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Home made Gyro meat / Gyros

5K views 34 replies 12 participants last post by  CactusJack99 
#1 ·
Home made Gyro recipe

One of my favorite cold weather (or anytime, really) foods is Gyros with Tzatziki sauce.

We got some good Greek places locally, but the meat is hard to find to buy.

So here is the recipe I use- it can be a lot of clean up, but worth it.

Gyro Loaf:
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb ground lamb
1 white onion
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon powdered rosemary
2 teaspoons marjoram
2 teaspoons oregano

Put the onion and garlic in food processor and chop finely. Take it out, and push the liquid out in a strainer, and put it back in the processor (the fines- not the liquid). Add all the spices and meat to the food processor, and blend to a paste.
Empty the paste mixture into a bread loaf pan, press it in evenly, and bake at 350 for one hour.
To serve later, slice it thinly and brown it more in a skillet if you want.

Tzatziki sauce:
2 cups plain greek yogurt
1 peeled small cucumber
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
pinch of salt and pepper

Add everything but the yogurt to food processor and blend. Then add the yogurt and blend a little more.

Serve on pita bread with sliced tomato, sauce, onion, and feta cheese.
 
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#5 ·
Look into 7 Spice. It's a traditional Lebanese blend.

1 part ground allspice
1 part ground cloves
1 part ground nutmeg
1 part ground fenugreek
1 part ground ginger
2 parts finely ground black pepper
2 part ground cinnamon

The aromatic oil nature of this spice means that once ground it starts to get weaker. Being pure hard spices means you can make your own as needed a little at a time.

Don't confuse this with Japanese style 7 Spice, a completely different blend.

I don't think Gyro meat is just about the spice either. It's how they make the meat. They make a Doner kebab ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doner_kebab ) where they stack up flat slices of meat, season between each one, cook it so the layers mend, and then slice it the other direction. Basically the meat has been cut across the grain twice so the meat has lost all fiber strength, but it is not soft and loose like ground meat.

In any case, the Lebanese 7 Spice is fun. Real flavor depth, but no salt or MSG at all. Just be careful not to use a heavy hand with it.

If you try making your own 7 Spice then maybe make it special by cutting the black pepper by one part and replacing it with ground Sichuan peppercorn, a truly unique kind of pepper some call the MSG of pepper. It has no MSG in it but it gets the tingly thing on the tongue going so that flavor is brighter.

If all you want is some 7 Spice to try then: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Spice-Premium-Eastern-Seasoning/dp/B07YVKWCG9/

That one looks about the best value on Amazon.
 
#8 ·
Your military or spell checker is showing. It's chevon, not chevron. ;)

Goat is tricky. It can be both tough and gamey.

The Hispanics here say the age is essential. Yearlings or younger, they say. The gamey taste is actually popular in the Caribbean, but then they tend to load the heck out of it with strong spice. Of course you can use the other tricks for gamey meat, like bleeding/airing/cooling the carcass after the kill very fast. Also soaking in either brine or milk. The Doner kabob helps a bit with the toughness because you cut across the grain twice. But then so does slow moist cooking too.

Then again, lamb (or pork in Mexico) is the preferred critter for this kind of meat dish, and that's a lot easier to cook with.
 
#9 ·
Most of the gyro meat in the US is a mix of beef and breadcrumbs anyway. I've never even seen lamb for sale in a grocery store up here and its not in the ingredients list of any of the commercially sold gyro rounds I've seen.

I'll admit....its one thing I really do miss about the before times. I never went into town often, but when I did, a gyro was a treat I looked forward to. I haven't had one now since last Feb.
 
#10 ·
I suspect those Doner kebabs in the US are sold as a standardized institutional commodity. But you can bet that in India there are not pork or beef versions. That Doner kebab is an Ottoman Turk invention. The Greeks across the Bosporus Strait likely picked it up fast. Even enemies tend to share foods if they are also neighbors.

The breadcrumbs are not authentic, even if common. Lamb is never the cheapest meat anywhere. Neither is goat meat because you eat the small juveniles. Someone likely got it in their head to save a buck. Also, most modern nations require all of the kebab be used in one day. Health officials are not pleased when they see meat hauled out the 2nd day that is partially cooked. All the more reason to load it with a filler if you end having to toss part of the big kebab at the end of the night. Might be why kebab places are popular late night snack places in Europe. They serve until the meat is all used up.

What you want is a Halal meat market. You won't find those in small towns. 50K or more at least to support a decent Halal market. But find one of those if you want good quality lamb and goat meat.
 
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#11 ·
My point is even if American Gyros are pretty much the hot dogs of the sausage world....they taste damn good and I wish I knew how to make them like that.

