{{Short description|Flour made from orchid tubers}} {{Infobox food | image = Salep drink.jpg | caption = Salep drink | serving_size = 100 g | no_recipes= false }}
'''Salep''', also spelled '''sahlep''', '''salepi''' or '''sahlab''',<ref group="note">{{langx|tr|salep, sahlep}}; {{langx|fa|ثعلب|translit=sa'alab}}; {{langx|ar|سحلب|translit=saḥlab}}; {{langx|hy|սալեպ|translit= salep}}; {{langx|sq|salep}}; {{langx|az|səhləb}}; {{langx|he|סַחְלָבּ|translit=saḥlab}}; {{langx|el|σαλέπι|translit=salepi}}; {{langx|aeb|سحلب|translit=soḥlob}}; {{langx|sh|салеп|translit=salep}}; {{langx|bg|салеп|translit=salep}}</ref> is a flour made from the tubers of the orchid genus ''Orchis'' (including species ''Orchis mascula'' and ''Orchis militaris''). These tubers contain a nutritious{{Dubious|date=February 2026}}, starchy polysaccharide called glucomannan. Salep flour is consumed in beverages and desserts, especially in the cuisines of the former Byzantines and Ottoman, notably in the Levant where it is a traditional winter beverage. An increase in consumption is causing local extinctions of orchids in parts of Greece, Turkey, and Iran.<ref name="ns3124">{{cite magazine|last1=Pain|first1=Stephanie|title=Eaten to extinction|magazine=New Scientist|issue=3124|date=6 May 2017|pages=32–4|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2129280-sweet-salvation-stopping-orchids-from-being-eaten-to-extinction/}}</ref>
==Etymology== The word ''salep'' ultimately comes from Arabic {{transliteration|ar|saḥlab}} ({{lang|ar|سَحْلَب}}),<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=salep "salep."] Online Etymology Dictionary. 2008.</ref> and Greek salepi σαλέπι through French and Turkish {{lang|tr|salep}} in the mid 18th century. The Arabic word is perhaps shortened from {{transliteration|ar|ḵuṣā aṯ-ṯaʕlab}} ({{Langx|ar|خُصَى الثَعْلَب|lit=fox's testicles}}).<ref>{{cite web|title=salep - definition of salep in English {{!}} Oxford Dictionaries|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/salep|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160926103905/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/salep|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 26, 2016|website=Oxford Dictionaries {{!}} English}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Definition of SALEP|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salep|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=the definition of salep|url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/salep|website=Dictionary.com}}</ref> The spellings صحلب and سحلب found in modern Arabic dictionaries are borrowed from Turkish.<ref>[https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/kelime/salep] Nişanyan Dictionary "salep"</ref>
==History== [[File:Maqedoni. Një salepçi shqiptar në Shkup.jpg|thumb|upright|Albanian salep merchant in Ottoman Üsküp (modern Skopje), 1907]]
The Ancient Romans and Ancient Greeks used ground orchid bulbs to make drinks, which they called by a number of names, especially satyrion and priapiscus. As the names indicate, they considered it to be a powerful aphrodisiac.<ref>Dalby, p. 292; Theophrastus, 9.18.13; Pedanius Dioscorides, 3.126-8; Pliny the Elder, 26.95-98, 27.65; Pseudo-Apuleius, 15.3.</ref> Of salep, Paracelsus wrote, "behold the ''Satyrion'' root, is it not formed like the male privy parts? No one can deny this. Accordingly, magic discovered it and revealed that it can restore a man's virility and passion".<ref>Jacobi, ed., p. 122.</ref>
Salep was a popular beverage in the lands of the Ottoman Empire. It enjoyed a reputation as a "fattener" for young women, to make them plumper before marriage.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Clarence-Smith|first=William Gervase|title="The Global Consumption of Hot Beverages, c. 1500-c. 1900," in Food and Globalization: Consumption Markets and Politics in the Modern World|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2017|editor-last=Nützenadel|editor-first=Alexander|location=Oxford|pages=37–56|editor-last2=Trentmann|editor-first2=Frank}}</ref> Its consumption spread to England and Germany before the rise of coffee and tea, and it was later offered as an alternative beverage in coffee houses. In England, the drink was known as saloop. Popular in the 17th and 18th centuries in England, its preparation required that the salep powder be added to water until thickened whereupon it would be sweetened, then flavored with orange flower or rose water. Substitution of British orchid roots, known as "dogstones", for the original Turkish variants was acceptable in the 18th century.<ref>Davidson, p. 683.</ref>
