At an Amasya table, sweets and pastries are hard to tell apart. A syrup-soaked tray and a flatbread baked on the griddle take shape around the same flour, the same walnuts and the same butter; the difference usually lies in the occasion for which they are set out. In official lists the local dishes of the city fall under four headings: soups, meat dishes, sweets and pastries. The sweets column holds fifteen names and the pastries column eighteen, and each has its own place in the home, the village or the wedding house. In recent years several of these names have been registered as geographical indications, and their recipes have entered official documents complete with weights and baking times. The city's older records, meanwhile, show that sweets in Amasya were never only a matter for the household kitchen: their history runs from masters trained in the palace confectionery to endowed halva handed out at tombs.

The Local List of Sweets and Pastries

According to the list compiled by the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the sweets of the region are as follows: dene hasudası, kuymak, yuka tatlısı, ayva gailesi, elma tatlısı, baked rice pudding (fırın sütlaç), gelin parmağı, gömlek kadayıfı, kalbur tatlısı, höşmerim, peluza (hasuda), şeker böreği, unutma beni, vişneli ekmek and zerdali gailesi. The pastries are listed as Amasya çöreği, yağlı (katmer), kabak kavuklu pilav, bişi, cırıtka (cızlak, akıtma), döndürme, ekmek aşı (papara), eli böğründe, haşhaşlı cevizli çörek, hengel, kıymasız mantı, kaypak, mayalı, patlıcanlı pilav, sini su böreği, tepsi böreği, yakasal böreği and yanuç. That pilafs are also counted among the pastries shows that the classification comes from kitchen practice and does not rest on a strict system.

The book Amasya Mutfağı (Amasya Cuisine), published in 2010 by the Amasya Governorship's cultural publications under the editorship of H. Harun Yörgüç, gives a more detailed account of this inventory. Its sweets section includes pâluze, dene hasudası, tırtıl baklava, kalbura bastı (halbur tatlısı), kuymak, şeker böreği (flour biscuits), yoka tatlısı, elma tatlısı, vişneli ekmek, höşmerim, eggs with grape molasses, apple compote, unutma beni, teltel (pişmaniye, a floss halva) and gömlek kadayıfı. Where the official list presents peluza and hasuda as two pronunciations of a single name, the book treats pâluze and dene hasudası under separate headings. The distinction can be read as a written trace of the starch sweet's names and methods, which change from village to village.

Shared Ingredients

When the recipes of these two families are set side by side, the same few ingredients keep returning. Walnuts appear inside kalbur tatlısı, on top of hasuda, sprinkled over vişneli ekmek and between the layers of yağlı and Amasya çöreği. Poppy seed, together with sugar beet and sunflower, is among the products widely used in the local kitchen and also exported; it is the main filling of both the çörek and the katmer. Grape molasses (pekmez) sweetens hasuda and unutma beni, while butter is common to every task from the copper pan to the griddle. On the fruit side there are apples, sour cherries, quinces and apricots; in a kitchen where food dried in summer is carried into winter, fruit too reaches beyond its season.

Şeker böreği, also known as flour biscuits, and teltel, the Amasya name for pişmaniye, are given among the sweets in the Governorship's book; their recipes are found there, but we have no detailed record of how they were made. The same book also counts eggs with molasses as a sweet. These records show that in the region a sweet did not consist only of syrup-soaked doughs; it could also come from the molasses and eggs of the household pantry.

The registration documents add one more item to these shared ingredients: chickpea leaven. The dough of both Amasya çöreği and the twisted burmalı çörek is raised with chickpea water, made by leaving a few chickpeas crushed in a mortar to stand for three days in warm sweetened water until the surface is covered with a thick foam. The documents note separately that the jar must stand in a warm, sunlit place of moderate humidity for the leaven to take. This old method of raising dough is presented as the main feature that sets Amasya's baked goods apart from similarly named buns of neighbouring regions.

