Here’s a quirky fact: the vertical spit might not even be that old. Before the 19th century, nobody was stacking meat like a tower of savory bricks.
Why didn’t anyone think of it sooner? Because gravity hates your food, and early cooks didn’t have the engineering. The trick is the balance—it’s a culinary physics problem solved by a hungry human.
Another funny detail: the classic Greek version uses pork in Greece itself. In America, it’s almost always beef and lamb mix. Why? Because American palates in the 1960s said, “Pork is for breakfast, not wrapped in bread.”
