Gaziantep Charring Main

Ali Nazik

Name: Ali Nazik
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 4 pcs Aubergines, medium; 400 g Diced lamb; 300 g Strained yoghurt; 2 cloves Garlic; 40 g Butter; 1 pcs Tomato; 6 g Salt; 2 g Chilli flakes

The Gaziantep classic: charred aubergine crushed with garlicky yoghurt under sautéed lamb. Everything rests on properly charring the aubergine — made with oven-roasted aubergine, this is simply not the dish.

This page says how to make it For what it is, where it comes from and the mechanism →

55 minTime

502Kcal / serving

2007Total kcal

Method

Char the aubergines directly over a flame, turning until the skins are completely black. A ridged pan works, but they must meet real fire.

Why Charring is not about cooking it through: burning the skin drives smoke phenols into the flesh. Oven-roasted aubergine softens but never picks that up, and the smoke is the whole point.

Frying dynamics Surface water is flashing to steam and pushing outward — that is the shield keeping the oil out. no way back
While hot, seal them in a bag or covered bowl for ten minutes, then peel and chop roughly.

Why Trapped steam loosens the cells under the skin and peeling becomes effortless. Rush it and half the flesh leaves with the skin.
Crush the garlic with salt and stir it into the yoghurt. Fold in the aubergine and crush it roughly with a knife — never a blender.

Why A blender shreds the fibres and the mixture turns gluey. The texture should stay coarse — you want to feel pieces of aubergine.

Starch still asleep The granules are just floating there doing nothing. No body arrives before 62 °C.

Salt · 0.46% Low. Everything reads flat and nothing steps forward.
Sear the lamb over high heat in a single uncrowded layer. Salt it only once it has taken colour.

Why Salt pulls water out by osmosis; add it early and the meat stews in its own juice, so Maillard never begins. A crust needs a dry surface.

Starch gelatinised The granules soaked up water, swelled and burst into a network. It has thickened, and it will firm further as it cools. no way back

Frying dynamics Surface water is flashing to steam and pushing outward — that is the shield keeping the oil out. no way back

Salt · 0.35% Low. Everything reads flat and nothing steps forward.
Warm the aubergine yoghurt gently, spread it on the plate, top with the lamb and finish with butter sizzled with chilli.

Why Yoghurt splits above 85 °C. Warm is enough — the meat brings the rest of the heat to the plate.

Starch gelatinised The granules soaked up water, swelled and burst into a network. It has thickened, and it will firm further as it cools. no way back

Salt · 0.32% Low. Everything reads flat and nothing steps forward.

What the model could follow

This recipe was run through the engine step by step — what goes in when, and at what temperature and for how long. The reactions above come from that run.

peak 300 °C · 45 minutes · engine 1.0.0 · confidence low

What can go wrong here

The yoghurt sauce curdled⌄

What happened

The yoghurt passed 85 °C. The casein micelles lost their charge, the protein clumped and released the water it was holding. Once split, it does not come back.

By the numbers

Stabilise 500 g of yoghurt with a tablespoon of starch and one yolk, stir in one direction, never boil.

Without a thermometer

Catch the threshold by eye: the moment a few large bubbles appear on the surface you are around 85 °C, take it off. The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon — draw a line with your finger and the line should hold.

The meat came out dry and tough⌄

What happened

The meat passed 70 °C. Past that point the muscle fibres contract and wring out their water, while collagen never gets the time to turn into gelatine. It loses moisture and never tenderises.

By the numbers

Beef medium at 57 °C, chicken at 74 °C. Rest it for 10 minutes off the heat; unrested meat leaves its juice on the plate.

Without a thermometer

The palm test: touch thumb to index finger and press the pad below your thumb — that firmness is rare. Middle finger is medium, ring finger is well done. Watch the juice too: pinkish and clear means you are there, running white means you went too far.

Servings

4

Ingredients

4 pcs Aubergines, medium
400 g Diced lamb
300 g Strained yoghurt
2 cloves Garlic
40 g Butter
1 pcs Tomato
6 g Salt 1.5% of the meat
2 g Chilli flakes

What did you think

Who is eating

Everyone A baby under one Pregnant A child An athlete

The 1 rules we hold for this group did not fire for this dish. That does not mean the dish is suitable for them; it means those particular rules did not apply.

Not about the dish — about the person

Salt in a day

5 g 2000 mg

An adult Context established

Under 5 g of salt a day, which is under 2000 mg of sodium — just under a teaspoon. A label usually gives sodium, and the two are not the same number: salt is about 2.5 times the sodium.

World Health Organization, Salt reduction

Free sugars

10%

Strong recommendation — adults and children Context established

The same share for adults and for children. Ten per cent of a 2000-calorie day is roughly 50 g of sugar, and a single can of a fizzy drink is more than half of it. The risk of weight gain, obesity and tooth decay rises above this line.

World Health Organization, Information note about intake of sugars recommended in the WHO guideline for adults and children, 2015

Not on this site: There is no guidance here on eating during pregnancy — caffeine, fish, iron, folate, none of it — because we have no source for any of it. Ask the doctor following the pregnancy.

This choice is not stored anywhere.

Diets

Gluten-free Suitable as it is
Vegan Suitable with a substitution Lamb, Strained yoghurt, Butter Instead: Lamb → White button mushroom; Strained yoghurt → Tahini; Butter → Olive oil / Tahini
Vegetarian Suitable with a substitution Lamb Instead: Lamb → White button mushroom
Lactose-free Suitable if the label checks out Strained or aged: most of the lactose is gone, but not all of it.
Diabetes-friendly It depends

This verdict comes from the recipe\u2019s own ingredient list. The label on a packaged ingredient is always the last word.

What a swap costs

Lamb → White button mushroom No reaction in this recipe is lost. -245 kcal · -21.3 g fat · -13.8 g protein
Strained yoghurt → Tahini Acid: it triggers a leavener, sets protein and lifts flavour +356 kcal · +34.1 g fat · +5.7 g protein
Butter → Olive oil No reaction in this recipe is lost. +16 kcal · +1.9 g fat · -0.1 g protein
Butter → Tahini No reaction in this recipe is lost. -12 kcal · -2.7 g fat · +1.6 g protein

Computed weight for weight. A ratio per pair would be better, and there is no sourced table of them, so the assumption is stated rather than hidden.

Calculated nutrition

501.7 kcal
27 g Protein
18.2 g Carbohydrate
36.7 g Fat
8.1 g Fibre

Per serving, computed from raw weights as bought. Cooking drives water off and sometimes adds fat, and neither is accounted for.

composition figures unsourced · held in the system

Taste profile

What it tastes like

The axes that define this recipe: aroma 74, umami 55, bitter 25.

Sweet 17
Salty 10
Sour 20
Bitter 25
Umami 55
Heat 7
Richness 27
Aroma 74

This profile is computed rather than measured: the role-weighted average of its ingredients’ taste vectors, shifted by what the cooking does. The thin line is the database average on that axis.

Computed similarity