A Special Flavour In Turkish Cuisine: The Golden Sesame Of Manavgat

Sesame is being used for centuries as nutrition and treatment with it’s seed and oil as traditional. Nowadays it is using as a spice  with it’s distinctive flavor-odor in nutritional ingredients. Sesame has 4 different type as white, yellow, brown and black and  it is known in Latin as “sesamun”, Greek “sesamon” and Turkish sirlagan, kuncu. Sesame is raising in our country as second  product in hot and limited precipitation areas. Oil rate in seeds are 40-60%. Sesame is using as both comestible and alimentary  industry as vegetable oil. Also because of it’s antioxidant compounds it has wide usage area in pharmaceutical and cosmetic  industry. The reason that it has an important position in nutrition is it’s contained valuable nutritional ingredients. It contains  high incidence of oil, protein and essential amino acids in it’s compound. In spite of the oil from sesame is cooking oil, because  of it is not economical, it has limited usage area as vegetable oil in our country. Sesame seeds are using as snack food and  consumed directly with roasting process and sprinkles on various local food, cookie, bread and cakes’ surfaces and make them  look good and give flavor. Also tehina is making with pureeing sesame seeds. This gathered tehina can be consumed directly  with mixing honey and molasses, and also consuming as making tehina halva. In this study, it is aimed that giving information  about traditionally important sesame’ history which is decreasing production and consuming, production methods, effects on  human health and it’s position in Turkish Cuisine and usage areas.