What is Antep lahmacun, the Turkish pizza of Gaziantep? Its topping, its dough and how it differs from Urfa lahmacun

Antep lahmacun is the Gaziantep lahmacun in which a topping of lamb minced with a zırh knife, garlic, parsley, tomato and pepper is spread on dough no thicker than 3 millimeters and baked in a stone oven. Antep lahmacun has been registered at the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office since 2017 under number 236, and in 2025 it was also placed under protection in the European Union (EU). In the registered recipe, an unbaked lahmacun weighs 150-155 grams, and the meat must be minced with a zırh knife, not in a meat grinder. The dough is rolled out to 20-22 by 34-36 centimeters and bakes in a stone oven at 300-350 degrees in 3-4 minutes. Its topping has no onion, and that is also its most basic difference from Urfa lahmacun. The registered fındık lahmacun, however, is not Gaziantep's but Mersin's Tarsus Fındık Lahmacunu.

What is Antep lahmacun?

Antep lahmacun is the Gaziantep lahmacun in which a topping of lamb minced with a zırh knife, parsley, garlic, tomato and spices is spread on rolled-out dough and baked in a stone oven. The Gaziantep Commodity Exchange applied for the registration on March 31, 2017, and it was completed on November 20, 2017. Its geographical boundary is the province of Gaziantep, and the document requires every stage of producing lahmacun sold under this name to take place in Gaziantep.

The registration document also touches on the history of lahmacun. In the 17th century, Evliya Çelebi mentions lahmacun in his Seyahatname as "lahm-ı acinli börek". In Gaziantep, lahmacun is still often served on special days, at ceremonies and at funerals.

The protection is not limited to Türkiye. With a European Commission regulation dated October 29, 2025, Antep Lahmacunu became a protected geographical indication in the European Union. After baklava, menengiç coffee, Araban garlic and pistachio paste, lahmacun is Gaziantep's fifth product protected in the EU.

What goes into Antep lahmacun?

Antep lahmacun is topped with lamb minced with a zırh knife, parsley, tomato, garlic, fresh pepper, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes. In the registered recipe, an unbaked lahmacun weighs 150-155 grams, of which 50-55 grams is dough and 90-100 grams is topping. The topping for one lahmacun is as follows.

• 55-60 grams of lamb minced with a zırh knife
• 10-11 grams of parsley
• 8.5-9.5 grams of tomato
• 8-9 grams of garlic
• 8-9 grams of fresh pepper
• 1-1.5 grams of salt, 0.75-1 grams of black pepper and 0.75-1 grams of red pepper flakes

The meat is preferably the brisket and rib meat of a 12-14-month-old male lamb. Lamb makes up 35-40 percent of the lahmacun, and the fat content of the meat is 20-24 percent. The document is clear on one point: Antep lahmacun contains no onion.

What makes Antep lahmacun different?

What makes Antep lahmacun different is its meat minced with a zırh knife, its onion-free topping, its dough of 3 millimeters at most and its short bake in a stone oven. The registration document gives these four features with measurements.

• The carcass of the slaughtered lamb rests for 1-2 days, and the meat is separated from the sinew and chopped with salt using a knife called a zırh. A meat grinder is never used.
• All the ingredients of the topping are chopped with a zırh to the size of the minced lamb and mixed. The topping has garlic, not onion.
• The dough is rolled out with a rolling pin to 3 millimeters at most, and the lahmacun measures 20-22 by 34-36 centimeters.
• The lahmacun goes into a stone oven at 300-350 degrees on a wooden peel and bakes in 3-4 minutes. The document even describes the oven: its base is semicircular and its body is usually shaped like a quarter sphere.

How is Antep lahmacun made?

Antep lahmacun is made by rolling leavened dough out to 3 millimeters at most, spreading the topping over it and baking it in a stone oven for 3-4 minutes. In the registered recipe, special wheat flour, water, yeast and salt are kneaded for the dough.

The dough rises for 30 minutes, rests for 10-15 minutes and is divided into 100-gram pieces. For the topping, lamb, parsley, tomato, garlic and pepper are chopped with a zırh to the size of minced meat and mixed. The dough is rolled out on a floured counter no thicker than 3 millimeters, the topping is spread evenly everywhere and the lahmacun bakes in a stone oven.

What are the types of lahmacun?

The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office has three registrations with lahmacun in their name: Antep lahmacun, Urfa lahmacun and Tarsus fındık lahmacun. All three are designations of origin, and each recipe is written in its own registration document.

The easiest way to tell the three apart is the onion and garlic in the topping. Antep lahmacun has garlic, Urfa lahmacun has onion and isot, and Tarsus fındık lahmacun has dry onion. Besides these three, Adana lahmacun also has onion, and Kapya pepper goes into its topping. Size defines the type too: fındık lahmacun is at most 8 centimeters across, while Antep lahmacun is rolled out to 20-22 by 34-36 centimeters.

What is the difference between Antep and Urfa lahmacun?

The difference between Antep and Urfa lahmacun is that Antep lahmacun uses garlic and Urfa lahmacun uses onion. Urfa lahmacun is registered too, and Urfa's registration document states the difference plainly: its most basic difference from Antep lahmacun, which uses garlic, is that it contains onion.

	Antep lahmacun	Urfa lahmacun
Registration	No 236, 2017	No 353, 2018
Meat	Brisket and rib meat of a 12-14-month-old male lamb	Lamb of the Awassi breed
Topping	Garlic, parsley, tomato, fresh pepper, black pepper, red pepper flakes; no onion	Onion, isot, tomato paste, fresh red pepper; no other spices
Dough	Leavened, 3 mm at most	Unleavened

Urfa lahmacun's document also explains why its dough is unleavened: so that the dough does not thicken. In Urfa, another name for lahmacun is bread with minced meat. The document says lahmacun comes with lemon, parsley, radish, mint, roasted eggplant and ayran, depending on the season.

What is fındık lahmacun?

Fındık lahmacun is a small lahmacun, at most 8 centimeters across. The registered fındık lahmacun, however, is not from Antep but from Mersin: Tarsus Fındık Lahmacunu was registered in 2020 under number 538.

In Tarsus fındık lahmacun, the dough is rolled out by hand and leavened. The topping is made with lean mutton from a male sheep, without tail fat, and with parsley, dry onion, Kapya pepper and tomato. The lahmacuns bake in a stone oven over a wood flame at about 250 degrees for 7-8 minutes. A portion has 8-10 pieces, and the even smaller kind, at most 5 centimeters across, is called bird's eye in Tarsus.

How do you eat lahmacun?

Lahmacun is eaten with greens such as lemon, parsley, mint and radish. In Urfa, roasted eggplant and ayran are added, and in Tarsus, garden cress and green pepper. The registration of Antep lahmacun, however, does not describe how it is served.

Where can you eat lahmacun in Başakşehir?

In Başakşehir, one of the places to eat lahmacun is Lezzet-i Şark Gusto, beneath Fatih Terim Stadium at Block C No: 5. At Gusto, lahmacun comes out of the oven every day until midnight, and until 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. At our restaurant, thin-crust lahmacun is made spicy or mild. The menu also has small fındık and ceviz lahmacun, pide and lahmacun to take away. Current prices, with their date, are on our menu page.