In Amasya the apple does not leave the table once the harvest is over. In September and October the small, hard, fragrant Misket apple is sold loose in the markets. Part of the crop waits out the winter in crates and cool storerooms, and part is turned into dessert, jam and dried apple. The fresh fruit, its history, its varietal traits and its geographical indication are the subject of a separate article. This one deals with the apple's second life in the kitchen: the stuffed baked apple dessert, the jam that turns translucent in syrup, the rings dried in the sun and on strings, the compote made from them, and the new desserts the apple has entered in recent years.

All of these preparations grew out of the need to carry the fruit beyond the few weeks in which it is eaten fresh. In Amasya's economy of vineyards and orchards the apple, unlike quickly spoiling fruits such as cherries and mulberries, is a product that keeps for months. Even so, toward the end of winter the apples in store dwindle or turn soft. That is when the rings dried at the end of summer, the jam put up in jars and the compote to be boiled from dried slices come into their own. In the region's cooking the fresh, stored and processed forms of the apple therefore make up a calendar in which each completes the others.

The Amasya Apple in Older Sources

The fame of the Amasya apple is not new. In the section of his Amasya Tarihi (History of Amasya) that describes the city's geography and vineyards, Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar praises its fruit in a quatrain: "Her vakte göre meyveleri kâmil ü mebzûl / Her meyvesinin ta'mı bütün dehrde makbûl / Elması hedâyâ olarak her yere mersûl / Her beldede meşhûrdur esmâr-ı Amasya." In plain terms: the fruit of every season is ripe and plentiful, its taste is prized everywhere, its apples are sent as gifts to every place, and the fruits of Amasya are known in every town. The third line stands out because it says the apple was not only eaten where it grew but dispatched to distant places as a gift. To survive a long journey an apple has to be hard and sound. This quality, still known in the Misket apple today, made it both a gift fruit and a winter fruit.

In the same pages Hüsâmeddîn writes that the vineyards along the city's rivers were the source of its trade, and lists them: Amasya's apples, okra, quinces, walnuts, watermelons, melons, plums, cherries and wheat had taken first place throughout the world. It is worth noting that the apple heads the list and the walnut follows a few items later; the region's apple dessert brings these two products together. Describing the city's year by its seasons, the author tells how cherry season comes first, then the silk-cocoon season, then the fruit season, when the whole population hurries out to the orchards, followed by the seasons of melons and vegetables and of grapes. The apple harvest falls near the end of this sequence, in the period when the summer fruits are over and preparations for winter begin.

In the section where Hüsâmeddîn describes the quarters of Amasya, he also states which orchards produced the best apples. Of Ziyâre, today the township of Ziyaret in the central district, he records that apart from its eastern side the land was vineyard, vegetable garden, orchard and rose garden from end to end, that "the finest apples" came from there, and that its produce was abundant and every kind of it highly prized. He links the abundance of its water and the extent of its vineyards to the enterprise of its people. In the fourth volume of the work, describing the weaving of seventeenth-century Amasya, he makes a comparison: Amasya's cloth, morocco leather and saddlery were valued everywhere and presented as gifts to great and high places because they were "as fine and famous as the Amasya apple." That the apple serves as a yardstick shows that in the author's eyes it was the city's best-known product.

These records do not describe how the apple was handled in the kitchen. Hüsâmeddîn gives no recipe for dessert or jam and does not mention drying. Yet because they show the abundance of the crop, its hardiness enough to be sent far away and its place in the city's economy, they help us understand the ground on which the household methods described below developed.

Why the Misket Apple Suits the Kitchen

The apple's wide use in desserts, jam and drying comes from its structure. The Misket apple has a thin skin, firm flesh and a pleasant scent. One side is red and the other yellowish green, and a cut apple shows a star-shaped core. The tree bears heavily one year and lightly the next. According to the measurements in the geographical indication registration, the fruit is of medium size. It weighs between 100 and 165 grams, its flesh is greenish white, sweet, juicy and crisp, and its flesh firmness has been measured at 65 to 75 newtons. The side that faces the sun turns a deep, glossy red, while the shaded parts stay light red or green.

