Gyro Cooking Machines - Vertical Broiler Cookers - Vertical Broiling for Cooking Gyro Meat Make Greek Gyro |
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Gyro Cooking Machines - Vertical Broiler Cookers - Vertical Broiling for Cooking Gyro Meat Make Greek Gyro |
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Gyro (Gyros) - Greek Spiced Lamb |
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INGREDIENTS:
Gyros & Doner KebabsThe history of gyros poses some unexpected questions. Certainly, the ingredients (lamb, pita bread, grilled vegetables, & seasonings) were known to Ancient peoples of the Middle East. Kebabs (roasted skewered meat) and other spiced meat minces have been sold by Middle Eastern and Greek street vendors for hundreds of years.Gyros, as we know them today, presumably evolved from this tradition. Food historians generally agree the name "gyro" and the current product are both recent inventions, originating in the New York. According to the New York Times, modern gyros were very popular in the city during the early 1970s. They were marketed as fast food and embraced by diners looking for something different. About Kebabs"Gyro. A Greek-American sandwich made from rotisserie-roasted, seasoned lamb that is sliced and served with onions in a pocket of pita bread. The word (which first appears in print in 1970) is from the Greek gyros, meaning a "turn" and is pronounced "JEER-o." The dish is better known in America than in Greece and possibly created in New York, where gyros are sold at Greek lunch counters and by street vendors, although some say it originated in the Plaka neighborhood of Athens. It is not a dish found in classic Greek cookery or listed in Greek cookbooks. It also seems possible that the name "gyro" may have some association with the Italian-American sandwich called Hero."---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 147) "A sandwich that
is said to have originated 2,000 years ago is capturing the attention of
Manhattan's quick eaters. The sandwich, a Greek gyro, pronounce "year-oh"
is a lamb, tomato and onion concoction nestled in a fold of a soft bread
called pita. More than 30 Greek snack stores selling the gyro have opened
in Manhattan in the last year, according to the proprieter's estimates.
In a heavily trafficked areas such as Times Square, three stores have opened
in the last two months. Why has the Greek Gryo gained a prominent place
in the fast food race? Store owners, patrons and native Greeks agree that
the two major reasons are that the gyro is "different" and "delicious...The
increase in the snack's popularity may be related to the large number of
Americans who visit Greece and sample the local cuisine...The term gyro
denotes a ring or circle and refers to the rotation of the meat as it is
cooked. Greek historians attribute the origin of the dish to soldiers from
the army of Alexander the great, who skewered their meat on long knives
and cooked it by repeated turning over an open firet. Modern gyros are
cooked on an electric rotisserie and are sold for prices ranging from 85
cents to $1...A Young Greek couple enjoying a gyro or "doner kebab" at
the new Plaza de Athena on Broadway at 45th Street said they thought the
food was "close to what it's like in Athens."
"There will be
lots of broiled meats, including gyro, that agglomeration of meat sold
in booths all over New York, although its Greek provenance is questionable.
"We found that people are associating it with Greeks, so we included it,"
said Harry Raptakis, chairman of the bazaar. "Besides, it might even have
some Greek background to it." Of things definitely Greek, there will be
souvlaki and shish kebab, which will be broiled atop a 2-by-10 food cinderblock
cooking pit. "We only use lamb," said Mr. Raptakis."
"A keen nose for street food once led my husband and me to discover something called doner kebab in the market stalls in Herakleion the capital of Crete, long before it reached New York under the name gyro." ---"Dining a la Cart: Street Food Mirrors the Tastes of a City," Florence Fabricant, New York Times, April 17, 1991 (p.C1, C8) "Gyro. [Spitted
spiced lamb]. Gyro, gyro oli is a favorite children's game, comparable
to farmer in the dell, which describes the round-and-round motion of gyro.
Since spreading to Greece from the Middle East, industrious Hellenes have
brought it to the United States (New York is spinning with gyro restaurants),
and one more snack has been added. On a vertical spit, which truns electrically,
or is run manually by the mikro (apprentice), the meat is roasted t flavorful
crispness." ---The Food of Greece: Food, Folkways and Travel in the Mainland
and Islands of Greece, Vilma Lia couras Chantiles [Anteneum:New York] 1975
(p. 155)
"In Turkey, doner
kebab consists of thin cuts of lamb laid over warm "fladenbrot," a round
flat loaf similar to pita, and steeped in tsatsiki sauce, with tomatoes,
onions, and lettuce on the side. It is usually served in sit-down restaurants.
In Germany, "doner," has taken on a sandwich form, and is sold from small
booths catering to takeout customers. The meat is slowly roasted on a vertical
spit, sliced almost paper-thin, and then stuffed into a triangular piece
of fladenbrot, topped by the vegetables. For about 60 cents more, a few
slabs of feta cheese are included. The sauces - garlic or tomato-based
and ranging from tangy to sharp - often vary. "The different doner booths
make their own sauces according to their own recipes," says Tuncay Zulkaflu,
owner of Knig Doner in Dresden. What makes "Istanbul Doner," another doner
booth in Dresden and two-time winner of a magazine-sponsored survey for
the city's best doner, so popular? "The sauces," answers a worker there.
"It is a very special recipe, but it is a secret, so I can't say [what
it is]...There are an estimated 9,300 doner vendors in Germany...As far
as the doner's place on the German snack circuit, "It is equal to the bratwurst
or bockwurst," says Uwe Stuhrberg, editor at Sax Magazine, which conducted
the doner surveys. According to a 1998 study on doner by the Turkish Studies
Center at Essen University, the average German eats eight doners per year.
Not bad for a sandwich developed less than thirty years ago, when Turkish
"guest workers" in Germany, who found themselves unemployed in the midst
of the '70s economic crisis, starting selling doners to support their families.
Back then, vendors prepared the meat themselves and sold it from street
corners. It remained mainly a mom-and-pop industry until German reunification,
when vendors tapped into the East German market."
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