Istanbul's famous pickle shops

Now they are so rare like fingers of hands. We thought ‘’Time is Money’’ and we knocked on the doors of surviving pickle shops.

When the summer season ends and the schools are opened variety of colourful pickles are exhibited in pickle shops. Varying from cabbage to cucumber, green pepper to sugarbeet, delicious tasted pickles are prepared as soon as they are harvested from the gardens and farms. Preparation process starts as soon as the schools are closed and goes on during the whole summer and when the September comes pickles are in the shops for sale.

Pickles, that had been the ornaments of Ottoman cuisine for long years, has an important role in our food consuming habit. For centuries pickles have been prepared both by housewives and the pickle shop owners. It is often told that , pickles have been prepared to utilize the excess production of vegetables and fruits and in addition to have the tasting availability of them for the full year since it is not probable to find them fresh in every season and its history is as old as the usage of salt and vinegar.

A lot of pickle shops used to be in side streets of İstanbul in good old days when viscera were bought from offal shops, desserts from pastry shops and pickles from pickle shops.  Having been located especially around Cemberlitas, Laleli and Fatih suburbs these pickle shops that we run in the ethical way of master and apprentice inheritance couldn’t survive because of hard financial conditions that came true with competition. Experienced and old pickle shops like Cemberlitas Tursucusu (pickle shop), Tursucu Sukru (Sukru the Pickle Seller) and Meraklı Tursucusu (Meraklı Pickleshop) had been closed down.

But there are still surviving pickle shops that go on their historical profession inheriting the experiences they gained after long years. Ozcan Tursuları in Kadıkoy’s Fish Market, Soydan Tursuları across Besiktas Fish Market, Uludag Tursuları in Fatih and Pelit Tursuları in Kurtulus are some of them. We knocked on their doors one by one , we have shared our thought and feelings about pickles and we asked each of them the most particular question. How is the best pickle prepared? With lemon juice or with vinegar? 

Petek Turşucusu
Petek Pickleshop
Petek Tursulari , that is run by Halil Arı of Konya origin, has been serving for 35 years in Beyoglu Fish Market. He used to be a partner of Pelit Tursulari, now he is going on his profession alone.

Kadir Topbas, Çetin Atlan, Mehmet Agar, Bulent Ersoy ,Sibel Can ,Ata Demirer are famous customers of this shop. In addition to classical types, egg, mushroom, plum, okra, apple, pomegranate, corn and melon skin pickles are his specialities.

Halil Bey (Mr.Halil) tells us that pickle can be made both with vinegar and lemon juice plus the salt. For example for gherkin, tomato and Cengelkoy type cucumber both vinegar and lemon juice are applicable. But for cabbage and green pepper pickles only salt should be added. Since they are preparing pickles in terms of tonnes Halil Bey tells that it is not possible to obtain the same taste in house preparation and he advices housewives who want to prepare their own pickles at home to use only salt and adds:’’T hey don’t need to prepare by themselves. I invite them to buy from us’’ 

Ozcan Pickleshop
Ozcan Tursuları (Pickleshop) is one of the oldest shops in Kadikoy’s Fishmarket. Established in 1956 and having been run by three brothers that inherited this profession from their fathers after long years of being his apprentices.

The oldest one of three brothers Bahattin Bey tells us that once upon a time in Kadikoy, Hakkı Usta (Master Hakkı) and Mardif Usta (Master Mardif)  used to be the pickle shop owners in Kadıkoy. In this shop even from pepper types there are 6-7 types of pickles: banana pepper, thin green pepper, Albanian pepper and others.’ ’For the preparation of the pickles, both lemon juice and vinegar can be used but the one prepared with lemon juice is for summer.’’ Especially pickle of Cengelkoy type cucumber should be made with lemon juice, tomatoes with little vinegar and the carrot without either vinegar or lemon juice. Since cabbage changes colour, vinegar is never applied, only salt is added.

In the past, young and raw grapes pickles used to be prepared in
earthenware big jars and were to be buried in the soil in the house gardens for protection. He insists that homemade pickles will not taste as good as his and he adds:’ I can not cook as good as a housewife and the housewives can not prepare pickles as good as I do:’’: Pickles are prepared from the fruits and vegetables that are especially grown for pickle preparation. Therefore, pickles can and should not be prepared from the fruits and vegetables that are bought from green grocers, especially not from  the ones grown in greenhouses .

Soydan Turşuları
Soydan Tursuları (Pickleshop) has been serving for four generations in its place located across Besiktas Fishmarket. Cetin Bey has been running his business for 8 years representing the fourth generation. When the family migrated from Karabuk to İstanbul , they started their pickles profession in Ortakoy then they moved their shop to Besiktas. As their specialities,Cetin Bey is telling us pickles from peach, young and raw melon, plum and cauliflower. They are preparing sweet pickles made up of fruits due to special customer orders. The reason of that is the expiry date of sweet pickles is shorter than the standard ones cause when the salt and vinegar is added to sweet pickles it turns into its sour taste more rapidly.

