Kavurma is one of those products that sits in the cupboard without anyone being sure how to use it. Yet being cooked makes it a shortcut into ten different dishes.
What kind of product is kavurma?
Kavurma comes from cooking meat slowly in its own fat.
Meat cut into small pieces cooks over a low flame.
The water goes entirely.
The meat gets coated in its own fat.
That fat solidifies on cooling and protects the meat from contact with air.
That is a traditional method of preserving.
Before refrigeration it let meat keep for months.
The same method continues today; the product sells cooked and preserved and needs only heating in the kitchen.
| Dish | Kavurma per head | When added | Use of the fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice | 60-80 g | At service | Mixes into the rice |
| Menemen | 60 g | At the start | Vegetables cook in it |
| White beans | 50 g | Last 10 min | Passes into the dish |
| Börek filling | 50 g | Cold | Stays in the filling |
| Soup | 30 g | On the plate | Shines on top |
| Potatoes | 60 g | Last 5 min | The potato absorbs it |
How does its fat get used?
The fat of kavurma is a value of its own.
It sits solid above the product in the jar.
That fat does not get discarded.
Heated, it melts and brings aroma to a dish.
It gets used for frying vegetables, in rice and in pastry.
No further fat becomes necessary.
A hundred-gram portion of kavurma carries fifteen to twenty grams of fat.
That covers the whole fat requirement of a dish; it also carries the aroma of the kavurma into it and does two jobs at once.
What is the rule of heating?
Kavurma is already a cooked product.
Long cooking hardens it.
The muscle fibres contract further and the product turns dry.
The rule is simple: kavurma goes in at the final stage of a dish.
It does not cook longer than five minutes.
The single exception is the short time needed for the fat to melt.
Cold kavurma goes into a pan and stands two or three minutes over a medium flame.
The fat melts, the product warms, and the other components join from that point; reverse the order and the product loses its quality.
How is it used with rice and grains?
The first dish is rice with kavurma.
The rice cooks and rests in the usual way.
The kavurma warms in a separate pan.
It goes over the rice at the moment of service.
Its fat mixes into the grains.
The second dish is bulgur pilaf; the same method applies.
The third is rice with chickpeas; the kavurma and chickpeas go over the rice together.
The kavurma does not cook with the rice in those three dishes; steam dries the product and the starch in the rice absorbs the fat.
What happens in egg dishes?
The fourth dish is menemen.
The kavurma warms in the pan first.
The fat that runs out cooks the onion and peppers.
Tomatoes follow and the eggs go in last.
The fifth dish is eggs with kavurma, the simplest use.
The kavurma warms and the eggs break over it.
The sixth is an omelette; small pieces of kavurma join the egg mixture.
No extra salt goes into those three plates; kavurma is already salted and covers the salt of the dish on its own.
Does it belong in pastry?
The seventh dish is börek with kavurma.
The kavurma serves as the filling.
It gets mixed with onion and parsley.
The filling goes onto the pastry once cooled.
The eighth dish is pide with kavurma.
The dough gets rolled out, kavurma and cheese go on and it bakes at a high temperature.
Because the kavurma is already cooked, the baking time of the dough decides in both uses.
The fat of the kavurma passes into the dough; that is a wanted effect, but where the filling is too fatty the base turns doughy, so the excess fat gets drained.
How is it used in hot dishes?
The ninth dish is white beans.
The kavurma joins once the beans have cooked.
They simmer together for the last ten minutes.
The dish gains both fat and aroma.
The tenth dish is potatoes with kavurma.
The potatoes get cut into cubes and fried or roasted.
The kavurma joins in the last five minutes.
The kavurma works like a seasoning in those two dishes; even in a small quantity it determines the character of the dish.
How is a kavurma portion calculated?
Kavurma is a dense, fatty product.
Eighty to a hundred grams per head as a main component.
Thirty to sixty as a garnish or a source of aroma.
Sixty to eighty over rice.
Thirty in a soup.
A jar generally runs between 400 and 800 grams.
A jar therefore gives four to eight portions.
It keeps two weeks in a fridge once opened; the product stays protected as long as the layer of fat remains intact, and the surface gets sealed with fat again after every use.
How is kavurma stored?
An unopened jar sits at room temperature through its shelf life.
Until the date on the label; generally a year.
It moves into a fridge once opened.
The layer of fat should cover the meat completely.
Where fat has gone, melted butter or kavurma fat goes over the top.
The spoon should be clean and dry.
It keeps six months in a freezer.
It gets frozen in portions; thawing happens in a fridge and thawed product does not get refrozen.
Is home-made kavurma different?
The cut of meat and the fat content can be chosen at home.
Lamb kavurma carries a denser aroma while beef is leaner.
The cooking runs two or three hours.
The meat gets cut into small pieces and waits over a low flame until it has released its own liquid.
It then fries in its fat once the water has gone entirely.
Salt goes in at the end; added early it toughens the meat.
The difference from a commercial product is that the fat can be controlled and the seasoning set to taste.
