İskilip Ramadan Keşkek
İskilip Ramadan Keşkek is a traditional dish unique to İskilip’s Ramadan season, prepared by slow-cooking cracked wheat and bone-in meat for long hours in clay pots inside a stone oven. Our site also has a general keşkek page; İskilip Ramadan Keşkek is a district-specific version of that broader tradition, registered separately as a geographical indication.
Geographical indication registration
İskilip Ramadan Keşkek was registered as a mark of origin with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office on 23.09.2021, registration no. 902, following an application filed by İskilip Municipality on 17.12.2020 — it is considered İskilip’s first geographical indication registration. See our geographical indication products page for the full picture.
How it’s cooked
In İskilip, preparing Ramadan Keşkek is a special tradition that involves neighbourhood cooperation:
- Cracked wheat (of the type used for aşure) is soaked overnight.
- Bone-in meat is combined with the wheat, tomatoes, onion, butter and spices and packed into clay pots.
- Early in the morning, the pots are taken to neighbourhood bread ovens and cooked in a stone oven fired with oak wood for around eight hours.
- Because many pots are cooked at once, owners mark theirs with permanent signs so they don’t get mixed up.
- Once cooked, the keşkek is stirred until the meat shreds and blends completely with the wheat, then served with butter and red pepper flakes.
The Çorum interpretation
While keşkek is known across many parts of Anatolia, the İskilip method — clay pots, a stone oven, and the shared cooking tradition of neighbourhood bakeries — is what gave the product its geographical indication. An indispensable dish for iftar tables during Ramadan, keşkek is also a symbol of neighbourliness and sharing.
Cultural significance
The registration of İskilip Ramadan Keşkek formally protects the district’s shared Ramadan cooking tradition. As one of İskilip’s eight geographically indicated products, it is an important part of the district’s gastronomic identity.