Cağ kebabı () is a horizontally stacked marinated rotating lamb

kebab Kebab ( , ), kebap, kabob (alternative North American spelling), kebob, or kabab (Kashmiri spelling) is a variety of roasted meat dishes that originated in the Middle East. Kebabs consist of cut up ground meat, sometimes with vegetables an ...

variety, originating in Erzurum Province, Turkey. This uniquely prepared kebab has become, as years passed, a trademark of

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

where all the famous ''Usta'',"Usta" is a Turkish word, similar in its sense to the French word "

chef A chef is a professional Cook (profession), cook and tradesperson who is proficient in all aspects of outline of food preparation, food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term (), the di ...

" although its scope of use is wider, and it is a title, usually added after the first name, to denote a master of any craft or trade. like Şakir Aktaş and Kemâl Koç, run restaurants. Each claim to be descending from the exclusive inventors. Cağ kebabı was registered and granted a geographical indication as 'Erzurum Oltu Cağ Kebabı' by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office in 2010. Note that while it is increasingly available in most Turkish cities, the Cağ kebabı is especially popular in

, whereas enjoying an ever-growing success in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

History

Ottoman travel books of the eighteenth century cite a kebab cooked on wood fire consisting of a horizontal stack of meat, known as "Cağ Kebabı" in the Eastern Turkish province of

, which is probably the earlier form of döner as known. Now, the kebab is very famous in Erzurum, Istanbul and many states in the EU.

Etymology

The Turkish word ''cağ'' () is borrowed from

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

ճաղ ''čaġ'', further from Georgian ჭალი ''č̣ali''. It means " spit" or "

skewer A skewer is a thin metal or wood stick used to hold pieces of food together. The word may sometimes be used as a metonym, to refer to the entire food item served on a skewer, as in "chicken skewers". Skewers are used while grilling or roasting ...

". Hence the name of the kebab that consists of meat impaled on a huge spit.

Preparation

Slices of lamb and large quantities of tail fat are left to marinate in a mixture of

basil Basil (, ; , ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' (, )), also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a hardiness (plants), tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" r ...

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter ...

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

and sliced

onions An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classified ...

for the length of a day. They are then impaled on the spit (Cağ), and stacked thickly. The spit is then locked and transferred to the fire, where there is a fairly complicated device that controls the cooking of the spit. This typically includes a mechanism for turning the meat, another one for raising and lowering it, and also dents on the side to move the stack towards the fire as it gets thinner after servings are repeatedly cut away. The meat used for Cağ kebabı is exclusively lamb. File:Cağkebabı1.jpg, Stacking the lamb slices on the cağ File:Cağkesilişbüyük.jpg, Cağ kebabı being cut File:Cağkebabı2.jpg, Newly impaled meat cooking on the cağ File:Oltukebabı.jpg, Cağ kebabı, served on a ''bico'', or individual skewer File:Cag Kebab.jpg, A restaurant in Ankara/Turkey that specializes in Cag Kebab (in Turkish "Cağ kebabı")

Notes

References

External links