Spit-roasting is one of the oldest methods of live-fire cooking. (There’s a terrific description of an ancient Roman rotisserie hog in the Satyricon by Petronius.) It combines the virtue of direct grilling (direct exposure to the fire) with that of indirect grilling (cooking next to, not directly over, the fire, so you don’t get flare-ups). The gentle rotation helps the food cook evenly. The result: large cuts of meat with a savory seared surface and an extraordinarily moist interior. Another advantage of this method: Spit-roasting bastes the meat both inside (with the internal meat juices) and outside (with the dripping fat).
Setup:
• For a kettle grill, set up the grill for indirect grilling. Place the rotisserie collar on the kettle and attach the motor to the mounting bracket. Install the spit, securing the end in the socket, and switch the motor on.
• For a gas grill, light the rear rotisserie burner (a feature on many high-end gas grills). Install the rotisserie motor and spit following the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Some kamado-style cookers, like the Excalibur, come with a rotisserie attachment. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Temperature: Like indirect grilling, spit-roasting is generally done using medium to medium-high heat.
Grilling time: Similar to indirect grilling, but spit-roasting goes a little faster: 30 to 40 minutes for chicken pieces and sausages. One to 1 1/4 hours for whole chickens and pork loins. Two to 3 hours for pork shoulders and rib roasts.
Well suited to: Cylindrical or football-shaped foods, like whole chickens and ducks; pork shoulders and loins; rib roasts and so on. Good for whole fish, fish steaks, and large fillets. (You’ll need to spit-roast these in a rotisserie basket.)
Step 1: Run the spit through the meat.
Step 2: Use a fork to tighten the set screw on the rotisserie prong.
Step 3: Insert the spit with the roast in the rotisserie collar.
Step 4: Use an instant-read thermometer to check the roast for doneness.
Step 5: A rotisserie prime rib in all its spit-roasted glory.
Step 6: Hold the meat steady with a carving fork as you pull out the spit.
To enhance performance
• Often gas grill rotisserie burners are infrared, requiring you to depress the fuel button or burner knob for a full 10 seconds during ignition to keep the gas flowing and make sure the burner stays lit.
• When spit-roasting on a charcoal grill, you can place hardwood chips or chunks on the coals, adding smoke flavor to the benefits of rotisserie grilling. I call this technique rotisserie-smoking.
• When spit-roasting whole chickens, spit them from side to side so they sit perpendicular, not parallel, to the rotisserie spit. I can’t explain the physics behind why this works, but that’s how the vast majority of grillers around Planet Barbecue roast chicken, and birds roasted this way seem to have crispier skin and moister meat.
• To spit-roast whole fish, fish steaks, lobster tails, and other seafood, use a flat rotisserie basket. Two manufacturers are Grill Shop and OneGrill BBQ Products.
• Outside-the-box spit-roasting: Poultry and roasts are the obvious candidates, but you can also spit-roast many foods you wouldn’t normally associate with the rotisserie, from onions and cauliflower to whole pineapples.
• To spit-roast in front of a fire
place or campfire, get a SpitJack rotisserie.
About the Book:
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire.
An electrifying new approach by the man who literally wrote the bible on barbecue. Cutting edge techniques meet time-honed traditions in 100 boldly flavored recipes that will help you turbocharge your game at the grill. Here’s how to reinvent steak with reverse-seared beef tomahawks, dry-brined filets mignons, ember-cha
rred porterhouses, and T-bones tattooed with grill marks and enriched, the way the pros do it, with melted beef fat. Here’s how to spit-roast beer-brined cauliflower on the rotisserie. Blowtorch a rosemary veal chop. Grill mussels in blazing hay, peppery chicken under a salt brick, and herb-crusted salmon steaks on a shovel. From Seven Steps to Grilling Nirvana to recipes for grilled cocktails and desserts, Project Fire proves that live-fire, and understanding how to master it, makes everything taste better.
Buy the Book
No Comments