Gyro Recipes? - Page 2

Here's the Gyros and Tzatzki that Alton Brown featured-

1 medium onion, run 10-15 seconds in food processor
2 pounds ground lamb
(I added 1 lb ground pork)
3 or 4 or more finely minced garlic
1 Tbs dried marjoram
1 Tbsp ground rosemary
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

I also added
1 Tbsp Penzey's Greek seasoning
1 + Tbsp olive oil

Put the chopped onion in a tea towel, squeeze out almost all juice, return to processor.
Add lamb, (pork) and remaining ingredients.
Process until mixture is a fine paste, about 1 minute.

OVEN-
preheat to 375; press mixture tightly into loaf pan; place in a water bath and bake for 60 to 75 minutes, to 165-170 deg. Remove from oven, drain off fat, place on cooling rack and place foil-wrapped brick on top 15-20 minutes, until mixture reaches 175 deg.

Slice and serve on pita bread with tzatzki sauce, chopped onion, tomato slices, and feta cheese.

ROTISSERIE-
Form mixture into a loaf shape and place on two overlapping pieces of plastic wrap each about 18" long. Roll tightly, making sure to remove any air pockets. Twist ends of wrap until surface it tight. Chill in fridge overnight to firm up.

Preheat grill to high, put gyros on skewer, aluminum foil underneath for drips, and cook on high for 15 minutes. Decrease heat to medium and cook another 20 to 30 minutes to 165 degrees. Turn off heat and let it spin another 10-15 minutes to 175 degrees. Serve as above.

I use this method and, somewhat to my surprise, the meat stays on the rod and it works very well. If you have any grapevine clippings around, give it some smoke and make it even Greeker. (Do you know that the work "greek" is not present in the Greek language? They are Hellene)

Tzatzki
16 oz. plain yogurt
1 medium cucumber peeled, cut in half lengthwise, seeded, and grated on a coarse grater.
Pinch of kosher salt
4 cloves garlic, finely minced. (Four cloves he!l! I like 8 or 9. BIG ONES. Microplane is ideal,)
1 Tbsp oilve oil
2 tsp lemon juice
5 or 5 mint leaves, minced

Put the yogurt in a strainer lined with a paper towel and let drain for 3-4 hours in fridge
wring out the cucumber gratings in a tea towel, combine all ingredients and let mature, covered, in fridge overnight. Keeps up to a week in fridge.

Well, I'm not Greek, but I slept last night in a Holiday Inn Express! :bounce:

Mike

Try replacing the marjoram with genuine Greek oregano (origanum vulgare hitrum) and adding some fresh mint. More "authentic" and mint adds a very nice touch regardless.

Shel

Hey MikeLM,
that is nice info!

I will probably try the method you described.
I'll stick to my spice blend recipe tho (even the Cook's I does not inspire me)

Luc H.

Ok, ok, I act like a smart..., but the ground meat is not gyro. It is keftedes...
All right, I go to my room now.....

Yes Mitmondol,

I understand that we are mixing up the wording.... (and probably frustrating to you).

I think everybody knows what we are referring here by Gyros (the minced meat version). Que sera!

Luc H.

Well, that site Shel linked is pretty useful.

So if your want your own personal archive for when that site goes away, I introduce you to WinHTTrack. HTTrack Website Copier - Offline Browser This is a handy tool that copies websites to your computer for your own archives and off-line use. I have a number of such webarchives on SD cards for use in my handheld PDA.

It won't whack all websites. Some of the database driven sites won't work. For example, you can't whack CI's site itself and it also failed on Lidia's Kitchen recipe section. But it's still something to have in your bag of tricks.

Phil

Yeah if it wasn't authentic he would have given the business a different name, I think

The Real Yiros

I've been confused by all the ground meat recipes in this thread.. to me, yiros was always with sliced meat, not ground. I agree with Mitmondol, it sounds like keftedes, or the doner kebap. :confused:

The one I am used to is like this:

How Greek Gyro is Made - Photos of Greek Gyro with Pork

Its got step by step pictures of the kitchen version, and also suggestions for making it at home - not bad at all.

Cheers!

DC

I don't know what's most authentic, but I do like a bit of spearmint in the seasoning.

Here's the recipe I saw Alton Brown make today on Good Eats. When he sliced it, it didn't look exactly like a fast food gyro, but it looked pretty good. It was basically a Greek seasoned ground lamb meat loaf with no fillers like bread crumbs and no egg for binder. He rolled it tight in plastic like a force-meat and chilled it. It was very dense and he cooked it on the rotisserie of a gas grill.

One thing I know for sure, the gyros in Milwaukee and Chicago are a heck of lot bigger than the ones he made at the end. Three slices of meat. Pleeaase! :D They had more Tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, and onions than they did meat.

