Tahini

Roasted sesame goes through a stone mill and comes out as a dark paste that pours slowly. Tahini is almost never eaten on its own in Syria, but there are few cold dishes it does not sit under: hummus, msabbaha, mutabbal, batersh, fatteh and tarator all come out of the same jar. On the sweet side it is the raw material of halva and of the cream inside karabij.

Pale or dark

The souk sells two kinds. Tahini milled from hulled sesame is pale, runny and faintly sweet. Tahini milled with the hulls left on is darker and leaves a clear bitterness behind it. Cooks use the pale one in mezze sauces and the dark one in halva. Both sit on the same counter, so you have to say which you want.

Why it fights water

Add water to tahini and the opposite of what you expect happens: the mixture stiffens and seizes. Most people give up here. Keep stirring and the paste loosens all at once into a smooth cream. That turn is what a Syrian cook waits for, and lemon and garlic go in after it.

Where it turns up

In almost every cold plate. It gives hummus its texture and mutabbal the richness that sits beside the smoke of the aubergine. Tarator is thinned tahini under its own name, and it arrives in its own bowl next to fish. At breakfast it is stirred into grape molasses, and the mix is called tahin dibs.

Buying it

The oil separates and rises in the jar, so tahini used without stirring is dry at the bottom and greasy on top. The sesame mills of Aleppo and Damascus make halva under the same roof, which is why loose tahini usually turns up on a halva maker’s counter. Ask for a taste and you will get one.