Booza

Booza (بوظة) is a frozen milk dessert popular in the Levant. The version handed down in Damascus, Syria, in particular, does more than melt smoothly: it has a stretchy elasticity and a chewy springiness. It is characterized by a step in which it is pounded with a large stick inside a cylindrical freezing container, and in some forms it is coated in pistachios, rolled, sliced and served.

Sahlab for thickening, mastic for fragrance

The distinctive ingredients added to the milk and sugar are sahlab (salep) and mastic. Sahlab is a powder made by drying the underground tubers of orchid plants. When added to milk and heated, it thickens the mixture and contributes to the dense texture of the frozen dessert. Mastic is a resin taken from trees; a small amount is crushed and used to add its distinctive fragrance. Even though both may look like whitish powders or granules, they come from different plant parts and play different roles.

Some versions add qishta, a rich milk cream. How milk, fresh cream and qishta are combined changes the richness of the dairy, and the concentration of sahlab and the chilling method also affect the texture. In her recipe (ingredient proportions and method) for milk ice cream, cook Anissa Helou shows the step of adding sahlab little by little while stirring continuously to prevent lumps. Rose water is used for fragrance, and the mastic is also dispersed well.

Helou’s home method chills and churns the mixture in an ice cream machine, which differs in both tools and steps from the method of artisans in town who pound it with large sticks. There is also a suggestion to use cornstarch instead of sahlab, but it is not a substitution in the same quantity. Commercial sahlab powders also work differently depending on whether they are pure tuber powder or products mixed with starch or other ingredients.

Scraping off the frozen parts, then pounding and kneading again

Artisans who carry on the Damascus technique repeatedly pound, cut and stretch the chilled, set ice cream with a stick. In the process used by Sameh Asami, who makes booza in London, the parts frozen on the inside of the metal container are scraped off, broken up with the stick and then brought together again. Rather than ending with freezing, the process includes re-kneading what has set.

The result is denser than a light ice cream containing a lot of air, and it can be shaped like a roll. When the outside is coated with bits of pistachio and the roll is cut into rounds and arranged slightly curved, the white cross-section and green edge are visible. Not only the formula of sahlab and resin but also the handwork of repeatedly pounding and kneading the chilled, set mixture leads to a result that can be rolled and sliced.

A city specialty, and one artisan’s tool

In Souq al-Hamidiyya in the old city of Damascus stands Bakdash, a booza shop. It is known for a history dating back to the late 19th century and for booza that is pounded and stretched.

Asami grew up in a family that made dairy products in Damascus and learned the craft from his uncles from around the age of 10. He carried an apricot-wood stick about 120 centimeters long, given to him as a child, through Lebanon all the way to London. A stick used for many years fits the hand, and its tip also changes shape according to how its user pounds. The tool later became part of the London Museum’s collection. Through the stick used by one artisan, it is possible to trace the route by which a hand skill was passed on across cities.

Frozen milk desserts across the region

The Rukab family of Ramallah, Palestine, say they made booza at home before opening their shop. The year the shop was founded is separate from the time when the family began passing down the technique. Today, the shop offers, in addition to the white milk flavor, assortments combining pistachio, fruit and other flavors. Another shop in Ramallah uses both machines and sticks. Some Lebanese home recipes use sahlab and flower water and are made by machine. Even if they share a stretchy texture, they cannot all be reduced to a single shop’s product or method.

In Arabic, the word booza is also used as a name for ice cream. There is a difference between the range of what is called “stretchy Syrian ice cream” in Japanese and the range in which the word is used locally. This name for ice cream made with milk and sugar covers both the Damascus pounding method and versions made at home with machines.

Inside Bakdash in the old city of Damascus, with pistachio-coated ice cream lined up in dishes. Photo: Ankara, CC BY 3.0 (source). Reduced-size version; no further alterations.

Glossary