I cook a lot of mexican and asian food that I think is as good as what I can get in a restaurant even if I do say so myself....but so far the gyro has eluded me. There is a 'pop' and juiciness that commercial gyro meat has that I don't know the secret too yet.
 
#12 ·
I might have some new insight for you. I know you say it has breadcrumbs, but is that because of the spongy mouth feel? That might not come from filler, but the way the raw meat is treated.

Every recipe from the better sites say you have to turn the meat into a fine paste. What they are doing is called protein extraction. By putting the meat through a food processor until you get true paste that makes a the water and fat bind closer. Because the meat holds the fat and water you get a sponge texture when you cook it.

This step is done at the outset. The ground meat chopped onion, garlic, and spices go into the food processor. Simple hand stirring won't work. If you don't have a food processor then you use a stand mixer to beat the death out of the meat for a good while. You need a homogeneous sticky paste to get the spongy aspect. Then you put the meat in the baking pan and cover with foil. Then you bake it and let it cool it to let the meat rest. Then after it cools and you carefully drain the pan and you press the foil covered meat with a brick.

This one site talks more about the process so you get that special texture: https://twosleevers.com/gyro-meat-recipe/

You want that special texture and you thought it was breadcrumbs but it was a treatment process for the raw meat.

I think if you use his recipe with some seasoning tinkering you'll be so close you can dial it in the 2nd time. By tinkering I suggest cutting the salt and herbs by half and skipping the black pepper completely. Then come in with 2 teaspoons of the 7 Spice. Remember that 7 Spice has the black pepper in it. Toning down the herbs gives the 7 Spice a chance to raise its flavor. Personally, I don't see the onions having to be red as mandatory. Yellow or yellow sweet would work too. I know he says lamb or pork for half the meat, but I think pork is too potent and too fatty. I'd stick with 80/20 in both beef and lamb.
 
#13 ·
I might have some new insight for you. I know you say it has breadcrumbs, but is that because of the spongy mouth feel? That might not come from filler, but the way the raw meat is treated.
They are always in the ingredient lists of commercial gyro meat from the restaurant supply stores.

For instance:

INGREDIENTS: BEEF, WATER, BREADCRUMBS (WHEAT FLOUR, DEXTROSE, SALT, YEAST), CEREAL BINDER (CORN, WHEAT, RYE, OAT AND RICE FLOURS), LAMB, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, SEASONING (SPICES, GARLIC POWDER, ONION POWDER, SOYBEAN OIL), SALT, METHYLCELLULOSE, CANOLA OIL, CORN STARCH, CELLULOSE POWDER, SODIUM GLUCONATE, SPICE EXTRACT, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, YEAST EXTRACT. C
 
#14 ·
Breadcrumbs, methylcellulose, cellulose powder, modified soy, yeast, food starch.....

Talk about trying to stretch the living daylights out of that meat!

Read that link I just put up. A rural guy liking the taste of city restaurant gyros. It might be he's getting close to the real way and the factories are trying to copy that with chemical means. That spongy texture is what gyro meat is all about. He's getting that texture but he isn't loading it with fillers. Instead he's making the meat work like a hot dog works by getting the meat to sponge.

What do you have to lose? If you get it to work then you'll be eating real food, instead of some unholy mating of meat and particle board.
 
#17 ·
But you haven't had food from our factories. We can make beef taste like lamb, chicken taste like beef, black spray paint taste like BBQ char, tofu taste like cheese, canola oil taste like tallow, lard, or whipped cream, or any number of fake tastes. We can make water taste like any fruit in the world without ever using any fruit.

All you people around the world, busting your butts digging in the ground or having to touch animals just to eat is crazy. We have chemists for that kind of work. Hell, they make food even from petroleum. Look at any McDonalds in the world to see proof of food factory power.

Pretty soon we'll be growing meat in big plastic buckets from pond scum.

Even our farmers don't farm. Once a year they take out a big loan, buy a bunch of stuff from Monsanto, pour diesel into huge machines, and program them to farm for them.

The sarcasm doesn't mean I'm lying.
 
#20 ·
I have been trying to reverse engineer the commercial gyro "log" texture and flavor, as well. It is very hard to duplicate. I am going to try and add this seven spice and bread crumbs next time.

The grease rendered from the commercial logs stays smelling good for days- a sweet, hard to describe smell- almost like it has some sort of curry or ginger.

My neighbor's daughter works at a Greek restaurant in Houston, and sourced me a case of the 10 lb logs. I used to slice the meat into hamburger size patties and make burgers out of them. I remember reading the ingredient list, and remember it including beef, lamb, and wheat as the top 3 ingredients.

