Somewhere in the southern Balkan, in the old Skopje restaurant Dukat, three friends were in a restaurant. Their names were Petar, Kalin, and Boban. The three gourmets had a real Macedonian business meeting. In Macedonia, such a meeting is held while the table is full of food. The friends had a feast, which consisted of cold plates with various meats, appetizers, cheese, salads, rakija, and wine. They were not aware that this delicious meal would be the reason for their groundbreaking business idea. Fascinated by the various ajvar varieties, Lutenica, Pindzur, the dried and chopped peppers, and all the other known types of peppers, Petar suddenly interrupted unexpectedly: "This Ajvar is brilliant, I swear only my mother does better than this!" The other two did not know whether he was consciously aware of the hot chili. Next, Boban expressed with a full mouth that his mother added a special spice to the Ajvar and that hers is the most delicious Ajvar in the world. Kalin said that the secret to the success of an Ajvar is not in the spice, but in the love that his mother gave when preparing the Ajvar. There was no end to the discussion about the best Ajvar on this day. The three friends looked up at the waiter and asked for his opinion. Immediately without hesitation, he said that his mother made the best Ajvar in the world. So the debate went on and did not go unnoticed. As a listener, the owner of the restaurant, Mitko, joined the discussion and said, "My mother makes the best Ajvar." This is how Petar, Kalin, and Boban began the search for the best Ajvar.
The search for the best ingredients and recipes
The three friends traveled through Macedonia and tasted the various Ajvar recipes in many places. For private households as well as for business, they were able to taste the specialties and collected a lot of Ajvar recipes, from which one could smell the seductive scent of baked peppers in rural areas throughout September.
The three friends, therefore, tasted many different Ajvar varieties with different flavors and spices. They found out that every housewife has her own recipe with her own ingredients. So they took it as a basis for their own Ajvar, added the ingredients of the recipes of their mothers, and combined them with the collected ideas until they finally came to the "Mama's homemade Ajvar". The main ingredients for this recipe come from Strumica and Valandovo. These are places with perfectly suitable climatic conditions for the harvest. In honor of all mothers in Macedonia, Petar, Kalin, and Boban proudly present "Mama's Ajvar", the pepper dip for all demanding Ajvar lovers.
Production of Mama`s Ajvar
Many people make comparisons between the homemade Ajvar and the so-called industrialist Ajvar. In fact, the homemade Ajvar of mamas12 is also made in a factory by machines, but the kind of preparation is not the same. The homemade Ajvar is prepared in a traditional way and does not contain any preservatives or additional dyes and is gluten-free. From the harvest of the peppers to the filling of the glasses pass approx. 12 hours.
- 05:00 - 10:00 - Harvest of the peppers
- 10:00 - 11:30 - Distribution on the production line
- 11:30 - 13:00 - removal of the stems and seeds (mechanical)
- 13:00 - 13:30 - Peppers and the aubergines are washed
- 13:30 - 13:50 - Peppers and aubergines are roasted
- 13:50 - 14:30 - Peeling the peppers
- 14:30 - 15:00 - Control, if the peel, the seeds, and the skin have been removed in all peppers and aubergines
- 15:00 - 15:30 - Grinding of the roasted peppers and the eggplants
- 15:30 - 17:00 - From the roast to the packaging:
- All ingredients are fried in large frying pans
- Filling the Ajvar and MAMA'S glasses
- Pasteurization of the glasses (MAMA'S uses no preservatives)
- MAMA'S panel (label, hat, and collar)
- Packing in cartons (12 glasses / box)
