Sucuklu yumurta
A classic of the Turkish kahvaltı breakfast, served in a small copper pan called a sahan. Sujuk is a dried beef sausage with garlic, cumin, red pepper and sumac that releases a red, aromatic fat as it fries — and the eggs cook in that fat. No other fat or seasoning is needed. The only difficulty: the sujuk is fried briefly, since overcooked it turns hard and salty.
Your own work in that: 2 min.
- Slicing 3 min
- Frying the sujuk 2 min
- Eggs 4 min
- Serving 2 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSlice the sujuk thin
Peel the casing from the sujuk and cut it into rounds 3–4 mm thick. Thin slices release fat quickly and curl slightly. Thick ones stay hard inside and keep their aroma to themselves.
Ingredients: 120 g sujuk sausage · 4 pcs eggs · 10 g butter
Fry the sujuk briefly in a dry pan
Lay the rounds in a dry pan over medium heat and fry about 1 minute a side, until they curl and release red fat. They finish cooking with the eggs. No longer — overcooked sujuk turns hard, bitter and even saltier.
Ingredients: 120 g sujuk sausage · 4 pcs eggs · 10 g butter
Until they curl and release fat — no longer.Spread the sujuk evenly
Spread the rounds evenly over the pan, leaving gaps for the eggs. If the sujuk gave little fat, add a little butter — the eggs must not stick.
Ingredients: 120 g sujuk sausage · 4 pcs eggs · 10 g butter
Crack the eggs between the sausage
Crack the eggs straight into the pan, between the sujuk rounds. The whites spread beneath the sausage and bind everything into one. The red fat tints the edges of the whites orange — the characteristic look.
Ingredients: 120 g sujuk sausage · 4 pcs eggs · 10 g butter
Between the rounds — the white binds it into one.Cover for a minute
Fry 2 minutes, then cover with a lid for 1–2 minutes. The steam sets the top of the whites while the yolks stay runny and glossy. Uncovered, the white near the yolk stays raw.
Ingredients: 120 g sujuk sausage · 4 pcs eggs · 10 g butter
A lid for a minute — whites set, yolks runny.Season only the yolks
Take off the heat and salt only the yolks, then scatter pepper and pul biber over everything. Sujuk is very salty — salted whites beside it is too much.
Ingredients: ½ tsp pul biber chilli flakes · 1 pinch salt · 1 pinch black pepper
Serve in the pan
Serve straight in the pan, hot. In Turkey sucuklu yumurta stands in the middle of the breakfast table, and everyone dips bread into the yolks and red fat.
Ingredients: 2 pcs bread · 1 pcs tomato · ½ pcs cucumber · 8 pcs olives
Add the kahvaltı vegetables
Set sliced tomatoes and cucumber, olives and black tea in tulip glasses alongside. Fresh vegetables balance the richness of the sujuk — not a garnish but part of the meal.
Ingredients: 2 pcs bread · 1 pcs tomato · ½ pcs cucumber · 8 pcs olives
Before you start
Beef sujuk, not chorizo
Sujuk is a Turkish dried beef sausage with garlic, cumin, red pepper and sumac, sold in Turkish shops. Chorizo is pork and carries more smoked paprika — a tasty dish, but a different one.
The pastırma version
Pastırmalı yumurta is the same technique with thinly sliced pastırma, air-dried beef in a spicy fenugreek coating (çemen). Pastırma goes into the pan for just 30 seconds, being very delicate.
Eat at once
Eggs with sujuk must be eaten the moment they leave the heat. It all takes ten minutes, so nothing needs preparing ahead beyond slicing the sujuk.
