Kebab cooking rules

There is no standard spice mix for Doner Kebabs. This generally applies to any food in any part of the world. There can be a common mix, but as you have experienced, they can be quite specific to certain areas of the world

A major factor for noting a common spice mix is the global food supply industry. What happens in general is that food retailers buy bulk spices from their local food wholesaler. In many regions there is little competition for food wholesaling. Food wholesalers pre-mix ingredients for popular food items in suitable sizes. So in one location, other than a few "independent" or "food artisan" places, everyone seem to taste the same

I have seen this with some hilarity in my own country. We have one main food wholesaler for each of the two main geographic areas our country is divided into. For Easter, hot cross buns have a strong spice flavour, but most bakeries seem to just use the local food wholesalers pre-mixed spice. The two main food wholesalers spice mixes have entirely different flavour profiles. So people travelling into the other region think that the hot cross buns are a bit bland. Both are fine, but just quite different

For Doner Kebabs, this could be just a single source of dry spice mix, or maybe they all get pre-assembled gyros from a specialist meat supplier whom uses their own spice mix? As the popularity of Doner Kebabs rises, other meat suppliers getting into making gyros may just copy this spice mix for lack of knowledge or originality. The latter is common in many western countries

So a polite ask at your local Doner Kebab vendor to whether they make their own gyro, or buy a spice mix from a wholesaler may solve the problem?

There is no way for us to give you absolute cooking times. There are too many variables, among them:

• How do you like your meat cooked?
• How hot is your fire?
• How far are the kabobs from the fire (since kabob cooking is essentially 100% radiation heating, distance is a huge factor)
• What is the size of your meat chunks?
• What is the starting temperature of your meat chunks?

You will note that the number of kabobs is not a factor.

Instead, you need to learn to check for when they are done to your liking. This will come from experience. Kabobs are generally too small to use a thermometer on; you would need a very high quality one like a Thermapen in order to get a reasonable reading.

All that said, it is likely that you want something on the order of 2-3 minutes per side, but there are far too many factors to make that a concrete recommendation.

You can start by cooking just one kabob, or even one chunk. When you think it looks good, try it. Of it is overcooked, do the next one for less time; undercooked, cook a little longer. After a couple, you will know about how long you will need for your particular set of circumstances.