Dolma and Sarma: Stuffed and Rolled Preparations

Dolma and sarma are among the oldest continuously practiced food preparations in the world — stuffed vegetables appear in the earliest Anatolian culinary records. The Ottoman palace kitchen elevated the technique to extraordinary refinement: the rice-filled grape leaf became a precision preparation where each leaf must be rolled to an identical size and tension. The word dolma has spread throughout the former Ottoman world — from the Balkans to the Levant to the Caucasus.

Dolma (stuffed — from dolmak, to fill) and sarma (rolled — from sarmak, to wrap) encompass one of the most varied categories in Turkish cooking: vegetables stuffed with spiced rice or meat, leaves wrapped around the same fillings, cooked in olive oil or in broth depending on the preparation. The distinction: zeytinyağlı (olive oil) dolma are served cold and contain no meat; etli (with meat) dolma are served hot and contain ground lamb.

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