Analysis of cookbooks to understand the changes in calories and nutritional values of traditional Turkish halva recipes throughout 61 years

This study analysed changes in calories and nutritional values of traditional Turkish halva recipes from cookbooks throughout 61 years. Goals of this study are providing a contribution from Turkey to the UNESCO/UNITWIN Chair on Food, Culture and Development at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain and getting recognition for Turkish food in international area, scanning the cookbooks for halva recipes and providing contribution to the works which investigate the historical evolution of nutritional values throughout history, also recording the recipe for our traditional halva and protecting it. 61 recipes from popular cookbooks which were published between 1957-2018 were selected. Recipes were transmitted to excel to calculate their nutritional values. TURKCOMP and USDA databases were used for calculations. In conclusion, cooking method of halvas has no visual change. Changings of calories have observed over the years. According to analyze, butter and margarine are most common fat types for halva recipes. Diversity of ingredients have increased during 61 years. In addition to basic ingredients which are wheat, butter, sugar, ingredients such as orange, lemon, cream, egg, cheese were added recipes. Keywords: traditional food, halva recipes, nutritional value