Dish · middle-eastern
Kibbeh
Kibbeh is a shell of fine bulgur pounded with raw meat and onion, formed around a filling of spiced ground lamb and pine nuts, then fried until the outside turns dark and crisp.
Where it comes from
Pounding meat and grain by hand into a smooth paste made kibbeh a marker of a cook's skill at Levantine family gatherings, and it's treated as a national dish across the region.
What cooks argue about
The argument is the meat to bulgur ratio in the shell and whether it's pounded by hand in a stone mortar or run through a food processor, which changes the shell from elastic to crumbly.
Nobody has published a kibbeh recipe yet. The page stays out of search until one exists, which is the rule for every thin page here.