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Dessert

Turkish Delight

A gelatinous sweet made with sugar, water, gelatine, tartaric acid, essence, and carmine, dusted with icing sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Turkish Delight

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour.

Make the candy

  1. Combine boiling water, sugar, soaked gelatine, and cold water in a pot.

  2. Stir the mixture continuously.

  3. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.

  4. Add tartaric acid, essence, and a few drops of carmine.

Set and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered tin.

  2. Let the mixture firm up.

  3. Dust the firm mixture with icing sugar.

  4. Cut the mixture into pieces.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Forms the gel structure that gives Turkish delight its chewy, sliceable body.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, with boiling, builds the thick syrup that sets firm.
Tartaric acid
Adds a tangy acidity that balances the sweetness and helps keep the sugar smooth.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture continuously. Sugar can scorch on the bottom of the pot before the mixture boils evenly. Constant stirring dissolves the sugar fully and keeps the syrup from burning or crystallising.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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