Ćevapi: A Balkan Staple with Plenty of Bite

From the Balkan grill

These were ćevapi, also known as ćevapčići: minced meat shaped into short rolls and grilled without a casing. Alongside them on Serbian grill menus is pljeskavica, a broad, flattened patty often served in bread. The two share many ingredients, though the mixtures vary by recipe. Pljeskavica spreads out. Ćevapi arrive in company. Ćirino Drvce’s menu counts them in fives, but also lists a single ćevap, which allows the company to be enlarged one at a time.

That company extends well beyond a single sandwich. Ćevapi are particularly associated with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but are familiar across much of the Balkans. Meat mixtures, shapes and accompaniments vary between regions and shops.

A short ingredient list

At Ćirino Drvce, which traces its beginnings to 1999, the shop’s own account of the mixture is brief: 98 per cent beef from free-range bulls raised in Serbia, including a little fat, and 2 per cent salt. It cooks the meat over charcoal.

The dark, uneven browning on my ćevapi was a useful preview. Their pronounced grilled flavour carried through each mouthful, while the meat itself had a firm, springy bite. They looked a little like elongated hamburger patties, but the texture reminded me more of sausages. The familiar English description, “skinless sausages”, made considerably more sense once I had eaten one.

On the side

Here, the accompaniments were mustard and a separate tray of tomato, cucumber, onion and lettuce. The vegetables stayed outside the bread, leaving the little rolls plainly visible when it was opened. Their individual shapes, which might seem a minor distinction on a menu, were very much part of the meal in front of me.

The bread was a lepinja, the soft flatbread ćevapi are commonly served in. Wrapped in paper, it sat on a wooden table, with the vegetables beside it and plant pots lining the railing beyond.