{"id":8558,"date":"2026-10-26T18:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T09:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/?post_type=sweetlore&p=8558"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T09:51:15","slug":"hosmerim","status":"publish","type":"sweetlore","link":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/en\/sweetlore\/hosmerim\/","title":{"rendered":"H\u00f6\u015fmerim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

H\u00f6\u015fmerim is the name of a sweet dish found in many parts of Turkey. The version from Bal\u0131kesir in particular combines fresh unsalted cheese with semolina, sugar, egg yolks and other ingredients, and is heated in a pan while being worked. With neither a baked crust nor a syrup coating, it becomes a soft yellow sweet in which fine milky granules and grain are mixed together.<\/p>\n

\n\"Bal\u0131kesir\n
H\u00f6\u015fmerim made in Bal\u0131kesir and sold in Ankara (February 4, 2017). Opening the container reveals the fine granules of the yellow milk sweet. Photo: E4024 \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. No content alterations or cropping were made on our side.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Using Freshly Curdled Milk<\/h2>\n

The Bal\u0131kesir method is connected to the stage of making cheese from cow’s or sheep’s milk. Rennet is added to warmed milk, and the set teleme is broken up and drained. The sweet uses this unsalted curd before it becomes a cheese that is aged and cut.<\/p>\n

Teleme retains a lot of moisture. It is finely crumbled in a pan, mixed with eggs and semolina, and heated while being stirred so that the bottom does not scorch. As heating continues, the milk lumps become finer, fat seeps out, and the consistency of the whole mixture changes. The process runs from curdling the milk to loosening that curd and cooking it.<\/p>\n

Semolina, coarsely ground grains of wheat, absorbs the moisture of the milk as it is heated and binds the sweet together. Some methods also use wheat flour. In one example given by the Bal\u0131kesir Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the cheese and egg yolks are heated slowly before the semolina, wheat flour and sugar are added. In another method recorded on site, eggs and flour are mixed into the curd before it goes on the heat, and sugar is added around the time the fat comes out and the mixture begins to pull away from the bottom of the pan. There are several methods, in which the heating and the order of ingredients are decided by watching the state of the milk.<\/p>\n

The yellow color is not necessarily determined by egg yolks alone; some versions use saffron or coloring. Even when the yellow appearance is shared, ingredient labeling and production methods differ. Home recipes (ingredient proportions and methods) vary in how flour is used and in the order of heating, and products from the region that hold a geographical indication have specifications for each registered name.<\/p>\n

\n\"H\u00f6\u015fmerim\n
H\u00f6\u015fmerim packed in a clear takeaway container (May 19, 2016, location unknown). The yellow milk sweet is sold in this lidded form. Photo: E4024 \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. No content alterations or cropping were made on our side.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n
\n\"Soft\n
Homemade h\u00f6\u015fmerim being poured from a pan into a dish (May 31, 2015). The author describes it as the kind made in the Y\u00f6r\u00fck villages of Bal\u0131kesir. Its soft consistency with fine granules is visible. Location unknown. Photo: Bilirmehmet \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. No content alterations or cropping were made for this use.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

A Land Tied to Dairy Work<\/h2>\n

Bal\u0131kesir is a province in western Turkey facing the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea. H\u00f6\u015fmerim has been handed down in connection with the dairy practices of the region’s Y\u00f6r\u00fck. It was made as part of the spring-to-summer work of milking sheep, and some makers prefer h\u00f6\u015fmerim made in late spring, when the milk becomes richer.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBook of Travels\u201d of the 17th-century traveler Evliya \u00c7elebi is also said to contain a passage linking this sweet to Turkmen settlers.<\/p>\n

In the cookbook A\u011fdiye Risalesi, written in 1775\u201378, cheese h\u00f6\u015fmerim was listed together with telm\u00fc\u015f, the name used by shepherds, and s\u00fcnd\u00fcrme, the name used by the Y\u00f6r\u00fck. The latter name also survives in an 1844 cookbook. The same curd sweet had different names among the people who worked with milk, and these names were recorded in books as well.<\/p>\n

