Hamsi: The Black Sea Anchovy in Turkish Cooking

Hamsi is the Black Sea anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), a small silver fish 12 to 15 centimeters long that Turkey's northern coast built a whole cuisine around. Cold water makes it fatty and rich, so it fries, bakes into rice, and even sweetens desserts across the Karadeniz region.

Ask anyone from Trabzon or Rize what winter tastes like and you'll get one answer: hamsi. When the sea turns cold and gray, the boats come back heavy with silver, and the smell of fish frying in corn flour drifts through every kitchen on the coast. This little fish is more than dinner up there. It's a season, a song, and a source of stubborn regional pride.

If you grew up eating it, this guide is your taste of home. If you're new to it, you're about to meet one of the most beloved ingredients in Turkish recipes — and learn exactly how to buy it and cook it in a US kitchen.

What exactly is hamsi?

Hamsi is the Turkish name for the European anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus, caught in the Black Sea. It's small. Most run 12 to 15 centimeters, roughly the length of your finger, with a bright silver belly and a blue-green back.

Here's the part that matters for cooking: the Black Sea is the coldest of Turkey's three seas, and cold water grows fatty fish. Black Sea anchovy carries somewhere between 10 and 18 percent body fat, and that number climbs in the dead of winter. Fat is flavor. It's why hamsi tastes so much richer than the pale, lean anchovies most Americans know from a pizza.

The fish is also enormous in sheer volume. Anchovy makes up roughly 65 percent of the Black Sea catch, and Turkey pulls in well over 170,000 tonnes of it in a good year. This is not a niche delicacy on the coast. It's the everyday fish, cheap and plentiful, the one that feeds whole families through the cold months.

Why is hamsi so central to Black Sea culture?

In the Karadeniz — the Black Sea region — hamsi isn't just eaten. It's celebrated. The local claim, only half a joke, is that a Black Sea cook can turn anchovy into dozens of different dishes, from soup to rice to bread. There's even a version baked into a sweet.

The fish worked its way into the region's music and dance, too. Horon, the fast Black Sea folk dance, has a signature move: a rapid shoulder shimmy and a full-body tremble that dancers say mimics the hamsi thrashing in the net. When you watch a line of dancers shaking to the kemençe, you're watching an anchovy, more or less. Towns hold hamsi festivals through the season, with live music, regional stalls, and free plates of fried fish handed out to the crowd.

None of this is marketing. It grew out of scarcity and abundance both — a cheap fish that showed up in huge numbers every winter, kept a hard coastline fed, and earned its place at the center of the table.

Key takeaways

• Hamsi is the Black Sea anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), 12 to 15 cm long and prized for winter fat content of up to 18 percent.
• It's a cultural anchor, not just food: horon dance moves imitate it, and coastal towns throw festivals in its honor.
• Three dishes to know: hamsi tava (pan-fried in corn flour), hamsili pilav (baked in rice), and hamsi buğulama (poached with vegetables).
• It's fattier and more flavorful than the lean Mediterranean anchovies used for salting and canning.
• US shoppers buy it frozen for cooking whole, or canned and jarred for pantry use.

What are the signature hamsi dishes?

Three dishes carry the reputation. Learn these and you understand how the Black Sea thinks about its fish.

Hamsi tava — pan-fried anchovies

This is the one everyone starts with. You clean the fish, dust them in corn flour (regular flour works, but corn is the classic Black Sea move), and fry them in a shallow pool of hot oil until the outside goes gold and crisp. A cook will often fan the fish into a sunburst pattern in the pan so they fry as one crackling disc, then flip the whole thing at once. Serve with lemon, raw onion, and rocket. That's it. The corn flour gives a sandy crunch that plays against the soft, fatty fish inside.

Hamsili pilav — anchovy rice

This one has grand roots. Hamsili pilav is a baked rice dish — pine nuts, currants, onion, warm spices — lined and topped with butterflied anchovy fillets so the whole thing bakes under a lid of fish. Versions of it were served at Ottoman court tables, which tells you how far a humble fish can climb. You'll want the pantry basics for it: good rice, pine nuts, and currants from the Dry Goods and Pantry collection.

Hamsi buğulama — poached anchovy stew

The gentlest of the three. Buğulama means steamed or poached, and here the anchovies cook slowly over a bed of tomatoes, peppers, onion, and herbs with a splash of water and oil — no frying, no flour. It's the dish you make when you want to taste the fish itself, clean and bright. A spoonful of pepper paste deepens the base; you'll find those in the Pickles and Paste collection.

