Agin Chickpea has several distinctive features.
1-Ecological cultivation of chickpeas, from which Agin Chickpea is made, in the Agin District Center and villages of Elazig Province.
1.1. The Agin district has a calcareous soil structure. Chickpeas, which have adapted to the regional climate differently from other regions, have thick, hairy skins but are good at releasing their shells. They are cultivated in natural environments without any chemical pesticides or fertilization.
1.2. 100 chickpeas should weigh at least 40-50 grams.
1.3. Although Agin and its villages are dominated by the continental climate of Eastern Anatolia, due to the Keban, Atatürk, and Karakaya dams, they have a temperate climate with a transition between the Mediterranean and continental climates. The hairy chickpeas grown in Agin and its surrounding areas, exhibiting this climate, are the most suitable for making Agin Chickpea.
Distinctive features resulting from the production technique.
2- The biggest difference between Agin roasted chickpeas and other roasted chickpeas is the production technique.
2.1. The hairy chickpeas grown in the Agin region are boiled in oak wood and lye water in ovens. There is no boiling technique in the production of roasted chickpeas in other regions.
2.2. Boiled chickpeas are roasted once in a sand composed of 5 carbonate extracted from the Agin region. Other regional chickpeas are roasted 3-4 times without sand.
2.3. Agin chickpeas are roasted 10-15 days after the first roasting process, then the shells are removed and sold. Other regional chickpeas are roasted 10-15 days after the first roasting process, followed by a second or third roasting process before being sold.
2.4. Agin chickpeas do not go stale for 6-8 months as long as they are kept in sealed, white, transparent bags. They retain their freshness like the first day.
3- Production
Agin Chickpeas can be made using the same techniques from hairy chickpeas grown within the boundaries of Agin in the Upper Euphrates Basin, using special sand mined in Bademli Village in the Agin district, in the six districts of the Upper Euphrates Basin, which share the same climate.
Agin Chickpeas are usually made in the autumn months. Two hearths are set up in a suitable location outside the house. The ingredients for making chickpeas are a roasted chickpea sheet, a pot, a sieve, a shovel, a burlap sack, wood, twigs, chickpeas, lye, and salt. Oak ash is preferred for the ash. After the furnaces are lit, sand placed on a sheet metal is heated in one furnace. The sand must be fine. For this purpose, sand from a cave near Bademli Village is procured. In the other furnace, chickpeas are poured into boiling ash water in a pot. Salt is added, and the chickpeas are allowed to boil until the water is absorbed. The chickpeas are removed from the stove in a pot and poured onto the sand heated on the sheet metal in the first furnace. The sand is continuously stirred with a shovel until the chickpeas are roasted. After this, the sheet is removed from the stove and poured onto a sieve, and the sand remaining at the bottom of the sieve is scooped back onto the sheet metal. The roasted chickpeas are placed in burlap sacks, scrubbed, and the skins removed. The above-mentioned processes are repeated repeatedly until the chickpeas are used up.
