Turkish Offal Dishes: 11 Traditional Foods to Know Before You Try Them
Eleven Turkish offal dishes worth trying, from kokorec and tripe soup to brain salad and stuffed intestines, with what each one tastes like and how it's served.
Offal dishes are an essential part of Turkish cuisine, and Turkish people genuinely love them. In the old days, no animal part was wasted, and every type of meat imaginable was eaten. Today, parts like the heart, brain, tripe, tongue, liver, and intestines are still widely cooked at home and sold at street stands.
If you have never tried brain salad, tripe soup, or grilled intestines, this is your chance to see what the fuss is about. For more on the wider street scene these dishes live in, see our guide to Istanbul street food and the broader Istanbul food guide.
The 11 dishes at a glance
| # | Dish | Main offal | How it’s served |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kelle Paca Corbasi | Beef cheek + lamb trotters | Hot soup, garlic-vinegar sauce |
| 2 | Billur Kebabi | Ram testicles | Grilled on skewers |
| 3 | Sirdan | Cow’s abomasum (stomach) | Stuffed with rice, boiled |
| 4 | Beyin Salatasi | Sheep brain | Cold appetizer, lemon-oil dressing |
| 5 | Dana Dil Sogus | Beef tongue | Served cold, sliced |
| 6 | Beyin Corbasi | Lamb or beef brain | Hot soup |
| 7 | Iskembe Corbasi | Tripe | Hot soup, garlic-vinegar |
| 8 | Kokorec | Lamb intestines | Grilled, chopped into bread |
| 9 | Kuzu Kelle | Whole sheep head | Slow-roasted, cracked into pieces |
| 10 | Mumbar Dolmasi | Sheep intestines | Stuffed with rice, boiled |
| 11 | Ciger Tava / Sis / Arnavut | Calf or beef liver | Fried, grilled, or sauteed |
1. Kelle Paca Corbasi (Head and Trotters Soup)
Kelle Paca soup is similar to the Armenian “khash” soup that is also cooked across the Caucasus. In Turkey, it’s made of beef cheeks and lamb trotters, flavored with flour, red chili pepper, and butter, then served with garlic and vinegar sauce on top. It’s hearty and considered one of the country’s best and healthiest soups.
With its solid garlicky flavor, this soup is also famous as a hangover cure in Turkey.
2. Billur Kebabi (Ram Testicle Kebab)
This kebab is made from ram testicles. They’re cut in half, the outer membrane is removed, and the meat is cut into cubes and cooked on the barbecue. High in protein and low in calories, it’s popular among athletes. For the wider kebab family, see our guide to Turkish kebabs.
3. Sirdan (Stuffed Abomasum)
The abomasum is a part of a cow’s stomach and one of the more popular offal dishes in Turkey. This rubbery layer of stomach is stuffed with a mix of seasoned rice, pepper paste, onions, cumin, and black pepper, then stitched together and boiled in giant cauldrons.
The result is striking in both appearance and flavor. The tender meat and spicy seasoning linger in every bite, and the taste tends to bring people back for more.
4. Beyin Salatasi (Brain Salad)
Brain salad is a favorite appetizer for offal lovers. The sheep brain is boiled whole, the membrane is peeled off, and the meat is cut into small pieces. It’s served with parsley, lemon, vinegar, and olive oil. It sits alongside other cold plates in the broader world of Turkish mezes.
5. Dana Dil Sogus (Boiled Beef Tongue)
Beef tongue is one of the most flavorful offal offerings in Turkey. Because of its high fat content, anyone with cholesterol concerns should go easy on it.
Cooking the tongue is simple, but preparing it takes time. The best method is soaking it in cold water for at least 24 hours, changing the water every two to three hours so the color doesn’t darken during cooking. Before cooking, the tongue is brushed with a stiff brush. It’s then cooked in a pressure cooker and served cold with olive oil, thyme, and red pepper flakes on top.
6. Beyin Corbasi (Brain Soup)
While not common, this nutritious soup turns up at some specialty restaurants in Turkey. It carries small pieces of lamb or beef brain and is flavored with garlic, red pepper flakes, flour, egg yolk, and vinegar.
7. Iskembe Corbasi (Tripe Soup)
Tripe soup has been a staple of Turkish cooking for centuries. It’s served at nearly every soup house and cooked in Turkish homes too.
It’s usually served with a vinegar-garlic sauce on the side, or thickened with an egg yolk and lemon juice mixture after cooking.
In Turkey, the quality of the tripe soup often sets the reputation of a soup house, so owners pay close attention to getting it right.
8. Kokorec (Grilled Lamb Intestines)
One of Turkey’s most popular dishes, kokorec is sold by street vendors and in restaurants across the entire country. For the best spots in the city, see our guide to the best kokorec in Istanbul.
Cleaned lamb intestines are wrapped around sweetbreads on a skewer and grilled over fire, ideally charcoal. Once cooked, the kokorec is finely chopped and mixed with oregano, salt, red pepper, sometimes cumin, and fresh tomato, then served in bread as a sandwich.
9. Kuzu Kelle (Grilled Sheep Head)
Kuzu kelle is not a dish that sounds or looks appealing to most people, but it has been a Turkish specialty for centuries.
The whole sheep head is cooked in rotating ovens for hours. The look of it won’t bother you for long once it reaches your table, since it’s not served as an intact head but carefully cracked into pieces. That way you can eat all parts of the head, the brain, eyes, cheeks, and tongue, without fighting through skull or fat to reach them.
10. Mumbar Dolmasi (Stuffed Intestines)
Made from sheep intestines, mumbar dolmasi is one of the famous dishes of Ottoman palace cooking. Large sheep intestines are carefully filled with a mix of rice, tomatoes, garlic, onion, cumin, black pepper, and salt. For more from that era, see our guide to Ottoman foods.
Known for its heavy spicing, it isn’t usually eaten on hot summer days. It’s a favorite in eastern Turkey but is available across the country.
11. Ciger Tava, Ciger Sis, Arnavut Cigeri (Fried Liver, Liver Shish, Albanian Liver)
Ciger tava, also called “yaprak ciger” (leaf liver), is one of Turkey’s most widely eaten offal dishes. Thin slices of calf liver are coated in flour, deep-fried, and served with onions. The city of Edirne is famous for its ciger tava, and the liver there is considered the best in the country.
Ciger sis (liver shish) is small pieces of beef liver on skewers, grilled over charcoal. It usually comes with an assortment of salads and mezes to balance the meal.
Arnavut cigeri (Albanian liver) takes small cubes of calf liver, sautees them with potatoes and onions, and serves them with a sprinkle of cumin or a squeeze of lemon.
A cold glass of ayran, the Turkish yogurt drink, pairs well with any of these liver dishes. For more on what to sip, see our guide to Turkish drinks.
Final words
Turkish kitchens are full of unusual, flavorful foods, and these eleven offal dishes are among the most challenging for first-timers. Try them and you’ll come away with a real sense of how nose-to-tail cooking still works in Turkey. To keep exploring, browse the full Turkish foods guide or come eat with us on the Istanbul street food tour. Grab a fork and try something new.
