🇹🇷 Türkiye · Turkey
Kelle paçaTurkish head and trotter soup
A Turkish winter soup of sheep's or beef head (kelle) and trotters (paça) simmered for hours until the broth is rich and gelatinous, the meat picked and returned, lightly thickened with flour (with egg yolk in some recipes) and finished with garlic, vinegar or lemon.
Origin and history
Kelle paça is a Turkish soup of sheep or beef head and feet, simmered with onion and garlic into a rich, gelatinous broth and finished with garlic vinegar. Yemek.com says the soup has a long history but gives no dates or origin, and the other source read gives none either.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 10 servings
- Total time
- 2 h 30 min
- Hands-on
- 50 min
Ingredients
- 1 lamb, sheep or beef head (kelle), cleaned of hair, brain removed; ask the butcher to prepare it
- 4 trotters (paça), singed and washed
- 1 onion, peeled, left whole
- 3 garlic cloves, for the pot
- 3-4 l3-4 quarts water, enough to cover
- 2 tbsp flour, for the liaison
- 1 egg yolk, for the liaison
- 1 tbsp vinegar, for the liaison
- 1 tsp salt, add after the broth boils
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed, to serve
- 60 ml1/4 cup vinegar, for the garlic-vinegar, to serve
- 1 tbsp butter, melted with 1 tsp red pepper flakes, to drizzle on top
- black pepper and red pepper flakes, at the table
Method
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1. Soak the head and trotters in cold water, ideally overnight, changing the water every few hours, and wash them thoroughly.
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2. Put them in a pressure cooker or large pot with the onion and the 3 garlic cloves, cover with water, bring to a boil and skim off the foam.
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3. Cook under pressure for 1 hour to 1 h 30 min, or simmer in a regular pot over low heat for 2 h 30 min to 4 hours, until the meat falls from the bones and the broth is gelatinous.
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4. Lift out the head and trotters, strain the broth through a cloth if you want it clear, and return it to the pot.
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5. Pick all the meat from the bones, chop it finely (tongue and skin may be diced and added) and return it to the broth.
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6. Whisk the egg yolk, the 1 tbsp of vinegar and the flour in a bowl, then whisk in a few ladles of hot broth.
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7. Pour the mixture quickly into the pot, add the salt, bring the soup to a boil once, and turn off the heat.
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8. Serve hot. Crush the 3 garlic cloves into the 1/4 cup of vinegar and pass it at the table, with red pepper flakes, black pepper and, if you like, the pepper butter.
Notes
- Cleaning decides the soup: singe the trotters over a flame to remove hair, and soak the head overnight. The brain is not used. Add salt only after the broth has boiled.
- This recipe follows yemek.com (1 head, 4 trotters, the flour and egg yolk liaison and garlic-vinegar for serving, 10 servings). Haber Gazetesi's version simmers 2 to 3 trotters and a head with onion, garlic, bay leaf and black pepper in 3 to 4 l of water for 2.5 to 4 hours, strains the broth and thickens it with a little flour or cornstarch, then adds lemon or garlic vinegar at the table.
- Both yemek.com and the news site finish the bowl with vinegar (with garlic) or lemon at the table, with red pepper flakes and black pepper on the side.
- A whole head is hard to scale down; if you cook for fewer people, freeze the soup in portions. It sets to a jelly when cold and melts again when reheated.
- Related trotter soups elsewhere include Caucasian khash and the paya of South Asia.
Adapted from Yemek.com: Kelle paça çorbası and Haber Gazetesi: Sofraların sıcak sırrı kelle paça çorbasının lezzet formülü.
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