A Gemlik olive, or Tirilye olive is a variety from the
Gemlik,
Zeytinbağı
Tirilye (also known as Zeytinbağı, ''Olive yard'') is a town in Bursa Province, Turkey, situated west of Mudanya along the Marmara seashore. The area, which was inhabited since the eighth century BC, was formerly known as Τρίγλεια, ...
area of northern
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. Gemlik olives are called the following names as Tirilye, Curly, wrapping paper and black. They are small to medium-sized black
olive
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...
s with a high
oil content. This type of olive is very common in Turkey and is sold as a
breakfast olive in the cured formats of either Yagli Sele, Salamura or Duble; though there are other less common curings. The sign of a traditionally cured Gemlik olive is that the flesh comes away from the pip easily.
Synonyms
Gemlek, Kaplek, Kivirak, Kaplik, Kara, Kivircik, Samsun Tuzlamalik, Tirilya, Tirilye, Trilia, Trilye, and Trylia.
Production
The oil production is considered high, with a 29.9% yield.
Gemlik olive yield
''Yasal Uyarı'' (2010) There are many olive factories located in Gemlik that export to Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
.
A true Gemlik olive should be grown and cured in the Gemlik area. The Marmara sea area climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
is considered ideal for olives, with high summer temperatures
Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer.
Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...
and cold winter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...
s. All Gemlik olives are hand picked between November and February, depending on the crop
A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...
. A Gemlik olive tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
can produce up to forty kilogram
The kilogram (also kilogramme) is the unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), having the unit symbol kg. It is a widely used measure in science, engineering and commerce worldwide, and is often simply called a kilo colloquially ...
s of olives in a good year.
Small family growers
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...
in the area have been growing, picking and curing Gemlik olives for centuries. Particularly villages, namely Karacaali, Umurbey, Kumla etc. have a history of producing high quality traditionally cured Gemlik olives.
Marmara Region
Gemlik or Tirilye variety is the most widespread one. Of the regional olive groves, 75-80% consists of this variety (Gemlik, Erdek, Mudanya, Edincik, Tirilye), Edincik Su (Bursa, Yalova, Kocaeli), Beyaz Yağlık, Eşek Zeytini, Şam ve Siyah Salamuralık.
Curing methods
With the olive being high in oil, it makes it very versatile in the ways it can be cured. The various curings are as follows:
Yagli Sele – oil-cured (rotated in drums with a little salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...
, which agitates the olive and causes it to exude oil). These are then dry stored. Very hard to maintain as the containers need to be rotated on a regular basis. This is a rich, low-salt-tasting olive.
Duble – purely brine-cured olive. The traditional method of curing is to put the olives into vats with weights on the top and brine circulating. The weights tenderize the olives. They are then stored in brine
Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt (NaCl) in water (H2O). In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawater, on the lower end of that of solutions used for br ...
. The more commercial method is to use pressure vats, but this does not produce such a nice texture of olive. This is a firm, salty olive.
Salamura – this is a partially oil-cured olive and then stored in brine.
Kuru Sele – this is dried in a basket of rock salt
Halite (), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride ( Na Cl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pi ...
, which draws all the water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
from the olive. The longer the olive is left in the salt the firmer the olive becomes. The olive can lose up to half its original weight during curing, giving a crinkly effect. This is a dry store olive and is the least salty tasting. A dry-cured Gemlik olive is a premium olive that carries a high price tag. It is primarily ordered before picking and really is reserved for high-class establishments in Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
.
Cross Kuru Sele/Yagli Sele – this is partially dry-cured, then put through the Yagli Sele process, which leaves a crinkly, slightly bitter
Bitter may refer to:
Common uses
* Resentment, negative emotion or attitude, similar to being jaded, cynical or otherwise negatively affected by experience
* Bitter (taste), one of the five basic tastes
Books
* '' Bitter (novel)'', a 2022 nove ...
olive. This is also dry stored. These are only cured for personal use by the growers.
References
External links
Changes in phenolic compounds during ripening in Gemlik variety olive fruits obtained from different locations
{{Olives
Olive cultivars
Food and drink in Turkey