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Gyros—in some regions, chiefly
Grilling a vertical spit of stacked meat and slicing it off as it cooks was developed in
''s.v.''
/ref> The word ''gyro'' or ''gyros'' was already in use in American English by at least 1970, and along with in Greek, eventually came to replace ''doner kebab'' for the Greek version of the dish. Some Greek restaurants in the US, such as the Syntagma Square in New York City—which can be seen briefly in the 1976 film '' Taxi Driver''—continued to use both ''doner kebab'' and ''gyros'' to refer to the same dish, in the 1970s. In Athens and other parts of southern Greece, the skewered meat dish elsewhere called '' souvlaki'', is known as ''kalamaki'', while ''souvlaki'' is a term used generally for gyros, and similar dishes. In Greek, "gyros" is a
Gyros—in some regions, chiefly North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, anglicized as a gyro (; el, γύρος, yíros/gyros, turn, )—is meat
Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...
cooked on a vertical rotisserie
Rotisserie, also known as spit-roasting, is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit – a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This metho ...
, then sliced and served wrapped or stuffed in pita bread, along with ingredients such as tomato, onion, fried potatoes, and tzatziki. In Greece, it is normally made with pork or sometimes with chicken, whilst beef and lamb are also used in other countries.
History
Grilling a vertical spit of stacked meat and slicing it off as it cooks was developed in Bursa
( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...
Kenneth F. Kiple, Kriemhild Coneè Ornelas, eds., ''Cambridge World History of Food'', Cambridge, 2000. . Vol. 2, p. 1147 in the 19th century in the Ottoman Empire, and called doner kebab ( tr, döner kebap). Following World War II, doner kebab made with lamb was present in Athens, introduced by immigrants from Anatolia and the Middle East, possibly with the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. The Greek version is normally made with pork and served with tzatziki, and became known as gyros.
By 1970, gyros wraps
A wrap is a food dish made with a soft flatbread rolled around a filling.
The usual flatbreads are wheat tortillas, lavash, or pita; the filling may include cold sliced meat, poultry, or fish, shredded lettuce, diced tomato or pico de gallo, g ...
were already a popular fast food
Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...
in Athens, as well as in Chicago and New York City. At that time, although vertical rotisseries were starting to be mass-produced in the US by Gyros Inc. of Chicago, the stacks of meat were still hand-made. There are several claimants to have introduced the first mass-produced gyros to the United States.
Name
The name comes from the Greek (, 'circle' or 'turn'), and is a calque of the Turkish word , from , also meaning "turn". It was originally called () in Greece. The word was criticized in mid-1970s Greece for being Turkish.Γιάκωβος Σ. Διζικιρικής, Να ξετουρκέψουμε τη γλώσσα μας 'Let Us De-Turkify our Language', Athens 1975, p. 62, proposes substituting for , but ''The New York Times'' was already using the word ''gyro'' in English in 1971 (4 Sept. 23/1) according to the ''OED'', 1993 online edition''s.v.''
/ref> The word ''gyro'' or ''gyros'' was already in use in American English by at least 1970, and along with in Greek, eventually came to replace ''doner kebab'' for the Greek version of the dish. Some Greek restaurants in the US, such as the Syntagma Square in New York City—which can be seen briefly in the 1976 film '' Taxi Driver''—continued to use both ''doner kebab'' and ''gyros'' to refer to the same dish, in the 1970s. In Athens and other parts of southern Greece, the skewered meat dish elsewhere called '' souvlaki'', is known as ''kalamaki'', while ''souvlaki'' is a term used generally for gyros, and similar dishes. In Greek, "gyros" is a
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
singular noun, but the final 's' is often interpreted as an English plural, leading to the singular back-formation "gyro". The Greek pronunciation is , though some English speakers pronounce it .
Preparation
In Greece, gyros is normally made with pork, though other meats are used in other countries. Chicken is common, and lamb or beef may be found more rarely. Typical American mass-produced gyros are made with finely ground beef mixed with lamb. For hand-made gyros, meat is cut into approximately round, thin, flat slices, which are then stacked on a spit and seasoned. Fat trimmings are usually interspersed. Spices may includecumin
Cumin ( or , or Article title
) (''Cuminum cyminum'') is a
) (''Cuminum cyminum'') is a
oregano
Oregano (, ; ''Origanum vulgare'') is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It was native to the Mediterranean region, but widely naturalised elsewhere in the temperate Northern Hemisphere.
Oregano is a woody perennial pla ...
, thyme, rosemary, and others. The pieces of meat, in the shape of an inverted cone, are placed on a tall vertical rotisserie
Rotisserie, also known as spit-roasting, is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit – a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This metho ...
, which turns slowly in front of a source of heat or broiler. As the cone cooks, lower parts are basted with the juices running off the upper parts. The outside of the meat is sliced vertically in thin, crisp shavings when done.
The rate of roasting can be adjusted by varying the intensity of the heat, the distance between the heat and the meat, and the speed of spit rotation, thus allowing the cook to adjust for varying rates of consumption.
In Greece, it is customarily served in an oiled, lightly grilled piece of pita, rolled up with sliced tomatoes, chopped onions, lettuce, and fried potatoes, sometimes topped with tzatziki, or, sometimes in northern Greece, ketchup or mustard.
See also
* List of Greek dishes * List of kebabs *List of spit-roasted foods
This is a list of notable spit-roasted foods, consisting of dishes and foods that are roasted on a rotisserie, or spit. Rotisserie is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit, a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked ...
References
External links
* {{Street food Arab cuisine Fast food Flatbread dishes Greek cuisine Greek words and phrases Levantine cuisine Meat dishes Mediterranean cuisine Middle Eastern grilled meats National dishes Sandwiches Spit-cooked foods