There were so many little Greek restaurants with native Greek chefs who made these delicious gyros. Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. You can think of meat proteins as tightly wound strings of yarn. In a medium bowl, combine the ground lamb, salt, pepper, and dried oregano with your hands, mixing until all of the seasonings have been evenly distributed. How to Make Lamb Gyros at Home . They come out exactly as expected: little patties of pan-fried meat with the texture of meatballs. Next, put your oven on "broil" and move your rack to the top. Lamb gyros were one of my favorite things growing up in Germany. I'd need to find an alternate way to cook the meat. Crisp, juicy gyros. Process until a smooth puree is formed, 30 seconds to 1 minute and make sure to scrape down the sides so all of the mixture is pureed. As gross as the contents of the cup below look, this is actually all stuff that I want to stay inside the meat. I figured, since a Greek-American gyro is essentially a gigantic sausage, my best bet for success was to think of the meat in these terms, and that means controlling three vital elements: salt, fat, and temperature. I love making appetizing snacks and I love sharing how to prepare them. I know, I know. What this means is that in a good restaurant sandwich, your sandwich has a very high percentage of crispy bits, and you certainly don't get any of the completely soft inner parts. The restaurants cook the huge gyro blobs on the rotisserie and then shave off the ultra-thin gyros slices. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and mix well. This restaurant quality Lamb Gyro Recipe are so easy to make, anyone can enjoy them from the comfort of home! You want them crispy(ish) but not burnt. As great as the real deal is, in all honesty, I prefer the Greek-American style. *not the thin type with the pocket, unless you are in Cyprus where they do everything funny). I know it looks more like a meatloaf but trust me, once it's broiled you'll be amazed at how much it tastes like the real deal! I couldn't get the image out of my head. One of my earliest memories as a New York kid in the 1980s was when the Greek-owned pizza shop down the street first put up a poster featuring an attractive woman eating a Kronos-brand gyros sandwich. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to rigorously s… I couldn't get the image out of my head. Greek-American gyros employ the same vertical rotisserie method of cooking as authentic Greek gyros, and both come served in rich, fluffy pita bread* with a yogurt-based sauce, tomatoes, and onions, but that's where the similarities end. The solution was surprisingly easy. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to rigorously s… I want my burger to be fall-apart-tender in my mouth. While some recipes contain a myriad of warm spices and aromatics, I found that all the meat needed was a bit of fresh oregano, some onion, and garlic. The tray emerged from the oven a beautiful expanse of sizzling, brown, crusty surfaces. Originally published August 20, 2012. The difference in retained juices is dramatic: I poured off and collected those juices in cups and found that the meat salted for two hours had lost only about 20% of the juices that the one salted immediately beforehand had lost, and when tasted side-by-side, the improved moisture level of the pre-salted meat was undeniable. Cut the gyro meat into thin strands. To make the meat mixture, thoroughly combine the ground lamb, red onion, garlic, lemon juice, salt, cumin, pepper, oregano, and nutmeg in a mixing bowl. The Greek-American version is more like thinly sliced meatloaf made with beef and lamb. Upon baking, it released a torrent of juices, along with a mass of pale brown, congealed, jelly-like proteins. It's all about emulsions. Tall and light with a crisp shell and a lightly chewy center. There are two problems with gyros at home. You can cook the gyro meat in the oven or on rotisserie skewers. Moreover, you can make gyros at home and with a good gyros recipe the flavor will be almost authentic. So to sum, the four steps for perfect sausage: The Kronos website indicates that the classic Greek-American gyro meat is made with a mixture of 85% beef and 15% lamb. I couldn't get the image out of my head. Finally, just like a solid piece of meat, the hotter you cook sausage, the more moisture it will expel. Make the gyros pita. Lamb meat is thin sliced and layered in pita bread with homemade tzatziki sauce and loaded with fresh vegetables. To round out your meal, try pairing the gyros with a Greek quinoa salad or a delicious Greek pasta salad. Even before cooking, there was a drastic difference in texture. Mix by hand until smooth. Step outside Make Your Own Pizza night and Make Your Own Gyro. Preheat oven to 315 degrees. You're going to thinly slice the loaf and place those slices on an aluminum-lined baking sheet so that they get a little crisp and nice and brown. I couldn't get the image out of my head. Add a few tablespoons of the pan juices to the sliced lamb. I know. Since I love lamb, I saw no reason not to make my own gyros our of 100% lamb meat. Now that I had my flavoring and texture just right, only one thing remained: replicating the crispy bits that you get with a vertical rotisserie. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest recipes and tips! Preheat oven to 315 degrees. One of my earliest memories as a New York kid in the 1980s was when the Greek-owned pizza shop down the street first put up a poster featuring an attractive woman eating a Kronos-brand gyros sandwich. While your lamb is broiling, pop your naan (flatbread) into the microwave and cook them for 15-30 seconds. It was either the dark, alluring Mediterranean eyebrows combined with that come-hither glint in the eye all seductively enveloped in the soft golden 80s hairdo. Slice the gyro meat and broil it for 2 minutes. When the craving hits, there's nothing to do but to get your hands on a gyro! If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment. Icky. Or it was the juicy, alluring strips of pressed-and-formed crispy salty meat combined with that come-hither dollop of creamy yogurt sauce all seductively wrapped in the soft golden pita. Process until a smooth puree is formed, 30 seconds to 1 minute and make sure to scrape down the sides so all of the mixture is pureed. I couldn't get the image out of my head. Traditionally gyro meat is made with lamb that is grilled on a vertical spit of stacked meat slices. These frayed ends can then easily become tangled up with each other, creating a semi-solid matrix. Slice the lamb thinly, removing any fatty bits. Gyros are the most popular Greek sandwich and it is very easy to make. I don't know about you, but I prefer to keep my shopping list as minimal as possible. You'll want to line a baking pan with aluminum so it doesn't stick later, and form a loaf that's about 9 inches long and six inches wide. Jun 30, 2020 - One of my earliest memories as a New York kid in the 1980s was when the Greek-owned pizza shop down the street first put up a poster featuring an attractive woman eating a Kronos-brand gyros sandwich. Finely slice one red onion (with a mandolin* if … Greek Gyro Recipe with Homemade Gyro Meat - The Food Charlatan Divide into four equal portions and shape into oblong patties about 3-inch wide by 6-inch long by 1/2-inch thick. Fresh crunch veggies, a little spice and a whole lot of flavor you’ll be praised for switching it up. When pureeing, if all goes well—your solid pieces of fat will get chopped up into tiny pieces that are then suspended within the matrix formed by the protein in the meat—even after it's cooked. You can also purchase store-bought cooked deli lamb meat and reheat before serving. Oct 21, 2019 - One of my earliest memories as a New York kid in the 1980s was when the Greek-owned pizza shop down the street first put up a poster featuring an attractive woman eating a Kronos-brand gyros sandwich. I'm going camping this weekend, and I'm excited to see how the meat slices fare over an open fire. Unlike Greek gyros, which are usually made with whole pieces of thinly-sliced marinated pork skewered in a large stack on the rotisserie before being cooked and shaved, Greek-American gyros are made with a large, sausage-like cone of seasoned minced lamb and beef. the Greek-American style. Now for some things, like hamburgers, for instance, this is a bad thing. As for seasoning, a 2% addition of salt (the standard amount for a sausage) was necessary, along with a little kick of black pepper. Expert tips on how to make gyro meat at home, using ground lamb and spices. To Make the Gyros: -Unwrap the gyro loaf and use a sharp knife to cut long strips no thicker than 1/4-inch. Try it. Bake until the gyro meat is no longer pink in the center, and the internal temperature registers 165 … Step 1. Learn more on our Terms of Use page. It was also relatively dry. You could begin with the greatest meat in the world, but if it's not salted and mixed properly, your sausage will end up crumbly, dry, and/or mealy. To replicate that, my goal should be to increase the ratio of crisp-bits-to-soft-bits. Wrapped or not, with ample of tzatziki and a healthy dose of salad on the side. Of course, just like coke tastes better out of an aluminum can, a gyro taste better when you wrap it in foil and eat it with your hands. I started by looking to a couple of my favorite sources for existing recipes. Follow this recipe and make a few extra batches for those busy weeknights. Knead the mixture on the counter for 10 minutes Grecian delight, indeed! While the one on the right stayed tight and compact, the one on the left broke apart as it cooked, the fat leaking out, and turning mealy. Nov 6, 2011 - One of my earliest memories as a New York kid in the 1980s was when the Greek-owned pizza shop down the street first put up a poster featuring an attractive woman eating a Kronos-brand gyros sandwich. For thinner roasts, cook for 15 minutes per pound, for larger roasts, 25 minutes per pound, or until the pop-up timer pops or a digital … Has anyone else noticed that when it comes to sausages, oftentimes, the large nationwide brands have significantly better texture than the ones that come from small-scale artisan-butchers? A guide to creating the perfect Greek-American lamb gyro at home. Keep warm. