Must try in Croatia

Ispod Peke.

Name: Ispod Peke (Croatian Veal and Potatoes Baked Under a Bell)
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h 35 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Croatia
Ingredients: 1.5 kg veal shoulder on the bone, in large chunks; 1.5 kg waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into large wedges; 3 onions, quartered; 3 carrots, in thick batons; 2 whole heads of garlic, halved across; 2 red peppers, in wide strips; 120 ml olive oil; 3 sprigs of rosemary; 3 bay leaves; 200 ml dry white wine; 2 tsp coarse sea salt; 1 tsp black pepper, coarsely ground

Croatian Veal and Potatoes Baked Under a Bell

Ispod peke · say it: EES-pod PEH-keh

Peka is not a recipe so much as a piece of equipment that dictates one. A shallow metal tray of meat, potatoes and vegetables is covered with a heavy domed iron lid — the peka — which is then buried under glowing embers so heat comes from above as well as below. Nothing escapes: the ingredients cook in their own steam, seasoned with little more than olive oil, garlic, rosemary and a splash of white wine, until the veal falls off the bone and the potatoes have absorbed every drop of fat and juice in the tray. The flavour is deep, roasted and surprisingly clean, because there is no sauce, no browning of flour, nothing added at the end. This version gives you both the real fire method and an oven route that gets genuinely close.

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Croatian Veal and Potatoes Baked Under a Bell

Gate: CroatiaDalmatia
Prep: 25 min
Cook: 2 hr
Total time: 2 hr 35 min incl. 10 min rest
Serves: 6
Status: Takes skill
Nutrition / serving · estimated: Calories 680 kcal; Protein 48 g; Carbs 42 g; Fat 34 g; Fiber 6 g

Why this recipe works.

Covers both routes honestly — the real fire-and-bell method and a heavy covered roasting pan in the oven that gets close.
Cuts the potatoes thick and layers them under the meat so they braise in fat and juice instead of drying out.
Includes the mid-cook turn that Dalmatian cooks never skip, and explains what it actually does.
Seasons with almost nothing, because the technique does the work — and says so plainly.

Tips from our kitchen.

Cut potatoes into big wedges, at least 4 cm across. Anything smaller collapses into mush over two hours of enclosed cooking.
Do not add water. The wine, the vegetables and the meat produce all the liquid needed, and extra water dilutes the juices into a thin broth.
If you are using a real peka, build the ember bed a full hour ahead. A fire that is still flaming will scorch the tray before the inside cooks.
Turn everything once at the halfway point so the potatoes that were on the bottom spend the second hour on top and cook evenly.
For the oven version, weigh the lid down or seal the pan edge with a strip of foil — the whole method depends on nothing escaping.
Let the tray stand 10 minutes off the heat before serving so the meat relaxes and reabsorbs the juice it pushed out.

Substitutions.

Veal shoulder → Lamb shoulder, chicken thighs and drumsticks, or 1.5 kg cleaned octopus: Lamb is equally traditional. Chicken needs only 70–80 minutes total. Octopus is the coastal speciality and produces the wettest, most flavourful potatoes of all.
A cast-iron peka bell → A deep roasting tin with a tight-fitting lid, or a large Dutch oven: You lose the smoke and the radiant heat from above, but the enclosed steam-roast is reproducible. A pizza stone under the pan helps with base heat.
Dry white wine → Chicken or vegetable stock with a squeeze of lemon: Wine brings acidity that cuts the fat. Stock alone tastes flatter, so the lemon is doing real work here, not decorating.

Variations.

Hobotnica ispod peke: Octopus peka: whole cleaned octopus with the same potatoes and aromatics. It renders an extraordinary amount of liquid, so the potatoes finish soft and saturated rather than roasted.
Janjetina ispod peke: Lamb shoulder or leg on the bone, the island version, usually with rosemary doubled and a whole head of garlic split across the tray.
Vegetable peka: Potatoes, peppers, courgette, whole onions and garlic under the bell with plenty of olive oil — genuinely good, and the standard workaround at Dalmatian tables with vegetarians at them.

