Cookware · Hearths
Mangal
A low charcoal brazier: skewers and bread that cook over a rectangular bed of coals.
The journey
Mangal is the grill of a courtyard — a metal box of coals, low enough that a cook sits beside it, skewers of meat and vegetables just above the fire. Turkish, Persian, and Levantine houses still light one when the weather allows.
A barbecue with a lid is a different heat. The mangal is close, dry, and fast.
In the kitchen
Burn the charcoal to a quiet ash. Skewer so the meat does not spin. Salt late. Serve with bread that has seen the same fire.
Turkish, Persian, and Middle Eastern pages in the series all assume this brazier when they say grill.