Mastic (μαστίχα — from the Greek mastichao, "to chew") is the crystallised resin of the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus var. Chia), produced almost exclusively on the southern part of the Greek island of Chios. The medieval trade in Chios mastic was among the most profitable in the Mediterranean — the Genoese, who controlled Chios from the fourteenth century, built an entire economic system around the mastic trade, and the island's medieval mastic villages (the mastichochoria, or "mastic villages") — with their geometric, defensive architecture designed to protect the mastic growers from pirates — still stand. Today, Chios mastic has Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status, meaning that "mastic" from any other source cannot legally be sold as Chios mastic.
Mastic is used in Turkish and Greek confectionery for its specific flavour (pine-resin, slightly eucalyptus, faintly herbal — it is the flavour of ouzo, of mastika liqueur, of Greek submarine sweet) and for its gelling and elasticity properties in dough applications. In confectionery:
1. Mastic must be ground with a small amount of icing sugar or salt before use — pure mastic gums to itself when ground warm and is impossible to incorporate into preparations as large pieces 2. Mastic is heat-sensitive — add after the main cooking, dissolved in a small amount of neutral spirit (raki, vodka) to distribute evenly 3. Dondurma technique: the salep-milk mixture must be beaten continuously while frozen (by hand with a wooden paddle in traditional production) — the mastic-salep network forms during this beating and produces the elastic structure Sensory tests: - **Mastic flavour:** Chew a small piece of raw mastic resin — the immediate impression is pine-fresh and slightly bitter, followed by a cooling herbal note that intensifies as chewing continues. If only bitterness is present with no herbal freshness, the mastic is old or low quality. - **Dondurma stretch test:** Correctly made dondurma can be pulled from the serving vessel in a continuous, stretching sheet — it resists the pull with consistent tension and then yields slowly. Ice cream that simply scoops has not achieved the mastic-salep network.
Middle Eastern & Indian Confectionery Deep