The Zekeriya table, regarded as one of the oldest traditions of the local kitchen, is also worth keeping in mind when considering the place of bread and sweets. This table, laid with uncooked foods, has no invitation; whoever wishes may join. It is laid so that a wish may be fulfilled, and the person whose wish comes true prepares the same table again in their own home. Zamzam water, dates, nigella seed, yoghurt, cheese, olives and pide are its main elements, and forty-one items in all are expected to be present.

Halva, Halva Makers and Endowed Tables

The earliest written traces of Amasya's relationship with sweets belong to halva, which today does not even appear as a separate heading in the local lists. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn's Amasya Tarihi recounts the lives of several men from Amasya who went to Istanbul, entered the Enderun, the inner service of the palace, and were trained in the Helvahâne-i Hâssa, the imperial confectionery where the sultan's halva and sweetmeats were prepared. Serçe İbrâhim Ağa, son of the cavalryman Hasan Ağa, was taken into the Enderun as a boy, trained in the confectionery, became steward of the halva makers in Hijri 1093 and chief halva maker (helvacıbaşı) in 1096 (1684-85). According to Hüsâmeddîn, İbrâhim Ağa, who had gained influence and standing in the Enderun, was dismissed in Muharram 1099 at the insistence of rebels after the accession of Süleyman II and sent back to his home town, where he died. His descendants were known in Amasya as the "Serçe oğulları".

The path of Helvacı el-Hâc İsmâil Ağa, son of Mehmed bin Hasan of the Gökmedrese quarter, was the same. He entered the Enderun Palace as a young man, was apprenticed to the Helvahâne-i Hâssa and, trained there, rose to be steward of the halva makers. Because he had offended the chief halva maker İbrâhim Ağa, he was given a cavalry fief on the latter's complaint after the accession upheaval of 1115 (1703) and sent to Amasya. İsmâil Ağa joined the ranks of the city's notables; his sons and grandsons were called the "Helvacıoğulları", and the family remained among the leading households of the city for several generations. A third example is the head cook el-Hâc İbrâhim Ağa: according to the Enderun registers he entered the confectionery in his youth and worked there for years, became steward of the cooks, and at the accession of Selim III was appointed head cook of the palace. He retired in 1218 and went on the pilgrimage, and his family were known in Amasya as the "Aşçızâdeler".

These biographies do not report a halva recipe peculiar to Amasya, and the sources do not show how far the skill learned at the palace was carried back to the home town. Even so, the fact that apprentices went from the same city to the palace confectionery over several generations, and could rise from there to the highest ranks, suggests that Amasya families saw the trade as a path of advancement; this is an inference drawn from the facts in the sources. The same name also left its mark on the city's topography. Hüsâmeddîn mentions the Helvacı Pınarı, a fountain built by Helvacı Mehmed Ağa at the head of the southern gorge, and records that Uncu el-Hâc İbrâhim Ağa, who made his fortune in the flour trade, endowed seven shops in 1203 and assigned part of their income to the repair of this fountain and its paths. The text does not make clear whether Mehmed Ağa's byname came from a trade or from a family name.

In Amasya halva was also a food of charity and remembrance. According to a note Hüsâmeddîn adds to his entry on Pîr Ali Çelebi, half the revenue of the village of Ağcaşehr in the Geldiklan district was his endowment and the other half that of his relative Tursun Bey, and the income of both halves was assigned to "the proper cooking of food and halva" at Pîr Ali Çelebi's tomb. Osman Fevzi Olcay describes from his own observation how the same custom survived into the early twentieth century. As far as can be understood from his account, under the terms of an endowment attached to a simit baker's shop in the Selağzı area of the Gümüşlü quarter, every year on the eve of the Feast of Sacrifice flour halva was made by Karcı İmam Tevfik; the halva was wrapped in pide and carried in large laundry baskets to the Aşağı Pirler Tomb, where hafızes recited the whole Qur'an and offered prayers, after which the halva was handed out to the people. Olcay writes that the trusteeship of the shop was held by a man known as Kayyumzâde and that the custom was carried out without fail on the same day every year.

