Tarhana: Trigger of memories

When September comes, a yeasty odd smell lingers at many homes across Türkiye. One of the most obsessive tasks of a mother is preparing tarhana, undoubtedly one of the homeliest soups in Turkish cuisine. So, what is tarhana? First of all, it is a dried soup mix, which is a must-prepare winter provision in Turkish homes. You just reconstitute tarhana in water, give it a few rolling boils, drizzle with sizzling butter spiked with paprika, and voilà, on the table, everybody is happy!

Tarhana is the name of both the product and the soup made from it, but first and foremost, it is a food preservation method involving fermentation and dehydration techniques, enforced with the preserving qualities of salt and aromatic herbs present in its composition. Tarhana is probably the most loved comfort food of Turkish cuisine, a hearty, umami-rich nutritious winter soup full of the goodness and bounty of summer months. Tarhana is probably the first instant soup on the planet, a creation dating back to ancient times, a totally desiccated product made by drying a fermented mix of several food items.

Initially, it was a fusion food created by combining products of sheep and goat herding nomads and grain-cultivating settled communities, simply made by combining yogurt and wheat berry, a protein and a carb, grain cooked, mixed with strained salted yogurt and dried to be reconstituted later. Eventually, over centuries it evolved into a more complex product with tomatoes, peppers, herbs, greens, vegetables and sometimes fruit involved in the process. Cooked or raw ingredients are mixed with flour and worked into a sort of sourdough, mixed with yogurt, fermented for several days and dried in meatball-like pieces, then broken down into pellets, then crumbled and dried...