Firmness helps the apple keep its shape without falling apart when it is boiled, baked or left to stand in syrup. Its small size allows one apple to be served as a single portion and to go into a jar of jam whole. According to the same document, fruit picked in the second half of September or early October can keep until May under good conditions. Over time the skin turns oily and forms a waxy layer, which lets the fruit last longer in storage. Besides cold stores, farmers also keep the apples on the ground floor of their own houses, in cool places called "kara depo." For this reason the same fruit appears in the region's cooking on the dessert plate, in the jam jar and as dried slices put away for winter.

Apple Dessert

Among Amasya's local sweets are vişneli ekmek (sour-cherry bread), höşmerim, peluza (hasuda), kuymak and the apple dessert. Hasuda is an easily made sweet eaten with plenty of walnuts poured over it. The apple dessert is the one that most directly showcases the region's fruit. It is prepared like other fruit desserts and served with kaymak (clotted cream) or ice cream on top. It is known as a light dessert beside the heavy syrup-soaked pastries. Academic studies of Amasya cuisine also name it among the region's distinctive dishes, alongside toyga soup, stuffed broad beans, keşkek, okra with meat and bat.

The recipe in the book Amasya Mutfağı (Amasya Cuisine), prepared by the Amasya Governorate, gives the quantities. It calls for one kilogram of Misket apples, one kilogram of granulated sugar, one cup of crushed walnuts, one tea glass of cinnamon, one packet of vanilla, one packet of whipped-cream powder and food colouring made of sugar. The apples are peeled, cored and boiled for fifteen minutes. The boiled apples are brushed with the sugar colouring, the hollows are filled with a mixture of walnut and cinnamon, and the apples are baked in the oven for another fifteen minutes. Close to the time they cool, they are decorated with whipped cream and the dessert is served cold. The book does not state the type or quantity of the sugar colouring; it says only that it is brushed onto the apples.

The logic of the recipe is clear. Boiling softens the apple while preserving its integrity, the oven settles the walnut and cinnamon inside it, and the cream, served cold, gives the dessert a soft finish. A large, very juicy apple might fall apart in fifteen minutes of boiling. The small, firm-fleshed Misket allows each portion to be served as a whole apple. The walnut in the recipe also comes from the region. In Amasya cooking walnuts are used in dishes such as bat, in sweets such as hasuda, and in walnut jam; this matches Hüsâmeddîn's naming of the walnut among the city's famous products soon after the apple.

The apple dessert served in the city today is not bound to a single recipe. In the versions prepared in the businesses housed in the Yalıboyu riverside mansions and in the city's restaurants, the apple is made with hibiscus alongside cinnamon and kaymak. Tourism operators present it as the local dessert most favoured by domestic and foreign visitors. In an interview study with hotel managers, chefs, tourism operators and academics in Amasya, most participants said that the city's culinary identity is shaped by the apple and apple-based products. The same participants named the scarcity of local products on restaurant menus and the lack of promotion as the main weaknesses.

Apple Baklava

The apple's newest venture in the dessert kitchen is baklava. At the beginning of 2026 chef Murat Devek, with the help of university students training as cooks, put into practice a recipe that uses the Misket apple as the filling of baklava. Where traditional baklava has walnuts, pistachios or almonds between its thin layers of pastry, this recipe layered cooked apple instead. The apple peels were also used in making the syrup. In this way the peel was not thrown away, and the scent of apple passed into the dessert's syrup. According to the Amasya Yalıboyu Tourism Businesses Association, by January the dessert had been offered to about four thousand people, and the association announced that it wished to promote it and build it into a brand.

At about the same time a similar effort was made at the Amasya Olgunlaşma Institute, a vocational training centre. According to the institute's master chef Gönül Göl, the apple was first tried in cezerye, a confection usually made from carrots, and after good results they moved on to baklava. In this recipe the apples are peeled, grated and cooked into a purée, and apple and walnut are layered together between thin sheets of pastry rolled out with a rolling pin. The difference between the two versions is whether the apple is used in slices or as purée. In both, the walnut stays beside the apple, preserving the link with the older apple dessert.

