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Revision as of 08:40, 4 April 2006
Salep is a flour made from grinding the dried tubers of various species of orchid, which contain a nutritious starch-like polysaccharide called bassorin.
Salep is also the name of a beverage made from salep flour, whose popularity spread beyond Turkey and the Middle East to England and Germany before the rise of coffee and tea.
The beverage salep is sometimes referred to as Turkish Delight, though that name is more commonly used for lokum. Other desserts are also made from salep flour, including salep pudding and salep ice cream. The Kahramanmaraş region of Turkey is a major producer of salep known as Salepi Maraş.
The name salep comes from the Arabic expression ḫasyu al-θa’lab "fox testicles"—a graphic description of the appearance of orchid tubers. It is probably for this reason that salep is considered an aphrodisiac. Note that likewise the word orchid comes from the Greek word for testicle.
The Ancient Romans also used ground orchid bulbs to make drinks, which they called by a number of names, especially satyrion and priapiscus. As the names indicate, they likewise considered it to be a powerful aphrodisiac.