İskender kebap Information & İskender kebap Links at HealthHaven.com

Yavuz İskenderoğlu's version

İskender kebab is one of the most famous meat foods of Northwestern Turkey and takes its name from its inventor, İskender Efendi, who lived in Bursa in the late 19th century. It can be assumed to be derived from a verticalized version Cağ Kebabı, from Erzurum.

It is a kind of döner kebab prepared from thinly cut grilled lamb or beef basted with tomato sauce over pieces of pide bread and generously slathered with melted butter and yogurt. Additionally, one cylindrical meatball can be placed on top. It is commonly consumed with şıra as a drink to aid digestion. Tomato sauce and boiling butter are sometimes poured over the dish, at the table.

"Kebapçı İskender" is trademarked by Yavuz İskenderoğlu, whose family still runs the restaurant in Bursa.^[1]^[2] This dish is available in many restaurants throughout the country mostly under the name "İskender kebap", "Bursa kebabı", or at times with an alternative one made up by the serving restaurant such as "Uludağ kebabı".

[edit] Differences from döner kebab

Cemil Çalışır's version

A serving of İskender kebap contains thin and wide strips of meat, on the other hand döner kebap has smaller pieces of meat. A real İskender kebap is prepared by stacking large pieces of meat vertically, which is why the meat strips are large. In lower quality restaurants, ground meat is used, which is not suitable for İskender kebap. The fat content of Iskender meat is lower than that of döner meat. İskender kebap is also served with yogurt.

It is also the first ever vertical kebab, making it also the first ever proper döner kebab.