| Cağ kebabı | |
| Country: | Ottoman Empire |
| Region: | Erzurum |
| Creator: | Disputed, with various lawsuits. Goes back to 18th century.[1] |
| Course: | Kebab |
| Main Ingredient: | Marinated slices of lamb, tail fat, onion, sweet basil, black pepper and salt. |
Cağ kebabı (pronounced as /tr/) is a horizontally stacked marinated rotating lamb kebab variety, originating in Erzurum Province, Turkey.
This uniquely prepared kebab has become, as years passed, a trademark of Erzurum where all the famous Usta,[2] like Şakir Aktaş and Kemâl Koç, run restaurants. Each claiming to be descending from the exclusive inventors.
Note that while it is increasingly available in most Turkish cities, the Cağ kebabı is especially popular in Erzurum, whereas enjoying an ever-growing success in Istanbul and Ankara.
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 Erzurum, which is probably the earlier form of döner as known.
Now, the kebab is very famous in Erzurum, Istanbul and many other States in the EU.[3] [4] [5]
The Turkish word cağ (pronounced as /tr/) borrowed from Armeno-Georgian.[6] [7] It means "spit" or skewer.[8] Hence the name of the kebab that consists of meat impaled on a huge spit.
Slices of lamb and large quantities of tail fat are left to marinate in a mixture of basil, black pepper, salt and sliced onions 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.[9]