Sending a Tray to the Neighbourhood Oven: A Living Konya Tradition

In Konya, especially in Meram's old neighbourhoods, you can still see people walking to the bakery early in the morning with a tray on their head. Börek, tray kebab, meat pilaf or holiday bread prepared at home is taken to the neighbourhood oven to bake over wood. The custom dates from the days when homes had no large ovens, but for anyone who knows the taste of a tray baked in a wood oven, it is a habit that will never die.

Why a wood oven?

Home ovens reach 250 °C at most and heat from elements. In a wood oven the stone floor and dome radiate heat evenly from every side, so the bottom of a börek crisps without the top burning and the meat in a tray kebab softens in its own juices. The light smokiness of the wood adds its own character too.

Tray baking at Odunköz

Our Meram bakery accepts home trays every morning from 07:30 to 11:00 and our Selçuklu bakery from 08:00 to 10:30. In the afternoon the oven is busy with etli ekmek and pide, so trays are taken only in the morning. Trays go in in turn; our baker places each one in the right part of the oven for the dish and watches the cooking time.

No more queuing

People used to queue at the oven door, and on the eve of a holiday the queue could last hours. Today you can pick a drop-off time in our online booking system. Hand in your tray at your time and collect it when it is done with your numbered ticket. Tray baking costs 90 TRY per tray as of November 2026; on religious holidays a package of up to three trays costs 250 TRY.

Preparing your tray

• Stick a label with your name on the rim or underside of the tray.
• Glass and plastic dishes cannot go in; use a metal or enamel tray.
• Brush egg yolk on börek just before handing it in.
• For dishes with liquid, keep it well below the rim.
• Trays must be no more than 50 centimetres across.

Baking times

Su böreği and kol böreği usually take 35–45 minutes, tray kebab 60–75 minutes, meat pilaf 40 minutes and rice pudding 15–20 minutes until browned. When you hand in your tray, our baker tells you roughly when to collect it and writes it on your ticket. Once baked, your tray waits with your name on the rack by the oven and must be collected by 13:00.

What do people bring?

The most common trays are su böreği, kol böreği, tray kebab, meat pilaf, rice pudding and holiday bread. Guests who want to bring raw meat for fırın kebabı are offered our own fırın kebabı instead, because of food safety and the three-hour cooking slot it needs.

Keeping this tradition alive means more to us than a paid service. Neighbours chatting with their trays outside our oven in the morning is our favourite view at Odunköz.