Tea and Yogurt

I was making cheese toast in my oven this morning and I realized that there were a few things about ovens in Turkey that are different. So I thought I would share.


The cay danlik. That is the pot you see on the stovetop in this picture. Cay means tea in Turkish. Everyone has one and they are usually sitting on their stoves since they are used all the time. How to make Turkish cay... Fill the bottom part of the pot, or the kettle, with cold water and put loose tea leaves into the teapot on top...about 1 tsp of leaves for each glass of tea you want to make. I usually throw in a little extra as well. Put the kettle, with the teapot on top, on the heat to boil. When the water boils, pour it into the teapot until full and put it on the kettle, which should still contain plenty of boiling water. Lower the heat to medium while the tea brews for about 10 minutes. When the tea is ready pour it into your glass. Only pour a little...anywhere from a fourth to half a glass. They have tea strainers you pour the tea through so you don't get tea leaves in your cup but many people don't use them and just know how to pour it so very few leaves come out. Then use the hot water in the bottom pot to fill your glass. You can adjust the strength of your tea by putting more or less of the tea in your glass. Most people here drink their tea at medium strength. You can also order it acik which means light or kamyonculu which means like a trucker or really dark! And of course you can sweeten your tea to taste. The tea here is generally served with a couple of sugar cubes on the side or with a bowl of sugar cubes. When we are in the states please come by and we will make you a cup of Turkish tea! It is really yummy!


I got this picture off of a website just so you could see what the finished product looks like. These glasses are the normal tea glasses here. The ones we bought aren't quite this fancy...no gold!


Another interesting thing about Turkish ovens is the yogurt setting you can find on them. I have never actually made my own yogurt since you can find it everywhere here and it is very inexpensive. I know that you use about 2 tablespoons of yogurt mixed with about several cups of milk. After that I don't know what to do. The setting is less than 100 degrees celsius but I don't know what the exact temperature is. I have found a recipe for making your own yogurt at home by boiling milk and adding the yogurt to it at www.turkishcookbook.com but it says nothing about the oven.

So there you have it. Cultural lessons from an experienced cay maker and an inexperienced yogurt maker.