Cevapi
Small skinless sausages of minced beef and lamb, cooked on a hot grill, served in flatbread with chopped raw onion and red pepper relish.
Photograph credit: Cevapcici Bosnia (10675837796) (image of Ćevapi on Wikidata Q945096) by amanderson2 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Don't Make These Mistakes
Rest the meat overnight for the best texture.
Do not overcook; they should stay juicy.
Serve with the onion raw.
How to Make Cevapi
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Knead the beef, lamb, garlic water, salt, pepper and bicarbonate of soda for 5 minutes until sticky and pale. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or at least 4 hours.
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With wet hands, shape into 20 fingers, 7 cm long and 2 cm thick.
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Heat a grill or griddle to high. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes, turning every 3 minutes, until charred and cooked through.
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Warm the flatbreads, split them and fill with the ćevapi, onion and ajvar. Serve with the lemon wedges.
Why the Method Works
The seasoning is almost nothing: salt, pepper and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. What makes ćevapi special is not what goes in them but what is done to the meat. The mince, beef and lamb with a good proportion of fat, is kneaded for several minutes, then left overnight in the fridge. By the next day the texture has changed from a crumbly mince to a sticky, springy paste, and the grilled sausage is soft and bouncy.
The bicarbonate of soda is another trick, and a modern one: about half a teaspoon per 500 g of meat helps the sausages stay juicy. The garlic is often crushed into a little water and the water added to the meat, which gives a gentle flavour without any raw bite. Knead the meat for at least 5 minutes by hand. It should look pale and feel tacky.
Shape into fingers about 7 cm long and 2 cm thick with damp hands. Grill over a high heat for 10 to 12 minutes, turning every 3 minutes, until they are charred outside and cooked through.
Serve five or ten in a warmed, split flatbread (somun), with chopped raw onion, ajvar, kajmak if you can find it, and a squeeze of lemon.
After You've Cooked It
Keeps in the fridge for 2 days. The raw mixture keeps for 1 day.
Ingredient Swaps
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
What to Serve Alongside
- Ajvar
- Raw onion
- Kajmak
- Chips
Still Wondering?
How long does Cevapi take to make?
20 minutes of preparation and 12 minutes of cooking, plus 8 hours of Resting overnight, so allow 8 hours 32 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 4.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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