Antep Lahmacunu

Appearance & taste

The flatbread is oblong, 18 to 20 cm wide, 22 to 25 cm long and at most 5 mm thick. The dough is very thin and the topping evenly spread; the minced meat and pieces of vegetable are clearly visible on top. The baked meat is lightly browned, while the vegetables keep their colour. The underside is evenly and lightly baked and light brown. The lahmacun can be folded without breaking.

It tastes of the combination of baked dough, vegetables, spices and minced meat. According to the specification, it differs from other kinds of lahmacun in its generous amount of fresh vegetables such as parsley, garlic and tomatoes; the garlic in particular shapes its aroma and flavour. The lamb has thin fibres, so the lahmacun is easy to chew.

Production

The topping consists of minced lamb, fresh parsley, tomatoes, garlic, red and green peppers, black pepper, salt and optionally ground red pepper. The lamb, according to the specification usually from lambs aged 12 to 14 months, is chopped with large, sharp knives called “zırh” without being crushed; according to the specification, meat chopped this way has more flavour and mixes more evenly with the other ingredients. For the dough, the flour must meet set values for resistance to stretching and extensibility.

It is baked in special stone ovens shaped like a quarter sphere. Their floor is built from layers of red clay, insulating material, salt, glass powder and black stone, the dome from red clay, stone and bricks. At 300 to 350 °C the lahmacun is done in 3 to 4 minutes; according to the specification, other kinds of lahmacun need 8 to 10 minutes, and the dough can become hard and brittle. The meat, dough and mixture are prepared in the area, where the lahmacun is also topped and baked.

Origin & history

The area is the whole province of Gaziantep. In 2015 the city of Gaziantep joined the UNESCO network as a “Creative City” of gastronomy. According to the specification, lahmacun is the most popular and most frequently eaten baked dish among the roughly 600 dishes of its cuisine. It is made in everyday life and served at family gatherings, engagements, weddings, circumcision celebrations, birthdays, funerals, religious holidays and during Ramadan; masters and families pass the craft on to apprentices.

According to the specification, the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi already mentioned the dish in the 17th century in his travel book Seyahatname. Also handed down is the custom of taking the ingredients to the butcher, who mixes vegetables, tomato paste, spices and minced lamb; the mixture then goes to a nearby pide bakery, where the baker bakes it on the thinly rolled dough in a wood-fired stone oven. The Metropolitan Municipality of Gaziantep holds an eating contest every year with a 120 cm long lahmacun, and it is also the centrepiece of the “GastroAntep” festival.