Turkish American Food: Doner Kebab and Pastirma

Doner kebab, literally rotating roast, is made of lamb cooked vertically on a rotating spit. Related to the Arab shawurma, doner kebab was invented in western Turkey in the city of Bursa in the eighteenth century. Marinated slices of lamb are pressed onto a vertical skewer in the shape of an inverted cone with the tip pointing toward its heat source. The classic doner kebab is topped with fat that drips down and moistens the meat. In Greece doner kebabs are known as gyros, literally meat that rotates on a spit; they became popular as a street food in the United States in the 1970s.