===Saloop=== [[File:Saloop - Rowlandson's characteristic Sketches of the Lower Orders (1820) - BL.jpg|thumb|upright|An 1820 sketch by Rowlandson showing members of the lower orders enjoying saloop, which they are drinking from the saucer<ref>{{cite book |title=Rowlandson's Characteristic Sketches of the Lower Orders of the British Metropolis |publisher=Samuel Leigh |year=1820 |author=Thomas Rowlandson}}</ref>]]
'''Saloop''' (also known as salop) was a hot drink that was popular in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. Initially, it was made from salep, mostly from Smyrna.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b21537483#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=40&z=-0.092%2C-0.0022%2C1.5198%2C1.1029|title=Food: some account of its sources, constituents and uses|last=Church|first=A.H.|publisher=Chapman and Hall Ld.|year=1893|location=The University of Leeds Library|pages=29}}</ref> Later, the roots and leaves of the North American sassafras tree were the key ingredient. This plant thickened the drink and also had a stimulating quality.<ref>{{citation|title=Look and Feel: Studies In Texture, Appearance and Incidental Characteristics of Food|year=1994|author=Holly Chase|pages=45–46|chapter=Suspect Salep|publisher=Oxford Symposium|isbn=978-0907325567}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Planting an Inheritance|year=1994|author=Edwin Augustus Peeples|page=62|publisher=Stackpole Books|isbn=978-0811712064}}</ref>
This beverage was sold in place of tea and coffee, which were much more expensive, and was served in a similar way with milk and sugar.
It was used as a remedy for various ailments, including "chronic alcoholic inebriety"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b29807980#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=606&z=-0.4546%2C0%2C1.9091%2C1.3855|title=The encyclopedia of food: their comparative values and how best to use and enjoy them|last=Ward|first=Artemas|publisher=1923|pages=451}}</ref> and scurvy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sides |first1=Hampton |title=The wide wide sea: imperial ambition, first contact and the fateful final voyage of Captain James Cook |date=2024 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=9780385544764 |page=17 |edition=First}}</ref> Its popularity declined when it was purported to treat venereal disease and so drinking it in public became shameful.<ref>{{citation |page=463 |title=The Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics |volume=1 |author=Jonathan Pereira |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1108068833|author-link=Jonathan Pereira }}</ref> Saloop stalls in London were replaced by coffee stalls.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.37797/2015.37797.London-Labour-And-The-London-Poor--Vol-1#page/n25/mode/2up/search/salep|title=London Labour and the London Poor|last=Mayhew|first=Henry|year=1861|volume=1|pages=27}}</ref>
==Modern use== The beverage sahlab is now often made with hot milk instead of water. Other desserts are also made from salep flour, including salep pudding and dondurma. The Kahramanmaraş region of Turkey is a major producer of sahlab known as ''maraş salebi''. The popularity of sahlab in Turkey has led to a decline in populations of wild orchids, and it was made illegal to export true salep.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ice cream threatens Turkey's flowers|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3126047.stm|access-date=9 November 2015|agency=BBC News|date=5 August 2003}}</ref> Consequently, many instant sahlab mixes are made with artificial flavoring. Salep is also drunk in Albania and Greece; it is usually sold on the streets as a hot beverage during the cold months of the year. It is common in many parts of the Middle East, especially Egypt and the Levant. Families in Turkey drink the hot version in winter.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theistanbulinsider.com/salep-and-boza-history-and-recipe-of-special-turkish-winter-drinks/|title=Salep and Boza – History and Recipe of Special Turkish Winter Drinks |date=22 February 2012 }}</ref>
