Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.

Flavors · Edirne

Edirne tava ciğeri

Beef liver sliced into very thin sheets, dusted in flour and fried briefly, served with fried dried red peppers: the best-known dish of Edirne, near the border with Greece and Bulgaria.

Traditional dish from Edirne, Edirne

Also known as: tava ciğeri, Edirne ciğeri, Edirne tava cigeri

Updated October 2026

Click a photo to enlarge it.

Edirne tava ciğeri — Edirne, Turkey — Edirne tava ciğeri

Edirne tava ciğeri — Edirne, Turkey

In Edirne, the former Ottoman capital in Thrace, "tava ciğeri" (liver in the pan) is the dish everyone associates with the city. The beef liver is cleaned of membranes and vessels and cut into very thin slices, like sheets. Then it is salted, lightly coated in wheat flour, shaken to remove the excess and fried quickly in sunflower oil. Outside it becomes slightly crisp; inside, tender.

The accompaniment that’s always present is the dried red pepper, fried whole and placed beside the liver. The traditional pepper comes from the Karaağaç neighborhood of Edirne, where it is harvested at the end of summer and shade-dried hanging in strings; it also has a geographic indication. Onion, tomato and yogurt typically complete the dish, and many people eat the liver inside bread.

Edirne tava ciğeri has a geographic indication registration (No. 128) since 2010, requested by the union of Edirne’s guilds of artisans and traders. The registration fixes the type of liver, the thickness of the cut and the frying. The city has another liver dish with its own registration, ciğer sarma, made with lamb liver, rice and herbs, rolled and baked.

Tava ciğeri is eaten at any time, including for breakfast, and is a common stop for people who go to Edirne to see the Selimiye Mosque and the Ottoman bridges over the Tunca and Meriç rivers.

Where it comes from

Edirne , Edirne
Dish the city of Edirne treats as its classic, with a geographic indication since 2010.

Ingredients

Beef liver cut into very thin slices, salt, wheat flour, sunflower oil. Served with fried dried red pepper (from Karaağaç).

How it is eaten

Right after frying, with the dried pepper alongside, onion and tomato; many eat it inside bread. Ayran commonly accompanies it.

When it is eaten

All year round and at any time, including in the morning.

Your questions

Questions about Edirne tava ciğeri

Is the liver used for tava ciğeri beef or lamb?

Beef. The beef liver is cut into very thin slices, coated in flour and fried briefly. Edirne also has ciğer sarma, another registered dish that uses lamb liver.

Which pepper accompanies the Edirne liver?

The dried red pepper from Karaağaç, a neighborhood of Edirne, fried whole and served beside the liver. It is harvested at the end of summer and shade-dried hanging in strings. Those who don’t like heat can leave it aside.

Can you eat tava ciğeri for breakfast?

Yes, in Edirne fried liver is eaten at any time, and many people eat it in the morning. Check each restaurant’s hours before you go.

Flavors of Turkey

Discover other flavors of Turkey

Dish · Adana

Adana kebabı

Wide skewer of lamb meat with tail fat, hand-chopped (zırh) with red pepper, grilled over coals and served with lavaş, onion with sumac, and grilled tomato and pepper.

Dish · Adıyaman

Adıyaman etsiz çiğ köfte

Fine bulgur hand-kneaded with dried pepper (isot), pepper and tomato paste, onion, garlic, walnuts, parsley, pomegranate molasses and spices, meatless, served in lettuce leaves: Adıyaman çiğ köfte.

Dish · Ancara

Ankara tava

Shoulder and rib of lamb roasted for hours in a stone oven, served over rice cooked in the meat’s broth in a tinned copper dish with lid: the meat dish of the province of Ankara.

Dish · Antália

Antalya piyazı

Small white beans with tahini tarator sauce, garlic, lemon and vinegar, boiled egg, tomato and parsley: in other regions piyaz is a salad; in Antalya it is a main course.

Dish · Bodrum

Bodrum çökertme kebabı

Very thin shoestring fries, garlic yogurt and strips of beef sautéed in butter, layered on the same plate: çökertme is Bodrum’s kebab, served in the district since the 1960s.

Dish · Bursa

İskender kebap

Thin slices of döner atop pieces of pide bread, with tomato sauce, hot butter poured at the table and yogurt on the side: the kebab named after İskender Efendi of Bursa.

Sweet · Çanakkale

Gelibolu peynir helvası

Sweet made from unsalted fresh cheese cooked with wheat flour and sugar until fibrous and glossy, served hot: the specialty of Gelibolu, on the Gallipoli peninsula on the European side of Çanakkale.

Dish · Çorum

İskilip dolması

Rice cooked for about 12 hours by steam in a copper pot sealed with dough, over the meat and butter, served in a large copper dish: the wedding dish of İskilip, in Çorum.

Dish · Denizli

Denizli kebabı

Lamb under one year old roasted for two to three hours in a brick oven with an earthen floor, cut with a butcher’s cleaver and served with pide bread, onion and tomato, to be eaten with the hands.

