Roberta > wrote:

> I made Gyros last night for my father-in-laws 77th birthday.
>
> I've never cooked Greek food so I simply searched out a recipe on line -
> alot of times I will read comments posted by others about the taste of
> the recipe. The one I decided to go with was the recipe from the food
> network by Emeril Lagasse - since I used the recipe almost exactly I
> will just post the link to it...
>
> http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/reci..._19507,00.html
>
> It turned out wonderful.
>
> My husband, while on deployment, went to Rhodos Greece - he said these
> tasted very authentic.

I'm sure it was wonderful, but it is actually anything but authentic.
In fact, it is not gyros at all. The very definition of gyros is
something rotated (on a spit). Gyros means "turn" or "turning" in
Greek. Below is what I posted a couple of times on how it is prepared
and cooked. It is not really a dish many people would make at home.

____________________Repost________________________ ___
Making real gyros is not simple, I have to say. Do you have the
necessary equipment (a vertical, slowly revolving spit, akin to a
rotisserie), at least? Correctly made gyros or döner kebap is
definitely not a trivial undertaking for a home cook and, if one aims
for a really good result, is a challenge even to a skilled, professional
one. Here's how it is made: Most of the meat is sliced, the rest is
minced. Then, the meat is marinated overnight in a mixture of onion
juice, oil, salt and pepper. Then, the slices are arranged on the spit,
with the tight spaces between them filled with minced meat. The whole
thing is tightly formed and slowly cooked on the rotating spit, with the
meat getting "baked" together into a tight whole. Gradually, as the
outside gets cooked, one shaves off some meat with a sharp knife from
top to bottom, exposing, little by little, the raw interior to the heat,
and continuing in this way until all the meat is cooked and shaved off.
The cooked meat is, of course, supposed to be served throughout the
rather long process, with the juice/sauce that collects underneath.
____________________/Repost___________________________

> It is defiantly something I will make again, although not too often
> since Lamb is a bit more pricey than other meats (and really hard to
> find here - which I found odd)

Gyros is also *very* often made with pork or a combination of pork and
lamb/mutton. It is also sometimes made with beef or chicken. The
Turkish döner kebab, which is basically the same thing, is usually made
with lamb or mutton, often enough with chicken, and occasionally with
beef. It is of course never made with pork.

Victor