Shashlik, or shashlyck ( ''shashlyk''), is a dish of

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 ...

ed and grilled cubes of

meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...

, similar to or synonymous with shish kebab. It is known traditionally by various other names in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, and from the 19th century became popular as ''shashlik'' across much of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

and nowadays in former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

republics.

Etymology and history

The word ''shashlik'' or ''shashlick'' entered English from the Russian , of Turkic origin.American Heritage Dictionary Entry: shashlik
/ref> In Turkic languages, the word ''shish'' means skewer, and ''shishlik'' is literally translated as "skewerable". The word was coined from the ' (' spit') by the

Zaporozhian Cossacks The Zaporozhian Cossacks (in Latin ''Cossacorum Zaporoviensis''), also known as the Zaporozhian Cossack Army or the Zaporozhian Host (), were Cossacks who lived beyond (that is, downstream from) the Dnieper Rapids. Along with Registered Cossa ...

and entered Russian in the 18th century, from there spreading to English and other European languages. Prior to that, the Russian name for meat cooked on a skewer was ', from ', 'spit'. Shashlik did not reach

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

until the late 19th century. From then on, its popularity spread rapidly; by the 1910s it was a staple in

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

restaurants and by the 1920s it was already a pervasive street food all over urban Russia.

Preparation

Shashlik was originally made of lamb, but nowadays it is also made of

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

venison Venison refers primarily to the meat of deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, including the internal organs. Venison, much like beef or pork, is categorized into spe ...

, depending on local preferences and religious observances.
Шашлык
'. In: В. В. Похлёбкин, ''Кулинарный словарь от А до Я''. Москва, Центрполиграф, 2000, ( William Pokhlyobkin, ''Culinary Dictionary''. Moscow, Tsentrpoligraf, 2000; Russian) The skewers are either threaded with meat only, or with alternating pieces of meat, fat, and vegetables, such as

bell pepper The bell pepper (also known as sweet pepper, paprika, pepper, capsicum or, in some parts of the US midwest, mango) is the fruit of plants in the Grossum Group of the species ''Capsicum annuum''. Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in diff ...

onion 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 classifie ...

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

and

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

. In Iranian cuisine, meat for shashlik (as opposed to other forms of '' shish kebab'') is usually in large chunks, while elsewhere the form of medium-size meat cubes is maintained making it similar to brochette. The meat is marinated overnight in a mostly acidic marinade like vinegar, dry wine or sour fruit/ vegetable juice with the addition of onions, garlic, herbs and other spices. While it is not unusual to see shashlik today listed on the menu of restaurants, it is more commonly sold in many areas in the form of fast food by street vendors who roast the skewers on a mangal over wood,

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

, or coal. It is also cooked in outdoor environments during social gatherings, similarly to

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (often shortened to BBQ worldwide; barbie or barby in Australia and New Zealand) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that employ live fire and smoke to coo ...

in English-speaking countries. Shashlik made of pork

Despite the simplicity of preparing shashlik, the process of frying meat over an open fire can cause inconvenience for residents of apartment buildings.

References

{{Street food Afghan cuisine Armenian cuisine Azerbaijani cuisine Barbecue Belarusian cuisine Caucasian cuisine Central Asian cuisine Georgian cuisine Iranian cuisine Iraqi cuisine Polish cuisine Skewered kebabs Kurdish cuisine Latvian cuisine Russian meat dishes Grilled skewers Soviet cuisine Street food Tajik cuisine Turkish cuisine Turkmen cuisine Ukrainian cuisine Uzbekistani cuisine

Etymology and history

Preparation

See also

References