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Boyoz is a Turkish pastry, associated within Turkey with İzmir, which is practically the only city where it is prepared for commercial purposes and by following the original recipe. As such, in the eyes of Smyrniots boyoz acquired the dimension of a symbol of their hometown or of their longing for it when away.
The most widely preferred boyoz is plain, without addition of meat or
cheese or spinach stuffings, and as cooked by a handful of master boyoz
bakers in the Izmir.
Virtually all sources agree on the Judeo-Spanish roots of boyoz. It is
a contribution to İzmir's urban culture by Sephardic Jews evicted from
Spain after 1492 and who settled in large numbers in a number of
prominent Ottoman cities of the period, among which İzmir stood out as
one of the primary destinations. These explanations on the roots of
boyoz are confirmed by the presence of a pastry very similar to boyoz
in the culinary traditions of such other offshoots of Spanish culture
as Argentina, Chile, Peru and Mexico, where they are common especially
in the diet of Sephardic Jews, usually with cheese and spinach
fillings. In Spanish and Ladino languages, boyoz, spelled as bollos,
means "a bundle, a pack".
Finally, until recently, all master bakers who prepared boyoz in İzmir
were Jewish, and the present masters have all been trained by the late
Avram Usta, whose name is echoed to this day in the commercial
arguments adopted by some of these bakers, who market the "Boyoz of
Avram Usta".
Boyoz paste is a mixture of flour, sunflower oil and a small addition
of tahin. It is kneaded by hand and the ball of paste is left to repose
for 2- hours. The paste is then flattened to the width of a dish and
left to repose again. It is then kneaded and opened once more, before
being formed into a roll and left to repose as such for a further
period of several hours. When the tissue of the paste is still soft but
about to detach into pieces, it is cut into small balls and put in rows
of small pans and marinaded in vegetable oil between half an hour and
one hour. Their paste then takes an oval form and acquires the
consistence of a millefeuille. The small balls can then be put on a
tray into a very high-temperature oven either in plain form or with
fillings of cheese or spinach added inside.
The usual accompaniments for boyoz are dark tea and hard-boiled eggs
generously sprinkled with black pepper. Boyoz is generally consumed
outdoors, purchased from street vendors.
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