Apple Jam

Homemade jam is a familiar part of the breakfast table in Amasya. The essence of apple jam is to thicken the fruit with sugar over low heat. One common recipe prescribes, for one kilogram of Amasya or Misket apples, four cups of granulated sugar, two cups of water, a piece of cinnamon bark, three or four cloves and the juice of half a lemon. A syrup is first boiled from the sugar and water. The apples, peeled and cut into cubes or slices, are added to the syrup together with the cinnamon and cloves, and cooked over low heat until the apples turn translucent and the syrup thickens. The lemon juice is added before taking the pot off the stove, and the jam is brought to one more boil.

Another recipe, which uses small apples whole, calls for about fifty small Amasya apples, two and a half kilograms of sugar, two pieces of cinnamon, ten cloves and half a tablespoon of citric acid (lemon salt). In these recipes the cinnamon and clove give the jam a spiced scent, while the lemon holds the colour and balances the taste. That the region's small apples can go into the jar whole depends on their being firm enough not to fall apart in the jam.

The method for jam made from sliced apples calls for patience. Unpeeled apple slices are layered in a pot, sugar is poured over them and they are left overnight. Toward morning the apple releases its juice and turns into syrup. The pot is placed over low heat, boiled for five minutes and taken off. It is not stirred; the slices are only pushed into the syrup with a spoon. The jam rests until evening, is boiled again for five minutes, and the same step is repeated the next morning. In the last round a drop of jam is dripped onto the edge of a plate, and if the drop holds its round shape the consistency is right. A slice of lemon is squeezed over it and the jam is jarred while still hot. That jam which has cooled and been reheated sets more easily is the observation on which this method rests.

A story is often repeated about apple jam: that in the time of Mehmed the Conqueror jam made from Misket apples had a place in the palace kitchen, and that it was offered to the sultan at the conquest of Amasya. This account has not been tied to any historical source. Amasya's entry under Ottoman rule belongs to a period before Mehmed II, so the time frame of the story also seems inconsistent. Although apple jam in the palace kitchen is plausible, the information linking it to a particular sultan and event has not been verified. Hüsâmeddîn's verse saying that the apple was sent everywhere as a gift also speaks of the fresh fruit, not of jam.

Dried Apple

Dried apple is one of the most common ways of carrying the season's abundance into the rest of the year. A dried apple loses its water, its taste concentrates, and kept away from moisture it can be stored for months. In Amasya drying is done both in households and in women's cooperatives. Since other produce of the region, such as flower okra, is also dried in summer and stored for winter, dried apple is part of a wider winter preparation. There are three main methods: in the sun, on a string and in the oven.

In the sun-drying method the apples are washed and wiped, sliced thinly into rings, and if desired the rings are cut in half. A table is set on a balcony or in a place that gets direct sunlight, a tablecloth is spread over it, and the slices are laid out with a little space between them. The apples dry in six to seven days on average, but they must be turned over every day so that both sides dry evenly. A high surface such as a table is chosen to keep ants away. If a cloth is to be spread on the ground, the slices are covered with a thin piece of cheesecloth.

Drying on a string is another form of sun drying. The rings, neither too thin nor too thick, are threaded onto a string with a needle, the ends of the string are tied so that it does not come undone, and the string is hung in a place with direct sunlight. After five or six days of waiting the rings are dry. The method rests on the same principle as the drying of Amasya's flower okra, which is threaded onto strings one by one. If the weather turns rainy, the oven can be used. The apples are washed and wiped, peeled and cored, cut into rings of medium thickness, arranged on a tray, and dried in an oven preheated to one hundred degrees for one to two hours. The slices that come out of the oven are cooled at room temperature.

What drying changes in the apple is also set out in figures in the Misket apple's geographical indication document. According to the document, the fruit's average moisture content at the slicing stage is 85.7 per cent. The soluble solids content, an indicator of sugar concentration, differs by a factor of six to eight between fresh and dried apple. Dipping the slices in a 2 per cent citric acid solution before drying raises their acidity and gives the dried apple a more tart taste. The document also states that producing new products by drying the apple aims to raise the grower's income while allowing the fruit to be eaten all year round.

