Show the Working

Yanıksı Dondurma

The milk is deliberately scorched against the base of the pan, and the burnt layer is stirred back in.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (milk).

Ingredients

Method

  1. THE MILK IS DELIBERATELY SCORCHED AGAINST THE BASE OF THE PAN, AND THE BURNT LAYER IS STIRRED BACK IN. This is a cook's accident turned into the point of the dish. Milk boiled long and hard over a strong flame in a wide heavy pan will catch on the base; here it is allowed to, watched, until a thin dark caramelised film has formed underneath. The pan is then taken off and that film is scraped up and worked back into the milk with a wooden spoon, so its smoke and bitterness go through the whole batch. The finished ice cream tastes faintly of bonfires and burnt caramel against the sweetness, and nothing else tastes quite like it.
  2. IT IS SCORCHED, NOT BURNT BLACK, AND THE LINE BETWEEN IS ABOUT A MINUTE WIDE. What is wanted is a dark brown film with the smell of caramel just turning. Pushed further to genuinely black, the bitterness overwhelms everything and the batch is ruined -- there is no diluting it out. The pan is checked by scraping a spoon across the base every thirty seconds once the smell begins to change.
  3. IT IS GOAT'S MILK AND THAT IS NOT INTERCHANGEABLE. The faint earthiness of goat's milk is what the smoke is set against, and in cow's milk the burnt note has nothing to sit with and reads simply as a fault. If only cow's milk is available the dish is worth making and will be noticeably less interesting.
  4. THE PAN IS WIDE AND HEAVY-BASED. A wide pan gives a large area of contact so the film forms evenly across it; a thin pan gives hot spots that go black in patches while the rest is still pale. A heavy base is also what lets the film be scraped up rather than welded on.
  5. THE SALEP GOES IN AFTER THE SCORCHING, NOT BEFORE. Mixed into a little of the cooled scorched milk and whisked back in. Salep in the pan during the scorching thickens the milk, and a thickened milk catches instantly and unevenly everywhere rather than forming a film on the base.
  6. THERE IS NO MASTIC IN IT. The plain version on its own page uses mastic for its pine-resin scent; here the smoke is doing that job and mastic alongside it is two strong aromatics fighting. The chew comes from the salep alone, so the texture is slightly softer.
  7. IT IS SERVED IN SLICES. Dense enough to cut. Frozen in a loaf tin, turned out and cut across into thick slices rather than scooped.
  8. The goat's milk and sugar put in a WIDE HEAVY-BASED pan over a strong heat.
  9. Boiled hard, stirring only occasionally, 25 to 30 MINUTES, until reduced by about a quarter.
  10. ALLOWED TO CATCH on the base. Once the smell begins to change, a spoon scraped across the base EVERY 30 SECONDS to check.
  11. Taken off the moment the film underneath is DARK BROWN and smells of caramel turning -- NOT black.
  12. The film SCRAPED UP with a wooden spoon and WORKED BACK INTO the milk.
  13. Cooled to lukewarm.
  14. The salep whisked into a cupful of the milk until dispersed, then whisked back into the pan.
  15. Returned to a low heat and simmered 8 MINUTES, stirring, until it coats a spoon.
  16. Chilled completely, 3 HOURS.
  17. Frozen in a loaf tin, BEATEN HARD every 40 MINUTES, 4 times.
  18. Frozen solid 4 HOURS more.
  19. TESTED: it should taste clearly smoky but not bitter. Bitter means it went past dark brown to black.
  20. Turned out and CUT INTO THICK SLICES.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes