Deiri Kebab

Deiri kebab is a meat dish rather than a spice dish. Young lamb is not minced in advance. The meat, hot green pepper and onion are chopped with a cleaver directly on the skewer, at the grill, in front of you. Nothing else goes in but salt and a pinch of black pepper, and the reason is stated plainly by the cooks: the taste of the meat is not to be covered. This is the signature of the Euphrates towns, and Deir ez-Zor is known by it.

What chopping on the skewer means

The kebab maker does not work on a block. He cuts the meat down with two cleavers where it is being pressed onto the skewer. Pepper and onion enter in the same motion, and the mix is still coarse when it goes on. The grain of the meat stays visible, and the flat, even texture that comes out of a mincing machine is absent. Over the coals that coarseness cooks the meat without drying it.

How it differs from Aleppo kebab

Aleppo kebab is kneaded with the spice mix of that city and the mince is prepared on the counter, so the spice builds the identity of the plate. Deiri kebab has neither. Two ends of the same country give the same word to two different methods, and you can tell which one is in front of you at the first bite.

The local varieties

The countryside counts several: kebab with aubergine, dakka kebab, kebab with bulgur, Urfa kebab, marina, and kamaa kebab. The last is made with desert truffle, and its season is short — the truffle comes up in spring after rain, and once those few weeks pass the dish leaves the board with them.

Where to eat it now

At the grills of Deir ez-Zor and its countryside, standing by the coals. It is known well beyond them: in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait it is often sold simply as Syrian kebab. As the price of lamb has climbed it has grown rarer on home tables, while the grills still turn it out.