Turkish delight

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"Lokum" redirects here; not to be confused with Locum.For other uses, see Lokum (disambiguation) and Turkish Delight (disambiguation).

Lokum
TurkishDelightDisplay.jpg
An assortment of Turkish delight on display in Istanbul
Type Confection
Serving temperature Room temperature
Main ingredients Starch, sugar [1] [2] [3]
Ingredients generally usedFruit, nuts, honey
VariationsMultiple
  • Wikibooks-logo.svg Cookbook: Lokum
  •   Commons-logo.svg Media: Lokum
Kaymak lokum , Turkish delight of cream, a specialty of Afyonkarahisar KaymakLokum (3).JPG
Kaymak lokum, Turkish delight of cream, a specialty of Afyonkarahisar
Turkish delights in a spice bazaar in Istanbul Sweets on Spice Bazaar in Istanbul 07.jpg
Turkish delights in a spice bazaar in Istanbul

Turkish delight, lokum ( /ˈlɒkʊm/ ) or loqum ( /ˈlɒkʊm/ ) is a family of confections based on a gel of starch and sugar. Premium varieties consist largely of chopped dates, pistachios, hazelnuts or walnuts bound by the gel; traditional varieties are often flavored with rosewater, mastic gum, bergamot orange, or lemon. Other common flavors include cinnamon and mint. The confection is often packaged in small cubes dusted with icing sugar, copra, or powdered cream of tartar to prevent clinging.

Contents

Name

The Turkish names lokma and lokum are derived from the Arabic word luqma(t) (لُقْمَة) and its plural luqam (لُقَم), meaning 'morsel' and 'mouthful'. [4] According to Nişanyan, the word lokma derives from the Turkish word lātiloḳum, meaning "a sweet made with starch" and this word derives from the Arabic word rāḥatu'l-ḥulḳūm راحت الحلقوم, meaning comfort of the throat. [5] [6] He also states that lokum is essentially the name of the fried dough dessert known today as lokma. The commercial product known as rahatül-hulkum, known from the 17th century, is understood to have been named after the sound similarity: latilokum > lokum. [5] The form (رَاحَةُ ٱلْحُلْقُوم‎), meaning 'comfort of the throat', remains the name in formal Arabic. [7]

In Libya, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Tunisia it is known as ḥalqūm, while in Kuwait it is called كبده الفرسkabdat alfaras; in Egypt it is called or, and in Lebanon, Israel, and Syria rāḥa.

In Egyptian Arabic, Turkish delight is called malban (ملبن  [ˈmælbæn] ), [8] [9] or ʕagameyya.[ citation needed ] Although it is called "malban" in some regions, "malban" may also refer to other similar desserts, such as a type of grape fruit leather made with semolina and grape juice popular in the Levant. [10] [11]

Its name in various languages of the Balkans comes from Ottoman Turkish lokum (لوقوم) or rahat-ul hulküm. Its name in Greek, λουκούμι (loukoumi) shares a similar etymology with the modern Turkish and it is marketed as Greek Delight. In Romania, it is called rahat. [12] In Bulgaria, it is called lokum. In Hungary, it is called lokum or szultánkenyér (Sultan's bread). [13] [14] Its name in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, is ratluk (ратлук), rahator lokum.

In Cyprus, where the dessert has protected geographical indication (PGI), [15] [16] it is also marketed as Cyprus Delight. In Armenian it is called lokhum (լոխում). It is läoma ܠܥܡܐ in Assyrian. Its name in Russia and Israel is rahat lokum, and derives from a very old confusion of the two names found already in Ottoman Turkish; [6] indeed this mixed name can also be found in Turkey today. In Persian, it is called rāhat-ol-holqum (راحت الحلقوم). [17] In the Indian subcontinent, a variant of it is known as Karachi halwa or Bombay halwa .

In English, it was formerly alternatively known as "lumps of delight". [18]

History

Rosewater-flavored Turkish delight Turkish Delight.JPG
Rosewater-flavored Turkish delight
Several Turkish delight variants prominently featuring dried coconut T Honey.jpg
Several Turkish delight variants prominently featuring dried coconut
A variation on Turkish delight surrounded by layers of nougat and dried apricot Turkish delight surrounded by layers of nougat and dried apricot.jpg
A variation on Turkish delight surrounded by layers of nougat and dried apricot

