Zarb

Zarb is a Jordanian meat dish cooked in a pit in the ground, over hot stones, in the Bedouin manner.

Zarb comes from the Bedouin cooking tradition of Jordan, where a pit oven allows a large piece of meat to be cooked without a built-in oven. The method is simple: a fire heats the stones, the embers are cleared away, and the meat is placed in the hot pit and covered so that the heat stays trapped around it.

What it really is

Zarb is cooked in a buried pit rather than in a closed oven or on a grill. Lamb is the main meat, and chicken is also used. The meat is set among the hot stones, covered over and left to cook slowly in the trapped heat. The wheat and onions are traditional accompaniments to the meat.

How it's served

• Hot, taken from the pit once the meat is cooked through.
• Brought to the table on a platter with the meat, with wheat and onions alongside.
• Usually cooked in quantity, since a pit suits a large cut or several pieces of meat for a group.

How to write it on the menu

• Name the meat: lamb, or lamb and chicken if both are used, and say whether the pieces are bone-in.
• Flag the wheat, and ask the kitchen whether any sauce, spice mix or bread served with it contains milk, sesame or nuts.
• List the onion and wheat as standard accompaniments, and state the portion by weight.
• Say plainly whether the meat was cooked in a pit or in an ordinary oven, since the pit method is central to the dish.