Salça facts for kids
Biber salçası (pepper paste)
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| Type | Paste, spread |
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| Main ingredients | Chili peppers, bell peppers, or tomato, salt |
Salça is a special kind of thick, reddish paste. It's made from either peppers or tomatoes, mixed with salt. This tasty paste first came from Turkey. People use it to add a rich flavor to many dishes.
Discovering Salça: Different Kinds
What is Pepper Paste?
Biber salçası means "pepper paste." Sometimes it's called kırmızı biber salçası, which means "red pepper paste." This paste is made from red chili peppers or sweet long peppers and salt.
To make it, workers first take out the stems and seeds from the peppers. Then, they crush the peppers and add salt. The crushed peppers are left to dry in the sun for about six to seven days. This sun-drying process gives the paste a strong, sun-dried taste and a thick, pasty texture.
Pepper paste is a big part of the food in Anatolia, which is a region in Turkey. Different groups of people there enjoy it. It's mostly used to flavor main dishes. You can also find it as a filling for flatbreads like pide and pastries like börek. Another popular way to eat it is as a spread on bread or crackers.
There are two main types of pepper paste:
- Acı biber salçası: This is "hot pepper paste," made from spicy red chili peppers.
- Tatlı biber salçası: This is "sweet pepper paste," made from sweet red peppers.
Making Tomato Paste
Domates salçası is a type of tomato paste. It's made from fresh, ripe tomatoes that are pureed. This pureed tomato is then concentrated. This can happen by cooking it over heat or by drying it under the sun during the warm summer months.
Traditional ways to make homemade Turkish tomato paste involve a few steps. First, people grind or puree peeled tomatoes. Then, they use a special Turkish colander called a süzgeç to remove the seeds. After that, they mix the puree with salt. The paste is then left to dry in the sun for three to four days. It's important to stir the paste often while it's sun-drying. This helps stop it from going bad. Some people cook the puree over an open fire. This makes the process faster.
Tomato salça that you buy in stores is usually cooked in large factories. It's not sun-dried. Because of this, it often doesn't have the same strong flavor or deep color as the homemade kind.
