Awarma — Lebanese Preserved Lamb Confit

Awarma is Lebanese mountain slow food at its most essential. Before refrigeration, the mountain villages of Lebanon — where winters are cold, roads are cut off by snow, and fresh meat is unavailable for months — preserved their autumn lamb sacrifice in this way. The family's sheep, slaughtered in late October or November, would be cooked slowly in its own fat for four to five hours. The meat and fat would then be packed into clay jars, sealed under a layer of rendered fat, and stored in a cool cellar. By December, the awarma would have deepened in flavor. By February, it was extraordinary. Mountain families ate it with eggs, with flatbread, with kishk — adding a spoonful to anything that needed depth. Lebanese emigrants took awarma with them in clay jars when they left their villages for Brazil, West Africa, and the Americas. The tradition of making awarma in North America is maintained among older Lebanese-American families, particularly in Michigan, where the autumn slaughter tradition has sometimes been preserved in adapted form.