Okay, so technically what I am eating there isn't a kebab - it happens to be a cheese naan, with a layer of cheese and then another cheese naan on top. If that doesn't sound unhealthy enough, it has another layer of cheese on top of that and then some chips and some beans for good measure. This was from Kebab Kid on the Cowley Road and is the height of all awesomeness!!
This article is the culmination of many an argument with people who tell me that I wouldn't eat a kebab if I knew what was inside it. Those people really don't know me very well....
I Googled the results, as I always do when someone asks me a question, and I found out that kebab meat can be made of any meat apart from pork. It never contains pork because of the Muslim beliefs.
The meat is generally ground up and moulded into the "elephant's leg" that you often see in kebab places, or it can be sliced up and put on a rotisserie stick. I have to trust Google on the latter though because I haven't seen this particular method used anywhere. Kebab meat also has a very high fat content. This is to facilitate cooking the meat on a rotating stick and it helps the meat cook properly all the way through.
Kebab meat consists of:
- lamb (typically shoulder or leg);
- crumbed bread (to bind);
- vegetable oil;
- cumin seeds;
- coriander seeds;
- dried red chillis;
- black pepper;
- salt;
- ghee, butter or margerine.
That is a typical kebab meat mix, but as always this can vary greatly. Kebab meat has been demonised recently for being made of some awful stuff but in my view this is no worse than sausage meat. Yes, they can be made of the offcuts of meat not good enough to feed to our animals, but it may also be made of the finest cuts. It all depends on how reputable the supplier is in the first place.
So now you know. Consider it an educational resource for the person who can't really be bothered to do the digging by themselves.
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