Allow us to paint you a picture.
It’s 1am. Friday night - or Saturday morning, depending how you look at it. You’ve lost your mates, you’ve had enough, the music’s not hitting the same spot, the night is almost over. But not yet. You’ve got something to do first. Something so important to do. You’ve gotta get some grease into your belly. Right down your gullet and into your belly. The flickering neon lights of a thousand kebab shops appear before you like the steps up to Saint Peter’s pearly gates. Yes bossman, a voice calls from the counter. “A doner kebab please.” Everyone knows that kebabs can be dodgy. But that’s part of the fun. At least for me. The best kebabs I’ve ever gnawed on have come from places that are eternally being shut down for hygiene violations. I like the risk. Call me crazy. Call me whatever you want, but don’t call me late for my kebab. That being said, a whole new crowd of people don’t have the same ethos as me. And they’re only just discovering what goes into kebabs. A new video has emerged with presenter Jimmy Doherty standing outside of a kebab and burger place checking out a freshly ordered doner. He says: “Now look at this doner kebab – I want to find out what meat is in it because you can’t really tell – it’s just shavings.” Next up, Doherty decides to take matters into his own hands and visits Velis Kebabs factory in Staffordshire where they produce a monster 50 tonnes of Doner every week. A factory worker then tells Doherty: “If [the meat] is labelled up as doner, which everybody associates with what’s on a spit, it should be hundred percent lamb. “There are companies out there that are labelling up kebab and they’re containing beef and chicken – and there have been some instances of pork, which, for the Muslim community, is a big no-no.” Then the worker shows Doherty how the kebab is actually made.
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First up the lamb is put into an industrial machine and minced. Next, other ingredients are added.
Textured soya protein is put into the mix to bulk it up then onion powder and salt.
By the time the machine has finished, the finished product is 85% lamb, 5% bulking agent, 5% rusk, and 5% seasoning and salt.
It is then moulded into the shape which we see on kebab shop spits across the world.
While I personally don’t think this seems too bad at all, other’s feel quite differently with one person commenting: ‘Never eating a kebab again’ while another said: ‘Truly revolting’.
The next question is, is it pronounced doner or duner?
Header image via Getty
