Alton’s method would be completely authentic for European döner kebab, if that’s what he was trying to make.
Exactly - the Lebanese supposedly brought the idea of al pastor to Mexico, and I was thinking that the “original” would have probably been something along the lines of doner or shawarma.
If it’s already ground and then formed into the shape, it should be pretty tender already, right? That’s what I see with sausage if it’s ground fine enough. Maybe with the larger chunks it isn’t tender enough, and that’s why they use the pineapple. Pure speculation. 
From Wikipedia on Doner kebab
[quote]There are two basic ways of preparing the meat for doner kebabs:
* The more common and authentic method is to stack marinated slices of lean lamb meat onto a vertical skewer in the shape of an inverted cone. The meat is cooked by charcoal, wood, electric, or gas burners. The döner stack is topped with fat (mostly tail fat), that drips along the meat stack when heated. At times, tomatoes, and onions are placed at the top of the stack to also drip juices over the meat, keeping it moist. In Turkey, most restaurants prepare their doner early in the morning, and serve the last portion by the end of the afternoon.
* In Western Europe and Canada, meat for döner kebab is often industrially processed from compressed ground meat (in essence, a form of meatloaf) containing a mixture of different meat kinds from various animals, making the specific contents less traceable. For that purpose, in Germany the amount of ground meat is not allowed to surpass 60% (Deutsches Lebensmittelbuch).
[/quote]
I think the processed stuff is a bit more ubiquitous at least for gyros. Stacking up all that meat on a skewer is labor intensive, whereas one can simply unwrap something like this in the morning:
http://www.kronosproducts.com/p-meats1.html
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if there was something similar for Al Pastor.
[/quote]
It’s the Reinheitsgebot of kebab!!!
What’s the other 40%? eeeeeek!
Don’t know but it tastes awfully good when you are drunk. Surprised it never caught on in the US.
;D I suspect it’s meat that has not been ground and is still somewhat identifiable.
That makes sense. Whew. 
I can get a good gyro or souvlaki here at the Greek places but it isn’t street food. Though that gives me some ideas.
Those Greek gyro logs are more than 40% sheep testicles. Trust me, its true. The rest is other various unmentionable nasty bits.
Not the ones I eat - the gyro place I like is halal.
Not that I’m opposed to eating testicles or anything. 
Testicles can be halal.
The animal just has to be killed according to Islamic law. Meaning it has to be bled out. Cant be smashed, or dead of injuries or disease.
According to this, testicles are not halal no matter how the animal is killed:
Unlawful Organs of Animals Slaughtered as Halal
* Flowing Blood
* Male reproductory organ
* Testicles
* Female reproductory organ
* Pancreas
* Gall bladder
* Bladder
But it’s not my belief system, and the internet isn’t always right, so . . . Bouef.
Interesting. I thought it was all good.
The Muslims don’t know what they are missing, nothing like a mouth full of balls.
Next thing ya know Im gonna find out that balls are not kosher. oy vey.
It’s bad enough that bacon is out. And shellfish. And figs. And meat with cheese.
That’s a difficult diet to swallow. ;D
In addition, I would always take a halal “certification” with a grain of kosher salt. Apparently places can be a bit fast and loose with advertising halal status, from what I’ve heard, and there’s not really a good authority in place for inspection and certification, I gather.
So even your halal place could -potentially- be chock full’a balls!
It’s not like I eat there because it’s halal, it’s because the food is good and it’s right next door to my bottle shop/pub. A dozen or so beers on tap, 800+ in bottles, and bring your own food . . . so even if my gyro is Chock Full o’Nuts it doesn’t bother me, I can usually wash it down with a Black Raven Trickster or some other deliciously hopped malty beverage. ;D
Last night I went to a party celebrating Norway’s Constitution Day, obviously one of the more important holidays. My friend bought some goat pieces-3 rib racks and 3 hindquarters(he thinks) from a new Mexican meat market that just opened up. The meat was marinated for 3 days in what the butcher calls Al Pastor sauce, then it was smoked at 225 for about 7 hours. Oh lordy that stuff was great. He just pulled the meat off with his hand, we ate it on corn tortillas with all the fixins that matter-raw onion and good salsa. The sauce itself is red chile/cumin based but not quite as spicy as I would have liked.
Of course, “the unmentionable nasty bits” are usually the tastiest part of the beast.
Growing up in an Eastern European household (where no pat of the beast was wasted) taught me that at an early age.
So, “Nothin awful about the offal” as far as I’m concerned.
I believe that if you are going to kill a living creature for food, wasting any edible part is just wrong (and besides, you’d be missing out on some tastiest stuff).
Seems to me like a spinning hot flame roasting hunk of gyro mush is the perfect place to use it (and hide it. LOL.) ;D