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground lamb, grated red onion, and all herbs and spices. I finally found a way to emulate the texture of the meat to make this delicious meal at home, and I want to share it with you! While the salted meat stuck firmly to itself in a tight ball, the unsalted meat was messy—mushy even. Slice the loaf of cooked gyro meat crosswise into thin strips and place … ». Even a toaster oven works fabulously for this. You'll want to line a baking pan with aluminum so it doesn't stick … Mixing the salted meat by hand just didn't cut it—the meat remained too mealy. -Lay … The results are so vastly different from the real deal that my brain had to work overtime trying to convince my mouth that it was eating gyros (they also serve theirs in a pocket pita with feta cheese. Astounding, isn't it? The only difference was that on the one in the right, I kept my meat chilled in the fridge at 38°F until just before pureeing it, whereas the one on the left was allowed to sit at room temperature and came all the way up to 58°F before I pureed it. While the oven is heating, place the lamb mixture into a food processor and add the onion, bacon, and garlic. In Greece, layers of meat are roasted on a spit then sliced and served in a pita with tzatziki sauce. Jul 23, 2014 - One of my earliest memories as a New York kid in the 1980s was when the Greek-owned pizza shop down the street first put up a poster featuring an attractive woman eating a Kronos-brand gyros sandwich. The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (based on his Serious Eats column of the same name) is a New York Times best-seller, recipient of a James Beard Award, and was named Cookbook of the Year in 2015 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Turn your broiler on to high and move the rack to the top shelf of your oven. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to rigorously s… Make this classic restaurant-style gyro meat at home. Some comments may be held for manual review. Adding bacon to anything these days seems like a cliché. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy. It's not pretty while you're working with it, but the end results are outstanding. The cook slices the crisp bits off the outside, exposing the next layer of meat to then get crisped-up. Once baked, let it rest for 10 minutes. Gyro meat: You don’t need a vertical rotisserie spit to make a gyro at home, and you don’t even have to go to a gourmet import supermarket. When properly cooked, the thinly shaved pieces of meat offer a sublime mixture of textures. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour so that the flavors have a chance to blend well. Then whenever you'd like a sandwich, simply slice some pieces off the end of the loaf, and crisp them up under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Cook's Illustrated takes a different approach by adding a seasoned pita-bread panade to their ground meat before forming it into little patties that then get pan-fried. All I can say is, in the end, the bacon flavor doesn't come through—it's inclusion has the biggest impact on moisture level and texture (after all, bacon has been cured by extensive salting—exactly what we want when it comes to achieving the right sausage-like texture). Keep your meat well-chilled while working with it. So to sum, the four steps for perfect sausage: Salt your meat in advance and mix thoroughly. Comments can take a minute to appear—please be patient! Bake the loaf for 35-40 minutes or until it reaches 160 degrees. The problem with that is that although the outside gets crispy, you're still left with an expanse of un-crisped bits on the inside. The second problem, of course, is that despite watching hours of infomercials for the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie, I never bucked up with my four easy payments of $39.95. The best thing about it, is that you don’t need a vertical rotisserie to make gyros at home. Salt your meat in advance and mix thoroughly. First is getting the texture of the meat mixture right. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place the lamb mixture in the bowl of a food processor and add the … Keep your meat well-chilled while working with it. I was able to make a hot gyros lunch for myself and my wife (who hates tomatoes and cucumber but love lamb) yesterday in under ten minutes start to finish. This is what your finished gyro loaf will look like. The two half loaves pictured below were made with the exact same recipe. J. Kenji López-Alt is a stay-at-home dad who moonlights as the Chief Culinary Consultant of Serious Eats and the Chef/Partner of Wursthall, a German-inspired California beer hall near his home in San Mateo. I tried this, and was frankly unimpressed with the results. This easy gyro recipe is a delicious and filling lunch idea! Don't overcook it just like skiing, fishing, or making love, the craft of charcuterie has much more to do with technique than the quality of your starting goods. It's a strong testament to the fact that just like skiing, fishing, or making love, the craft of charcuterie has much more to do with technique than the quality of your starting goods. They should be warm and pliant so that you can use them as pitas. Layer of meat offer a sublime mixture of textures end results are outstanding pan-fried meat this... Thing about it, is that I want to clarify by saying that salted! 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