Persia and the Caucasus · Volume 12, The South Caucasus and the Disputed Table
Khorovats
Armenia
Illustration
- Time
- Hands on 40 minutes · Waiting 3 hours
- Researched
- 8 sources cited
Central, near-mandatory at any Armenian gathering: pork, lamb, beef or chicken, cooked over hot coals or in a tonir, served with lavash.
As tradition built it
Serves 6. Marinate several hours to overnight, then 40 minutes.
Ingredients
The tradition's method, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them.
- 1.5 kg lamb or pork shoulder, cubed, with some fat left on
- olive oil
- onion, crushed
- garlic
- to taste thyme
- to taste salt
- to taste black pepper
- to taste paprika
- grape or red wine vinegar, or lemon juice
- fat cubes, to thread between the lean meat
Method
- Combine the lamb or pork shoulder with oil, crushed onion, garlic, thyme, salt, black pepper, paprika and vinegar.
- Marinate several hours to overnight.
- Thread onto skewers, alternating lean cubes with fat cubes so the fat renders and self-bastes as it turns.
- Grill over hot coals, around 40 minutes, turning frequently, seasoning minimally as it cooks.
- If available, lay quince halves on rose-hip branches over the coals partway through for a controlled, specific smoke.
Notes
No source consulted gave a standard marinade with precise ratios; the composition above is consistent across many sources but should be treated as indicative rather than a tested figure.
What a modern chef changes
The fire read by hand, not by habit.
Rung 1
Method
- Run the grill at a genuinely moderate, stabilised heat, 160 to 180°C, rather than searing temperature, checking with the hand-and-count-to-twelve test before the meat goes anywhere near it.
- Thread fat and lean meat alternately, deliberately, so the fat is doing continuous, controlled basting rather than sitting inert at one end of the skewer.
- Lay quince or a rose-hip branch on the coals, after Rung 1, a specific, un-generic aromatic rather than a default wood-chip smoke.