Let’s Make Döner!

The Sauce is best if it sits over night, or a few days. So we will start with the sauce. Traditionally there are 3 sauces: Kräter (Herb) is a yogurt herb sauce. Knoblauch (Gralic) is garlic yogurt sauce, and Sharf (is sharp, and means hot/spicy) I make a combination Kräuter-Knoblauch sauce. In modern times many Döner places do this too.

Döner Base Sauce (400 g total)

200 g mayonnaise

200 g plain yogurt (10% fat if available)

8 g lemon juice

5.3 g salt

3 g MSG

2.33 g sugar

1.33 g black pepper

Whisk smooth. This neutral base keeps up to 10 days refrigerated when handled cleanly. Use 200 g portions to build each sauce. 61 kcal/15 g *actually, use the expiration date on your Yogurt as your Best Buy date.

Kräuter-Knoblauch (Herb–Garlic–Yogurt Hybrid) Sauce

(Andong inspired)

200 g base sauce

3 g sugar

12 g fresh garlic, pressed or grated

0.5 g granulated garlic powder

0.5 g dried dill

0.34 g dried mint

0.5 g dried oregano

1.4 g onion Powder

Weigh out ingredients, combine, and mix until smooth. Rest 1 hour minimum, ideally overnight. Keeps a month refrigerated.

Scharf (Creamy Berlin Döner Chili Sauce)

200 g base sauce (equal parts mayonnaise and yogurt by weight)

30 g acı biber salçası (Turkish hot pepper paste)

4 g acı pul kırmızı biber

1.5 g Tatli toz Kirmizibiber

3–4 g finely grated garlic (1 small clove)

Optional: 5–10 g sunflower oil to adjust consistency

Weigh out ingredients, combine, and mix until smooth. Rest 1 hour minimum, ideally overnight. Keeps a month refrigerated.

Extra Scharf Sauce (still under development)

Berlin Pul Biber (Chili flake, and Powder Blend)

This gets shaken on the Döner, as much as you like.

36 g aci pul kirmizibiber pepper flakes

10 g tatli toz kirmizibiber pepper powder

Mix and store in shaker top spice jar. If you don’t have a Turkish grocery store near you. You can use the red pepper flakes you put on your pizza, and a nice paprika. Yes brother Bob, it would be kick-ass to mix ground Chipotle Chile pepper powder, with the Chipotle Morita Chile pepper flakes. However, they don’t have that shit in Berlin.