Keşkek is a wedding dish and the reason is the time it takes: hours for the wheat and the meat to merge into a single mass. That is also why the beating exists - crushing with a wooden spoon separates the fibres of the meat and binds them into the wheat.
Ingredients
For the keşkek
For the top
Method
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Cook the meat
Bring the meat to the boil in cold water and skim. Add the onion and cook for 90 minutes.
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Separate the meat
Lift out the meat and strip it from the bones, strain the liquid and keep it.
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Cook the wheat
Put the soaked wheat in the pan with the strained stock and cook over a low heat for 90 minutes. Add hot water if the level drops.
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Return the meat
Add the shredded meat to the wheat and cook together for 30 minutes.
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Beat
Crush it with a wooden spoon or a keşkek mallet for 20 minutes, until the mixture turns into one sticky mass.
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Salt
Add the salt and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes more.
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Pour over the butter
Melt the butter with the pepper flakes and cumin and drizzle it over the keşkek.
Tips
- Do not start without soaking the wheat; unsoaked keşkek wheat will not open fully even in five hours.
- The beating is the recipe itself. Keşkek that has not been beaten is wheat porridge with meat in it.
- Use a heavy-based pan, as the wheat is very prone to catching on the bottom.
Nutrition
Values are per serving and approximate.