What ingredient can I add to kebab to keep it together?

Frank Sebem

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4 Feb 2023
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Hi all

Our family are big lovers of Doner Kebab and we found a recipe to make the meat at home. It’s fair to say that the taste is almost identical to the Kebab shop. The only difference is that when we cook ours the meat falls apart quite easy when it’s cooked as opposed to the stuff from the Kebab shop which you could cut in to long strips. Indeed the meat from the kebab shop can be a little elastic which is what I’m trying to replicate. My Kebab meat is made in a bread tin.
Any advice what I can add to my kebab meat to make it hold better when it’s cooked.
 
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Welcome.

I Assume you are making it with minced meat, then I suggest working it well with your hands to break it down a bit before adding the seasoning. Salt also helps as it releases the protein and makes it glue together better. I suppose the exact opposite of the way you would treat a burger.
 
To help keep the kebab ingredients together, you can try adding some type of binding ingredient, such as beaten egg, breadcrumbs, or flour. This will help hold the ingredients in place as they cook. You can also try marinating the meat in a mixture of yogurt and spices, which can help keep it tender and moist.
 
The trick I learned is to cook it from frozen - that way it won’t disintegrate. Make your raw kebab mixture in the food processor, then roll it up into a cylinder in some clingfilm then freeze it.

Once it’s solid, bring it out, then using a large knife, shave thin slices off it. Then you can fry these up.
 
There is a technique in sausage making that creates great natural binding thus changing the texture of the finished product..If you have a mixer you can use your bread hook or pie attachment to mix the raw meat with the seasonings for an extended period like two minutes or so..This really blends the fats and lean meat together to create one cohesive product that won't typically turn grainy when cooked.
 
There is a technique in sausage making that creates great natural binding thus changing the texture of the finished product..If you have a mixer you can use your bread hook or pie attachment to mix the raw meat with the seasonings for an extended period like two minutes or so..This really blends the fats and lean meat together to create one cohesive product that won't typically turn grainy when cooked.
Exactly. If someone doesn't have a stand mixer the food processor works quite well though. Something about overprocessiing the meat is a positive in this instance. I did something similar but I cooked my meat in a loaf and then sliced it for gyros, not quite the same technique but it was delicious.
 
Exactly. If someone doesn't have a stand mixer the food processor works quite well though. Something about overprocessiing the meat is a positive in this instance. I did something similar but I cooked my meat in a loaf and then sliced it for gyros, not quite the same technique but it was delicious.
I find it gives the meat a springy/rubbery texture that resists to the bite a bit..in a good way..
 
Recipe was showing yesterday but has been removed???
Hi Frank - please take a look at the private message I sent earlier regarding this for full details. If you look up here:

62B9DF40-AECD-42F4-8925-4BD43D79E251.jpeg


You should see a little red 1 on that envelope - click that and it’ll show you the message I sent. It explains everything (I think).

Quick summary - posting pics from cookbooks, unfortunately, gets into some touchy copyright issues for the site, so staff created the recipe here and put the link back to it in your earlier post above. Anyone who wants to see the recipe can just click the link, read it, and then offer any tips/advice.

Please private message me if you have any other questions about it, so we can keep this thread on-topic. Thanks! :)
 
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