No U.S. standard, but a Turkish one
Dondurma has no U.S. standard of identity. Federal rules define plain ice cream in 21 CFR 135.110, which sets a floor of 10% milkfat (8% when bulky flavors such as chocolate, fruit or nuts are added) and a minimum weight of 4.5 pounds per gallon. They also define goat’s milk ice cream in 21 CFR 135.115. That product is made like ice cream, with goat’s skim milk, goat’s milk and goat’s cream as the only dairy ingredients. Neither section names dondurma or mentions salep.
Turkey protects one style by name. The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office registered Maraş Dondurması as geographical indication No. 344 on April 18, 2018. The Kahramanmaraş Chamber of Commerce and Industry filed the application (C2017/109) on August 24, 2017. The registered specification says the dessert is made only from goat’s milk, salep and sugar, and the goat’s milk must come from Kahramanmaraş province.
Fat, solids and eggs
The Turkish specification sets milk fat at a minimum of 4%. U.S. ice cream must have at least 10% milkfat, so the legal floor for dondurma sits well below it.
Solids are where dondurma gets its body. Under the specification:
- Sugar makes up 15 to 22% of the mix.
- Salep makes up 0.7 to 8%, depending on the orchid it comes from.
- The finished mix reaches at least 33% total solids.
Salep does the work that eggs or added stabilizers do in other styles. The specification says it contains 7 to 61% glucomannan, which acts as a stabilizer and emulsifier, slows melting and keeps ice crystals small. Dondurma contains no egg. U.S. ice cream may contain egg yolk, but less than 1.4% egg yolk solids under 21 CFR 135.110.
Air, weight and temperature
Dondurma holds little air. The Turkish specification allows 15 to 30% air, or overrun. For comparison, the University of Guelph’s ice cream technology book gives about 100 to 120% overrun for standard ice cream and 25 to 50% for super-premium. The U.S. weight rule of 4.5 pounds per gallon caps overrun near 104% at a typical mix density, by our arithmetic. A pint of dondurma is a dense, heavy pint.
The specification gives these temperatures:
- Drawn from the machine at -5 to -8 °C (about 18 to 23 °F).
- Hardened in a -40 °C (-40 °F) tunnel until the core reaches -20 to -22 °C (about -4 to -8 °F).
- Stored at -18 °C (about 0 °F) or colder, for up to a year.
We found no sourced serving temperature for dondurma itself. For ice cream, Guelph gives a typical serving temperature of about -16 °C (3 °F).
How Maraş dondurma is made
The registered process runs in four steps:
- Goat’s milk is concentrated to 15 to 20% dry matter.
- It is boiled with sugar and salep until the mix reaches at least 33% total solids.
- The mix is beaten and frozen, then drawn at -5 to -8 °C.
- It is hardened in a -40 °C tunnel and stored at -18 °C or colder.
Inspectors check that no stabilizer other than salep goes in. Atlas Obscura describes the work at the counter: vendors beat dondurma with long metal rods and knead it, and the finished ice cream can be thick and firm enough to cut with a knife and fork. U.S. ice cream, by contrast, is frozen while stirred in a barrel freezer, then hardened in a blast freezer at -30 to -40 °C, according to Guelph.
Where the sources disagree
Two official Turkish sources describe the recipe differently. The registered specification lists only goat’s milk, salep and sugar, with no mastic. Go Türkiye, the tourism portal of the Republic of Türkiye, says Maraş ice cream contains a resin it calls Arabic gum that makes it chewier, and its method mixes finely ground mastic gum into the sugar before the salep. So mastic is often added, but the protected definition does not call for it.
Salep itself is hard to come by outside Turkey. Atlas Obscura says the orchids for salep have never been grown commercially, Turkey bans their export, and vendors abroad often use guar gum or konjac flour instead. A stretchy ice cream sold as dondurma in the U.S. may use one of these.
The origin story is disputed. Go Türkiye tells of Osman Agha, whose unsold sahlep was buried in snow and turned into ice cream, and it labels the tale a legend. Go Türkiye also says the name comes from Kahramanmaraş, which matches the geographical indication.