Doner kebab aroma

Question

Doner kebab is a kind of food which draws every person who is passing by just with the aroma coming from the place where they make them. In a place where I live they make doner kebabs using pork or even chicken instead of mutton and the aroma is still the same so I guess it's not the meat but the spices and/or the way they prepare it.

Now the question is what is the source of the aroma and whether it can be reproduced at home. If so, how?

Answer

I think that most of the trick with the doner kebab places is simply the time and the amount of meat. The way the gyro is set up, there's always meat cooking on the outside (near the grill heat), which sends out the aroma. Since the spit is usually a metre high, that's a lot of meat, giving off a lot of aroma. Also, remember that the shop has meat grilling form early morning to late evening, so the aroma has plenty of time to start up and get around. When cooking at home, you won't be actually cooking for more than a few minutes, so it hardly has time to get started.

A minor thing, which may be related (and may not), is that in doner kebab places, there's usually a chunk of mutton fat at the top of the spit, which slowly drips down on all the meat. This could be responsible for some of the smell at least.

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