Whether to peel the skin is left to preference. Apples dried with the skin on stay more fibrous and are found more flavourful. The dried slices must be kept away from moisture, because moisture shortens the shelf life. For this reason clean glass jars or cloth bags are used. Dried apple can be eaten plain, sprinkled with cinnamon or drizzled with honey. It is also added to herbal tea, compote, desserts and cakes. Apple tea is likewise counted among the products made from the Misket apple in the region.

Compote from Dried Apple

The known recipe for Amasya apple compote (hoşaf) can be made with fresh or dried apples. It uses five hundred grams of apples (Misket apples or dried apple), two hundred and fifty grams of granulated sugar and water. The apples are boiled in plenty of water, sugar is added and cooked, and the compote is taken off the heat and served cold. A few cloves are added if desired. When it is made with dried apple, the slices are first soaked and washed, then boiled in plenty of water until they soften. In this way the sugar and aroma concentrated during drying return to the water, and in the months when the dried slices are stored the compote brings the taste of the fresh apple to the table.

Molasses, Vinegar and Other Products

The products made from the apple are not limited to dessert, jam and dried fruit. According to growers, the Misket apple is today also turned into molasses (pekmez), vinegar, apple tea and cologne. Molasses is obtained by boiling down apple juice until it thickens. Vinegar is one of the main products the women's cooperatives sell alongside dried apple. Cologne is an example of the city's bond with the apple spilling over beyond the kitchen.

The raw material for these products is far from negligible. According to the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry, 6,462 tonnes of Misket apples were expected in the 2026 harvest from 2,220 decares, and total apple production in the province, other varieties included, was estimated at around 35,000 tonnes. A grower of Misket apples in the village of Kurnaz in Suluova district explains that because the tree bears only every other year they raise it with great effort, and that the fruit is used in many products, from cologne to vinegar.

Apple Products from Women's Cooperatives

Today the tradition of processing apples has also turned into a small-scale production in Amasya through women's cooperatives. The Amasya Misket Eller Women's Enterprise Production and Operating Cooperative offers dried apple and apple vinegar alongside the Misket apple. The cooperative states that it dries the apples, selected fresh, on days of strong sun and without touching them by hand. The product is sold by the kilogram.

The Taşova Hünerli Eller Women's Cooperative produces apple chips from the Misket apple in twenty-gram packets and also stocks dried apple in its dried-fruit group. In the joint product catalogue of the women's cooperatives, Amasya's regional products are listed as items prepared with traditional recipes and a local-production approach, with apples and apple products first, together with jams and other foods.

On its product page the Amasya Misket Eller cooperative cites a project carried out at the Amasya University Vocational School of Technical Sciences. This study examined the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the Amasya apple in 2014. According to the page, the iron, protein, and vitamins C and E in the apple, together with its antioxidant property, help reduce oxidative stress. Since the study itself could not be consulted, these health claims can be given only as the cooperative reports them. The same page also states that, thanks to its fibre structure, dried apple regulates digestion.

Chronology

2013: A rescue excavation near the village of Yavru uncovered a Roman-period mosaic with an apple-tree figure. The central medallion of the mosaic, about twenty square metres in size, shows a tree bearing four apples with three partridges beneath it. The mosaic is displayed in the Amasya Museum.

2014: A project study at the Amasya University Vocational School of Technical Sciences examined the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the Amasya apple (reported by the cooperative).

8 January 2016: An application for geographical indication status for the Amasya Misket Apple was filed with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office.

14 March 2019: The Amasya Misket Apple was registered as a designation of origin under number 424. The registration document also includes measurements made on dried apple.

5 March 2025: The Amasya Chamber of Commerce and Industry applied for European Union geographical indication status for the Misket apple and flower okra.

January 2026: Apple baklava made with the Misket apple was introduced in Amasya.

September 2026: The Misket apple harvest ceremony was held in the village of Kurnaz in Suluova; 6,462 tonnes of Misket apples were expected in the province.

Sources

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources