I am using regular beef, spice (salt and pepper) , parsley. I tried to oil the skewer, it didnt help. The meat is out of the fridge, so its cold.
I tried to wet my hands with baking soda and water and push the meat to the skewer, it didnt help as well…
Most times , it falls down, and sometimes its seperated
I am using charcoal bbq. Natural charcoal
by lifeistemproray
13 Comments
Unlike making meatballs, you don’t want fall apart tender – you need to mix enough so proteins strengthen the kebab, along with the right salt content too.
This article should be more than enough to fix your issues:
Adana Kebabs (Ground Lamb Kebabs) Recipe https://share.google/KjLW9SaY8Alixy1Jg
Did you add egg and lamb in the mix?
Collagen in the protein turns into gelatin. This make the connecting tissue shrink.
Mix the meat like you are kneading a dough.
That’s a weird meat to skewer ratio you’ve got going on there.
Not hott enough cooked to long.
I read this in borat’s voice for some reason
Meat shrinks. Grease the skewers so the meat can slide as it loses water content. And make sure the fire is not excessively hot to trigger faster more extreme shrinkage.
You didn’t put enough on to make up for it getting smaller as it cooks
You can’t just clamp plain-ass ground beef to a stick and expect restaurant results.
It looks good to me!! It will separate more I go to work!!
Need higher fat content, reduce water content of onions etc that you add in, and work the mixture more before applying to the skewer
There’s a number of potential reasons:
1- There isn’t enough fat in the meat, it should be at least 20% fat. The higher the pure protein, the more it will shrink when cooked.
2- The meat isn’t kneaded enough. You need to knead until the mixture becomes sticky and developed stringy protein strands. You can test this while kneeding by grabbing a ball and tearing in half. If the crack between the two halves has lots of spiky strings of protein sticking upright, then it’s good to go.
3- You haven’t let the skewers rest after shaping. When you shape them the fat partially melts from your hands and it needs to reform before grilling. Resting them also allows them to develop a waxy coating which helps them maintain their shape
4- You aren’t rotating the skewers quick enough. I placed them on the grill and rotate as soon as the first side has a cooked skin, around 30 seconds. This allows you to quickly seal both sides before the mixture can fall off.
I don’t think the baking soda helps, I never used it and have made hundreds, possibly 1000 skewers over the past few years. I have a video on my channel which details all this if you want to check it out.