~ Kebab, Kabob, Shish Kabob and lots of Kababba ~

Kabbaba is the ancient Aramaic word meaning to char or to burn.  Medieval Persian soldiers, who used their swords as instruments to grill food over open fires in the field of battle, are credited with inventing kabobs.  It was only natural that this simple method of cooking food relatively fast on a "sikh" (a metal skewer), made its way into the kitchens of the royal houses, then onto the tables of the common folk and eventually into the streets, where vendors cooked and sold them for breakfast, lunch and dinner (where they untreaded them onto or inside some form of flatbread). 

Modern day kebabs are defined as sizzling, even-sized pieces of marinated-or-not skewered meat, poultry, seafood or vegetables that get grilled on a gas or charcoal grill, or over an open flame, or in a grill pan, or, any other heat source that floats your boat.   There's more.  Name a country or a culture and they have some form of skewered and grilled food on a wooden stick or metal skewer.  Think up a way to serve kabobs for breakfast, lunch, brunch, dinner or midnight snack -- not a problem.  It it can be skewered, it can be done and it's lots of fun for all involved.

The words kebab, kabob and shish kabob all refer to the same thing -- say one or the other and folks know what to expect.  However, the spelling kabob is used mostly by North Americans (as we tend to spell as we pronounce -- phonetically).  That said, shish kebab is called shish kabob almost exclusively by just us Americans, who make it by threading a variety of meat, poultry, seafood and.or vegetable on each wooden stick or skewer -- it should go without saying, this method works, but, isn't ideal because like items cook uniformly, a variety of items do not. 

Try my Persian-Style Ground Beef or Lamb Kababba:

"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti

(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2022)