Sasha's Guide
Have you ever faced the frustrating issue of kabab koobideh meat slipping off the skewer while grilling? How about before it even gets to the grill? You’re not alone! Making kabab stick to your skewer requires just the right balance of ingredients, technique, and patience. After a couple of years of trial and error and multiple failures I have come up with a list of skewering tips that make it mostly foolproof to show off your cooking skills. Whether you’re a seasoned chef or a home cook, learning how to make the meat adhere properly to your skewer is a key step in achieving that delicious, perfectly grilled kabab and gaining bragging rights. In this guide, I’ll dive into the reasons why your kabab meat might be falling off and share effective tricks to keep everything intact for a flawless grilling experience. Combine this with the best kabab koobideh recipe and you’ll be dreamin’. Let’s get started!
Understanding the Basics of Kabab Koobideh
Kabab koobideh is a Persian dish that uses minced lamb, minced beef of a mixture of both. I have found that the more beef you add to the kebab the firmer the texture of the resulting kebab and therefore prefer making mine all with lamb.
Koobideh translates to “beaten” for a reason. The meat is kneaded through with grated onions, select spices and seasonings. It is typical to serve kebab koobideh with grilled tomatoes, sumac, butter and saffron rice.
Key Factors to Make Kebab Stick to the Skewer
The most important part of making sure the meat binds to the skewer is the preparation of the kabab koobideh meat mixture. You can find a link to my recipe here. In short:
- Fat content: The meat you choose needs to be 25 – 30% in fat content.
- Moisture control: Blended onions must have all moisture removed out before adding to the mix.
- Moisture control: Adding bi carb soda helps your meat stick to the skewer and removes residual moisture. Don’t go too overboard with it though as can ruin the texture. Half a teaspoon per kilo of meat is sufficient.
- Meat texture: The meat needs to be “koo-bid”; beaten to the point that it feels sticky to touch. The meat fat should start clinging to your gloves and the mixture cohesive to touch, not crumbly.
- Meat texture: The koobideh meat mixture needs to rest in the fridge (beauty doesn’t just happen!)
Techniques for Perfectly Skewered Kabab Koobideh
Prime the meat
When taking the meat out of the fridge from resting the texture will be firm. Before skewering the kebab make sure your meat is primed.
To achieve this portion out your meat (130 – 140g per skewer) and beat the meat portion directly before skewering. To do this take the meat portion that you are going to skewer and throw it quite firmly into an empty bowl. It should make a loud slapping noise. Repeat this several times until the air pockets are gone and the meat feels more cohesive, flexible and warm to touch.
Even distribution
Take a primed portion of meat in one hand and a skewer in the other. Form the meat into a long shape (about as long as your hand can handle). Push the centre of the skewer sideways into the meat and press close the meat around it. Distribute the meat evenly across the skewer by closing and opening your hand to press the meat onto the skewer. Ensure one side of the skewer is not more thicken than the other side.
Wet your hands
But didn’t you say moisture is bad for kebab? It is if it’s in your meat mixture but it’s ok when used sparingly on the surface. Your glove will continue to become sticky from the contact with the meat. Dipping your hand into a water bowl to slightly moisten it after the initial press of the meat onto the skewer will be useful to ensure the best looking kebab.
Proper shaping
After getting the meat even on the skewer with no air pockets, moisten your skewering hand and gently press the outside of the meat to smooth the surface. Pinch both of the kebab ends of the skewer.
For the signature koobideh look, and binding purposes, indent the meat at 2cm intervals. To form an indent place your thumb and index fingers on either side of the skewer and lightly press.
At this point place the skewered meat onto a baking tray and allow it to rest a bit more on the skewer to help bind before grilling.
Cooking Tips to Prevent Kabab Koobideh from Falling Apart
Most don’t realise that getting the meat to stick to the skewer is just half of the problem… probably because they don’t get to the part where they have to cook the kebab. The next problem is making sure the meat stays on the skewer when cooking. Two main considerations.
Grill temperature
Have the charcoal grill ready to accept your prepared skewers. The charcoal needs to be very hot so that when the meat hits the grill it seals quickly however not too hot that the kebab burns and dries out. Wood charcoal is more effective than standard slow release heat beads in achieving a seal. Create a two-zone fire grill to have optimum control of the kebabs juiciness and browning.
When you initially place the kebab on the grill flames will pop up. Don’t be alarmed; it’s just the 25 – 30% fat content dripping onto the charcoal below. When the outer layers are sealed the flames should reside. If not then the charcoal is too hot and you need to move your skewers to the cooler zone of your grill to ensure your kebabs don’t dry out and burn.
The best kebab is when the outside is golden brown and the inside meat is juicy so keep watch of the charcoal temperature.
Cooking technique
You need to grill the kebabs quickly. The most important cooking technique is to make sure you are flipping each kebab skewer every 10 or so seconds to begin with until the kebabs surface is sealed. If the skewers aren’t flipped until sealed your kebab will detach and plummet into the grill, never to be seen again. This is because as the meat on the underside cooks it gets heavier but as you haven’t flipped it the top part of the skewer is lighter… kind of like how the titanic broke in half before it all sunk. Once sealed you can rotate less frequently to ensure even cooking but the entire cooking process shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Kabab Koobideh
Other mistakes to consider are:
- Using meat that is too lean
- Not working up the meat
- Not resting the meat on the skewer before grilling
- Not using an appropriate skewer shape and size
- Skewer is not dry
- Skewer is too hot
- Meat is too hot
I hope these tips and tricks have been helpful for you. So what are you waiting for? Get your skewers ready, follow these steps, and enjoy the savory goodness of homemade kabab koobideh that stays on the skewer and cook evenly every time!
If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave a comment below.
Happy skewering everyone!!!
