The difference between the doener and the gyro.

After explaining to you the history of the doener and from where it originated and how it became what it is now. I thought it would be great to explain to you what the main differences between the doener and it Greek brother gyro are. Doener and Gyro often get confused for each other as when you just see the meat rotating they look similar. But there are quite a few differences between the bread used to the preparation of the meat.

The obvious difference between them is the country they both originate from, Doener is Turkish and gyro is Greek with that the second difference comes by, which is the bread they use.
Doener is served in or with a Turkish flatbread which is airy and fluffy. The gyro instead is served rolled up in a pita, a dense and much more dense bread compared to the Turkish flatbread which is also not cut open.

The next difference is within the meat used.
Doener uses ground meat from chicken lamb or beef the meat is then mixed with onions spices and fat and placed on a cone and refrigerated so it stays in shape.
The gyro uses thin slices of lamb or chicken and in some cases pork or even beef. They get seasoned as well and then stacked on a cone to form an inverted cone.

As I already talked about spices there is also a difference in the spices they use. As turkey is influenced by the Arabic cultures they use spices more commonly in their foods. In the case of a doener, it is Garlic, cumin, salt, paprika, pepper, and coriander. Even though one can see that geographically they are not that far apart, Greece is rather influenced by other Mediterranean cultures which is why they use spices such as thyme, oregano, and rosemary..

Now let us come to the serving of both as I already said doener is commonly served in a light and airy Turkish flatbread or with all ingredients on a plate sometimes it is also served in a yufka bread. Other than that they have cabbage, tomato, salad, cucumber, and onion in them. And lastly, the sauce is in most cases a combination of yogurt and garlic sauce.

A gyro is commonly served rolled up in pita bread in some cases you can also get it on a plate. To go with it there are onions and tomatoes inside the rolled-up pita and as a sauce, they use tzatziki a typical Greek sauce made out of yogurt, garlic, salt, olive oil, and cucumber.

As you can probably see by now even though the gyro and the doener have the same roots they are pretty different. If you ever had both you will definitely also taste the difference. I hope that you now have learned more about the difference between the doener and the gyro and Καλή όρεξη eating either of one the next time.