According to the Dani Valent "confectioner Hacı Bekir Effendi, who arrived in Constantinople (now Istanbul) from Anatolia in 1776, is often credited with its invention". [19] However, historians of sweets, have questioned this popular attribution of the invention of Turkish delight to Hacı Bekir, writing that "specific names and dates are often erroneously associated with the invention of particular sweets, not least for commercial reasons". [20] Similar Persian recipes, including the use of starch and sugar, predate Bekir by several centuries. [21] The Oxford Companion to Food states that although Bekir is often credited with the invention, there is no real evidence for it. [22] According to Tim Richardson, lokum was "most likely invented by Arab apothecaries some time around the ninth century, as a species of lohoch". [23]

A lokum-like dish also existed in the Byzantine Empire called paloudakin (Medieval Greek: παλουδάκιν) or apalodaton (Medieval Greek: ἀπαλοδᾶτον). It was borrowed from the Arabs. The Byzantines did not follow a specific recipe for the dish, which was instead described as "yellow by the color of honey and a starch candy of sugar dissolved with rosewater". [24] [25] [26] The Byzantine paloudakin was related to the Persian pālūdah and the Arabic fālūdhaj, gelatinous starch-based sweets that have been described as the ancestors of Turkish delight. [27] [28]

Variations

The Balkans

Turkish delight was introduced to European portions of the Ottoman Empire under its rule and has remained popular. Today it is commonly consumed with coffee. Rosewater and walnut are the most common flavorings.[ citation needed ]

Greece and Cyprus

In Greece, Turkish delight, known as loukoumi (λουκούμι), has been popular since the 19th century or earlier, famously produced in the city of Patras (Patrina loukoumia) as well as on the island of Syros and the northern Greek cities Thessaloniki, Serres and Komotini but elsewhere as well. Loukoumi is a common traditional treat, routinely served instead of biscuits along with coffee. In addition to the common rosewater and bergamot varieties, mastic-flavored loukoumi is available and very popular. Another sweet, similar to loukoumi, that is made exclusively in the town of Serres, is akanés. Cyprus is the only country that has a protected geographical indication (PGI) for this product: Loukoumi made in Yeroskipou is called Λουκούμι Γεροσκήπου (loukoumi geroskipou). [29]

Romania

Fruit-flavored rahat from Romania Rahat cu aroma de fructe.jpg
Fruit-flavored rahat from Romania

In Romania, Turkish delight is called rahat and it is eaten as is or is added in many Romanian cakes called cornulețe , cozonac or salam de biscuiţi. [12]

Serbia

In Serbia it is commonly known as ratluk and served along with tea and coffee.[ citation needed ]

Hungary

In Hungary, it is commonly known as lokum or szultánkenyér (Sultan's bread). [13] [14]

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, Turkish delight is known as lokum (локум) and enjoys some popularity.[ citation needed ]

Armenia

Armenian cigarette cookies Dusted Cigarette cookies.jpg
Armenian cigarette cookies

In Armenia, Turkish delight is known as lokhum (Armenian : լոխում) and used for various sweets. For example, it is used to make cigarette cookies (Armenian: սիգարետ թխվածքաբլիթներ), soft cookies that are rolled into the form of a cigarette. They are filled with either lokhum, a mixture of sugar, cardamom, and walnuts, or a combination of both. The dough mainly consists of matzoon, butter, eggs, and flour. When finished the pastry is dusted with powdered sugar. [30] [31]

India and Pakistan

In Karachi, now in Pakistan, the "Karachi halwa" was made with corn flour and ghee and became quite popular. It is said to have been developed by Chandu Halwai which later relocated to Bombay (Mumbai) after the partition in 1947. [32] Some of the confectioners termed it Bombay Halwa to avoid its connection with a Pakistani city. [33] In the year 1896, a confectioner Giridhar Mavji who ran a shop Joshi Budhakaka Mahim Halwawala attempted to replace the starch with wheat flour and thus invented Mahim halwa which consists of flat sheets. [34]

Ireland, the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries

Fry's Turkish Delight, created in 1914, [35] is marketed by Cadbury in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand. It is rosewater-flavored, and covered on all sides in milk chocolate. UK production moved to Poland in 2010. [36] Hadji Bey was an Armenian emigrant to Ireland who in 1902 set up an eponymous company – still in existence – to produce rahat lokoum for the Irish and later UK markets.[ citation needed ]

Canada

In Canada, the Big Turk chocolate bar made by Nestlé consists of dark magenta Turkish delight coated in milk chocolate.[ citation needed ]

Palestine

Lokum being cut into shape in the old city of Hebron. mn mHl lHlqwm lbld@ lqdym@ lkhlyl16.jpg
Lokum being cut into shape in the old city of Hebron.

