Isobar kebabs

I am a great fan of Philip Harben, the first TV chef; he sounds great fun and slightly eccentric, in the nicest way. He was born in 1906 and sadly died when he was only sixty-four, however he lives on in his cookery books, and there are several videos of him on YouTube.

In the little 1946 cookery book, Cooking Quickly, in the chapter ‘Cooking quickly with no previous preparation, he gives several recipes for his version of kebabs – Turkish, beef and then the mysterious Isobar Kebabs. At the bottom of the page, I have given a list of all the kebabs on Wikipedia, which come from a large number of countries, including;

• Afghanistan
• Africa including Nigeria, South Africa
• Azerbaijan
• China
• Cyprus
• Greece
• India
• Iran
• Israel
• Japan
• Korea
• Pakistan
• Portugal
• Scotland (yes, really)
• Spain
• Turkey
• USA (various different parts, including Dakota and the Pacific Northwest)

… but nowhere is there any skewered meat dish which sounds anything like Isobar Kebabs… was it something Mr Harben made up, was it a name which he misheard or was mistranslated? Who will ever know! I looked up the word ‘isobar’ to se if it gave me a clue – it’s something to do with weather, I know that… Back to Wikipedia…

1. Isobars are atoms (nuclides) of different chemical elements that have the same number of nucleons.
2. Isobars are lines of equal or constant pressure on a graph, plot, or map; an isopleth or contour line of pressure. More accurately, isobars are lines drawn on a map joining places of equal average atmospheric pressure reduced to sea level for a specified period of time.

I don’t think Philip Harben meant either of those things… so here is his recipe:

• half-kidneys
• chipolata sausages (they must be the uncooked English sausage sort of chipolata, not a Frankfurter type as you will see from the method!)
• small mushrooms
• ( he also suggests you could use steak cubes, pieces of lamb, calves’ liver, bacon and so on)

Thread on a skewer half kidneys, chipolata sausages and mushrooms in this way:

1. first stick the skewer through one end of a chipolata so that the other end hangs down
2. Next thread the skewer through a half-kidney
3. Now bring the free end of the sausage round and push the skewer through it so that the sausage wraps itself half round the kidney
4. push it down to the handle end and put a small mushroom on next
5. push it down to the sausage-kidney combination
6. repeat with another sausage-kidney arrangement, another mushroom or a tomato maybe, and so on until the skewer is full
7. grill for 10 mins

This wrapping the sausage round the kidney is not just done for fun. The two coalesce and fuse together into a very tasty combination.

I love the way at the end of the recipe without any previous mention, tomatoes are suddenly introduced!

I think kidneys might be a bit of a strong flavour for my delicate family (I love them) so I might take his streak or lamb suggestion if I were to do it – and certainly I think tomatoes would be nice!

Here is the list of names of kebabs… I’m not sure you’ll be that interested, but here it is all the same!:

1. Achari Tikka
2. Adana Kebabı
3. Ali Paşa Kebabı
4. Alinazik Kebab
5. Antep Kebabı
6. Bahçıvan Kebabı
7. Berenj Goje Kabab
8. Beykoz Kebabı
9. Beyti Kebab
10. Bihari Kabab
11. Bihari Kebab
12. Bostan Kebabı
13. Boti Kebab
14. Burra Kebab
15. Cağ Kebabı
16. Çardak Kebabı[14]
17. Chapli Kebab
18. Chelow Kabab
19. Chenjeh Kabab
20. Chicken Tikka
21. Chislic
22. Ciğer Kebabı
23. Çökertme Kebabı
24. Çöp Şiş
25. Dahi Ke Kabab
26. Dakkochi
27. Dandeh Kebab
28. Doner Kebab
29. Dora Kabab
30. Espetadas
31. Galauti Kebab
32. Galawat Kabab
33. Ghaz Kabab
34. Gola Kabab
35. Gyros
36. Hariyali Kabab
37. Hariyali Kebab
38. İskender Kebap
39. İslim Kebabı
40. Joujeh Kabab
41. Kabab Bakhtiari
42. Kabab Barg
43. Kabab Barreh
44. Kabab Chenjeh
45. Kabab Digi
46. Kabab Hosseini
47. Kabab Isphahani
48. Kabab Jigar-O Del-O Gholveh
49. Kabab Kermanshahi
50. Kabab Koobideh
51. Kabab Kurdi
52. Kabab Loghmeh
53. Kabab Mahitabeh
54. Kabab Memuleh B’hatzilim
55. Kabab Rashti
56. Kabab Shamshiri
57. Kabab Shirazi
58. Kabab Soltani
59. Kabab Torsh
60. Kabab Va Nun
61. Kabab Vaziri
62. Kabab-E Donbalan
63. Kababe Shandiz
64. Kağıt Kebabı
65. Kakori Kabab
66. Kalmi Kebab
67. Kastoori Kebab
68. Kebab Halabi
69. Kebab Hindi
70. Kebab Kamayeh
71. Kebab Karaz
72. Kebab Khashkhash
73. Kebab Siniyye
74. Kebab Tuhal
75. Khan Kebab
76. Kılıç Şiş
77. Kuyu Kebabı
78. Kuzu Şiş
79. Kyinkyinga
80. Lola Kabab
81. Lyulya Kebab
82. Malai Tikka
83. Manisa Kebabı
84. Orman Kebabı
85. Paneer Kabab
86. Patates Kebabı[16]
87. Patlıcan Kebabı
88. Pincho Moruno
89. Reshami Kebab
90. Reshmi Kabab
91. Salmon Kebabs
92. Samak Kebab
93. Satay
94. Seekh Kebab
95. Senjeh Lebab
96. Sham Kebab
97. Shami Kebab
98. Shami Kebab
99. Shashlik
100. Shawarma
101. Sheftalia
102. Shikampur Kabab
103. Shishleek
104. Şiş Kebabı
105. Şiş Köfte
106. Şiş Tavuk
107. Sivas Kebabı
108. Sonnati Kabab
109. Sosatie
110. Souvlaki
111. Souvlaki
112. Stonner Kebab
113. Sutli Kebab
114. Suya: Kewap
115. Tandır Kebabı
116. Tandoori Kebab
117. Tangri Kebab
118. Tas Kebap
119. Tava Kebab
120. Testi Kebabı
121. Tire Kebabı
122. Tokat Kebabı
123. Urfa Kebabı
124. Yakitori