Aleppo Pepper

Aleppo pepper - or pul biber in Turkish, halaby pepper in Arabic - is one of the great culinary chillies, defined as much by its processing as its variety. The peppers are sun-dried, deseeded, and coarsely crushed into a deep red flake with oil-rich texture and a slow, gentle heat. The flavour is unmistakable: fruity, slightly tangy, with a dried-fruit complexity reminiscent of sun-dried tomatoes. Increasingly mainstream in UK supermarkets.

History & lineage

The Aleppo pepper takes its name from the Syrian city of Aleppo, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities and historically the heart of Syrian agriculture and trade. The pepper has been grown across northern Syria, southern Turkey, and adjacent regions for centuries, with sun-dried and crushed pul biber forming a foundational seasoning of Levantine cuisine since at least the Ottoman period.

The Syrian civil war that began in 2011 devastated the original Aleppo pepper industry. Cultivation collapsed, processing facilities were destroyed, and refugee displacement scattered the growing community across Turkey, Lebanon, and beyond. For several years, "Aleppo pepper" sold internationally was almost entirely Turkish-grown pul biber - the Turkish version of the same variety, processed similarly but with subtle regional differences. As of 2026, Syrian production has partially recovered but remains a fraction of pre-war levels.

The pepper's rise to international prominence is recent. American food writer Paula Wolfert was an early champion in the 1990s and 2000s, introducing Aleppo to American restaurant kitchens through her Mediterranean cookbooks. Subsequent uptake by chefs like Yotam Ottolenghi, whose work has made Levantine ingredients mainstream in UK and US home cooking, accelerated the pepper's spread to Western supermarkets through the 2010s.

In its native cuisine, Aleppo (or pul biber) plays the role that black pepper plays in Western cooking - the universal seasoning sprinkled on virtually every dish. The flavour profile is distinctive: gently warm rather than spicy, with the fruity acidity that makes it function more like a finishing salt than a chilli. The salt-and-oil treatment during processing is crucial - dry crushed Aleppo without the traditional salt-oil cure has a different, less complex character.

Culinary uses

Used dried and crushed as a finishing spice and seasoning across Levantine, Turkish, Syrian, and increasingly Western Mediterranean cooking. Sprinkled over hummus, eggs, grilled meats, roasted vegetables, and flatbreads. Foundation of Turkish kebab seasoning and Syrian muhammara dip. The processing - sun-drying with salt and oil - is essential to the flavour and means it's rarely used fresh.