Donairs: Nova Scotia’s Middle Eastern delicacy

Donairs are an interesting bit of cuisine. They’re much like a schwarma, or gyro, but are a Nova Scotian creation.

History lesson

The Donair can trace it’s history back at least as far as 18th century Ottoman empire where they roasted horizontal stacks of meat on horizontal spits, similar to the Cağ Kebabı.

Cağ Kebabı

Then in 19th century Bursa, İskender Efendi and his grandfather had the idea to mount the spit vertically. This was the origin of the Turkish Döner Kebap. Over time this evolved to what we are familiar with today.

Döner Kebap

The Döner Kebap has been adopted and reinterpreted throughout the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean: Greek gyros, Arab shawarma, and even Mexcian al pastor are all derivatives. While the Middle Eastern varieties are generally made form beef and lamb, al pastor is pork and a tortilla replaces the pita. Even so the basic idea is the same.

Tacos al Pastor

You can travel almost anywhere in the world and find something that descends from the Turkish Döner Kebap.

Modern times in Halifax

While gyros and schwarma can be found throughout the US (gyros introduced initially in Chicago, interestingly enough), they’re harder to find in Canada. Especially Eastern Canada. Gyros in the US are fairly traditional, using lamb or a mix of lamb and beef, typically with sour cream or tzatziki

In the early 1970s, so the story goes, Peter Gamoulakos (a greek immigrant) tried selling traditional Greek gyros in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This was unsuccessful, so he went about adapting to local tastes: replacing the lamb with beef, and creating a sweet sauce in place of tzatziki. And so the Haifax Donair was born. His restaurant, no surprise, is named King of Donair, aka KOD.

King of Donair at Pizza Corner

The intersection of Grafton and Blowers has three different pizza joints on three of it’s found corners. It’s known as “Pizza Corner”. As with pretty much all pizza places in the Maritimes, they also serve donairs, and donair burgers, donair subs, and donair pizza.

Pizza Corner

The real thing that makes it a Halifax Donair is the sauce, a rather disgusting sounding, yet oh so tasty, combination of evaporated milk, sugar, garlic, and vinegar.

King of Donair, obviously has the canonical donair. Stay away from Greco or Pizza Delight, theirs is a pale copy using processed, uniform (and too thin) machine sliced meat, of which they use far too much, along with not enough sauce, onions, or tomato. If you find yourself in Truro (as I was recently), head out Pictou Road in Bible Hill to Mario’s where we had a very fine donair.

Slicing meat for a donair

Here, then, is the Halifax Donair:

The donair in all it’s glory

The Recipe

I found this recipe on all recipes.com, specifically http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dashs-donair/

Ingredients

1 teaspoon ground oregano
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound ground beef

1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons garlic powder
4 teaspoons white vinegar, or as needed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a cup or small bowl, mix together the salt, oregano, flour, black pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne pepper.
Place the ground beef in a large bowl, and use your hands to blend in the spice mixture. If you want the smooth texture of meat that you see in a real donair shop, you must do this in a steel mixing bowl and on a sturdy surface. Pick up the meat, and throw it down with force about 20 times, kneading it after each throw. This also helps the meat hold together better when you slice it.
Form the meat into a loaf, and place it on a broiler pan. If you do not have one, a baking sheet will do.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, turning the loaf over about half way through. This will ensure even cooking. This cuts better if you chill the meat overnight before slicing.
To make the donair sauce, mix together the evaporated milk, sugar and garlic powder in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in the white vinegar, adding 1 teaspoon at a time, until thickened to your desired consistency.

Notes

Instead of garlic and onion powder I used very finely minced fresh onion and garlic.
I formed the meat mixture into a log and grilled it, turning as it cooked and taking slices off once the outside was well browned. This gave me meat very similar to the traditional, spit based approach.
You must use full fat evaporated milk.
Some say to pour in 1/4 c of vinegar at once, stirring 3 or 4 more times and let the chemical reaction occur and the mixture thickens (on its own). I tried this and found that it turned out a bit thin, so next time I’ll try the method described in the directions above.
To make the pita soft an pliable wet it slightly under the tap and sear it on a hot pan.
Put the meat in a prepped pita, top with chopped white onion, tomato, and a generous amount of sauce.
Suzanne tried the donair I made and found the sauce too sweet. I made her one with just a drizzle of sauce which she quite enjoyed.

Here are shots of the process, from forming, to grilling, to finished heap o’ meat.