The doner, known as Germany’s national dish, is being skewered by the rising prices of ingredients amid cost of living crisis, MPs are told

It has always been a delicious – if slightly greasy – treat for Germans, perhaps even their national dish.

But the mighty döner kebab has now become a symbol of the country’s cost of living crisis, amid warnings from some quarters that the dish will soon cost more than €10 a serving.

Peckish Germans are so concerned about rising prices that the issue was debated this week in the Bundestag, the German parliament.

Hanna Steinmüller, an MP for the Greens, raised the issue after she was approached by anxious members of a frisbee youth club in Gesundbrunnen, part of her Berlin constituency.

Among the frisbee players’ main concerns, she told MPs, was “increased kebab prices” which are estimated to have gone up from around €3.50 (£2.90) in 2022 to at least €6 (£5.10) in recent months.

In November, one major döner producer warned that it was becoming a “luxury” dish that could soon end up costing as much as €10 (£8.50).

  • @raef
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    311 months ago

    Have you seen the meat? It literally pours out grease. Fun fact: a main ingredient of döner meat is chicken skin.

    • @[email protected]
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      411 months ago

      Depends on your local döner supplier’s supplier. I’m pretty sure my lamb döner doesn’t contain chicken skin, unlike the cheap “Drehspieß”.

      For reference, there was a legislation set in place thatandates that a real “Döner” has to contain a certain amount of quality meat, otherwise it can not be sold under that name.

      • @raef
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        311 months ago

        I’m sure there is a range of quality.

        Any döner sold for €3.50 contains largely skin.

          • @raef
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            11 months ago

            They weren’t making the meat cones themselves.

            At a local place, they left an order catalog on the counter. It was a catalog for just döner shops. I was just flipping through while waiting for them to get to me. It had all ingredients and price points in it

      • @[email protected]
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        311 months ago

        It’s actually not a percentage, you’re not allowed to used stabilising additives in the skewer which means that you can’t use a lot of ground meat or it’s going to fall apart.

        But yes chicken skin is probably a good choice if you want structure for little money.