How is hamsi different from Mediterranean anchovies?

People hear "anchovy" and picture the salty little fillets draped over a Caesar salad or melted into pasta. Hamsi is a different animal in how it's used, even though it's a close cousin.

The short version: Mediterranean anchovies are usually a flavor booster you add in pinches. Hamsi is the main event. Colder water gives it that extra fat, which is exactly why the Black Sea cooks it fresh and whole instead of curing it into a condiment. Both are wonderful. They just do different jobs.

When is hamsi season?

Timing is everything with this fish. Turkey closes its seas to commercial fishing from mid-April to the start of September to let stocks spawn, so the legal hamsi season runs roughly from September 1 to April 15. The real magic happens later, in the cold stretch from November through February, when the fish are fattest and the coast eats them nearly every day.

That seasonality is part of why hamsi feels special. It's a winter fish, tied to a particular slice of the year, the same way you might crave certain foods only when the weather turns. For diaspora cooks in the US, frozen stock is what makes hamsi season last all year on your side of the ocean.

How do US shoppers buy hamsi?

You won't often find fresh Black Sea anchovy at a US market — it's too small and too far from home to ship fresh. So American kitchens rely on two formats.

Frozen, for cooking whole. This is how you recreate hamsi tava or buğulama. Frozen anchovy, cleaned and blast-frozen close to the catch, thaws back to something close to fresh — good enough to dust in corn flour and fry. Keep an eye on the Frozen Food collection, where cold-chain fish comes and goes with the season. Everything ships packed to hold the freeze on the way to your door.

Canned or jarred, for the pantry. When you want anchovy as a flavor base — for a sauce, a dressing, a quick meze — shelf-stable is the way. The Canned and Jarred Food collection keeps preserved fish and other tinned staples ready in the cupboard, no thawing required.

Not sure where to start? The full Turkish groceries collection gathers the pantry pieces — corn flour, rice, pine nuts, pepper paste — that turn a bag of anchovies into a real Black Sea meal.

Quick tips for cooking hamsi at home

• Thaw gently. Move frozen anchovies to the fridge overnight, then pat them dry before flouring. Dry fish crisps; wet fish steams.
• Corn flour, not fine flour, for tava. It gives the sandy, golden crust that defines the dish.
• Hot oil, short fry. These are tiny fish. A minute or two a side is plenty — overcook them and the fat you love cooks right out.
• Serve with sharp sides. Lemon, raw onion, rocket, or pickles cut the richness and wake the whole plate up.

Frequently asked questions

Is hamsi the same as regular anchovy?

It's the same species as the European anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus, but caught in the colder Black Sea, which makes it fattier and richer. It's cooked fresh and whole rather than salt-cured into fillets like most anchovies you know.

What does hamsi taste like?

Cooked hamsi is soft, rich, and delicate — far milder than the sharp, salty tinned anchovy. Its high winter fat content gives it a full flavor without the aggressive brininess of a cured fillet.

How do you cook frozen hamsi?

Thaw it overnight in the fridge, pat it dry, then dust in corn flour and pan-fry in hot oil for a minute or two per side for hamsi tava. Or poach it gently over tomatoes and peppers for hamsi buğulama.

What is hamsili pilav?

It's a baked Turkish rice dish flavored with pine nuts, currants, onion, and spices, then lined and topped with anchovy fillets so the rice bakes under the fish. Versions of it were served at Ottoman court tables.

When is hamsi in season?

The legal fishing season runs from about September 1 to April 15, with the peak from November through February, when Black Sea anchovies are at their fattest and most flavorful.

Where can I buy hamsi in the US?

Look for it frozen when you want to cook it whole, or canned and jarred for pantry use. TG Gourmet stocks cold-chain frozen fish and shelf-stable tinned staples, shipped packed to arrive in good condition.

Bring the Black Sea to your kitchen

Hamsi is proof that a cheap little fish can carry a whole culture — its winters, its dances, its Sunday tables. You don't need to be from Rize to cook it. You just need good anchovies, a little corn flour, and a hot pan. Start with the Frozen Food collection for the fish, stock the pantry from the Turkish groceries collection, and put winter on a plate whenever you like.