 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Skewer" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Askewer is a thin metal or wood stick used to hold pieces of food together.[1] The word may sometimes be used as ametonym, to refer to the entire food item served on a skewer, as in "chicken skewers". Skewers are used whilegrilling orroasting meats and fish, and in other culinary applications.
In English,brochette is a borrowing of the French word for skewer. Incookery,en brochette means 'on a skewer', and describes the form of adish or the method of cooking and serving pieces of food, especially grilled meat or seafood, on skewers; for example "lamb cubes en brochette".[2] Skewers are often used in a variety ofkebab dishes.
Metal skewers are typically stainless steel rods with a pointed tip on one end and a grip of some kind on the other end for ease of removing the food. Non-metallic skewers are often made frombamboo, as well ashardwoods such asbirch,beech,[3] or other suitable wood. Prior to grilling, wooden skewers may be soaked in water to avoid burning. A related device is therotisserie or spit, a large rod that rotates meat while it cooks.
At the 300,000-year-oldSchöningen site in Germany. A stick with a burnt tip was suggested to have been used to cook meat over a fire,[4] though later scholars have questioned this interpretation.[5] Excavations of theMinoan settlement ofAkrotiri unearthed stone "fire dogs" used before the 17th century BCE. In these supports there are pairs of indentations that may have been used for holding skewers.[6]Homer inIliad (1.465) mentions pieces of meat roasted on spits (ὀβελός,obelós). InClassical Greece, a small spit or skewer was known asὀβελίσκος (obeliskos),[7] andAristophanes mentions such skewers being used to roast thrushes.[8] The story is often told of medieval Middle Eastern soldiers - usually Turkish or Persian, depending on the storyteller – who cooked meat skewered on their swords.[9][10]
One of the most well-known skewered foods around the world is theshish kebab. The earliest literary evidence for the Turkish wordşiş (shish) as a food utensil comes from the 11th-centuryDiwan Lughat al-Turk, attributed toMahmud of Kashgar. He defines shish as both a skewer and 'tool for arranging noodles' (minzam tutmaj), though he is unique in this regard as all subsequent known historical references toshish define it as a skewer.[11][12]
A large variety of dishes cooked on skewers arekebabs (meat dishes prevalent inMiddle Eastern cuisine and theMuslim world), or derived from them. Examples include Turkishshish kebab, Iranianjujeh kabab, Chinesechuan, and Southeast Asiansatay. However,kebab is not synonymous with "skewered food", and many kebab dishes such aschapli kebab are not cooked on skewers. On the other hand, English speakers may sometimes use the wordkebab to refer to any food on a skewer.
Dishes, other than kebabs, prepared with skewers include Americancity chicken andcorn dog, Brazilianchurrasco,indigenous Peruviananticucho, Indonesiansatay, Italianarrosticini, Greeksouvlaki, Japanesekushiyaki andkushikatsu, Koreanjeok andkkochi, Nepalisekuwa, Portugueseespetada, Serbianražnjići, Vietnamesenem nướng andchạo tôm, Chineseshaokao, and Malaysian-SingaporeanLok-lok.
Appetizers andhors d'oeuvres may often be skewered together with small sticks or toothpicks; the Spanishpincho is named after such a skewer.[13] Small, often decorative, skewers of glass, metal, wood or bamboo known as olive picks orcocktail sticks are used forgarnishes oncocktails and otheralcoholic beverages. Many types of snack food, such ascandy apples,bananacue,ginanggang,elote,telur gulung, andtanghulu, are sold and served "on a stick" or skewer, especially at outdoor markets, fairs, and sidewalk or roadside stands around the world.[citation needed]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)