Gyro Meat with Tzatziki Sauce Recipe: Recipes: Food Network

I like gyro meat with fried eggs. It's the best thing about breakfast at a Greek family restaurant. You get that big pile of meat for about the same price as two or three little sausages or pieces of bacon. It's good with yolk and hash browns.

Kevin

I've been forced to eat soft foods the last few days because of dental work. I need a steak, and some crunchy french fries.

I'm an idiot. Completely missed the previous posts about Alton Brown's recipe. I beg your pardons. Carry on.

Did you happen to catch the nutrtional anthropolgist's comment that the Gyro was "invented" in NYC in the 1970's? I believe that's what she said - my cat was kvetching for dinner at that moment so it's possible I misunderstood her. If that's what she said, and she's correct, then one might be hard-pressed to find an "authentic" Greek recipe ... :D

Shel

Last night I was reading a thread about the best Gyro in Chicago's Greek Town on the LTH Forum. Seems The Parthenon Restaurant is the popular choice. They claim they introduced the Gyro and Flaming cheese to the U.S.

"1968, July 5th
The Parthenon opens its doors on Chris' birthday at 314 S. Halsted St. with three employees: Chef Angelo Gailas trained in Greece; co-owner Bill Liakouras, who serves as bartender and manager; and co-owner Chris Liakouras, who is host, waiter and busboy. And culinary history is made! Flaming saganaki and gyros are introduced, not just to Chicago, but to the United States! Soon thereafter, both caught on like wildfire! Today, just about every Greek restaurant is serving both items. The restaurant took in $110 the first day of business, and the business has grown steadily ever since. Before long, a waiter is hired and Chris says he earned in tips about ten times what the restaurant took in!"

They also make their own Gyro meat. Check out the pictures in this thread from that forum. Authentic or not, I'll be having one the next time I head down to the flat lands from Beer Town.

LTHForum.com :: View topic - Best gyro in greektown?

Kevin

I need a steak.

Muskyhopeful,

Assuming Parthenon is the first in the US. Let's say it's the most authentic (American version)

From the pics and forum:
The gyros looks like it's made with a blend of minced meat (25% beef and 75% lamb)

It also looks like the most popular representation of what is identified here as Gyros.

This is a menu of a well known Greek fast food chain in Montreal. (Gyros is spelled yero in their menu)

Kojax Souflaki Restaurants

Luc H

Alton Brown has a recipe for Gyros on his web site. I made it and it was pretty good. He offers two options: cook it as a loaf, or compress it into a log tightly wrapped in plastic, firm it up in the fridge overnight, and then stick it on your rotisserie rod and turn it. I did that, and it worked.

We're visiting our daughter & family in Pattisburgh, and last week caught the Greek food fair at a local Greek Orthodox church. About the best Gyros I've had, and there are some good ones in Chicago!

Interesting point- they're called HEE-ross in Chicago and JY-rose in Pittsburgh. And the speakers are all Greeks. :confused:

But- there's gotta be a LOT more garlic in the Tzatsiki than what I see up above. :)

Mike

For my Gyro sauce...I use
Yogurt,chopped cukes and onion,garlic and dillweed.Salt and Pepper t/t.
Donna

I don't know how much I can contribute to this thread considering that "can't boil water" fits me to a tee, but if you're at a loss on how to wrap up the gyros, my husband uses aluminum wraps and wraps them up like an ice cream cone (maybe I'll post photos of how he makes them... when he makes gyros, of course). As for the pita bread, he pretty much fries them on a frying pan, with veeeery little butter... which may make them a little greasy on the hands but they taste great and in our home, nobody cares about calories -- metabolism hasn't caught up with us, yet. He prefers the frying pan... considering that our toasters are small and square-ish, like all toasters are. He should know about gyros anyway; he ate them in Greece often enough, I think like 5 at a time. Last thing, he doesn't use spices on his gyros. They come out amazing. If it weren't for my stomach pains, I'd never stop eating them.

P.S.: (Editing post a day later--) Now that we've established that I may or may not have an eating disorder (lol), I just remembered that the meat he uses for gyros is souflaqi, although we don't quite have the technology to mount up the meat on a pole and then shave it off little by little like they do in Greece. So we'll eat the meat in tiny little chunks instead of a shaved off spread.