Lokum is called rahat halqum (Arabic : راحة حلقوم), and factories making it are found in Ramallah, [37] Nablus, [38] Gaza City, [39] and the Old City of Hebron. [40] Common flavorings include mastic and pomegrante, and it is sometimes shaped into a roll. [41] [37] It is usually covered in nuts and shredded coconut. [38] [41] [39] The factories in Hebron and Nablus are reported to date back to the 19th century, during Ottoman rule. [38] [40] It is made plain or with a filling of nuts. [39] [37]

Turkish delight was an early precursor to the jelly bean, inspiring its gummy interior. [42] [43]

Turkish delight features as the enchanted confection the White Witch uses to gain the loyalty of Edmund Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) by C. S. Lewis. [44] Sales of Turkish delight rose following the theatrical release of the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . [45]

Cultural significance

Turkish delight holds deep cultural significance in Greece, Turkey, Iran, and across the Middle East and the Balkans. It symbolizes hospitality, generosity, and celebration. In Turkey, lokum is a staple during festive occasions such as weddings, where it symbolizes sweetness and prosperity in the couples' life together. [46] Similarly, during religious festivals like Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, it is exchanged as gifts among family and friends. In Greece, loukoumi is a symbol of hospitality and refinement. [47] It is commonly served to guests alongside tea or coffee, representing warmth and respect for visitors. [48]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "طريقة عمل الملبن السوري الشهير". Dlwaqty (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  2. ↑ "مقادير وطريقة عمل الملبن". موضوع (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  3. ↑ Grimes, Lulu. "Turkish delight". GoodFood. BBC. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  4. ↑ Diran Kélékian, Dictionnaire Turc–Français (Ottoman Turkish), 1911
  5. 1 2 "lokum". Nişanyan Sözlük (in Turkish). Retrieved 2025-12-09.
  6. 1 2 James Redhouse, A Turkish and English Dictionary, 1856, p.707.
  7. ↑ Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 1966, p.365
  8. ↑ Spiro, Socrates (1923). Arabic-English Dictionary of the Modern Arabic of Egypt (in Arabic). Elias' Modern Press. p. 450. Retrieved 19 April 2026.
  9. ↑ "فنجان من القهوة يحفظ المودة لـ 40 عاما.. السفير التركى يحتفل باليوم العالمى للقهوة التركية" [A cup of coffee preserves friendship for 40 years... The Turkish ambassador celebrates International Turkish Coffee Day]. Youm7 (in Arabic). 5 December 2024. Retrieved 19 April 2026.
  10. ↑ Sella, Adam (30 October 2023). "In the West Bank, a Palestinian Vineyard Struggles to Keep Tradition Alive". Eater. Archived from the original on 11 November 2025. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
  11. ↑ "Amid coronavirus, Palestinian grape farmers see market collapse". The Jerusalem Post . 10 September 2020. ISSN   0792-822X. Archived from the original on 15 August 2025. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
  12. 1 2 Marks, Gil (2010). Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. Wiley. ISBN   9780470943540.
  13. 1 2 "Turkish delight in Hungarian". Glosbe. Retrieved 2026-09-18.
  14. 1 2 "Hogyan készül a híres szultánkenyér?". www.edenkert.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2026-09-18.
  15. ↑ "Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006". Official Journal of the European Union. 21 April 2007. Archived from the original on 10 February 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  16. ↑ "Commission Regulation (EC) No 1485/2007". Official Journal of the European Union. 14 December 2007. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  17. ↑ Colin Turner, A Thematic Dictionary of Modern Persian, 2004
  18. ↑ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Iriné, eds. (2009). Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 01.02.08.01.15.29.01. OL   23951545M.
  19. ↑ "Turkish Delight". Britannica. Archived from the original on 2024-12-04. Retrieved 2024-12-08.
  20. ↑ Richardson, Tim (2003). Sweets, a History of Temptation. London: Bantam Press. p. 51. ISBN   055381446X.
  21. ↑ Brown, Jonathan (4 December 2005). "The Lion, the Witch & the Turkish Delight". The Independent . Archived from the original on 11 August 2025. Retrieved 10 August 2025. But Tim Richardson, author of Sweets: A History of Candy, is sceptical about the veracity of the legend. His love affair with confection was prompted in part by his grandfather's frequent missions to the Middle East as a buyer of Turkish delight (it was a passion not extinguished by his dentist father.) Mr Richardson believes that Hadji Bekir's story lives on, fuelled partly because of its romantic appeal and partly due to the commercial interests that continue to promote it. "I'm sure it is a much older sweet. There is evidence of gummy, syrupy sweets dating back to the 9th century," he says. The Persians developed a sweet, the "no rooz", meaning new year. It, too, was made from sugar and starch, and cut into chunks. It was displayed on necklaces and eaten during special celebrations. The recipe is repeated on manuscripts pre-dating Hadji Bekir by half a millennium.