An 1844 Method That Adds Sweetness Afterward<\/h2>\n

Mehmed K\u00e2mil’s cookbook Melce\u00fc\u2019t-Tabb\u00e2h\u00een (published 1844) contains a recipe that also calls h\u00f6\u015fmerim s\u00fcnd\u00fcrme. Fresh unsalted cheese or teleme is crumbled by hand and stirred over a charcoal fire, and when it begins to melt, a small amount of fine wheat flour is added. When the fat comes out and the mixture begins to stretch like a pulled-sugar confection, it is taken off the heat.<\/p>\n

This cookbook also describes adding sugar or honey at the time of eating. The method typical in Bal\u0131kesir today, in which sugar is cooked down together in the pan, is not the only old form. A method that separates the stage of heating and stretching the milk from the stage of adding sweetness survives in a 19th-century record.<\/p>\n

A Folk Tale of a Couple Behind the Name<\/h2>\n

A folk story explaining the name tells of a wife who used the ingredients she had on hand to make a sweet and served it to her husband, who had long been away at war. Her question, \u201cHo\u015f mu erim?\u201d, meaning \u201cIs it good, dear?\u201d, is said to have become the name of the sweet.<\/p>\n

This is a tradition that links the name to a couple’s reunion and hospitality. Separately, there is also an explanation connecting the name to the Persian ho\u015f (sweet, pleasant) and maram, a word said to refer to cream. However, the explanation of the latter element as cream is disputed, and the origin of the word has not been settled. The story fitted to the sound of the name and the etymological explanation of the word’s components have been handed down separately.<\/p>\n

Some Versions with the Same Name Use No Cheese<\/h2>\n

H\u00f6\u015fmerim cannot be regarded as the same cheese sweet throughout Turkey. In \u00c7ank\u0131r\u0131, wheat flour is toasted in butter, water with rock salt dissolved in it is added and the mixture is cooked through, and honey with honeycomb is placed on top while it is hot. It uses none of the eggs, semolina, rennet or sugar found in the typical Bal\u0131kesir formula, and its sweetness is added with honey.<\/p>\n

The honey is placed on the hot flour mixture so that it melts slowly and the sweetness soaks in. Salt is also a defining feature of this region’s version. The Bal\u0131kesir version, in which milk curd is broken up and cooked, and the \u00c7ank\u0131r\u0131 version, in which flour is toasted in fat and honey is added, start from different ingredients even if the pans used are similar. The Sivrihisar version is made by toasting a high-fat cream from cow’s milk with flour and a very small amount of salt, and grape pekmez is poured over the top. It is served freshly made after meals, and on festival mornings it also accompanies the meal for which families gather at the home of an elder relative. Besides differences in ingredients and process\u2014cooked curd, toasted flour, toasted cream\u2014there are also regional differences in when it is made and served.<\/p>\n

Glossary<\/h2>\n

H\u00f6\u015fmerim<\/strong>: The name of a sweet dish found in many parts of Turkey. In Bal\u0131kesir, it is mainly made with unsalted fresh cheese.<\/p>

Teleme<\/strong>: Freshly set milk curd. In h\u00f6\u015fmerim, it is crumbled and heated.<\/p>

Semolina<\/strong>: A granular milled product of coarsely ground wheat.<\/p>

Recipe<\/strong>: The complete set of ingredient proportions and method.<\/p>

Y\u00f6r\u00fck<\/strong>: A name for peoples in Anatolia with traditions of nomadic and transhumant herding.<\/p>

Evliya \u00c7elebi<\/strong>: A 17th-century Ottoman traveler, known for his \u201cBook of Travels.\u201d<\/p>

Ho\u015f mu erim?<\/strong>: A question that appears in a folk tale about a couple, told to explain the name h\u00f6\u015fmerim.<\/p>

Ho\u015f<\/strong>: A word associated with meanings such as sweet and pleasant; a component in the etymological explanation discussed in this article.<\/p>

Maram<\/strong>: A word that appears in an etymological explanation taking it to mean cream. Its meaning and etymological interpretation are disputed.<\/p>

\u00c7ank\u0131r\u0131<\/strong>: A province in north-central Turkey. It has a sweet of the same name made with wheat flour toasted in butter, and honey.<\/p>

