Turkish Figs: Aydın Dried Figs, Sarılop and Recipes

Contents

Turkish figs mean one thing to the growers who pick them: the pale, honey-soft dried fig of Aydın, sold in pressed discs and on long garlands that reach kitchens from Tokyo to Toronto. Turkey grows and ships more figs than any other country, and the world’s premium dried fig traces back to a single Aegean cultivar and a single province. This guide covers where the fruit comes from, the tiny insect that makes the harvest possible, how Aydın families dry it, and the sweet and savoury dishes Turks build around it.

Aydın, İzmir and the Sarılop fig

Almost every dried fig labelled “Turkish” is the Sarılop variety, a yellow-fleshed fig grown in the Büyük Menderes and Küçük Menderes river basins behind İzmir and Aydın. The English name for it, the Smyrna fig, comes from Smyrna, the old name of İzmir, the port that shipped the crop to Europe and America for over a century.

Aydın province produces around 75 percent of Turkey’s dried figs and roughly 62 percent of the fresh crop. In 2020 the country harvested about 320,000 tonnes of figs, with Aydın alone near 183,000 tonnes.
Aydın İnciri carries a registered geographical indication, so the name is protected the way Champagne or Parma ham are. The standard rewards thin skin, a whitish-yellow colour, and a soft body, with a top grade holding no more than about 90 fruits to the kilo. Turkey first registered the name at home in 2007 as geographical indication number 90, filed by the Aydın Chamber of Commerce, with the European listing following later.
World share. Turkey supplies close to 60 percent of global dried fig exports. In the 2021-22 season it shipped about 70,000 tonnes of dried figs, and in 2023 fig exports reached roughly 339 million dollars across fresh and dried trade.

The reason the figs settle here and nowhere better is the microclimate. Warm dry air rolls up the Menderes valleys in late summer, the soil drains well, and the fruit can ripen and dry on the tree without splitting or souring. Growers will tell you a Sarılop from the lower Menderes tastes different from one grown two valleys away. The crop has its own research station, the Erbeyli Fig Research Institute in the Menderes basin, the centre Turkey devotes to studying and improving the fig.

The fig wasp secret: caprification

A Sarılop fig is not like the common fig in a supermarket fruit bowl. It will not set fruit on its own. It needs pollen carried by a wasp the size of a sesame seed, and Aydın growers have managed that relationship for thousands of years.

Two trees, one job. The edible Sarılop tree carries only female flowers. A separate wild tree, the caprifig or erkek incir (male fig), hosts the fig wasp Blastophaga psenes, which breeds inside the male fruit.
Caprification. In early summer growers thread wild caprifigs onto strings and hang them in the branches of the edible trees. Turkish farmers call this ilekleme, and the hung wild male fig is the ilek. Wasps crawl out dusted with pollen, push into the female figs, and pollinate them. Without this step the young figs yellow and drop unset.
The California link. Smyrna figs failed in California for decades because the wasp was missing. Growers imported Blastophaga psenes from the İzmir region in 1899, the orchards finally fruited, and the American crop was renamed the Calimyrna fig, short for California Smyrna. Turkey, in effect, exported the pollinator with the variety.

This is also why dedicated fig eaters debate whether figs are vegetarian. The wasp dies inside the fruit, though an enzyme called ficin breaks it down so nothing recognisable remains by the time the fig is dried. Caprified figs are still eaten by millions who never think about the insect at all.

From tree to garland: how Aydın figs are dried

Aydın drying is slow and mostly done by hand, which is part of why the figs command a premium.

They fall, they are not pulled. A fig is left until it ripens so fully that it begins to dry on the branch and drops on its own. Pickers walk the orchard daily and collect the fallen fruit one by one.
Sun first. The figs are laid on racks or clean ground and finished under the late-summer sun, with no added sulphur or preservative on the natural grade.
Then shaped. Dried figs are cleaned, sometimes briefly steamed to soften, and pressed into their selling forms.

You will meet the fruit in a few shapes. The çelenk or dizi is a garland threaded from disc-pressed figs, the traditional gift and market form. Lerme figs are pulled and folded by hand into a plumper shape. Fig paste, ground dried fig, ships to bakeries and confectioners worldwide as a natural sweetener and filling base.

Fresh figs and dried figs are two different seasons

In Turkey the fresh fig, taze incir, is a short summer luxury eaten ripe off the tree from August into September, often with a wedge of soft cheese or a spoon of kaymak. The dried fig, kuru incir, is the year-round staple and the export product. A handful of dried Sarılop carries serious fibre, potassium, calcium and iron, which is why Anatolian households have long treated figs as a winter energy food rather than a snack. Beyond the nutrition, the dried fig is a cooking ingredient, and that is where Turkish kitchens pull ahead of the rest of the world.