Halva turns up elsewhere in Olcay's memoirs as well. Among the city's vineyards there was a locality called the Helvacı Bağları, and in the Mahkeme Çarşısı there was a coffeehouse belonging to Helvacı Şeyhi Hakkı Efendi. The chapter of the book devoted to customs includes a section headed "Amasya Helvası", and the book's editors list among its notable subjects the arrival in Amasya of the caravan of Ömer Ağa, which carried army supplies between Diyarbakır and Samsun, and the way the army's need for halva was met from Amasya. As the section itself could not be reached in the text available to us, no details can be given about the type of halva or how it was made.

Sweets of Syrup, Milk and Cheese

First among the syrup sweets comes kalbur tatlısı. The dough of this sweet, also called halbur tatlısı in Amasya, is kneaded to the softness of an earlobe; walnuts are placed in pieces the size of an egg, and a pattern is given by rolling them by hand across the back of a sieve. The sweet bakes in the oven for about half an hour, and syrup that has been boiled and cooled is poured over it. Gömlek kadayıfı is made by wrapping a filling in fine shredded kadayıf and is often seen at holiday and wedding tables in the region. Kuymak, yuka tatlısı and gelin parmağı are the less frequently mentioned names on the list; the sources do not describe how they are made in detail, but they stand among the names counted in the sweets column of the local kitchen.

Baklava is the sweet of the honoured guest and the wedding table in Amasya, and in 2022 it received a geographical indication under the name "Amasya Cevizli Ballı Baklavası", Amasya walnut baklava with honey. According to the registration text, the sheets are rolled from a dough of egg, sunflower oil, milk, apple vinegar, salt, flour, water and saffron; forty balls of dough are rolled out one by one with plenty of starch and laid in the tray in groups of five, with finely ground walnuts spread between each layer. Skimmed melted butter is poured over, the baklava is baked for about an hour, and a syrup of honey and lemon is poured on top. The apple vinegar is said to give the baklava its crispness and the saffron a golden-yellow colour. The use of honey instead of sugar in the syrup sets this recipe apart from many Anatolian baklavas. The document records that the sweet is served on special days such as weddings, circumcisions and religious holidays; the sources do not explain the relationship between the tırtıl baklava of the Governorship's book and the registered recipe.

As a sweet made from cheese, höşmerim is known in many parts of Anatolia. It is prepared by cooking fresh unsalted cheese with sugar and semolina over a low flame. Its name is said to come from the words "hoş mu erim" ("is it nice, my husband?") that the woman who made it asked her husband; this explanation is a folk etymology and is not supported by any document. In Amasya, höşmerim comes to the table as a plain example of cheese turned into a sweet. Fırın sütlaç, by contrast, is a sweet in which milk is baked in the oven until the top browns, kept for holidays and days when guests are received.

What kadayıf, kuymak and baklava have in common lies in the rule by which they are served to guests. In the city, a guest who comes from outside and usually spends the night in the house is called an "ağır misafir", an honoured guest. The table laid for such a guest consists of six dishes: toyka soup, a whole joint of meat, rice pilaf, sini su böreği, okra and, last of all, a sweet. The sweet is chosen from tırtıl baklava, kuymak or gömlek kadayıfı. In summer the whole joint is replaced by patlıcan pehlisi, an aubergine dish. At this table, whose order hardly ever changes, the sweet is as much a measure of the host's preparation as it is the close of the meal.

Sweets Cooked with Fruit

Amasya's apples are spoken of in two main groups, misket and kabak apples; the small sweet one is called misket and the large grafted one kabak. Molasses made from misket apples holds a place of its own at the region's sweet table, and the apple is also turned directly into a sweet. Elma tatlısı is made by cooking peeled apples in syrup with sour cherries and serving them with clotted cream or whipped cream; it is made in a similar way to quince and pear sweets, and it is the local apple that gives it its taste. The Governorship's book also includes apple compote. In a recent study carried out with people working in the city's tourism sector, participants saw the apple as the symbol of Amasya's cuisine and counted elma tatlısı, dene hasudası and Amasya çöreği among the prominent products of the local kitchen.

