The small Turkish town of Kelkit has claimed a Guinness World Records title for cooking the largest pot of baked beans ever measured, a communal feat organizers say was built on generations of local farming tradition.
On Aug. 22, teams in Kelkit, in the northeastern province of Gümüşhane, prepared 1,807 gallons of Kelkit Şeker Fasulyesi, a regional white bean dish, breaking the previous Guinness World Records mark of 1,479.36 gallons. Organizers estimated the finished pot held the equivalent of roughly 15,000 standard cans of beans, cooked in a vessel large enough to require scaffolding and industrial paddles for stirring.
The effort was a joint production by the Kelkit Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Gümüşhane Governorship and Kelkit Municipality, which spent months coordinating farmers, chefs and food-safety inspectors to pull off the attempt. Local officials framed the record less as a stunt than as a showcase for a bean variety Kelkit has grown for decades and considers a point of regional pride.
"This title is a historic achievement for Kelkit, Gümüşhane and our region. It represents international recognition of our agricultural heritage."
Kelkit record organizers, in a statement to Guinness World Records
Guinness requires attempts of this kind to meet strict verification standards, including certified scales or volume measurements, documented ingredient sourcing and an independent adjudicator present throughout cooking and measurement. Organizers said meeting those standards took as much planning as the cooking itself.
"We are most proud of the teamwork behind the record. Farmers, culinary teams, engineers, food-safety professionals, sponsors, public institutions and volunteers all contributed."
Kelkit record organizers
Giant food records have become a recurring showcase for towns and cities hoping to draw attention to local specialties, from oversized baklava trays elsewhere in Turkey to record-setting paella pans in Spain. For Kelkit, a town better known regionally for its agriculture than international headlines, the bean record offers a rare moment on a global stage, and a fresh talking point for the harvest festivals that have long celebrated the crop locally. Guinness confirmed the certification this month, closing out a process organizers said took the better part of a year to plan.