Helise
Helise is a traditional dish listed among the local “aş” dishes documented by the Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, made by bringing together pounded wheat and meat.
How it’s made
According to the official source, Helise is made by cooking cracked wheat (yarma) with a little oil, then pounding it together with separately cooked, lean pieces of meat using a mallet; browned butter is added on top before serving. Anadolu Ajansı’s 2008 “Flavour Map” survey also lists Helise among Çorum’s well-known local dishes.
Its name and origin
According to linguist Meliha Kekilli’s study of dish names in Turkish dialects, the word “helise/herise” is of Persian origin, and in her sources it is defined as a dish made from bone-in mutton and wheat prepared for aşure, made by pounding meat and cracked wheat together; the same word family also appears across Anatolia under names such as “herise, höşmer, höşmeri.”
Relationship with keşkek
Our site also has a general keşkek page and a page for the geographical-indication-registered İskilip Ramadan Keşkek. Helise belongs to the same “pounded wheat and meat” family of dishes as keşkek, but the documented methods differ: in keşkek, the wheat and meat are cooked together in the same pot from the start, over many hours, and then pounded; in Helise, according to the source, the wheat and the meat are cooked separately before being combined and pounded, with browned butter added on top. Sources do not describe Helise as a variety of keşkek; it is recorded under a separate name with a different order of preparation.
Sources
- Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism — “What to Eat?” (corum.ktb.gov.tr)
- Gastronomi Dergisi — “Çorum Cuisine, Bearing the Traces of a Five-Thousand-Year-Old Culture”, Reha Tartıcı, 20.09.2021
- Anadolu Ajansı Archive — “Flavour Map”, 05.01.2008
- Meliha Kekilli — “Dish Names in Turkish Dialects (Study and Dictionary)”, master’s thesis, Elazığ, 2008