Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking. As a processed meat, the term ham includes both whole cuts of meat and ones that have been mechanically formed.
Turkish cuisine is the cuisine of Turkey and the Turkish diaspora. Although the cuisine took its current rich form after numerous cultural interactions throughout centuries, it should not be confused with other cuisines such as Ottoman cuisine or Seljuk cuisine. Turkish cuisine with traditional Turkic elements such as yogurt, ayran, kaymak, exerts and gains influences to and from Mediterranean, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Eastern European cuisines.
Salting is the preservation of food with dry edible salt. It is related to pickling in general and more specifically to brining also known as fermenting and is one form of curing. It is one of the oldest methods of preserving food, and two historically significant salt-cured foods are salted fish and salt-cured meat. Vegetables such as runner beans and cabbage are also often preserved in this manner.
Halloumi or haloumi is a cheese that is thought to have originated from Cyprus, though some contest that it originated in Egypt. It is made from a mixture of goat's and sheep's milk, and sometimes also cow's milk. Its texture is described as squeaky. It has a high melting point and so can easily be fried or grilled, a property that makes it a popular meat substitute. Rennet is used to curdle the milk in halloumi production, although no acid-producing bacteria are used in its preparation.
Smoked salmon is a preparation of salmon, typically a fillet that has been cured and hot or cold smoked.
Feta is a Greek brined white cheese made from sheep's milk or from a mixture of sheep and goat's milk. It is soft, with small or no holes, a compact touch, few cuts, and no skin. Crumbly with a slightly grainy texture, it is formed into large blocks and aged in brine. Its flavor is tangy and salty, ranging from mild to sharp. Feta is used as a table cheese, in salads such as Greek salad, and in pastries, notably the phyllo-based Greek dishes spanakopita "spinach pie" and tyropita "cheese pie". It is often served with olive oil or olives, and sprinkled with aromatic herbs such as oregano. It can also be served cooked, as part of a sandwich, in omelettes, and many other dishes.
Roe, or hard roe, is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooked ingredient in many dishes, and as a raw ingredient for delicacies such as caviar.
Umeboshi are pickled (brined) ume fruits common in Japan. The word umeboshi is often translated into English as 'salted Japanese plums', 'Japanese plums' or 'preserved plums'. Ume is a species of fruit-bearing tree in the genus Prunus, which is often called a "plum", but is actually more closely related to the apricot. Pickled ume which are not dried are called umezuke (梅漬け).
Bresaola is air-dried, salted beef that has been aged two or three months until it becomes hard and turns a dark red, almost purple colour. It is made from top (inside) round, and it is lean and tender, with a sweet, musty smell. It originated in Valtellina, a valley in the Alps of northern Italy's Lombardy region.
Olive oil extraction is the process of extracting the olive oil present in olive drupes. Olive oil is produced in the mesocarp cells, and stored in a particular type of vacuole called a lipo vacuole, i.e., every cell contains a tiny olive oil droplet. Olive oil extraction is the process of separating the oil from the other fruit contents. It is possible to attain this separation by physical means alone, i.e., oil and water do not mix, so they are relatively easy to separate. This contrasts with other oils that are extracted with chemical solvents, generally hexane. The first operation when extracting olive oil is washing the olives, to reduce the presence of contaminants, especially soil which can create a particular flavor effect called "soil taste".
Mojama is a Mediterranean delicacy consisting of filleted salt-cured tuna, typically found in the Murcia and Andalusia regions of Spain, particularly in Huelva and Cádiz or in Portugal in the region of Algarve. Bluefin and yellowfin tuna are the most common varieties used.
Smoked fish is fish that has been cured by smoking. Foods have been smoked by humans throughout history. Originally this was done as a preservative. In more recent times fish is readily preserved by refrigeration and freezing and the smoking of fish is generally done for the unique taste and flavour imparted by the smoking process.
Cured fish is fish which has been cured by subjecting it to fermentation, pickling, smoking, or some combination of these before it is eaten. These food preservation processes can include adding salt, nitrates, nitrite or sugar, can involve smoking and flavoring the fish, and may include cooking it. The earliest form of curing fish was dehydration. Other methods, such as smoking fish or salt-curing also go back for thousands of years. The term "cure" is derived from the Latin curare, meaning to take care of. It was first recorded in reference to fish in 1743.
The Picholine is a French cultivar of olives. It is the most widely available cultivar in France. Though originally from Gard in southern France, it is today grown all over the world. The Picholine is best known as a cocktail olive, though it is also used to make olive oil. It is the most common variety of olive used for oil from Morocco.
Sun-dried tomatoes are ripe tomatoes that lose most of their water content after spending a majority of their drying time in the sun. These tomatoes are usually pre-treated with sulfur dioxide or salt before being placed in the sun in order to improve colour and appearance. Typically, tomatoes spend 4–10 days in the sun in order for the sun-drying process to be complete. Cherry tomatoes will lose 88% of their initial (fresh) weight, while larger tomatoes can lose up to 93% during the process. As a result, it takes anywhere from 8 to 14 kilograms of fresh tomatoes to make a single kilogram of sun-dried tomatoes.
Alpujarras cheese is a Spanish cheese from the eastern region of Andalusia, which includes the provinces of Granada, Almería and the Penibética mountain chain. The cheese takes its name from La Alpujarra, a mountainous region which occupies a part of southern Granada province and western Almeria province. This area has a long history and tradition of goatherding. Alpujarras cheese is made from the milk of the White Andalusian domesticated goat.
Flake salt refers to a category of salt characterized by their dry, plate-like ("lamellose") crystals. Their structure is a result of differing growth rates between the faces and edges of the crystal, an effect that can be achieved in various ways. Flake salt may occur naturally but can also be produced by a variety of methods, including boiling brine over metal salt pans or evaporating it in greenhouse solar evaporators. The technologies used as well as atmospheric conditions can yield varying crystal structures. Flake salts can form as irregular shavings, pyramidal shapes, boxes, or potato chip-like laminated crystals. These salts tend to have lower trace mineral content than other salts, giving them a stronger salty taste. Most form as thin, flattened out crystals with a large surface area and low mass that give them a crunchy texture and relatively fast dissolution rate. Because of the salts' delicate structures, selmeliers tend to use them as finishing salts.
Anchovies are small, common saltwater forage fish in the family Engraulidae that are used as human food and fish bait. There are 144 species in 17 genera found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as oily fish. They are small, green fish with blue reflections due to a silver longitudinal stripe that runs from the base of the caudal fin. They range from 2 centimetres (0.79 in) to 40 centimetres (16 in) in adult length, and the body shape is variable, with more slender fish in northern populations.
Manzanilla olives ("man-zah-nee-ya") or Manzanillo, also Manzanilla de Sevilla, originally from the area of Seville, Spain, are sometimes referred to as Spanish olives but along with Arbosana, Arbequina, Cacereña, Hojiblanca, Empeltre, and Gordal there are over two hundred varieties grown in Spain as well as other areas.
