Shawarma, as a fast food dish, is very popular not only in resort seaside cities. It has gained popularity wherever you can eat cheaply and practically on the go, without wasting time sitting in a cafe. In any city on busy streets, especially in student districts, you can find outlets where shawarma is prepared.
What is shawarma?
Shawarma (shawarma) is a well-known dish in the Middle East that is eaten by hand. Small pieces of fried meat and fresh vegetables, which are seasoned with sauces and various spices, are placed in the Arabian cake as a filling. It uses lamb, beef or poultry.
In domestic spaces, shawarma is prepared from chicken meat or pork, grated cheese, onions, carrots and other fresh or canned vegetables (according to the season and the seller’s imagination) with the addition of tomato sauce or mayonnaise in thin Armenian pita bread. Pita bread is a very thin, fresh wheat flour tortilla. It is soft, so it is very convenient to wrap the filling in it.
There is also shawarma and vegetarian, in which the main ingredient is not meat, but fried potatoes.
For roasting meat, a shawarma machine is used.
It is very interesting to see how the seller cuts thin slices of meat with a sharp knife and immediately wraps it together with a vegetable salad in a tortilla - in the full sense of “with heat, with heat”.
Shawarma production machine
The grill specially designed for roasting meat is a vertically located skewer on which a meat tenderloin cut into thin slices is strung. This skewer rotates around its axis near the flameless heating element, the meat is fried from the outer edge, and its thin fried layer is constantly cut into the pan.
In general, the device for cooking shawarma is a stainless steel cabinet, heating elements, reflectors, a tray in which fat is collected, and removable skewers with locks.
The main difference is the heat source for the heaters.
Gas devices for shawarma are most often found on the streets in mobile retail outlets. They do not need to be connected to electric networks, that is, they work autonomously - gas is supplied from a cylinder.
An electric shawarma device is most often installed in stationary trading pavilions when there is no problem connecting to the network. Infrared radiation, which is formed by special tubular heating elements, makes it possible to cook meat much faster at a higher temperature.
The advantages of gas appliances
Gas devices for shawarma are equipped with a cylinder with liquefied gas, that is, significantly cheaper fuel than electricity. In addition, gas appliances heat up much faster than electric ones. Such an apparatus can be ready to work in minutes.
There are fully autonomous models that use only gas to maintain fire in the burners. As a rule, they are cheap, but they are able to work with 10 kg of meat on a skewer, which rotates mechanically, and the seller himself can monitor the uniform frying and the formation of a crisp on the meat.
The rotation of the knife allows the meat to fry evenly, but the intensity of the burner ensures the cooking speed. One of the advantages of the gas apparatus is the ability to easily adjust the intensity of the burner, as in a home gas stove, by turning the gas tap.
Disadvantages of gas appliances
Gas devices for shawarma slower fry meat.
If the design of the device has an electric drive for rotating the skewer, then still it will have to be connected to the mains. In addition, gas in cylinders has a very unpleasant feature - it ends at the most inopportune moment, which means that it is advisable to always have a spare cylinder and carefully monitor fuel consumption.
Attention is also required by the shut-off valves on the cylinder and the pipes that supply gas to the burners.
The tightness of the joints and the absence of mechanical damage protect against possible gas leakage. The flame of the burner may go out for various reasons, but most modern models of gas equipment are equipped with a gas control system, which in this case shuts off the gas supply, and its leak does not occur.
The main disadvantage of using gas is the explosion and fire hazard. Because of this, gas appliances are prohibited for use in many large cities.
The main technical characteristics of gas appliances
The main indicator by which gas devices for shawarma are selected is the load, that is, the maximum amount of meat that can be strung on one skewer.
As a rule, the device is equipped with one skewer, but there are devices with two skewers. Such devices can simultaneously fry different types of meat, increasing the range of products offered, which is important for the active work of the outlet.
The apparatuses also differ in the method of rotation of the spit. The electric drive is convenient in that it does not attract the attention of the seller during cooking, and the mechanical skewer controls the cooking process.
Convenience of maintenance and cleaning is very important in the process of preparing any food, including shawarma, especially in mobile street points. Therefore, a very important characteristic of the device is the body material. Food grade stainless steel and glass ceramics, in addition to being resistant to corrosion and mechanical damage, are easily cleaned from contamination.
Devices of different designs have different overall dimensions. The dimensions of the device are very important for small stalls with a limited workplace.
Price categories of gas appliances
The price of a gas apparatus for shawarma (electric, however, too) depends on the number of burners. The range of prices for devices depends on the choice of the manufacturer.
There are devices from European, Chinese and Russian manufacturers on the market. The most expensive are European, the cheapest are Chinese. High-quality and reliable devices from Europe in terms of technical characteristics practically do not differ from Russian ones. Chinese counterparts cannot boast of high reliability and quality of warranty service, even if it is.
Russian products are manufactured at certified enterprises with a good combination of price and quality and a warranty period of up to ten years.
Today, the price for a gas shawarma apparatus can vary from nine thousand for the simplest models with a small load to more than one hundred eighty thousand rubles per hundred kg of meat.
The Turkish manufacturer Pimak is known in the Russian market. Its gas apparatus for one burner costs about 15 thousand rubles, for two burners - 19 thousand rubles, for three - 25 thousand rubles.
No less well-known Russian Grill-Master supplies products, the cost of which for one burner is about 11 thousand rubles, for two - in the range from 18 to 28 thousand rubles, for three - from 24 to 36 thousand rubles.
Today, if you wish, you can find gas devices for the mobile sale of shawarma for any outlet in terms of meat quantity, device dimensions, and cost.