Gaile sits in a somewhat surprising place on the list. Ayva gailesi and zerdali gailesi are counted among the sweets in the official list, whereas the Governorship's book puts ayva gailesi in the meat dishes section. According to the recipe, mutton and chickpeas are boiled together, the meat is pulled apart along the grain and cut into small cubes, and it is brought to the boil with the chickpeas and the stock, with sugar added, and served lukewarm. This is why this sweet, meaty and fruity dish is named in both the sweets and the dishes lists. The geographical indication registered in 2022 under the name "Amasya Ayva Gallesi" likewise did not place the dish among the sweets, recording it instead in the group of dishes and soups. The recipe in the registration text calls, for four people, for four large quinces, half a kilo of mutton neck, two hundred grams of chickpeas and a quarter kilo of sugar; it states that its history goes back to the Ottoman period and that it is served especially at religious holidays falling in autumn.

Sweets Made from Bread

Vişneli ekmek and unutma beni are two separate examples of stale bread turned into a sweet. For vişneli ekmek the bread is cut into slices one centimetre thick, brushed with butter and toasted in the oven until it turns pink, then combined with sour cherries boiled in sugared water, served cold and sprinkled with walnuts. Local tales say that a cream cake eaten in the princes' palaces turned into this sweet in the hands of a poor family; there is no documentary evidence for this story.

Unutma beni ("forget me not"), for its part, is a sweet made with stale bread, molasses and walnuts, said to have been made by a woman so that her husband, leaving for military service, would not forget her. It received a geographical indication on 20 November 2023 as "Amasya Unutma Beni Tatlısı" on the application of Ziyaret Municipality, and the recipe in the registration text is strikingly simple. Sugar and grape molasses are added to a pot of water and brought to the boil; stale wholewheat village bread is cut into thick slices, dipped into the boiling mixture and lifted out, sprinkled with walnuts and served on a tray or in portions. The document records that the sweet is eaten both on important days and at everyday meals. After the registration, teachers and students at a vocational high school in Amasya began making the sweet again and presenting it at competitions; the food and beverage teacher recalled that in her childhood it was made in the villages but rarely in the city centre. The renewed visibility through registration of a village sweet that was fading from the city is a small but clear example of the effect of the geographical indication process on the local kitchen. Both sweets point to the esteem in which bread, never wasted, is held in the kitchen.

Hasuda and Starch Sweets

Hasuda is one of Amasya's most distinctive sweets. It takes about five minutes to make and is eaten hot. Starch, water and molasses are made into a coarse batter, added to butter heated in a copper pan and stirred with a wooden spoon until it turns grainy, then covered, left to rest and served lukewarm. Walnuts are its main companion. That it is known in the region as dene hasudası, and in some villages as tane hasudası and peluza, shows that this sweet of few ingredients has acquired its own name across a wide area. Shared by the stove on winter nights, hasuda is also a sweet of neighbourly relations, since its ingredients are always at hand in the house and it is easy to cook.

The Table of Ceremonies and Holidays

In Amasya, food is eaten within an order tied to the seasons of the year and the stages of life. According to local sources, two meals a day are generally eaten, in the morning and the evening; the morning meal is called kuşluk, an afternoon meal (ikindilik) is added for those working in the fields, and in some homes a late-evening meal (yatsılık) after supper. Winter food is prepared in summer, and what is dried in summer comes to the table in winter.

At religious holidays, guests are offered stuffed vegetables with meat, keşkek, baklava and poppy-seed çörek. The custom of giving children pocket money together with Turkish delight wrapped in a handkerchief still continues. During Ramadan the iftar table holds börek, compote and çörek. At the Feast of Sacrifice baklava, bakla dolması and pilaf with meat are prepared, and food is also sent to the poor. Zerde, for its part, is the saffron-yellow sweet of wedding and mevlid tables. The endowed halva handed out at a tomb on the eve of the Feast of Sacrifice in old Amasya was also part of this holiday order of sharing.

