Makanek (مقانق)
Small Levantine sausages of lamb and beef, scented with sweet spices and pomegranate molasses. They are served as mezze, pan-fried with lemon.
| Lean lamb (shoulder) | 500 g |
| Lean beef | 300 g |
| Lamb fat | 200 g |
| Fine salt | 18 g |
| Lebanese seven-spice | 8 g |
| Ground cinnamon | 2 g |
| Ground allspice | 2 g |
| Pomegranate molasses | 20 ml |
| Red wine vinegar | 20 ml |
| Fresh garlic, crushed | 10 g |
| Toasted pine nuts, optional | 30 g |
| Sheep casing (Ø 20–24 mm) | — |
- Preparing the spices: The Lebanese seven-spice generally comprises black pepper, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove and coriander. It can be made at home or bought.
- Mincing: Cut the meat into cubes, then chill. Mince through the 5 mm plate.
- Seasoning: Mix the pomegranate molasses, the vinegar, the garlic and all the spices. Add to the meats. Add the pine nuts if using. Knead to mix well.
- Resting: Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
- Stuffing: Stuff into the fine sheep casings. Form small sausages 6 to 8 cm long.
- Cooking: Pan-fry in a little olive oil for 10 to 12 minutes. Deglaze with lemon juice. Or grill.
- Serving: Serve as mezze with pita bread, hummus and pickles. Or in a sandwich with toum (garlic sauce).
The name makanek probably derives from the Arabic m’aneq, meaning ‘the strangled’ or ‘the tightened’, in reference to the small twisted sections that give the makanek its form of tiny sausages linked in a chain. The cinnamon brings a gentle, sweet warmth that balances the strength of the fatty meat. The pomegranate molasses (dibs al-rumman), a thick syrup obtained by reducing pomegranate juice, is the other distinctive ingredient: its syrupy sharpness gives the makanek a sweet-and-sour character that the western Mediterranean sausages do not share. Pomegranate molasses is documented in medieval Arab cooking from the thirteenth century in the culinary manuscripts of the Abbasid period. The Iraqi makanek (see the preceding entry) makes comparable use of it. Some Lebanese families replace it with lemon juice or grape vinegar, but the traditional charcutiers hold that only pomegranate molasses gives the makanek its proper character.
The Syrian variants stand apart from the Lebanese version. At Aleppo and Damascus, the makanek more readily adds cumin and caraway, spices less present in the classic Lebanese baharat (spice blend), and the proportion of beef to lamb is often inverted. Some Syrian butchers add rose water in tiny quantities, a few millilitres per kilo, for a barely perceptible floral note that belongs to a properly Damascene tradition of seasoning. These differences remain uncodified: no geographical protection exists for the makanek in Lebanon or in Syria.
The makanek is inseparable from the culture of Lebanese mezze, the way of eating through the accumulation of small shared dishes. It appears alongside the soujouk, the fried kebbe, and the grilled mushrooms in the restaurants of Beirut, as well as at family dinners in the provinces.
The Lebanese civil war (1975–1990), then the waves of migration that followed, exported the makanek to Montreal, Paris, São Paulo, Sydney and Detroit, where large Lebanese communities keep its artisanal making alive. The Lebanese economic and political crisis since 2019, which set off a new wave of emigration, has further widened this geography: Lebanese butchers trained in Beirut today produce makanek in Dubai, Cyprus, Germany, and Scandinavia.
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