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I´ve been curious about traditional Turkish food. Food that is that has not been touched by industrialization and Westernization. I´ve heard about kaymak for years....and have tasted a few different types. Next time I get to Turkey I will have to find this kaymak.
The best kaymak of all
Ismailkoy is a village of 600 inhabitants a few kilometers from Afyon. It has always been a poppy-growing village and even today, is the one which is most determined to keep it, refusing to switch to crops, such as sugar beet and vegetables in general. Each year, the Turkish authorities decide the extent and location of the areas for poppy cultivation. The cultivation zones and farmers involved change every year. Poppies are a crop that requires little attention or expense, and there is little risk. The seeds are planted in September and the plants flower from April to May with little irrigation and no treatment. Poppies are hardy, surviving Anatolia’s hot dry climate well, even if the yield of oil from seeds is reduced in years of drought. The only activity required of the farmers, apart from watering and fertilizing the ground, is to thin them out when the flowers grow too thickly. The poppy plant, which reaches a height of 120 to 130 centimeters, is left to dry and then cut. The stalk is used as a cooking fuel, the capsules containing the seeds are sold to a pharmaceutical company, and the seeds are used as food. The people of Ismailkoy do not wish to lose a flavor which has been part of their and their ancestors’ lives. This spirited resistance has deep, and unexpected, roots.
Afyon is famous not only for poppies, but also for kaymak. This is a cream prepared from milk that takes the form of very white, firm disks about one centimeter thick. It is eaten fresh, one or two days after it is made, to fully appreciate the flavor of the milk; it is hard enough to cut with a knife but at the same time extraordinarily creamy. The best kaymak comes from buffalo milk, with cow’s milk following. It is made all over Turkey to be eaten with cakes and sweets or fruit in syrup. Otherwise, it can be spread on bread with a little honey. But the kaymak from the Afyon area is universally acknowledged to be the finest there is. The farmers of Ismailkoy are not only poppy growers. They have also always been livestock farmers. Each holding will only have a few head of buffalo or cattle but production is steady. And every day they go to the market at Afyon to sell their best kaymak, the part that will command the best prices.
What does kaymak have to do with poppies? When poppy seeds are pressed to obtain oil, the solid residue in the sacks of jute or nylon used to sieve the seed mixture is dried and stored. It comes in rectangular blocks called küspe, weighing about seven kilograms. These are crumbled into water as feed for buffalo, cows, goats and chickens. It is highly nutritious, rich in protein, fats and sugars. Each küspe costs about one dollar and provides up to four meals for a buffalo, one day’s food. It is expensive but a buffalo can produce up to 12 liters of milk a day, yielding six portions of kaymak that sell for about a dollar and a half each. They have no doubts, “If our kaymak is the best, it is only thanks to the poppies. That is the only difference between the feed for our animals and what all the other animals in Turkey eat. Our animals’ meat is better, too”. The people of Ismailkoy can distinguish the flavor of the milk produced by poppy seed oil-fed animals from other milk. And they prefer it to other milk.
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