Cağ Kebabı

Grilled horizontally on a turning spit, then carved and re-threaded onto a small skewer to be served.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg lamb shoulder, in large thin slices
• 300 g lamb tail fat, in thin slices
• 3 onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• flatbread and raw onion, to serve

Method

1. IT IS GRILLED HORIZONTALLY AND THEN RE-THREADED ONTO A SMALL SKEWER TO BE SERVED, and no other kebab on this site is handled twice. The slices are stacked onto a long horizontal spit and turned beside the fire -- not above it -- for an hour or more. Then the cook carves the cooked outer layer off in long thin strips and threads those strips onto a short hand skewer, which is what reaches the table. So each portion is assembled from meat that is already cooked, and the spit returns to the fire to brown the layer underneath. It is the horizontal cousin of a doner, and the second skewer is the thing people recognise it by.
2. HORIZONTAL AND BESIDE THE FIRE, NOT OVER IT. The spit runs parallel to a bank of embers built up at one side, a hand's width away. Fat drips downward onto the ground rather than into the coals, so there is no flare at all -- which is what lets it sit there for an hour. Over the coals, the dripping fat would flare continuously and the outside would be black long before the middle was warm.
3. THE SLICES ARE STACKED WITH FAT BETWEEN EVERY FEW. Lamb, lamb, tail fat, lamb, lamb, tail fat, pressed down hard as it builds. The fat melts downward through the stack for the whole hour, which is the only basting it gets.
4. IT IS CARVED IN THIN STRIPS DOWN THE LENGTH, not in chunks across. A long knife drawn down the spit takes a strip of the browned surface two or three millimetres thick and several centimetres long. Those strips fold onto the small skewer; chunks will not.
5. THE MARINADE IS ONION AND SALT AND NOTHING ELSE. Sliced onion layered through the meat overnight, then wiped off before stacking -- it is there to season and tenderise, not to go near the fire. There is no spice rub: an hour beside embers would carbonise one.
6. The lamb and tail fat sliced thin, layered with the sliced onion and plenty of pepper, and left OVERNIGHT in the fridge.
7. The onion WIPED OFF and discarded. The meat salted.
8. The slices stacked onto a long horizontal spit, PRESSED DOWN hard, with TAIL FAT between every few slices.
9. A bank of charcoal built up at ONE SIDE and burned to embers.
10. The spit set HORIZONTALLY beside the embers, a hand's width away -- never above them.
11. Turned slowly and continuously, or every 4 or 5 minutes by hand.
12. Cooked 50 MINUTES to 1 HOUR 15, until the outer layer is browned and firm.
13. A long knife drawn DOWN the length to carve the cooked surface into thin STRIPS 2 to 3 mm thick.
14. The strips folded onto short hand skewers, 5 or 6 strips each.
15. The spit returned to the fire to brown the next layer while those are eaten.
16. Served on flatbread with raw onion and more pepper.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes