The Döner & Kebab Glossary

Berlin Style is not a Turkish tradition, but a German invention from the 1970s: flatbread, cabbage salad, tomato, onion, garlic-herb sauce. The standard formula as it is known nationwide today.

Chicken Döner has been the best-selling döner variant in Germany since around 2010. What distinguishes it from veal, how it is marinated, and where quality differences lie.

The Döner Box is döner meat on fries in a rectangular cardboard container, topped with sauce. A German döner stand variant without flatbread, eaten with a fork.

Dürüm is a tightly rolled Yufka sandwich from Southeast Anatolian cuisine. The difference from flatbread döner: thinner dough, visible ends, brief roasting on the griddle.

Fladenbrot is the classic carrier bread of the German döner — thick, airy, with sesame. What makes good flatbread and how it differs from Yufka and Pide.

Hackfleisch-Döner: spit made from seasoned, formed ground meat — not Yaprak. Standard in Berlin döner shops since the 1970s, with wide quality variation.

Iskender Kebap: thinly sliced döner meat on flatbread with tomato sauce, hot butter and yogurt — not a sandwich, but a plate dish from Bursa.

Kalbfleisch is, alongside chicken and ground meat, the third classic döner variant in Germany: milder than lamb, firmer in texture, more expensive to purchase.

Garlic sauce is the most popular sauce in German döner. The base recipe of mayonnaise and yogurt is a German development — Turkish stands traditionally rely on plain yogurt.

Pul Biber are coarse, sun-dried chili flakes from Turkey: medium-hot, fruity, and the standard spice for Döner marinade, Adana Kebap, and Lahmacun.

The vertical rotating spit is considered an invention from Bursa in the 19th century. Without it, döner as we know it wouldn't exist — how it works, what types exist, and why it stands in every shop.

Steak-Döner replaces classic spit meat with thinly sliced beef steak — grilled on a plancha, not from a vertical spit. Premium variant with its own preparation logic.

Vegan Döner replaces the meat spit with seitan, jackfruit, or pea protein. Bread and vegetables are typically already vegan — the sauce requires attention.

Yaprak refers to the döner variant with hand-layered meat sheets on the spit — as opposed to the ground meat spit. The traditional, time-intensive method.

Yufka is a paper-thin, unleavened wheat dough (1–2 mm) — the base for Dürüm and a side component in Iskender. Not to be confused with Fladenbrot or Pide.

Markūk is the extremely thin Lebanese flatbread baked on a curved Saj plate. Carrier bread for Shawarma wraps, Fattah and Manakeesh.

Saj is a convex curved metal plate for baking paper-thin flatbreads. It provides the wrap base for Shawarma, Manakeesh and Markūk.

Shawarma is the Levantine variant of the spit roast: seasoned differently than Turkish Döner, served with Toum, Tahini and pickled turnips in thin Saj or Markūk bread.

Tahini is the ground sesame paste behind hummus, baba ghanoush and the classic shawarma sauce. What makes it special, how it's used and how to recognize quality.

Toum is a Lebanese garlic cream made from garlic, oil, lemon and salt — without egg, vegan, intense in flavor. The standard sauce for Shawarma and Shish Taouk.

Adana Kebap is a hand-chopped lamb skewer from southern Turkey, seasoned with Pul Biber and grilled over charcoal. Protected designation of origin — not to be confused with Döner.

Gyros is the Greek variant of vertical spit roasting — usually pork or chicken, seasoned with oregano and garlic, served in pita with tzatziki and fries.

Sumach is the tart, fruity red spice made from ground berries of Rhus coriaria. In döner, it seasons the onion salad and often replaces lemon.