Hatay cuisine and use of salty yogurt in meals in Turkish gastronomy culture

In addition to historical processes, it is seen that some nutritional elements are effective in the development of Anatolian Gastronomy Culture. Salt and milk and foodstuffs obtained from milk, in other words fermented milk products, have always taken an active role in terms of nutrition in culture. Increasing the durability of foods, storing them for a longer time, preserving or increasing the nutritional richness are the subjects of struggle. The main theme of this research is to examine the fact that these important foodstuffs, some of which have a history as much as humanity, create a space for themselves in Hatay region with salted yoghurt and become unique to the region. First of all, the interest levels of 10 dishes made with salted yoghurt and salted yoghurt in the food culture of Hatay on the internet were examined. Afterwards, the research was carried out in two stages, and in the first stage, which was studied quantitatively, it was published on Google Forms via social media and the findings obtained with the "Antakya Cuisine and Salty Yoghurt Awareness" questionnaire, in which 201 people participated, were evaluated. In the second stage, which constitutes the qualitative part of the research, 19 women living in the region were interviewed, in-depth information was obtained about salted yogurt and the dishes made with salted yogurt, and a descriptive study with qualitative and quantitative aspects was presented. The data of the study were analyzed using the SPSS 25.0 program. Min-max error checks were made before data analysis. The frequency distributions of the findings obtained as a result of the survey were examined, and the relationship between the recognition of Antakya cuisine and salty yoghurt was made with Chi-square analysis. While 10 dishes made using salted yoghurt were the subject of the research, this number reached 23 dishes with the contribution of the participants, and the recipes of 18, including the preparation of salted yoghurt, were obtained from the source persons, and they were brought to the literature with this study. It has been concluded that these dishes are unique to the region and that some of them may be in danger of extinction over time.