At village weddings, cauldrons of keşkek, pilaf, meat and halva are set boiling, and tables are laid on the flat roofs and in the courtyards. On the wedding night, for the meal known as güvey önü, a whole joint of meat, pilaf and tırtıl baklava are placed on a tray. At the bride's bath, bakla dolması, walnut puaça, bat and lokma are eaten. At circumcision ceremonies pilaf with meat, sherbet and sweets are served; at the bathhouse children are given simit, poaça, eli böğründe and sugar. The diş hediği custom, in which wheat is boiled with sugar and shared with the neighbours for a child cutting its first tooth, is another form of sharing through sweetness. If only one item is to be offered to those taking part in communal work (imece), the griddle is set up and yağlı, yanuç, kete and gömbe are served with tea from the samovar.

Pastries

The pastries section of the Governorship's book shows in one place the breadth of the city's relationship with flour. Sini su böreği, sini böreği, köy böreği, yakasal böreği, içkefe böreği, Amasya çöreği with chickpeas and twisted Amasya çöreği, puaça, yağlı (katmer), kete, eli böğründe, gömbe, döndürme, yanuç, kaypak (piruhi), hengel, pişi, cırıtka (akıtma, cızlak) and ekmek aşı (papara) are listed there. Some belong at the head of the table, others to breakfast and the hour of tea.

Sini su böreği is one of the six dishes of the honoured guest's table and is known as the feast börek of the region. Yakasal böreği, on the other hand, is a plain börek made in a tray. A dough of flour, water and salt is kneaded to the softness of an earlobe, rolled out one and a half centimetres thick, brushed with melted butter, rolled up and divided into three balls. The balls are rolled out to the size of a large round tray and laid in a greased tray; beaten egg is poured between the first two sheets, the third sheet is laid on top, and it is cooked on the hob. This börek, which can be eaten at any meal, is close in structure to bazlama.

Yağlı

Yağlı, that is katmer, is made according to the recipe given in the Amasya Governorship's book Amasya Mutfağı with a kilo of flour, salt and oil. The dough, of earlobe consistency, is left to rest, divided into five balls, rolled thin and oiled; ground walnuts and poppy seed thinned with oil are spread over the dough. The edges are pulled out by hand so that no spot is left untouched by the filling; the dough is rolled up, coiled like a simit and pressed down, then rolled out half a centimetre thick and cooked on the griddle, turned again and again. Once cooked it is brushed with butter once more. In the simplified recipes used at home, an ungreased pan replaces the griddle, poppy seed mixed with oil is spread between the layers, and each layer is brushed with oil as soon as it is cooked and stacked on the others; once cool, the katmer can be frozen and later warmed in a pan or a sandwich toaster.

Yağlı received a geographical indication in 2022 as "Amasya Yağlısı", and the registration text differs slightly from the recipe in the book. The dough in the document is kneaded with dry yeast, but it is stated that yağlı can also be made without yeast, in which case sunflower oil is added to the dough in place of yeast. A filling of walnuts, crushed poppy seed and sunflower oil is spread over the rolled dough so that no gaps remain; the dough is rolled up and turned around itself into the shape of a rose, then rolled out to about forty centimetres across and cooked on the griddle in a few minutes. The book's "coiling like a simit" and the document's "rose shape" may be regarded as two descriptions of the same step. The registration text records that yağlı is served on special days such as weddings, circumcisions, religious holidays and funerals; the presence of funerals in this list shows that yağlı does not belong only to days of celebration.

Yanuç and Hengel

Yanuç is today one of the best-documented products under this heading. A dough of wheat flour, water, salt and yeast is left to rest for at least an hour, divided into six equal balls, left a while longer and rolled out to a diameter of twenty-five to fifty centimetres. The filling is placed on one half of the dough and the other half is folded over in a half-moon shape; it is cooked evenly on both sides on a griddle, preferably heated over a wood fire. The filling may be cheese, cheese with parsley, cheese with spring onion, minced meat, potato or spinach. On the application of the Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union, Amasya Yanuç was registered as a designation of origin on 22 November 2023; the registration text describes yanuç as a product that reaches from breakfast to wedding and holiday tables.

Hengel is a pastry resembling mantı, made by cutting hand-rolled dough into squares and folding them into triangles. The filling may be minced meat or it may be left plain; it is boiled in water, topped with a garlic and mint yoghurt dressing and baked. Kıymasız mantı, kaypak, eli böğründe and bişi belong to the same family; the sources available to us do not describe how they are made in detail and record only their names and their presence in the region. Ekmek aşı, that is papara, is a modest dish that puts stale bread to new use.

Amasya Çöreği

Amasya çöreği is the most frequently mentioned taste of the city after its apples. The dough is rolled out by hand and layered with walnuts and poppy seed; because it is kneaded with little yeast, its taste lies between lightly sweet and savoury. It is served especially at tea time, and its fame has spread beyond the city's borders. Poppy seed and walnuts are the recurring ingredients in the çörek, in the katmer and in the poppy-seed çörek offered at holidays. That çörek with chickpeas and twisted Amasya çöreği appear under separate headings in the Governorship's book suggests that the name covers a whole family of buns.

The geographical indication registrations have recorded two branches of this family separately. "Amasya Çöreği", registered on 24 August 2021 in the name of the Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union, is a palm-sized bun in the shape of a half-moon. The centre of the flour is hollowed out like a basin and chickpea water, butter, pounded walnuts and salt are placed in it; a soft dough is kneaded and divided into fifteen or sixteen balls. The tops of the balls are scored and they are baked for about fifteen minutes in a very hot oven; when they have formed a crust they are taken out, brushed with a mixture of egg yolk, sugar and oil, and baked for another twenty minutes. According to the document, what distinguishes this bun is the chickpea leaven and the two-stage baking.

"Burmalı Amasya Çöreği", registered on 7 June 2022 on the application of the Amasya Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is a tray-baked bun served in slices. The dough, raised with dry yeast and chickpea water, is divided into five balls, and each is rolled out with olive oil to about fifty centimetres; the sheets, spread with a paste of crushed poppy seed in olive oil and sprinkled with walnuts, are stacked, cut in two, stacked again and cut into strips three centimetres wide. The strips are twisted into spirals, laid close together in the tray, brushed with egg yolk and oil and baked until golden. The registration text records that the first production of this bun is known to have taken place in 1925; the document does not explain which bakery or which record this date rests on. The recipe mentioned in the previous paragraph, of a çörek layered with walnuts and poppy seed, is closer to the definition of this twisted branch.

Sweets and Pastries with Geographical Indications

Registrations made between 2021 and 2023 have placed seven of Amasya's sweets and pastries under protection: Amasya Çöreği, Burmalı Amasya Çöreği, Amasya Yağlısı, Amasya Cevizli Ballı Baklavası, Amasya Unutma Beni Tatlısı and Amasya Yanuç, together with Amasya Ayva Gallesi, which was recorded in the group of dishes. Most of the applications were made by the Yeşilırmak Basin Development Union; the Chamber of Commerce and Industry was the applicant for the twisted çörek and Ziyaret Municipality for unutma beni. In every document the geographical boundary is the province of Amasya, and all stages of production are required to take place within it.

What the registrations bring is the binding of each recipe to a system of inspection. Every document provides for an inspection board of three or four members, coordinated by the applicant and including specialists from the vocational school of Amasya University, the Amasya Tourism Association or the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry. At least once a year, and whenever there is a complaint, the board checks the ingredients used, compliance with the production method and correct use of the logo; for unutma beni the manner of serving is also among the criteria. Recipes once handed down from generation to generation without measures have thus been written down in grams and centimetres; how far this precision reflects the variety found in homes is a separate question. The registered products have also drawn academic interest: a nutrition study published in 2026 examined the nutrient values of thirteen of Amasya's geographically indicated products, seven of them chosen from the bakery, pastry and sweets group.

Detailed Articles

A number of these sweets are treated in their own articles on this site: kalbur tatlısı, hasuda, höşmerim, gömlek kadayıfı, unutma beni, zerde and feast sweets, holiday sweets and the culture of hospitality, vişneli ekmek, and milk puddings.

