Skewer grilling
Small pieces threaded onto skewers and cooked close over an open fire. Included because three separately sourced traditions turn out to share it, and because the skewer material — iron, bamboo, lemongrass, bicycle spoke — is a real variable that the sources themselves distinguish.
How the heat is arranged
Direct heat
Food directly above the fire. Fast, radiant, and the most effective way to drive the surface browning and char that make a steak taste like a steak — but the surface reaches its finish long before the centre of anything thick.
Fire directly below · radiant heat · lid open
What it suits — and what it doesn't
Suited to
- Small pieces that would fall through a grate
- Cooking where the eater is served continuously rather than at one sitting
Not suited to
- Anything thick enough to need indirect heat
Cookers that can do this
What it is called elsewhere
- Sate — ID
- Şiş — TR
- Yakitori — JP
Yakitori is a whole practice, not merely a technique — the method is one component of it.