Greek Gyro Meat

I thought this sounded interesting.
Donna

GREEK GYRO MEAT

1 lb. ground lamb
1/2 c. very finely chopped (or shredded) onion
2 tsp. fresh minced garlic
3/4 tsp. salt (preferably sea salt)
1/2 tsp. dried ground marjoram
1/2 tsp. dried ground rosemary
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Mix everything together and let sit in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. Blend in a food processor for about 1 minute. (When cooked, this will help give it a more traditional gyro feel on your palate. Otherwise, it just takes like cooked minced meat.)
Form into an oblong around a spit, and slow cook over a grill for around 30-45 minutes, cooking far from the coals, and rotating slowly. Alternatively, bake in the oven in a meatloaf shape for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, at 325ºF. It should be a bit dry.
P. S. Tzatziki is made with 500 ml. plain natural or Greek yogurt, 1 cucumber which has been peeled and deseeded and grated and drained of extra liquid, and 2-4 cloves of fresh minced garlic.
Mix together and let sit in the refrigerator until ready to use. This is an extremely traditional recipe, and might be a bit sharp for the average American palate, so you might want to halve the garlic amount.
When I made this, I did not have a good spit and grill available, so I followed the loaf-pan instructions. It turned out a very nice loaf which I sliced very thinly to make some wonderful Gyros.
I have lived and worked in Greece for a few years, and worked as a butcher in the U. S. for quite some time, so let me shed a bit of light:
Donair (doner or Donar), Gyros, and Schwarma are all pretty much the same thing. The Doner Kebab (probably the closest original ethnic food to the American invention, the Gyro) is originally from Turkey. The gyro is an American invention which is basically a cheap version of a traditional Greek Kebab (the main difference is that the Greek one would use large pieces of boned lamb, pressed together using its own fat as a binder, and marinated, whereas Gyro uses ground meat.) The Schwarma is a version from the Middle East that is much larger, uses a similar meat to the Greek kebab, but less meat and more vegetables in the kebab itself.
A traditional gyro should be made with at least 50% ground lamb, and the rest beef. The best ground to use is one with a high fat content (this is so that during the remixing it binds and keeps it shape well!). The main flavouring ingredients should always be: garlic, onion, marjoram, rosemary, salt and black pepper. Marjoram and Rosemary are similar to oregano and thyme in flavour (respectively), and are common ingredients in Greek cooking. True Greek food rarely uses oregano. The mass-produced Gyros use oregano, not to mention garlic and onion powder, but we used fresh minced garlic and onions. Here is the recipe we used where I used to work (compliments of Feller's Meat in Clearfield, Utah!)
Enjoy! -Wayne Submitted by: labradors

WOW! I love gyros! I have had a recipe sitting here for a long time for the gyro meat made in a loaf pan and then pressed (it might even be Alton Brown's recipe) that I've wanted to try but was a little skeptical. I just joined this forum and today I thought maybe I would come on here and see what all of you had to say about a recipe like that. I am inspired now to try it. Thank you!

Gyro's

Thanks for the replys.No....oregano shouldn't be the secret ingredient.Could be though....It should maybe be sage?Just not sure....
What else did the chicken recipe have in it?

Hi all,

BBQ season is back and I made the recipe below that I had mentioned earlier in this thread. I added a couple of twists that made this heavenly.

debone a lamb leg. Trim excess fat and tendons. Open it butterfly. rub it using:
8 minced garlic cloves
3 Tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp rubbed dry oregano (Greek if available)
2 tsp ground white pepper
1 Tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp of ground caraway (aka persian cumin this is where some confusion comes in with cumin... I forgot to mention that before)
1 tsp of ground anise (aka aniseed)

Rub and massage. place in sealed bag overnight.

Next day: reform the leg and tie tightly to a BBQ grill spit. Place an aluminum paper tray to capture the dripping fat and juices. Cook until well done 2 to 3 hrs (caramelized crust). Take off the spit and slice thinly.
Add some of the drippings to a skillet and some meat. Sauté to caramelize more.
Serve in a warm pita with tzaziki sauce, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, sliced red onions, and feta chunks.

Enjoy!

Luc H

I love gyros, especially with a lot of fresh tomatoes, tzaziki, lettuce and some onions, i would eat that every day. We have a small restaurant nearby that sell them for 1.25$, so you can guess that i often end up there :)

rve managed a few kitchwns and loves to cook at home and for my church  ok first off the gyro recipe is pretty good ive added oregano  cummin thyme alos i used 1 pond lamb 1 pound pork and half pound beef i made 2 loafes  when i remove from the oven i place a brick on top of meat wrapped in foil  for like 15 minutes  also  when u make the cucumber taziki sause i used a cheese cloth or a tea towel to starin the cucumber so i can make it rite away  also use greek yogart dont have to strain  also you can do a sear4ch on the internet and make your own pita bread fresh also can flavor with onion garlic or what ever you l;ike also make your own hummis and spread some on the pita bread along with the taziki sauce  i also add minty to the sauce not dill  make your own hummis is easy garbonzo beans in fgood processor with garlic ,onion or favorite along with extra virgin first cold pressed olive oil and shazzam a great meal thanks for the great pointersd all so remember when you make your gyro meat loaf experiment with your own taste buds will love it  JUST SAYING:)