Kibbeh

The national dish

Kibbeh is considered the national dish of both Lebanon and Syria. The core technique is combining raw minced lamb with fine bulgur wheat and spices to create a workable dough-like mixture. This base can be used in many forms.

The forms

Kibbeh has dozens of regional variants, but the main types are:

• Kibbeh nayyeh (raw) — the mixture eaten completely raw like a tartare, spread on a plate and drizzled with olive oil; the most prized form, made with the freshest possible lamb
• Kibbeh maqlieh (fried) — the most internationally known; oval torpedoes with a bulgur-lamb shell stuffed with spiced minced lamb, onion, and pine nuts, deep-fried to a crisp dark shell
• Kibbeh bil-sayniyeh (baked in a tray) — two flat layers of kibbeh mixture with filling in between, baked flat and cut into diamond pieces; common for home cooking

The technique

The shell mixture must be worked until very smooth — commercial kitchens use a food processor, but traditionally the meat and bulgur are pounded in a stone mortar (jurn) until the mixture is completely homogenous. The grain of the bulgur disappears into the mixture.

Spread beyond the Levant

Lebanese and Syrian emigration has made kibbeh a common dish across Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, where local adaptations (kibbeh de abóbora — pumpkin kibbeh) have developed.