During the main flowering season of Orchis provincialis, O. anatolica, O. morio, O. latifolia, Ophrys, Himantoglossum and Dactylorhiza incarnata … tubers of these plants are collected on chalky meadows when the orchid finished flowering and has set seed 1). After boiling and drying the whitish sahlep powder is used as the base of a number of recipees:

• added with milk and sugar when heated, it forms a creamy substance. Cinnamon is sprinkled on top, to be served warm as a cough-drink 2) or as aperitif 3)
• it forms the main ingredient of the creamy Marasch icecream (salepi dondurma), which has a chewing-gum texture. A mixture of Sahlep, milk and sugar is frozen and beaten with metal rods. The resulting blend is eaten with a knife and is chewy enough to be pulled into a rope of a few meters.

Sahlep is collected in Turkey, Iran and in lesser volumes in France and Greece. The main source of origin is the southwest (Mugla, Milas, Isparta, Antalya) and the North (Kastamonu, Tasköprü, Safranbolu) of Turkey. Orchis-species from the edges of the Anatolian plateau are especially sought after. The tubers are collected during spring and summer, dried, and selected by texture and color. Especially the translucent yellow tubers are wanted since they give of the most complex taste and contain the most mucilage (which can make up 40 to 50 percent of the salep flour). 4)
The word sahlep comes from the Arabic "sahlab" - meaning "fox testicles". Funny enough, "Orchid" is derived from the Greek "orchis", meaning "testicle". Apparently the reference to male anatomy is recognised beyond cultures. The name "salepi dondurma" literally means "fox testicle ice cream". Its origin lies in the other name: Marasch icecream … Maras is a city in south-central Turkey where orchids, milk and snow were plentifull - 300 years ago. These days 2 of the 3 ingredients aren't hard to come by, but the 350.000+ inhabitants created an overdemand for orchids. Shepherds and villagers still provide the icecream-makers with wild collected material.
It's claimed to be an afrodisiac (Dioscorides from 1st century Greece allready gave it these powers), but its main use these days lies in the farmaceutical industry as a stabilizer. Next to that it helps against diarrhea for children, 5 to 10 grams is boiled with 100 gram of milk (or water). It's claimed that 30 grams of Sahlep contains enough energy to sustain human requirements for a day 5)6). It also acts as a demulcent 7), its jelly nature (1 gram of sahlep powder can gel 50 gram of water) has a beneficial effect on irritations of the gastro-intestinal canal.
Since it's relatively expensive and the demand was high from outside Turkey, export of the tubers was made illegal in 1974. Sahlep is still being sold, tubers are still being harvested, but Turkey is no longer one of the main destinations for orchid enthousiasts. Twenty-four genera and almost 100 terrestrial species belonging to the Orchidaceae family have been determined in Turkey. Because of the polymeric structure, aphrodisiac effect and the other medicinal characteristics, ‘salep’ orchids were extremely demanded and extensively exported from 1700s to 1974 8). Despite all the laws put into effect, the pulling of these orchids has continued since 1974 for interior trade. While the amount of annual export was 6.5 tons in 1700s, most of these species are now within endangered plant classes. 9)