Turkish Kebap; Any edible product that is cooked, baked or roasted without the addition of water, in a pan, pitcher, bowl or other container, directly over an open fire or on the embers itself. Due to its great versatility, Kebap has ensured that the dishes from Turkish cuisine enjoy the fame and popularity that they now have.
Kebab or Kabuba
Not all historical sources agree on the origin of the word Kebap. Some linguists claim that the origin of the word Kebap is in the Sumerian word Kabuba, which means “roasted on the embers”. When we search for the name Kabuba, the Sumerian goddess of fertility and abundance comes out of the search results. The Persian King Darius is said to have had his soldiers eat a skewer with fried pieces of meat before battle, for extra strength. This dish as a gesture of abundance would go down in the books as Kebap. So the word has some reference to the concept of “abundance.” Others, on the other hand, think that it comes from the common word ‘prepare meat’ from Arabic. Be that as it may, the name Kebap is nowadays used in Turkish for all dishes that are cooked without adding water.
Kebap techniques
The first food-spreading techniques would have been directly over an open fire on a skewer, on the ashes or hot stones. Cooking techniques in pots and ovens will be added later. In Turkish cuisine, meals are still prepared in underground ovens (Tander) and on hot ashes (Külbastı) in clay pots or pitchers (Güveç or Testi). Barbecuing is still a favorite national activity in Turkey. No picnic without a barbecue and everything goes on it, from corn, fruit, nuts and vegetables to the more famous barbecue products such as meat, fish and poultry.
Kebap through the ages
If we look at the Kebap over the centuries, we see that the Kebap adapts to the time and the circumstances in which we live. For those who are a little familiar with Turkish cuisine, it is almost impossible to imagine that the tomato and pepper did not find a place in the Turkish pan until the 18th century. Today, not only Kebap is unthinkable without the red-green couple. In almost all daily meals, from breakfast to dinner, pepper and tomato in all their forms occupy a large place.
Kitchen secrets of a good Kebap
- The meat must have rested, freshly slaughtered meat is too hard. Take the right meat for every type of Kebap.
- Pay attention to a good fat-meat ratio with minced meat kebaps.
- The best minced meat for Kebab is obtained by chopping it instead of grinding it. Minced meat sticks better to the skewer and has a fuller taste.
- If skewers are pre-laced, wet the meat a little before cooking.
- For a spicy marinade, use powdered red pepper instead of flakes.
- Use black pepper with vegetarian kebabs and red pepper with meat kebabs.
- Use slow burning coals with barbecue Kebaps.
- Onions, aubergines and peppers are roasted over flaming embers. Remove burnt peels / sheets. Wash aubergines if necessary. They are done when you no longer feel any resistance when pressing the pulp.
- Cook cubes of liver, chicken and minced meat over a fire without flames and with an ash layer on the embers. So don’t stir the fire anymore.
- With Kebaps that are prepared in the oven, keep the oven temperature high, too low a temperature will dry out the dish.
- Place the onion and garlic cloves wet in a roasting tin or oven dish.
- With a roasting pan with mixed vegetables, peppers and tomatoes in the center, aubergines on the outside and brush with a little oil, the latter burn first.
- Kebabs that are prepared in the oven may be less fat than for the barbecue. On the barbecue, the dripping fat falls into the fire, in the oven it remains in the roasting pan.
Döner Kebap
Döner comes from the word dönmek which is the Turkish translation for turning around. Döner Kebap is actually translated ‘Rotating Roast’. The more famous word Shawarma comes from the Arabic Şawarma which also means to turn / turn around.
The oldest form of Döner Kebab is called Çağ Kebab and is a Döner skewer that is placed horizontally, just like the known Spit. The origin of meat preparation in this way is sought among the Crimean soldiers. They are known to rain pieces of flesh on their swords and roast them over the fire. Before the pieces of meat are put on the skewer, they are flattened and marinated for 24 hours. When the cooked outer layer of a vertical doner is cut off, the meat falls into a kind of scoop from which the meat is placed on the plates or in a roll with a peg. With a horizontal doner, the cook first inserts a joint-nail-like skewer into the cooked top layer of the meat, after which he cuts off the meat just below the ‘joint-nail’. Lamb and Beef is originally used for the Döner, but due to the outbreak of BSE and the swine fever in the 1990s, alternatives such as chicken, fish, and vegetables mixed variations have been started and in recent years a pressed lump has been increasingly seen. which resembles minced meat but whose composition is unclear
Iskender Kebab
The real breakthrough for the doner kebab as a fast food took place around the year 1850. In the Turkish city of Bursa was a restaurateur named Mehmet Effendi. This restaurant was well known for its Lamb on a Spit and Tanderger dishes. Mehmet Effendi’s son, Iskender, had very progressive ideas and is looking for a way to distinguish themselves from other Kebap restaurants. He is developing a system to vertically roast the meat that was roasted horizontally for hundreds of years. He put the cook at the front of the restaurant so that everyone could see and smell the roast from afar. Vertical roasting turned out to be a gap in the market and Iskender Effendi quickly became a household name in the Kebap area. The Turkish Döner Kebap was born. At the time, Döner Kebap was not eaten in a sandwich or wrap. In 1900 Turkey, eating with a knife and fork was not as common as it is now. The basis was a plate of boiled rice, next to it a Turkish Pide cut into small pieces (pizza crust-like bread). On top of that came the Döner Kebap, completed with a generous spoonful of yogurt and topped with melted butter if desired, and the whole was eaten with a spoon. Later in the 1930s, when tomato sauce was increasingly added to the dishes, the grandsons of Iskender Effendi applied for a patent on the well-known popular ‘Iskender Kebab’. The family business still exists as Iskender restaurant in Bursa, which has since grown into an organization with 8 branches.