Chronology

1682 (AH 1093): Serçe İbrâhim Ağa of Amasya becomes steward of the halva makers in the palace confectionery.

1684-85 (AH 1096): Serçe İbrâhim Ağa rises to chief halva maker.

1687 (AH 1099): After the accession of Süleyman II, Serçe İbrâhim Ağa is dismissed and sent to Amasya.

1703 (AH 1115): Helvacı İsmâil Ağa, steward of the halva makers, is sent to Amasya with a fief after the accession upheaval.

1788-89 (AH 1203): The endowment of Uncu İbrâhim Ağa assigns income to the repair of the Helvacı Pınarı and its paths.

1789: İbrâhim Ağa of Amasya, trained in the confectionery, becomes head cook of the palace at the accession of Selim III.

1925: According to the registration text, the first known production of twisted Amasya çöreği.

2010: The Amasya Governorship publishes Amasya Mutfağı, edited by H. Harun Yörgüç.

24 August 2021: Amasya Çöreği is registered as a geographical indication.

7 June 2022: Burmalı Amasya Çöreği is registered.

16 June 2022: Amasya Yağlısı is registered.

13 December 2022: Amasya Ayva Gallesi is registered.

23 December 2022: Amasya Cevizli Ballı Baklavası is registered.

20 November 2023: Amasya Unutma Beni Tatlısı is registered.

22 November 2023: Amasya Yanuç is registered.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Hüsameddin, Amasya Tarihi, vols. 6-8, pp. 46, 66, 68, 313, 448 (Serçe İbrâhim Ağa, Uncu İbrâhim Ağa and the Helvacı Pınarı, head cook İbrâhim Ağa, Helvacı İsmâil Ağa, the endowment of Pîr Ali Çelebi) kentrehberi.amasya.bel.tr
  • Olcay, Osman Fevzi. Amasya Hâtıraları: Bildiklerim, Gördüklerim, İşittiklerim ile Amasya. Amasya Municipality Cultural Publications (sections on the Gümüşlü quarter and Selağzı)

Academic studies

  • Sözlü, Saniye and Seda Kaya. "Nutritional Profile of Local Delicacies: A Study on Geographically Indicated Dishes from Amasya Cuisine." Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology 14(2), 2026, pp. 449-456

Official sources

  • Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, list of local cuisine (Amasya Municipality City Guide)
  • Amasya Governorship Cultural Publications, Amasya Mutfağı / Amasya Cuisine, ed. H. Harun Yörgüç, 2010
  • Kültür Portalı (Culture Portal), Traditional Cuisine, Yağlı (Katmer), Amasya kulturportali.gov.tr

Other sources

  • Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, registration certificate for the designation of origin Amasya Çöreği, No. 874, 24.08.2021
  • Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, registration certificate for the designation of origin Burmalı Amasya Çöreği, No. 1136, 07.06.2022
  • Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, registration certificate for the designation of origin Amasya Yağlısı, No. 1150, 16.06.2022
  • Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, registration certificate for the designation of origin Amasya Ayva Gallesi, No. 1287, 13.12.2022
  • Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, registration certificate for the designation of origin Amasya Cevizli Ballı Baklavası, No. 1301, 23.12.2022
  • Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, registration certificate for the designation of origin Amasya Unutma Beni Tatlısı, No. 1497, 20.11.2023
  • Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, registration certificate for the designation of origin Amasya Yanuç, 22.11.2023
  • CNN Türk (İHA), "Amasya'nın tescilli tatlısı 'unutma beni'", 26.04.2024
  • Pala, Kenan. "Amasya'da gastronomi turizminin geliştirilmesi: turizm profesyonellerinin görüşleri." Tourism and Recreation 8(1), 2026, pp. 230-244
  • İsmail Karataş, Amasya Mutfak Yemek Kültürü, 2023
  • Amasya Local Flavours and Food Guide (a compilation of recipes and ceremonial dishes)

Online sources