Кебапче — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

Skinless elongated sausages of minced beef and lamb, seasoned heavily with cumin and chubritsa, grilled until deeply charred. The undisputed king of Bulgarian skara culture.

Ingredients

500g ground beef
200g ground lamb
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried chubritsa (savory)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
100ml sparkling water

Instructions

1 Combine ground beef and lamb with cumin, chubritsa, baking soda, crushed garlic, salt, and pepper in a large bowl.
2 Add sparkling water gradually while kneading vigorously for 5 minutes until the mixture is very smooth and elastic.
3 Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight, to let the spices permeate the meat and the baking soda tenderize it.
4 With wet hands, shape the mixture into elongated cylinders about 10cm long and 3cm thick, resembling skinless sausages.
5 Grill over very hot charcoal for 3-4 minutes per side, turning only once, until deeply charred on the outside and juicy inside.
6 Serve immediately on a heated plate with a side of french fries, lyutenitsa, and raw onion.

Did You Know?

At Bulgarian seaside resorts, the smell of grilling kebapcheta is so pervasive that locals joke it should be the official fragrance of the Black Sea coast.