Turkish Pul Biber – Medium Hot Red Pepper Flakes, 100g to 1kg

Pul biber is the chili flake Turkey reaches for before almost anything else — by most counts the third most-used spice in the country after salt and black pepper. The name says exactly what it is: pul means flake, biber means pepper. Red peppers are ripened to a deep burgundy, sun-dried, de-seeded, and crushed into soft, slightly oily flakes — which is why pul biber tastes fruity and warm rather than sharp and dusty like ordinary crushed red pepper.

This is the medium-hot grade (orta acı in Turkish) — the everyday table heat that sits between sweet tatlı flakes and the fiery acı ones. Expect a gentle warmth that builds slowly, around the level of Aleppo pepper (roughly 10,000 Scoville), with that signature sun-dried-tomato sweetness underneath. Standard crushed red pepper runs three to five times hotter and carries seeds; pul biber gives you flavor first, heat second.

If a recipe calls for Aleppo pepper and you can't find the Syrian original, Turkish pul biber is the standard substitute — same pepper family, same processing tradition, grown across southern Turkey.

How it's used in Turkey: sprinkled over fried or menemen eggs, stirred into red lentil soup with melted butter, scattered on lahmacun and pide, worked into köfte and kebab marinades, dusted over hummus, labneh, and mezze plates — and yes, it's excellent on pizza and avocado toast. In most Turkish homes the jar simply lives on the table next to the salt.

Packed by Hanzade, a small Turkish herbal and spice supplier. Choose from 100g, 250g, 500g, or 1kg — the larger bags make sense once you realize how often you reach for it. Store in a cool, dark place; the flakes keep their color and aroma best in an airtight jar.