Kabab Karaz

What it really is

Kabab karaz, or cherry kebab, is an Aleppine dish of small lamb meatballs cooked with sour cherries. The combination places savoury meat against the fruit’s acidity and sweetness, a familiar Aleppo approach to pairing meat with fruit or fruit juice. It is a regional preparation with a recognisable identity, not simply meat kebabs served alongside cherries.

The meat is shaped into small balls and cooked in a sauce built around sour cherries. Some versions include a little sugar or pomegranate molasses to balance the fruit; recipes differ in the sauce’s exact sweetness and thickness. The meatballs may be browned before they simmer, and the resulting sauce is spooned over or around them. A menu should identify the meat and the fruit sauce, especially where the kitchen uses a particular cherry variety.

Kabab karaz is a signature Aleppine plate. It is commonly served over or with thin bread, which catches the cherry sauce, and may be finished with nuts in some recipes. That presentation is not universal, so the page separates the documented core—lamb meatballs and sour-cherry sauce—from optional garnishes.

How it's served

• Serve hot with the sour-cherry sauce and bread when that is the house style.
• Toasted nuts may be used as a garnish; name them when present.
• Keep the meatballs small enough to cook evenly in the fruit sauce.

How to write it on the menu

• State lamb or other meat used and identify sour cherries.
• Disclose wheat bread and any pine nuts or other nuts.
• Explain the sweet-sour sauce so diners do not mistake it for a conventional dry grilled kebab.