Adana kebabı is a dish that consists of long, hand-minced meat. Kebabs are usually made walnut baklava of ground lamb meat and tail fat, though there are many regional variations.

Kebabs are fairly common in the area from Mersin in Turkey to Kirkuk in Iraq, and includes Aleppo in Syria. According to the Patent Registrar, an original Adana kebabı is made only by a vendor who has successfully passed an inspection conducted on the spot by the Adana Chamber of Commerce. The Kıyma kebabı is still prepared in its historical location. Similar dishes are prepared in neighboring zones of Turkey, Syria and Iraq, where the meat is hand-ground with the addition of tail fat and occasionally a non-spicy capsicum. New variants of the Kıyma kebabı, not protected under the same patents, have been enjoyed since the 1950s, in communities in the former Ottoman Empire territories, including Istanbul, Baghdad, and Damascus. According to the Designation of Origin, Adana kebabı is made from the meat of a male lamb that is younger than one year of age.

The animal has to be grown in its natural environment and fed with the local flora. The meat should then be cleansed of its silverskin, nerves and internal fat. After the cleansing, it should be cut into rough shanks and, along with tail fat at a proportion of one to five, be laid to rest for a day. The next day, the rested meat and fat must be ground by hand, using a crescent-shaped iron cleaver known as the “Zırh”. The meat will then be thoroughly kneaded together with the fat, the salt and the additional ingredients until reaching a homogenous consistency. After reaching homogeneity, the mixture is placed on iron skewers that are 0.

5 cm thick, 3 cm wide and anywhere from 90 to 120 cm long. One portion of Adana kebabı is typically 180 grams of meat on one skewer. A “portion-and-half”, impaled on slightly wider skewers can not include less than 270 grams, as per the designation label. A little water allows the minced meat to adhere better to the skewer, which is the hardest step in the making of this kebab. If not done properly by an Usta, the meat will separate from the skewer during roasting. The impaled skewers are roasted over flame-less coals of oak wood. When the meat turns dark brown, it is ready.

The skewers are frequently turned during this process. The kebab is commonly served on a plate, as a “Porsiyon”, or wrapped in flatbread, as a “Dürüm”. The kebab is served over the flatbread used to catch the drippings. It is accompanied by roasted tomatoes, green or red peppers and julienned onions with parsley and sumac. The way to eat “Porsiyon” is to skin and crush the charred tomatoes and peppers into a paste, to put them in a piece of flatbread with part of the kebab, topped by a generous pinch of the onion-sumac-parsley mixture, and to wrap the whole thing into a few small thick dürüms. Ayran and Şalgam are two staple beverages consumed with kebab in daytime.