Storage & reheating.

Keeps 3 days refrigerated with the meat and potatoes stored together in their juices. Reheat covered in a 160°C oven for 20–25 minutes rather than in a microwave, which turns the potatoes waxy. The meat freezes acceptably for 2 months, but the potatoes do not — they go grainy and watery on thawing, so pick out the meat and juices for the freezer and cook fresh potatoes to go with them.

Serve with

Bread for the juices at the bottom of the tray, and a simple tomato and onion salad dressed with olive oil.

The story behind Ispod Peke.

Cooking under a bell is one of the oldest surviving techniques in the region, and versions of it exist across the Balkans and around the Mediterranean under different names — sač in Bosnia and Serbia, and similar iron domes anywhere people cooked on an open hearth long before ovens were domestic. In Croatia the peka is most closely associated with Dalmatia and the islands, where konobas and stone-house courtyards still keep an outdoor hearth for exactly this purpose. The bells are cast iron or, historically, terracotta, and the good ones are heavy enough that lifting them is a two-handed job.

The method is unhurried by design. The fire is lit an hour or more before cooking to build a bed of embers, the tray goes on the hot hearth, the bell goes over it, and then embers are shovelled over and around the dome so heat surrounds the food completely. Nobody opens it for the first hour. Somewhere around the halfway mark the bell comes off, the contents are turned so the potatoes swap places with the meat, more embers are added and the lid goes back on. The whole thing takes two hours or so, which is precisely the point — peka is booked in advance at coastal restaurants because it cannot be made to order, and at home it is Sunday cooking, organised around drinking, talking and tending the fire.

What goes under the bell varies with what is available. Veal and lamb are the classics, chicken is the everyday choice, and along the coast octopus peka is a speciality worth planning a holiday around — the octopus releases so much liquid that the potatoes end up almost braised. The constants are potatoes cut thick enough to survive two hours, whole heads of garlic, a generous pour of olive oil, rosemary or bay, and a glass of white wine that turns to steam in the first ten minutes. Serve it straight from the tray with bread, because the juices at the bottom are the best part and nobody wants them left behind.

Questions, answered.

What exactly is a peka?

Peka is the name of both the dish and the equipment: a heavy domed iron or terracotta lid placed over a shallow tray of food on a hearth, with hot embers piled over and around it. Because heat comes from every direction and nothing escapes, the food roasts and steams at the same time. The word covers anything cooked this way — meat, octopus, vegetables or even bread.

Can I make peka without an open fire?

Yes, with compromises. Use a deep roasting tin with a tight lid, or a large Dutch oven, at 180°C for roughly the same total time, keeping it sealed and turning the contents once halfway. You will not get the smokiness or the intense top heat of embers, but the enclosed steam-roast produces very similar texture and juices. Seal the pan edge with foil if the lid is loose.

Why should I not add water or stock?

Because the method is designed around the ingredients cooking in their own liquid. Meat, potatoes and onions release a surprising amount of moisture into a sealed vessel, and the wine adds the rest. Adding water dilutes the concentrated juices that collect at the bottom of the tray, which is the part everyone fights over with a piece of bread.

How do I know when it is done?

The meat should pull away from the bone with almost no resistance and a knife should slide into the thickest potato wedge without any grip. On a proper peka this takes about two hours for veal or lamb, less for chicken. Lift the bell only at the halfway turn and again near the end — every look you take costs you heat and steam.

Do I need to brown the meat first?

Traditionally no. The radiant heat from the bell browns the exposed surfaces during cooking, which is part of what distinguishes peka from a plain braise. In an oven version, a quick sear of the meat before it goes in the pan is a reasonable cheat, since a domestic oven lid will not deliver the same top heat.

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