Kontosouvli vs Souvlaki: Fist-Size Pork on a Spit for Hours

Name: Kontosouvli
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Greece
Ingredients: 2 kg pork shoulder, in fist-size 6-8 cm chunks; 100 ml olive oil; 60 ml lemon juice; 4 garlic cloves, crushed; 2 tbsp dried oregano; 1 tbsp sweet paprika; 15 g salt; 1 tsp black pepper; 2 onions, quartered (optional, for threading)

Souvlaki's oversized cousin: fist-sized chunks of marinated pork threaded onto a long spit and turned slowly over coals for hours, then carved off in ragged, smoky pieces. A festival and Sunday-taverna dish rather than a street snack.

Also known as κοντοσούβλι.

Reference video

Reference video by Kefi and Kreas on YouTube — filmed by them, not by How To Make A Kebab.

Everything you need for Kontosouvli, laid out from above: Pork shoulder, Olive oil, Lemon juice, Garlic, Dried oregano, Sweet paprika, Salt, Black pepper, Onions (AI illustration) — Everything you need, seen from above · AI illustration, names added by us

Ingredients

Serves 6 · 3 h + overnight marinade

2 kg pork shoulder, in fist-size 6-8 cm chunks
100 ml olive oil
60 ml lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp sweet paprika
15 g salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 onions, quartered (optional, for threading)

How to make it

1
Marinate the pork overnight in oil, lemon, garlic, oregano, paprika and pepper.
2
Thread the chunks onto a long spit packed hard against each other, fat sides facing out, onion quarters here and there.
3
Turn slowly over banked medium coals for 2.5-3 h, never directly over the drip zone.
4
Salt in the final hour and baste with any leftover marinade early on only.
5
Rest 10 min, then carve or pull straight off the spit.

Pro tip: Pack the meat with no daylight between chunks; a tightly pressed kontosouvli roasts like one joint and stays juicy, while gaps let every cut face dry out.

Where Kontosouvli comes from+

The name combines konto (short) and souvla (spit) — short relative to the whole-lamb souvla of Cyprus and Greek Easter, though the spit is still long enough to need a stand and, usually, a motor. In northern Greece especially it is the standard thing to set turning when there is a crowd coming.

How Kontosouvli is cooked+

The chunks are large deliberately, because the cook is long. Pork shoulder in pieces of six to eight centimetres is threaded tightly onto the spit so the mass turns as one cylinder, with the pieces pressing against each other — that contact is what keeps the interior moist over two or three hours.

The fire is moderate and the spit sits well above it, because the aim is slow rendering rather than searing. Once the outside is deep brown the spit comes off the fire and rests for ten minutes, then the meat is carved or pulled off in ragged pieces.

Ingredients and shopping+

Pork shoulder or neck, well marbled. Loin will be dry within an hour. The marinade is Greek and simple: olive oil, lemon, oregano, garlic, mustard in some versions, and plenty of black pepper, left overnight.

Charcoal, banked to the sides rather than directly under the spit if you can manage it. A motorised rotisserie makes this a far easier dish; turning it by hand for three hours is traditional and genuinely tedious. Pieces should be roughly uniform so the cylinder turns evenly.

How Kontosouvli is served+

Carved onto a platter with lemon wedges, oregano, and bread or pita to catch the fat. Tzatziki, a horiatiki salad and fried potatoes complete the table. Retsina or a local red, and the eating stretches across the afternoon because the cooking does.

Common mistakes+