Soydan brand name pickles have foreign customers from Germany and United Kingdom. Famous customers of Soydan pickles are Arif Susam, Mustafa Erdogan, Tugba Ozay ,Ahu Turkpence and the whole football players of Besiktas football team.

Çetin Bey tells us that the pickles that can survive very long time during the winter season must be consumed in maximum one month in the summer season. In natural type pickles, on the top surface of the container a special layer is formed by the passing time and it is called Kaymak (CreamThis layer formation does not cause the pickles to be ruined only it shows the salt inside the mixture to float on the surface. Therefore mixing the top layer of the pickle jar with a spoon is recommended.

Uludağ Turşucusu
Uludag Pickleshop
Uludag Pickleshop, serving since 1950-1955 , is one of the oldest surviving pickleshops of Fatih district, and is located in Yavuzselim Street of Fatih. They are running the profession of pickles as the second generation with Master and Apprantice tradition.

In the having passed years, with the coming and growth of supermarkets into the pickles market,packed pickles have been started to be prefered and their sector has been weakend says Mehmet Gokkaya and adds that there is a wide difference between the tastes of their pickles and the ones prepared by factories on their favor. Ready made ones by the factories , that is pastorised pickles are prepared in one day. In the factories, the vegetables after being schocked by the boiling water applied on them and placed in the vinegar become pickles quickly but pickles they prepare need at least 1 month preservation.

Uludag Tursuları (Pickleshop) receives different types of vegetables and fruits from different cities. They buy their vegetables from Izmir,Afyon,Tekirdag and Bursa. In the pickles other than Cengelkoy cucumber that we call lemony cucumber, they apply vinegar for pickle preparation but he adds that lemon juice is applicable upon customer’s request. And he gives us the recipe for the preparation of cabbage pickle:

Cabbage Pickle: Cabbage is one of the easiest vegetables for pickle preparation.Approximately 1 kilogramme of cabbage is sliced in big shares .For 1 liter of water 800 grams of rock salt is added. And upon your wish one fistful of chickpea can be added.

Pelit Turşuları
Pelit Tursuları has been running its business since 1968 in the main street of Kurtulus.Preparation site of the pickles used to be in Eyup-Nisancılar before but since the climate and water were more suitable, they moved the preparation site to Gedelek Village.

Metin Kurucay has been working for Pelit Pickleshop that have dealer shops in Kocamustafapasa, Ferikoy and Besiktas,for approximately 10 years. Run and presented by Oktay Pelit, in Pelit Pickleshop there are 35 types of pickles. Okra, cauliflower, apple, pear and watermelon pickles are their specialities.

Metin Bey tells us that pickles that are to be consumed in shorter time period are to be prepared with lemon juice and the ones that need longer expiry dates and more suitable for trade are prepared with vinegar.

Stating that Cemil İpekci, Bülent Ersoy and Savas Ay are some of their famous customers adds that after the day a movie named Neseli Gunler ( Happy Days ) starred by Adile Nasit and Munir Ozkul was on TV a lot of people rushed into their shops in one cold winter day to buy pickles.

Today the traditional way of preparing pickles is being quitted. Hypermarkets, delicatessen and the cheap pickles prepared by factories are the main reasons for that.But of course for the followers that have the taste of true pickles prepared with totally natural ingredients pickle shops will survive.

Cucumber pickles from Haci Abdullah Restaurant
Being located in the side street where there is Aga Camii (Mosque) on İstiklal Street , Hacı Abdullah restaurant has been there since 1888 and has been one of the most famous restaurants of İstanbul. This restaurant famous for the Ottoman Cuisine it has, is representing in its shop window and serving marvellous types of pickles to its customers. They are preparing their own pickles with the vegetables they have been purchasing from the same supplier of vegetables for approximately 70 years. From cardoon to oak acorn, gherkin and eggplant they have various kinds of pickles.

Being in restaurant sector for more than 45 years, Abdullah Bey tells us that there used to be very famous pickle shops in every suburb of İstanbul in the past. Şükrü in Carsıkapı and Tahir in Besiktas are the pickle shop owners he remembers in the very first thought. Abdullah Bey insists that the taste of the pickles that our mothers used to prepare at the house can never be replaced by the shop pickles and declares the formula of preparing the type of pickle that we couldn’t succeed to obtain from the pickle shop owners we visited.

Cucumber pickle: 1 kilogramme of cucumber is washed neatly.750 grams of vinegar, a number of garlic cloves upon your wish, Due to the season whether leaves of celeriac or if not available some parsley can be added. After you add some fistful of chickpeas, 400 to 450 grams of rock salt is added and the cap of the glass jar is closed. After waiting for 15 to 20 days pickle is ready to be served.

Written by: Derya Atakan
In Istanbul
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