One of the few things I used to buy in town in the before times was Gyros. Personally, I think nothing is more delicious and its very nearly the only fast food I ever eat.
Then covid came and trips to town became rare and eating there non-existent.
So for the past year, I have been trying to work on recipe to make homemade gyro meat, and not just any gyro meat, but gyro meat that tastes like what I used to be able to get in town, and which uses easy to find common ingredients, and makes a batch big enough to be worth the effort. I've tried many other online recipes and while they all tasted 'okay' none of them tasted like what I used to get at the gyro shop.
Its taken me many iterations but I believe I finally have 'perfected' my recipe and process. This is not designed to be healthy, authentic greek cuisine, or 'unique'. Its designed to be as best of a clone to restaurant gyro meat as I could get without buying a 30lb frozen cylinder of it.
4lbs ground Pork.
4lbs lean ground Beef.
1 and half cups bread crumbs. You can actually skip this but bread crumbs help the meat resist shrinking and drying out during cooking. They help soak up the extra fat and liquid lost during that step.
1/3rd of a cup table salt or equivalent. The salt is the hardest to get right and the thing I had to play with the most. You can reduce this to a 1/4 cup but I find that it needs 1/3rd cup to really have the salty 'bite' of the restaurant version.
1/3rd cup ground Black Pepper.
1/4 cup garlic powder
1/4 cup ground Cumin
1/4 cup ground Majorum
3 Tablespoons Whole Coriander seeds.
You can uses other spices but I have found these essential for the American Restaurant Gyro Flavor I was trying to copy. Again, the trick was not to just make spicy salty meat strips but to make that distinctive gyro flavor.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well by hand. Divid into 2 or more portions depending on your equipment.
The next step cannot be skipped. Take your meat and put it in your mixer, food processor or blender and mix at medium speed for 5-10 minutes. Unless you have a very big mixer, you will have to do it in at least two batches. Your goal here is to transform your ground meat into a sticky meat paste with a texture similar to bread dough. It goes fastest in a blender, but is less messy in a kitchenAid with the paddle attachment. If your mix is too dry, you can add a small amount of cold water to help it.
Tightly pack your meat paste into two standard size bread loaf pans. It should just about perfectly fill two 9x5 pans to the top. Cover each pan tightly with tinfoil. Take care when packing the meat to not leave air bubbles or 'seams' in the mixture which can cause strange effects during cooking. Take your time and make as solid of a block of meat as you can with a smooth top.
Place your loaf pans in a larger pan such as a 9x14 casserole dish. Fill this second pan with water, making a double boiler type arrangement.
Bake in your oven at 300º for about an hour or until the internal temp reaches 145º.
Do not over cook the meat at this stage. If you want to eat the meat cold, cook until 165º to be safe but be advised you will lose more liquid and have a drier, leaner product.
Once you hit your target temp, remove your loaf pans from the oven and allow to cool for at least an hour. Preferably longer (such as overnight in the refrigerator)
When the meat is cool, remove from meat loafs from the pans (it should slide easily out in one solid chunk similar to Spam). There will be a little fat and 'meat jelly' around each loaf. If you fully cooked the meat to 165º you will have significant shrinkage and excess liquid around each loaf.
Slice your loaf into as much meat as you plan to eat. Divid into portions and freeze any meat you aren't going to eat within a few days.
Cook your slices on a hot pan to brown and crisp the edges. You can even grill them which makes them extra good.
Assemble you Gyros to taste with Tazaki sauce, lettuce, feta, onion, etc. I find about 1/2 of a pound of meat per Gyro is about right and don't skip on the Tazaki. (You can easily buy Tazaki by the quart at your local restraunt supply store such as Smart Food Service Warehouse (formerly Cash in Carry) or make your own but that is another recipe.
Then covid came and trips to town became rare and eating there non-existent.
So for the past year, I have been trying to work on recipe to make homemade gyro meat, and not just any gyro meat, but gyro meat that tastes like what I used to be able to get in town, and which uses easy to find common ingredients, and makes a batch big enough to be worth the effort. I've tried many other online recipes and while they all tasted 'okay' none of them tasted like what I used to get at the gyro shop.
Its taken me many iterations but I believe I finally have 'perfected' my recipe and process. This is not designed to be healthy, authentic greek cuisine, or 'unique'. Its designed to be as best of a clone to restaurant gyro meat as I could get without buying a 30lb frozen cylinder of it.
4lbs ground Pork.
4lbs lean ground Beef.
1 and half cups bread crumbs. You can actually skip this but bread crumbs help the meat resist shrinking and drying out during cooking. They help soak up the extra fat and liquid lost during that step.
1/3rd of a cup table salt or equivalent. The salt is the hardest to get right and the thing I had to play with the most. You can reduce this to a 1/4 cup but I find that it needs 1/3rd cup to really have the salty 'bite' of the restaurant version.
1/3rd cup ground Black Pepper.
1/4 cup garlic powder
1/4 cup ground Cumin
1/4 cup ground Majorum
3 Tablespoons Whole Coriander seeds.
You can uses other spices but I have found these essential for the American Restaurant Gyro Flavor I was trying to copy. Again, the trick was not to just make spicy salty meat strips but to make that distinctive gyro flavor.
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well by hand. Divid into 2 or more portions depending on your equipment.
The next step cannot be skipped. Take your meat and put it in your mixer, food processor or blender and mix at medium speed for 5-10 minutes. Unless you have a very big mixer, you will have to do it in at least two batches. Your goal here is to transform your ground meat into a sticky meat paste with a texture similar to bread dough. It goes fastest in a blender, but is less messy in a kitchenAid with the paddle attachment. If your mix is too dry, you can add a small amount of cold water to help it.
Tightly pack your meat paste into two standard size bread loaf pans. It should just about perfectly fill two 9x5 pans to the top. Cover each pan tightly with tinfoil. Take care when packing the meat to not leave air bubbles or 'seams' in the mixture which can cause strange effects during cooking. Take your time and make as solid of a block of meat as you can with a smooth top.
Place your loaf pans in a larger pan such as a 9x14 casserole dish. Fill this second pan with water, making a double boiler type arrangement.
Bake in your oven at 300º for about an hour or until the internal temp reaches 145º.
Do not over cook the meat at this stage. If you want to eat the meat cold, cook until 165º to be safe but be advised you will lose more liquid and have a drier, leaner product.
Once you hit your target temp, remove your loaf pans from the oven and allow to cool for at least an hour. Preferably longer (such as overnight in the refrigerator)
When the meat is cool, remove from meat loafs from the pans (it should slide easily out in one solid chunk similar to Spam). There will be a little fat and 'meat jelly' around each loaf. If you fully cooked the meat to 165º you will have significant shrinkage and excess liquid around each loaf.
Slice your loaf into as much meat as you plan to eat. Divid into portions and freeze any meat you aren't going to eat within a few days.
Cook your slices on a hot pan to brown and crisp the edges. You can even grill them which makes them extra good.
Assemble you Gyros to taste with Tazaki sauce, lettuce, feta, onion, etc. I find about 1/2 of a pound of meat per Gyro is about right and don't skip on the Tazaki. (You can easily buy Tazaki by the quart at your local restraunt supply store such as Smart Food Service Warehouse (formerly Cash in Carry) or make your own but that is another recipe.
Last edited:
