency. For this reason, it has been used less as a fruit to bite into raw than as an ingredient to be cooked with sugar or made into jam or jelly. Ayva tatlısı, too, is a sweet that draws on the fruit’s aroma and makes it easier to eat through cooking and the sweetness of sugar.

Unlike sweets in which the flesh is finely broken down and cooked down into a uniform paste, here the cut fruit is softened yet lifted out in intact pieces. The hollow of the core therefore remains as part of the presentation.

Long cooking changes both color and texture

The pale flesh of quince can turn from pink to a reddish color with long cooking. The fruit contains components called proanthocyanidins, which are also involved in its astringency. It is explained that, through long heating and the action of acid, some of these break down into smaller components, which react with oxygen in the air to produce red anthocyanin pigments. There is also an experimental example in which a red color was obtained by heating quince juice without adding sugar or acid, so the coloring cannot be explained by the browning of sugar alone. The depth of color varies with the fruit and the heating conditions, and it does not always become a deep red.

The softening of the flesh, meanwhile, involves changes in pectin and other substances in the cell walls. The once-hard flesh becomes soft as it is heated with water. Even as the coloring and softening proceed, ayva tatlısı keeps the fruit in a shape that can be lifted out onto a plate.

In Bursa, a method of baking after simmering

Bursa, an early capital of the Ottoman dynasty, is a place influenced by palace cuisine. A well-known method is to cool quince simmered in a pot and finish it with dairy. Bursa’s local cuisine also has, in addition, a method in which quince simmered in sugar water is taken out, arranged on a baking tray, topped with kaymak at the center and put in the oven. After the surface has browned, more kaymak and walnuts are added as a finish.

In this method, the simmering step softens the flesh and the oven colors the surface. The kaymak is used in two portions: the portion placed on first is heated with the fruit, and the portion added at the end is served as it is.

The Bursa method uses the spice clove in addition to quince, sugar, water, kaymak and walnuts. The number of cloves and how far the syrup is reduced are adjusted according to the condition of the fruit and the quantity being made.

Versions with ice cream or apple

The ayva tatlısı eaten across Turkey also includes versions served with ice cream instead of kaymak, or with grated apple or other fruit filled into the center. Some are simmered and some baked, some served warm and some served cooled, so the methods of cooking and serving vary as well. What they all share is that the quince is sweetened and enjoyed with its flesh kept in intact pieces.

An 1844 cookbook also makes use of the seeds’ mucilage

Mehmed Kâmil’s cookbook Melceü’t-Tabbâhîn, published in 1844, also contains a method for ayva tatlısı. According to a published transcription, quinces that have been cored and peeled are put straight into water to prevent discoloration. After the fruit is boiled, it is arranged in another vessel, and the cooking water and a thick sugar syrup are poured over it. The removed seeds are crushed, boiled separately and strained, and that viscous liquid is added too, and the fruit is cooked slowly over a low charcoal fire. Once it has cooled, it is divided into dishes.

This record notes that some people color it with confectionery coloring while it simmers. Although quince can turn reddish from heating alone, not every deep-pink sweet can be explained solely by the fruit’s natural color change. The 1844 method uses the seeds’ mucilage and serves the sweet cooled, whereas the Bursa method tops simmered fruit with kaymak and bakes it. Both eat the winter quince in large pieces of flesh, but they differ in whether the syrup is thickened with the seeds or dairy is added and the dish baked at the end. Ways of finishing suited to different eras and places have been handed down.

Glossary