Döner Kebab is a Turkish dish made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie,normally lamb but also a mixture of veal or beef with these, or sometimes chicken. The dish is also widely known by its Arabic name "shawarma" (from Turkish çevirme) or the Greek name "gyros" .The sliced meat of a Doner kebab may be served wrapped in a flatbread such as lavash or pita or as a sandwich instead of being served on a plate. It is a common fast food item not only in Turkey but also in the Middle East, Europe and Australia. Seasoned meat in the shape of an inverted cone is turned slowly against a vertical rotisserie, then sliced vertically into thin, crisp shavings. On the sandwich version, the meat is generally served with tomato, onion with sumac, pickled cucumber and chili.
Before taking its modern form, as mentioned in Ottoman travel books of the 18th century, the doner used to be a horizontal stack of meat rather than vertical, probably sharing common ancestors with the Cağ Kebabı of the Eastern Turkish province of Erzurum. In his own biography, Iskender Efendi of 19th century Bursa writes that "he and his grandfather had the idea of roasting the lamb vertically rather than horizontally." Since then, Haci Iskender is known as the inventor of Turkish doner kebab. With time, the meat took a different marinade, got leaner, and eventually took its modern shape.
History