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Soft drinks from Turkey

Şalgam suyuşalgam suyu

Şalgam is a sour, purple-red Turkish drink. Bulgur flour, sourdough and salt are first fermented as a dough and washed out with water, then the extract ferments for about a week with chopped black carrot, a little turnip and rock salt until it reaches at least 6 g of lactic acid per litre.

Fully documentedSoft drinks11 days

Recipe

Şalgam suyu, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Anatolianpride, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceAmounts per litre from a 2024 laboratory run of the traditional two-stage method (Tanguler et al.). There is no standard amount of purple carrot.
Bulgur flour (setik)30 g/LFor the first, dough fermentation[tanguler2024]
Rock salt2 g/LIn the dough[tanguler2024]
Sourdough2 g/LBaker's yeast is also used[tanguler2024][mujdeci2023]
Purple carrot, sorted and chopped100–200 g/LAdded to the dough extract for the second fermentation; the amount is not standardised[tanguler2024]
Rock salt10 g/LAdded with the carrots[tanguler2024]
Sliced turnip1 % (w/v)Optional; some producers leave it out[sengun2025][tanguler2024]
Drinking waterTo dough consistency, then to dilute the extract[tanguler2024]
Starterother: sourdough or baker's yeast in a bulgur dough; the carrot stage is spontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 11 days

Start
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shapes, not to countYeastsLactic acid bacteria25 °CSugarAlcoholCO₂

What changes: Bulgur flour, salt and sourdough are kneaded with water and ferment as a dough

Step 1 of 5
Knead and ferment the bulgur dough
Time
3 days
Reported
Temperature
25 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts
Lactic acid bacteria
L. plantarum

Output: fermented bulgur dough.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

yeasts and lactic acid bacteria multiply in the dough

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Şalgam is a sour, purple-red Turkish drink. Bulgur flour, sourdough and salt are first fermented as a dough and washed out with water, then the extract ferments for about a week with chopped black carrot, a little turnip and rock salt until it reaches at least 6 g of lactic acid per litre. Made in 5 steps over 11 days. The longest step, carrot (second) fermentation in a closed tank, takes 8 days (Sengun I 2025) and runs at 15–35 °C (Sengun I 2025). Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, the dominant lactic acid bacterium in both fermentations and Lacticaseibacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei, the next most important do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step8 daysMeasured[sengun2025]Carrot (second) fermentation in a closed tank
Temperature15–35 °CReported[sengun2025][cirak2022]Carrot (second) fermentation in a closed tank
AciditypH 3.3–3.8Set[sengun2025][erol2024]Strain, bottle and keep cold

What makes this one different

Şalgam is a two-stage ferment. Unlike Indian kanji, which ferments black carrot in salted water with mustard seed, şalgam first ferments a bulgur and sourdough dough and uses its extract to start the carrot fermentation.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Direct methodCarrot, turnip, bulgur flour, sourdough and salt go into the drum together with no dough stage; 12 days at 25 °C in one study.
  • Acılı (hot) şalgamHot chilli is added; TS 11149 lists powdered hot pepper as an ingredient.
  • Starter-culture şalgamAdded lactic cultures reach 6 g/L lactic acid in about 6 days instead of 8.

Safety

Turkish standard TS 11149 sets the finished drink at pH 3.3–3.8 with at least 6 g lactic acid per litre. Mujdeci 2023 calls şalgam highly perishable, with a short shelf life when made industrially; heat treatment would extend it but harms taste, aroma and colour. The same study says yeasts can grow in the acid drink and cause film formation, colour change and off-taste.

Hazards the sources name: Film-forming spoilage yeasts that cause colour change and off-taste in stored şalgam.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Erol et al. (2024) say şalgam is widely consumed in Turkish regions such as Hatay, Mersin, Osmaniye, Adana and Kahramanmaraş, where it is made at home and commercially. Exports to European countries have grown recently, and larger production facilities are replacing smaller ones. Sengun et al. (2025) note that there is no standardized production method.

  1. [tanguler2024] Tanguler H., Sen K., Dinc S.O. 2024, Aroma profiles of shalgam, effect of purple carrot (Daucus carota) amount, Food Science & Nutrition 12(7):5162–5175, doi:10.1002/fsn3.4164paper
  2. [sengun2025] Sengun I., Kendirci P., Kirmizigul Peker A., Kilic G., Ozturk B. 2025, Assessment of microencapsulated and free form presumptive probiotics in fermented black carrot juice (shalgam) production, Journal of Food Science, doi:10.1111/1750-3841.70297paper
  3. [tanguler2012] Tanguler H., Erten H. 2012, Occurrence and growth of lactic acid bacteria species during the fermentation of shalgam (salgam), a traditional Turkish fermented beverage, LWT 46(1):36–41, doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2011.10.026 (abstract)paper
  4. [mujdeci2023] Mujdeci G., Tanguler H., Macit H., Kabak B. 2023, Effect of three different preservatives on the microbiota of shalgam, a traditional lactic acid fermented beverage, Foodspaper
  5. [cirak2022] Cirak M.A., Agirman B., Erten H. 2022, The chemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics of şalgam during fermentation process, Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 46(6), doi:10.1111/jfpp.15440 (abstract)paper
  6. [erol2024] Erol K.F., Kutlu G., Baslar M., Tornuk F. 2024, Effects of heat treatment and ultraviolet radiation on physicochemical, microbiological, and bioactive properties of shalgam juice, Food Science & Nutrition 12:8441–8453, doi:10.1002/fsn3.4445paper