Mehmed K\u00e2mil<\/strong>: Author of an Ottoman cookbook published in 1844.<\/p>

Melce\u00fc\u2019t-Tabb\u00e2h\u00een<\/strong>: A 19th-century cookbook. In this article, it relates to an old method of making h\u00f6\u015fmerim.<\/p>

S\u00fcnd\u00fcrme<\/strong>: A word recorded as the Y\u00f6r\u00fck name in a late-18th-century cookbook, and also given as another name for h\u00f6\u015fmerim in the 1844 cookbook.<\/p>

A\u011fdiye Risalesi<\/strong>: An Ottoman cookbook written in 1775\u201378.<\/p>

Telm\u00fc\u015f<\/strong>: A word that the same book records as the shepherds’ name for cheese h\u00f6\u015fmerim.<\/p>

Sivrihisar<\/strong>: A town in Eski\u015fehir Province, Turkey. It has a h\u00f6\u015fmerim made by toasting cream and flour.<\/p>

Pekmez<\/strong>: A sweetener made by boiling down fruit juice. The Sivrihisar version in this article is topped with pekmez made from grapes.<\/p>

References<\/h2>\n
  1. T\u00fcrk Tar\u0131m Orman Dergisi, \u201cBal\u0131kesir\u2019in co\u011frafi i\u015faretli \u00fcr\u00fcn\u00fc H\u00f6\u015fmerim\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Curdling and heating the milk, spring milk, the Y\u00f6r\u00fck, and choices of color.<\/li>
  2. K\u00fclt\u00fcr Portal\u0131, \u201cBal\u0131kesir H\u00f6\u015fmerim\u201d<\/a> \u2014 An example using cheese and egg yolks, wheat flour and semolina.<\/li>
  3. K\u00fclt\u00fcr Portal\u0131, \u201c\u00c7ank\u0131r\u0131 H\u00f6\u015fmerim Tatl\u0131s\u0131\u201d<\/a> \u2014 A regional type made without cheese, using flour, butter, salt and honey.<\/li>
  4. K\u00fclt\u00fcr Portal\u0131, \u201cSivrihisar H\u00f6\u015fmerim Tatl\u0131s\u0131\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Cream and flour, pekmez, celebrations and family meals.<\/li>
  5. Mehmed K\u00e2mil, \u201cHo\u015fmerim,\u201d unofficial transcription published online<\/a> \u2014 Curd and wheat flour, and sugar or honey added afterward, in the 1844 cookbook. Original printed text not consulted.<\/li>
  6. Priscilla Mary I\u015f\u0131n, \u201cA\u011fdiye Risalesi\u201d<\/a> \u2014 A researcher’s introduction to the shepherds’ and Y\u00f6r\u00fck names in the 1775\u201378 cookbook. Original manuscript pages not consulted.<\/li>
  7. Bilal Aksoy, \u201cH\u00f6\u015fmerim\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Dispute over the meaning and etymology of the latter element of the name.<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    H\u00f6\u015fmerim is the name of a sweet dish found in many parts of Turkey. The Bal\u0131kesir type in particular combines fresh unsalted cheese with semolina, sugar, egg yolks and other ingredients, and is heated in a pan while being worked. With neither a baked crust nor a syrup coating, it becomes a soft yellow sweet in which fine milky granules and grain come together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7698,"menu_order":329,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_parade_sweetlore_meta":{"en":"H\u00f6\u015fmerim","subtitle":"Turning fresh cheese into a sweet, worked confection","topics":"Fresh cheese and semolina\uff0fA soft milk sweet worked in a pan\uff0fMethods that differ across Turkey","country":"Bal\u0131kesir, Turkey","show_toc":true,"ingredients":["cheese"],"texture":[],"occasion":[],"method":["cooked"],"season":[]},"footnotes":""},"sweetlore_category":[164],"class_list":["post-8558","sweetlore","type-sweetlore","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"sweetlore_related_products":null,"sweetlore_related_faqs":null,"sweetlore_related_voices":null,"sweetlore_related_mode":"auto","sweetlore_related_articles":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t