Didn't realize some of y'all cant get lamb locally. We have it at Kroger and the local Texas grocery chain.
 
#21 ·
The 7 Spice should cover the flavor, but the texture is an issue. I don't think the wheat is necessary. All the online recipes don't mention it. It's clearly a food packer thing. But it isn't used globally, so I see the wheat as a way to create texture and use a filler at the same time. I think that protein extraction is the key to getting the texture without resorting to filler. Some food lab guy said use wheat instead of meat and also save all that extra processing time to paddle the meat to death. That link I put above was all about the guy trying to replicate texture, not flavor. The flavor aspect is definitely an easier thing to tweak for a home cook.


As for Houston, we get about any food we could ever want and also get it affordably. If it is farmed or raised somewhere then we get it. Sorry, no moose, elk, or whale in stores here. But food is our superpower here. I've learned to be gentle when seeing others complain about food costs in other places. No sense in rubbing their noses in it.
 
#25 ·
Grinding finished seitan into real meat might give that spongy texture too, yet seitan is just mirroring the elasticity you can get out of real meat if you pound it hard with a food processor or mixer paddle.

Here is a good video explaining protein extraction.

 
#28 ·
Grinding finished seitan into real meat might give that spongy texture too, yet seitan is just mirroring the elasticity you can get out of real meat if you pound it hard with a food processor or mixer paddle.

Here is a good video explaining protein extraction.

Meatgistics: The Importance of Protein Extraction - YouTube
Well, I have a good blender, meat grinder and kitchen aid so I should be able to beat the daylights out of it.

Used the blender before for my unsatisfactory attempts, but that was about seven years ago and I probably can do better now.
 
#31 ·
First experiment completed.

8lbs ground beef.

6lbs pork shoulder, ground.

Mixed those together and re-ground....and then mixed in the KitchenAid for 10 minutes. Certainly got a sticky meat paste.

Usual spices with the addition of a rather hefty does of cumin.

Packed into two bread loaf pans, placed in water filled sheet cake pan, covered in foil and baked for about an hour until internal temp of 165º. Placed in fridge overnight to cool with plastic wrapped bricks on top of each.

Significant shrinkage post cooking, and lots of fat and gelatin in the loaf pans. Perhaps as much as a cup per pan.

De-slimed and sliced. Very close to restaurant texture, a firm, cohesive product not at all crumbly.

Unfortunately leaner and somewhat firmer. Certainly not bad but not a replication yet of a big slice of greasy gyro meat.

My theory is that the bread crumbs are not so much filler, as something to soak up and retain the fat that is otherwise lost.

I also need more salt. The meat itself tasted salty on its own but in a gyro it was not salty enough when slathered in sauce and vegetables. I think 'too salty' on its own would be just right in the actual gyro.

Cumin and Majoram seem to be responsible for most the the unique 'gyro' taste as apposed to just tasting like brautworst sausage or something else pepper and garlic based. I cooked test patties while mixing and until I added cumin it tasted fine but not 'gyro' like.

Perfectly acceptable as a meat product and certainly something recognizable as a gyro but not a perfect match yet. I need more salt, and more retained fat...judging from the amount of fat in the pan I think I had plenty in the meat mix itself, but most of it rendered out when cooked.
 
#32 ·
So I was right, but not right enough.

The meat might need to be a bit leaner too.

The gelatin coming out is my concern. That is a part of the sponginess and nutrition that needs retention.

Depending on the number of tries you want to give this I'll give you some options. I don't have much faith in the breadcrumbs because the gluten expansion phase is over. But they are an easy first try. Then I would look at grinding a bit of raw seitan dough into it. Recipes are all over the web. Also consider powdered starches like rice or corn. Maybe a bean flour like chickpea would work.

I think if the finished cooled product has less gelatin released you'll get the texture you want.
 
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#33 ·
Second attempt.

Happy over all as I think I had nailed the spice and slat mix of the gyro shop meat. Either that or its been so long since i've been to one I've forgotten but I feel like I have it, and this time I wrote down everything so its an actual recipe now and I have reduced the total number of ingredients which is always a goal of mine. Just black pepper, garlic powder, marjorm and cumin and salt for spices. 1/4 cup of each.

I added a cup of breadcrumbs this time. I'm not sure it made any difference one way or another. May just not have been enough.

So, what went in is 4 lbs of pork shoulder and 4lbs of ground beef.

What came out was two 3lb loves, and a lot of fat and stock. This time I saved them. Tasty products in their own right.

I am happy with the texture and tase of the product. It may not be as spongy as commercial yet but its still pretty close I feel.

One loaf going into the freezer...the other into the fridge :)



And yes...it looks weird because as I often do, I'm cooking with all the lights off except my headlamp.
 
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