Dish · Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır ciğer kebabı

Skewers of lamb liver alternated with tail fat, seasoned with pepper, thyme, coriander and sumac and grilled over coals, served on lavash: in Diyarbakır people even eat it for breakfast.

Dish · Erzurum

Cağ kebabı

Lamb meat seasoned with onion, salt and black pepper, stacked on a horizontal spit that turns before a wood fire and served on skewers (cağ): the kebab of Erzurum and Oltu.

Dish · Eskişehir

Çibörek

Half-moon pastry made from very thin dough, filled with raw minced meat and onion that cooks during frying and remains juicy inside: the çibörek of the Crimean Tatars, which became Eskişehir’s signature dish.

Dish · Esmirna

Boyoz

Small round roll of puff pastry made from stretched dough, oil and tahini, baked in a hot oven: boyoz is İzmir’s breakfast, eaten with a boiled egg and tea.

Sweet · Gaziantep

Antep baklavası

Ultra-thin layers of phyllo pastry with Antep pistachio and butter, drenched in syrup: Gaziantep baklava was the first Turkish product protected as a geographical indication in the European Union.

Sweet · Hatay

Antakya künefesi

Two layers of kadayıf dough in threads with butter and unsalted fresh cheese in the middle, golden on both sides and poured with hot syrup: Antakya's künefe, a hot dish with the cheese stretching.

Dish · Istambul

Eminönü balık ekmek

The fish sandwich of Istanbul's historic center: grilled fillet, usually mackerel, inside bread, with lettuce, onion and lemon, sold at the Eminönü piers beside the Galata Bridge.

Sweet · Kahramanmaraş

Maraş dondurması

Ice cream made from goat's milk, sugar and salep, dense, elastic and slow to melt: Maraş ice cream, from Kahramanmaraş, that stretches and is chewed.

Dish · Kars

Tandırda kaz çekmesi (kaz asması)

Goose raised on the Kars plateau, salted at the start of winter and roasted in the tandır, with wheat pilaf (bulgur) cooked directly beneath in the fat dripping from the bird: Kars's winter dish.

Dish · Kayseri

Kayseri mantısı

Tiny dough dumplings filled with beef, onion and basil, boiled and topped with butter, tomato paste and pepper, with yogurt and sumac optional: Kayseri mantı.

Sweet · Kocaeli

İzmit pişmaniyesi

Very fine threads of hand-pulled sugar and wheat flour toasted in butter, with a cotton-like texture that melts in the mouth: İzmit pişmaniye, a sweet memento of Kocaeli.

Dish · Konya

Konya etliekmek

Very thin dough, nearly a meter long, topped with minced meat, tomato, pepper and onion and baked in a wood-fired stone oven: Konya etliekmek is served cut into pieces.

Dish · Mardin

Mardin kaburga dolması

Lamb rib opened like a pocket, stuffed with rice, meat, almonds and spices, sewn up, cooked for hours and browned in the oven: Mardin's celebration dish.

Dish · Nevşehir

Nevşehir testi kebabı

Meat and vegetables cooked inside a clay pot from Avanos, sealed with a flour dough; at the table the pot is broken when served. It is the best-known dish of Cappadocia.

Dish · Rize

Rize muhlaması

Cornmeal toasted in butter, cooked in water until it becomes a creamy porridge, with melted kolot cheese on top that stretches: Rize muhlama, made in a copper pan with a wooden spoon and served hot.

Sweet · Safranbolu

Safranbolu lokumu

Lokum (the Turkish delight) cooked for hours in a copper cauldron, rolled in coconut and filled with hazelnut; the saffron version, in cubes, recalls the name Safranbolu, an Ottoman town listed by UNESCO.

Dish · Şanlıurfa

Urfa patlıcanlı kebabı

Small meatballs of hand‑chopped lamb alternated with pieces of eggplant on a skewer, grilled over charcoal: Şanlıurfa eggplant kebab, served with grilled pepper, onion and bread.

Dish · Siirt

Siirt büryan kebabı

Young lamb steamed, hung inside a pit-oven about 3 meters deep, served early at dawn: büryan is Siirt's breakfast.

Dish · Tekirdağ

Tekirdağ köftesi

Small cylindrical beef meatballs made with day-old bread, red onion, cumin and pepper, grilled over charcoal and served in portions of ten, with spicy sauce and roasted pepper.

Dish · Tokat

Tokat kebabı

Lamb, tail fat, eggplant and potato on a skewer hung in a dedicated oven, with tomato, pepper and roasted garlic alongside, served on thin bread: the Tokat kebab, born in vineyard houses.

Dish · Trebizonda

Akçaabat köftesi

Flattened beef meatballs, day-old bread, garlic and salt, grilled over charcoal and served with grilled pepper and tomato: the Akçaabat köfte, on the shores of the Black Sea in Trabzon.

All the flavors of Turkey