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Prepare a recipe of basic kibbeh and one of stuffing as described in Kibbeh bi Ssanieh. Or, work a cup of lard with salt, pepper and cinnamon for the stuffing material.

Form kibbeh into balls the size of a walnut. Smooth the meat ball with fingers dipped in cold water. With the thumb, form a hole in the meatball. Fill it with half a teaspoon of the meat stuffing, push meat into place, closing the opening, and pat the meatball into an egg shape. Fry in hot fat. Or stuff with the same quantity of seasoned lard and broil in the oven or over charcoal fire. If they are broiled, they are usually dipped in sizzling fat just before serving. This is the Syrian way. They are often served with a salad, laban or with the cucumber-laban mixture called Laban bi khyaar.


(From Food from the Arab World Marie Karam Khayat and Margaret Clark Keatinge, Khayat's, Beirut 1959)