Sahlab
A winter drink sold on streets from Istanbul to Cairo, thick enough to eat with a spoon. It was originally thickened with flour ground from orchid tubers, now replaced almost everywhere by starch — wild orchids are protected and exporting genuine salep from Turkey is banned. The technique has one requirement, shared by every starch-thickened drink: the starch is slaked in cold milk, never tipped into hot.
Your own work in that: 3 min.
- Slaking the starch 5 min
- Cooking 12 min
- Serving 3 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneSlake the starch in cold milk
Set aside 200 ml of cold milk and whisk the cornflour into it until perfectly smooth. Starch tipped straight into hot milk seizes into lumps that are hard to get rid of — a slurry in cold milk prevents that.
Ingredients: 800 ml milk · 4 tbsp cornflour · 80 g sugar · 100 ml double cream · 1 tbsp rose water · 2 pcs mastic
Starch always into cold milk — never hot.Boil the rest of the milk with sugar
Bring the remaining milk to a boil with the cream, sugar and, if using, mastic ground with a little sugar. Mastic is ground with sugar in a mortar because on its own it sticks, and whole tears will not disperse in the liquid.
Ingredients: 800 ml milk · 4 tbsp cornflour · 80 g sugar · 100 ml double cream · 1 tbsp rose water · 2 pcs mastic
Add the slurry and cook until thick
Pour the slurry in a thin stream into the boiling milk, whisking constantly, and cook 5 minutes. The drink should be as thick as loose custard — the whisk leaves visible trails that close slowly.
Ingredients: 800 ml milk · 4 tbsp cornflour · 80 g sugar · 100 ml double cream · 1 tbsp rose water · 2 pcs mastic
The whisk leaves trails that slowly close.Add rose water off the heat
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the rose water. Off the heat, because boiling quickly drives off its aroma, and the rose scent is one of the hallmarks of sahlab.
Ingredients: 800 ml milk · 4 tbsp cornflour · 80 g sugar · 100 ml double cream · 1 tbsp rose water · 2 pcs mastic
Pour out and top generously
Pour into glasses and scatter with cinnamon, pistachios, coconut and walnuts. The topping is not decoration: sahlab itself is mild, and the additions give it crunch, nuttiness and aroma. Serve hot with a spoon.
Ingredients: 1 tsp cinnamon · 40 g pistachios · 2 tbsp desiccated coconut · 30 g walnuts
Top it generously — plain sahlab tastes of little.
Before you start
Real salep
Genuine salep flour comes from the tubers of wild orchids — thousands of them to the kilo. Turkey has banned its export, and outside Turkey real salep is hard to find and expensive. Cornflour gives a very similar texture and is the most sensible choice.
Mastic adds a resinous note
Mastic tears from Chios add a faintly piney, resinous aroma typical of the eastern version. Two tears are enough for the whole pan — any more and the aroma turns medicinal.
Cold as well
Cooled sahlab sets to a custard — serve it as a dessert in bowls under a layer of nuts, much like Middle Eastern muhallabia. Same recipe; the only difference is the serving temperature.