How Turks cook with figs

Search the English web and you find one fig recipe on repeat. Turkish home cooks run a far wider repertoire, and some of it is savoury, which surprises most visitors.

Cevizli incir – dried figs split and stuffed with a whole walnut. The plain version is a teatime sweet, while the dessert version simmers the figs in sweetened milk and tops them with kaymak.
İncir uyutması – “set figs”, a pudding made by stirring chopped fresh figs into warm milk so the fruit enzymes thicken it into a soft custard with walnuts and cinnamon. The dish is credited to nomadic Turkmen and shows up around the Black Sea, Thrace and Konya.
Patlak incir – a savoury Aegean plate where boiled figs are sautéed in olive oil with red pepper paste and finished with scrambled eggs.
İncir dolması – figs stuffed with spiced rice, pine nuts and sometimes minced meat, a Thracian dish from around Kırklareli that crosses fully into the savoury table.
İncir yağlaması – chopped figs sautéed in butter with walnuts and cinnamon, a quick sweet from Kırşehir and Konya.
İncir reçeli – jam made from tiny unripe green figs preserved whole in syrup, prized as the most labour-heavy of Turkish preserves.

Figs also slip into aşure, the Noah’s pudding shared in Muharram, and into baked desserts where dried figs are stewed with milk, walnuts and raisins before being wrapped in pastry.

İncir pekmezi: fig molasses

Pekmez is the Anatolian answer to refined sugar, a thick syrup made by crushing and boiling down fruit. Grape pekmez is the famous one, but incir pekmezi, fig molasses, is a regional specialty around Germencik and Aydın and across Antalya.

How it is made. Ripe figs are boiled, strained and reduced until the natural sugars concentrate into a dark, mineral-heavy syrup with no added sugar.
How it is eaten. Stirred with tahini for the classic Turkish breakfast dip, drizzled over yogurt, or taken by the spoon as a traditional iron tonic for children and new mothers.

Make it at home: cevizli incir tatlısı

The walnut-and-milk fig dessert is the simplest way to taste Aydın figs the Turkish way.

Ingredients

12 dried Turkish figs
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons sugar
A strip of orange peel
12 walnut halves
Kaymak or clotted cream, to serve
Crushed walnut or ground pistachio, to finish

Snip the stems from 12 dried Turkish figs and stand them upright in a pan.
Pour over 2 cups of milk with 3 tablespoons of sugar and a strip of orange peel, then simmer gently for about 20 minutes until the figs plump and the milk thickens.
Press a walnut half into the top of each fig.
Chill the figs in their milk for a few hours, then serve cold with a spoon of clotted cream and a scatter of crushed walnut or ground pistachio.

Buying and storing Turkish figs

Read the form. Natural sun-dried figs look matte and uneven. A pale, uniform fig has usually been sulphured or steamed for the lerme grade, which is fine but less rustic.
Check the count. Fewer, larger figs to the kilo signal a higher grade. The top Aydın standard sits near 90 fruits per kilo or under.
Storage. Keep dried figs in a sealed jar in a cool cupboard. A white bloom on the surface is crystallised fruit sugar, not mould, and it is safe. To soften hard figs, steep them in warm water, milk or tea for ten minutes.

Turkish figs sit at the centre of the country’s sweet kitchen, so they pair naturally with the rest of the table. Read the wider guide to Turkish cuisine for the regional picture, browse Turkish desserts for where figs meet syrup and milk pudding, and see Antep pistachios, the other Anatolian crop that shares the dessert tray.

Frequently asked questions

Are Turkish figs and Smyrna figs the same thing?

Yes. The Smyrna fig is the Sarılop variety grown around İzmir, whose old name was Smyrna. The Calimyrna fig sold in the United States is the same variety, grown in California from pollinators and cuttings taken out of the İzmir region in 1899.

Why do Turkish figs need a wasp?

The Sarılop sets fruit only when its female flowers are pollinated, and the fig wasp Blastophaga psenes is the only insect that does the job. Growers hang wild caprifigs in the trees so the wasps move pollen across, a practice called caprification.

Is a Brown Turkey fig a Turkish fig?

No, and the names confuse people. The Brown Turkey fig is a common garden cultivar grown for fresh eating in mild climates, and it fruits without a wasp. The Turkish dried fig of commerce is the Sarılop from Aydın, a different variety grown for drying.

What is the white coating on dried figs?

It is crystallised natural sugar drawn to the surface as the fig dries, sometimes called sugaring. It is harmless and a sign the fig is sweet, not a sign of spoilage.

How do I soften rock-hard dried figs?

Soak them for ten to fifteen minutes in warm water, milk, tea or a splash of brandy. For cooking, simmering them in milk as in cevizli incir softens and flavours them at the same time.