Gyro Sausage w/ crappy Qview

[solaryellow]

A couple weeks ago I got a wild hair... well, you know where... and made a gyro sausage. Good Greek restaurants are few and far between by me so I decided to make my own but with a twist. Tonight I tossed some links on my small Weber I use for camping and then onto a pita they went with maters, onions and tzatziki sauce. The sausage turned out great but still needs a little tweaking. I will probably up the amount of beef and cut back a bit on lamb and add a little more salt.

Crappy cell phone pix:

Also finished up 26lbs of buckboard bacon using Ron's method.

Just before slicing:

 

[ronp]

Looks good to me, did you have any cucumber sauce on the Gyro. I haven't had a Gyro in years. Glad everything turned out good for you Joel.

 

[solaryellow]

Yessir. That is the tzatziki sauce. It really turned out much better than I had hoped for a first attempt.

 

[roller]

That looks goood. Got a recipe for that sausage?

 

[pandemonium]

That sounds like good stuff, A local greek hole in the wall restaurant just went under, man im gonna miss that place, he had great gyros

 

[nickelmore]

Gyro's are part of my diet at least once a month, so you need to post the recipe for the sausage.

Looks great,

Great idea.

 

[solaryellow]

This is my starting point. As mentioned above, I am going to tweak it some.

• 1 large chopped onion
• 2 1/2 pounds lamb
• 2 1/2 pounds beef
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon ground marjoram
• 2 tablespoons dried rosemary
• 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup ice water
• 32 - 35mm casings

Grind lamb and beef with a 3/16" plate, then mix spices with water and pour over ground meat and mix in well. Regrind the mixture. Let sit overnight in a refrigerator and stuff into casings the next day. Create links and freeze or refrigerate. Grill, steam or fry links. Serve on a pita with tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce.

 

[roller]

Thanks I am going to try that sausage sounds great. I will have to smoke some of it.

 

[mballi3011]

Now I cann't wait to make theses gyro sausages. Now I really like a good gyro if you can fine the little old greek man in his deli to make you a real gyro from the big loaf that they make. Now I have seen them already made the loafs that is at resturant depot the other day. But that cann't be the same I hope.

 

[solaryellow]

Don't forget to add cure if you are going to smoke it. I made mine as fresh sausages.

 

[pineywoods]

Looks and sounds great and the bacon looks awesome too

 

[fired up]

More lamb, less beef if it were me. But I LOVE lamb.

 

[roller]

I am going with 1/2 smoke and half fresh..

 

[chefrob]

great idea......looks good!

 

[caveman]

Good thread. I love Greek food. Gives me an idea for a fattie...........

 

[mrh]

What about the tzatziki sauce, did you make it yourself? If You did could you post the recipe too?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[northern greenhorn]

Now that sounds like and looks like some mighty tasty sausage

 

[solaryellow]

Wifey bought the tzatziki sauce from Whole Foods. However, there are a ton of recipes for it on the internet. I was going to try Alton Brown's with some minor modifications next time.

 

[tjohnson]

Points for "Originality"!!!

TJ

 

[jj2x]

I've been looking all over for a Gyro Sausage/Brat and found your recipe.  I compared it to Alton's Gyro Meat recipe so it seems about right.  I have a few questions for you though:

1) Alton makes a point of eliminating liquid to the extent that he squeezes the water out of the onions, yet you're adding water.  I assume that's because this is in a sausage and his isn't, but why do we need the water?

2) Do you try for a specific fat content?  If you're low, would you add pork fat?

3) And speaking of pork fat, why is this done with beef and not pork?

I'm planning on making it this weekend, doing 50/50 lamb and beef, but curious about your opinions on the above.  Thanks - and thanks for posting this recipe!!