  22. ↑ Davidson, Alan (21 August 2014). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford_University_Press. ISBN   9780191040726 – via Google_Books.
  23. ↑ Richardson, Tim (2003). Sweets, a History of Temptation. London: Bantam Press. p. 51. ISBN   055381446X.
  24. ↑ Anagnostakis, Ilias (2024). "Sweet and Salty Recipes: Some Examples from the Muslim and Byzantine Culinary and Medicinal Common Tradition". Studia Ceranea. 14: 145–214. doi: 10.18778/2084-140X.14.15 . hdl: 11089/54887 . ISSN   2449-8378. Archived from the original on 2026-05-20. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  25. ↑ Simeonov, Grigori (2013). "Obst und Süßspeisen in den Ptochoprodromika". Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik. 63: 209–219.
  26. ↑ Mavroudi, Maria V. (2002). A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation: The Oneirocriticon of Achmet and Its Arabic Sources. Leiden: Brill. p. 71. ISBN   9789004120792.
  27. ↑ Nasrallah, Nawal (2013). Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and History of the Iraqi Cuisine (2nd ed.). Sheffield: Equinox Publishing. p. 65. ISBN   9781845534578.
  28. ↑ Jurafsky, Dan (2014). The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 131. ISBN   9780393245875.
  29. ↑ "DOOR". Ec.europa.eu. Archived from the original on 13 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  30. ↑ "Cigarette Cookies". Heghineh. 23 May 2018. Archived from the original on 4 January 2024. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  31. ↑ Bodic, Slavka (31 May 2020). Ultimate Armenian Cookbook. Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US. ISBN   979-8650129738.
  32. ↑ Vohra, Paromita (November 21, 2020). "History halwa". Mid-day. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  33. ↑ "The History of Bombay Halwa". November 1, 2021. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  34. ↑ Pawar, Yogesh. "A sweet invention: Tracing the history of one of Mumbai's most famous halwas and its creator". DNA India. Archived from the original on 2022-11-22. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
  35. ↑ Brown, Jonathan (5 December 2005). "The Lion, the Witch & the Turkish Delight". The Independent . London. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2005.
  36. ↑ Bouckley, Ben (2010-07-29). "Final UK-made Cadbury Crunchie bars from September". ConfectioneryNews.com. Archived from the original on 2026-03-02. Retrieved 2025-12-09.
  37. 1 2 3 "حلوى الحلقوم بأيد فلسطينية تنافس التركية". The Independent (in Arabic). 15 January 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  38. 1 2 3 ""الحلقوم" حلوى فلسطينية تقليدية تحارب برد الشتاء". The Independent (in Arabic). 1 January 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  39. 1 2 3 ""الحلقوم" بغزة .. حلوى متوارثة ولذة يعكرها الحصار" [Gaza’s "Lokum": A Treasured Confection Marred by the Blockade]. Al Jazeera (in Arabic). 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  40. 1 2 "راحة الحلقوم حلوى فلسطينية عمرها 150 عاما". Al Jazeera (in Arabic). 2007. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  41. 1 2 "حلقوم غزة... حلويات تقليدية فلسطينية". The New Arab (in Arabic). 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2026.
  42. ↑ Moncel, Bethany. "The History of Jelly Beans". About.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  43. ↑ Olver, Lynne (9 January 2015). "history notes-candy". The Food Timeline . Archived from the original on 4 May 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  44. ↑ Strickland, Cara (3 August 2016). "Why Was Turkish Delight C.S. Lewis's Guilty Pleasure?". JSTOR Daily. Archived from the original on 2 March 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  45. ↑ Reilly, Susan (17 February 2006). "Turkish Delight Sales Jump After Narnia Chronicles". Info.nhpr.org. Archived from the original on 8 November 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  46. ↑ "What Does Turkish Delight Symbolise?". Marsel Delights UK LTD. 2023-02-01. Archived from the original on 2024-04-22. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
  47. ↑ Wichmann, Anna (July 14, 2025). "The Fascinating History of Greek Loukoumia, or Turkish Delights". Greek Reporter. Archived from the original on July 16, 2024. Retrieved June 6, 2024.
  48. ↑ Yaşar, Amine Berra (2018-08-04). "More than a sweet tooth: Ceremonial desserts of Turkish cuisine". Daily Sabah. Archived from the original on 2018-08-04. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
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