Many cuisines have their own take on skewered meat, from Indonesian satay to Greek shish kebab to American corn dogs. Binghamton, New York, has the spiedie. Historians of upstate eating have detected a version of Italian spiedinis served in Binghamton for the first time in 1937 by an immigrant named Augustino Iacovelli, but for decades now, America’s own spiedie has been defined by a Binghamton bar called Sharkey’s. Cut from what proprietor Larry Sharak describes as pork sirloin, each cube of charcoal-cooked meat is thoroughly moist but not drippingly so, its fibers saturated with the tang of a garlic marinade in which it soaks before being cooked on a grate behind the bar.
The presentation is elementary: The meat on the skewer rests on a slice of plain white bread which rests on a small paper plate. That’s all there is to it. The bread is not interesting, but you need it as a mitt to hold the meat. The custom is to grab the slice in one hand and use it to slide a few hunks of lamb or pork off the metal rod, thus creating an instant sandwich. The bread’s blandness is a foil for the meat’s zest in the same way supermarket white bread is de rigueur with spicy Southern barbecue. Condiments are irrelevant.
Spiedies
¾ cup olive oil
½ cup red wine
½ cup red wine vinegar
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon allspice
2 fresh mint leaves, crushed
1 bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 pounds lean lamb, cut into 1-inch cubes
1. Combine all the marinade ingredients and pour over lamb. Toss to coat all the meat, and cover and refrigerate for a full 24 hours. Rearrange the meat occasionally so it all soaks evenly.
2. Thread the lamb chunks on metal skewers and cook over hot coals about 8 minutes altogether, turning them so they cook evenly.
3. Serve meat on skewers, accompanied by French or Italian bread sliced thin enough to use as mitts for holding chunks of meat.
4–6 SERVINGS