🇹🇷 Turkey · Family: Kebap & ızgara
Şiş Kebab Dürüm is cubed, marinated lamb or beef threaded onto a skewer, grilled over coals, then slid off and rolled into lavaş. The şiş is the skewer and the method; the dürüm is the wrap, a thin, soft, unleavened flatbread that bends around the filling without cracking. Unlike the simpler simit snacks, this is a grill-built item where the meat is the entire reason it exists, and the bread is there to carry heat and juice from coal to hand. The angle is char and marinade contained in a soft wrap rather than a sliced loaf.
The build runs in a strict order and each step shows. The cubes are marinated first, typically in oil, onion, and spice, then pushed onto the skewer with enough space between them that the heat reaches all sides; crowded cubes steam instead of sear. Over the coals the exterior takes a crust while the inside stays juicy, which is the whole craft, and the meat is rested briefly off the fire before it goes near bread. The lavaş is warmed so it is pliable, often passed over the same grill to pick up a little smoke, then the meat is laid down a line of it, usually with sliced onion dressed in sumak, parsley, sometimes tomato or a smear of pepper paste, and rolled tight so it holds. Good versions char the cubes hard on the outside without drying the center and warm the lavaş so it folds rather than splits. Sloppy ones grill the meat to grey all the way through, or use a cold, stiff wrap that tears and dumps the filling, or overload it so it cannot be rolled closed.
Variations track the meat and the wrap. Lamb gives a richer, gamier result; beef is leaner and milder. The lavaş can be swapped for a thicker bread when a dürüm is not the goal, but at that point it is a different sandwich. A scatter of pul biber or grilled long peppers and tomato added to the skewer shifts the heat and smoke. The ground-meat skewer cousin, şiş köfte, is built and seasoned differently enough that it deserves its own article rather than being crowded in here. Held to grilled cubes in lavaş, Şiş Kebab Dürüm is defined by the fire and the fold.
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