The original recipe of Brescian-style skewered meat consists entirely of meat, with a few exceptions such as potatoes and local sage leaves placed between pieces to give that intense flavour to the meat.

The most frequently used types of meat are:
Pork loin or rolled pork neck cut for what is known as “mombói”, from animals raised in Italy and pork ribs of Italian origin.
Chicken (or even duck and other poultry) thighs, breast or wings of national origin
Rabbit (any part except the head and entrails) of Italian origin
Game birds (their usage has been recently prohibited in all public businesses and restaurants).
All meats used in the traditional recipe of Brescian-style skewered meat must not be frozen in origin in order ensure the tenderness of the final product.

Other ingredients called for in the original recipe of skewered meat are animal-origin butter, preferably local, with at least 80% fat and table salt that is not of sea origin.

The skewering of the meat begins when the pieces of the meat (also called “prese” or chunks) are spitted on long skewers (also called “schidoni” or “bracoi” in Brescian dialect), alternating them and inserting sage leaves between one piece of meat and another.
Each single chunk must weigh around 70-80 grams. For this reason, accurate cutting of the meat is important. 1-cm thick slices of potato can also be skewered on the “schidone”. Each “sword” must be loaded with different chunks of meat arranged in the same order, taking care to place the more compact pieces of meat beside the fatter ones.
The ideal sequence used in the Brescian-style skewered meat recipe is: pork ribs, chicken (or equivalent), pork loin, rabbit, bird. The potatoes are positioned at the beginning and end of each “bracol”, and in contact with the structure’s metal parts to prevent the meat from having direct contact with them.
After having filled each “bracol” homogeneously and with weights as similar as possible, the skewers are mounted onto a structure that keeps them positioned in a radial pattern around a central kingpin which, during the cooking phase, serves to keep them rotating constantly (once it was only done manually, whereas now it can be done with the aid of electrical motors).
The meat skewers can be mounted inside an iron / steel spit roaster or placed outdoors near a fireplace or barbecue where they can be left to rest overnight. This way, the residual blood in the meat left to rest will drip out, making it drier and more suitable for cooking.

Contents curated by: Il Vero Spiedo Bresciano