It is estimated that each year in Turkey, 30 tons of tubers from 38 species are harvested; it takes from 1,000 to 4,000 tubers to make a kilogram of flour.<ref>Eng Soon Teoh {{google books|iEGjDwAAQBAJ|Orchids as Aphrodisiac, Medicine or Food (2019)|page=52}}</ref> With the increasing rarity of some species and local extinctions, traders are harvesting wild orchids in Iran. Abdolbaset Ghorbani of Uppsala University estimates that between 7 and 11 million orchids of 19 species and sub-species were collected from northern Iran in 2013, with the majority exported to Turkey.<ref name="ns3124"/> Harvesting of orchid tubers is also increasing in Greece.<ref name="ns3124"/>
In the Middle East, sahlab is a hot milk-based winter drink with a creamy consistency, topped with cinnamon and sold as street food or made at home. Due to scarcity of orchid flour, it is usually made with a substitute starch such as corn starch or rice flour, and flavored with vanilla. In summer, the same mixture may be cooled and garnished with nuts to make a form of muhallebi.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://forward.com/food/133182/sachlav-the-hot-chocolate-of-the-middle-east/|title=Sachlav: The Hot Chocolate of the Middle East|website=The Forward|date=17 November 2010 |access-date=30 October 2019}}</ref> Sahleb is also a core ingredient of ''booza'' ice cream.<ref name="newyorker">{{cite magazine |last1=Arellano |first1=Gustavo |title=The Syrian Baker Who's Bringing the Middle East's Most Famous Ice Cream to California |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/the-syrian-baker-whos-bringing-the-middle-easts-most-famous-ice-cream-to-california |access-date=26 August 2025 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=5 February 2018}}</ref>
== Explanatory footnotes == {{reflist|group=note}}
==References== === Citations === {{reflist}}
=== Cited texts === * {{Cite book |last=Dalby |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Dalby |year=2003 |title=Food in the Ancient World: From A to Z |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-23259-3}} * {{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Davidson (food writer) |year=1987 |title=Oxford Companion to Food |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00davi_0 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-211579-9}} * {{Cite news |title=Ice cream threatens Turkey's flowers |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3126047.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=August 5, 2003}} * {{Cite book |editor-last=Jacobi |editor-first=Jolande |year=1995 |title=Paracelsus: Selected Writings |url=https://archive.org/details/selectedwritings00para |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-01876-8}} * {{Cite book |author=Pedanius Dioscorides |author-link=Pedanius Dioscorides |title=De materia medica}} * {{Cite book |author=Pliny the Elder |title=Naturalis historia |title-link=Natural History (Pliny) |author-link=Pliny the Elder}} * {{Cite book |author=Pseudo-Apuleius |title=Herbarium Apuleii Platonici |title-link=Pseudo-Apuleius}} * {{Cite book |author=Theophrastus |author-link=Theophrastus |title=Historia plantarum}}
==External links== {{Wiktionary|Saloop}} * {{Commons category-inline|Salep}}
{{Levantine cuisine}} {{Cuisine of Lebanon}} {{Cuisine of Turkey|beverage}} {{Herbal teas}}
Category:Arab cuisine Category:Arabic drinks Category:Bosnia and Herzegovina non-alcoholic drinks Category:Edible thickening agents Category:Egyptian cuisine Category:Herbal teas Category:Israeli cuisine Category:Jordanian cuisine Category:Lebanese cuisine Category:Orchis Category:Palestinian cuisine Category:Syrian cuisine Category:Turkish drinks Category:Aphrodisiac foods