Aleppo pepper

Piment d’Alep

What it is

The flakes are not merely dried: the pods are sun-dried, deseeded, salted and worked with oil, which is why a good one feels faintly damp in the jar and reads dull red rather than bright. Almost nothing sold under the name has come from Aleppo since 2011 — the trade crossed the border to Kahramanmaraş, and careful sellers now write Aleppo-style or name Turkey outright.

In the kitchen

It already carries salt, so cut the salt in any dish that takes a spoonful of it. Warm it thirty seconds in oil off the heat before it goes onto eggs or yoghurt — the raisin note only comes out in fat, never from a dry sprinkle.

Goes with

Olive oil Yogurt Lamb Egg Tomato Sumac Garlic Mint

Same species

Ají amarillo Ají panca Ajvar Ancho chilli Bell pepper Byadgi chilli

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