Call us biased, but we feel there is no substitute for a wood fire. Raw and natural, it keeps you warm, it mesmerises, it relaxes and also produces tastes unsurpassed by any other heat source. Cooking with anything less is just convenience without the flavour.
Video Rotisserie Recipe Series! Jonny Rotisserie and friends are going to be adding to this library of delicious recipes to try on your Auspit.
NEW! Chinese New Year tribute: Kung Fu Peking DUCK!
We skipped the B's temporarily and jumped straight into...Chicken!!
First up, starting with the A's: Acorn Squash!
Just in time for the holidays...Rotisserie Turkey Tips
Do NOT cook over the direct flame. Indirect heat is your friend. Whether cooking over an open fire or with charcoal, try to build a ring of fire around your turkey or to one side. Be sure that your "heat real estate" extends beyond that of the bird to ensure that you are getting enough heat to the outside edges.
DO use soaked smoking wood chips for additional smokey flavor when cooking over charcoal.
Do NOT let your fire die out. Remember to recharge your charcoal or wood every 30-40 minutes to be sure you consistently have enough heat throughout the cooking process.
DO be sure that the turkey is well-balanced on the rotisserie spit bar prior to kicking off the spin party.
Do NOT use stuffing in the bird. With the nature of rotisserie, it is difficult to get the internal temperatures within the large bird to the point that the stuffing would be sufficiently cooked without overcooking the meat.
DO truss the bird so you don't end up having it do turkey aerobics.
DO get and early start. Rotisserie cooking is a delicious art, and the bigger the bird, obviously the longer it will take before your masterpiece is ready.
Do NOT pull off a leg to snack on. Yes, it is going to look unbelievably tasty, but resist the temptation because your friends and family will notice missing body parts.
DO use a meat thermometer to determine when it is done as exterior appearance can be deceptive.
DO make sure you have ample wood and/or charcoal on hand. You'd hate to be a six-pack into your afternoon and realize that you need to make an emergency run to go buy or chop down more fuel. ...Or to go buy another 6-pack for that matter.
DO consider wrapping protruding parts or the bird entirely with aluminum foil as cooking progresses. This can improve cooking consistency and appearance.
Finally DO enjoy the day. Happy Thanksgiving!
While it leans towards descriptions for cooking over gas, Derrick Riches at About.com has an excellent article here for grilling turkey where he includes some specific suggestions relating to rotisserie turkey. Here is a link to some further rotisserie turkey tips.
Here's one Rotisserie Turkey Recipe idea:
Sage, Orange, and Clove Rotisserie Turkey
For a 12 to 14 pound turkey, start with a rub consisting of:
Mix in a small bowl, the rub the turkey with the mixture.
You will also need:
2 small oranges washed and dried
6 garlic cloves
12 whole cloves
1 bunch of sage
Pierce the oranges with a knife and insert 6 cloves into each orange. The oranges will be skewered inside of the turkey. The garlic cloves and the sage will be placed into the turkey cavity just before rotisserie cooking begins.
Source: The Weber's Big Book of Grilling by Jamie Purviance and Sandra S. McRae 2001
You may never have seen outdoor cooking like this before, but with your Auspit the three-course meals described here can be cooked from the backwoods to the backyard.
Baste with butter and garlic crushed or granulated.
Fit onto spit bar
Cook reasonably quickly until golden brown.
Try this:
Slices of cheddar cheese, fasten with tooth picks to the lobster, cheese will melt over lobster. (If it doesn't get to the plate be careful of the fingers, cheese does get hot & sticky)
To make spice rub, place peppercorns and mustard seed in a spice or coffee grinder. Pulverize and place in a small bowl. Add remaining rub ingredients. Season pork shoulder with rub, wrap in plastic, and place in refrigerator for 12 to 15 hours. Let meat stand at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes before grilling.
Season with kosher salt. As roast is roasting, whisk ingredients for mop in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Secure roast on rotisserie spit and cook over direct low heat for 31/2 to 4 or more hours. The internal temperature should be 175 degrees F. After the first hour of cooking, apply mop every 20 minutes for the remainder of cooking time. Remove roast from rotisserie, cover with foil, and let stand 20 minutes before slicing.
1 heaped tablespoon of sweet paprika
2 to 3 garlic cloves finely chopped or minced
1 large onion
2 heaped tablespoon salt
6 to 8 tablespoons oregano
2 lemons juiced
4 tablespoons of olive oil (for chicken or pork only)
Mix ingredients together and place into a container with meat and leave for 3 hrs or over night if desired.
Place meat on spit and roast, basting during cooking with marinade.
Prime Rib
For a great primer on prime rib see this link: http://www.articlesinbox.com/meathead-goldwyn-secrets-of-holiday-prime-rib-on-the-grill/
It is written for traditional cooking styles, but has a lot of great information. The one correction I would interject is that they wrote that a spit-style rotisserie cooks the meat from the inside. This just isn't true.
Peppers Place whole on spit bar, brush with olive oil roast until outer skin is blistered completely.
Remove skin and enjoy. These also go great in the Spitmate®.
Potato, Pumpkin & Beetroot Best taken care of by the Spitmate™
Onion Peeled and speared onto spit bar, brush with olive oil and roast, or cut into sections and cook in Spitmate® until golden brown.
Rhett's Favourite 70% sweet chilly and 30% oyster sauce.
It can be used as a marinade or sauce.
Applicable to all meats.
Tips for Marinades.
Quantities shown below are suitable for approximately 6 people. If cooking for more than 6 people then increase to suit.
If cooking chicken or pork only add olive oil as these meats contain less fat.
Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix.
Place in meat and leave preferably for 2-3 hours, if leaving for longer period omit lemon until the last 1hr as the lemon acid will "cook" the meat if left too long.
Place meat on spit and roast, basting as it cooks if desired with left over marinade.
Any product roasted on a spit is subjected to two types of heat:
Convected heat - this is heat that is rising directly off and above the heat source containing smoke, burnt gases, flame and high amounts of heat.
Radiant heat- produced from the coals,this heat is transfered through the air producing a sterile clean heat but not tranferring any flavours to the product
The ideal requirements for spit roasting are good radiant heat, small amounts of flavour enhancing smoke and a simple formula of 70% radiant heat, 30%convected heat.
Therefore the ideal location of the spit bar is slightly off to one side of the heat source gaining predominantly clean radiant heat,but picking up small sections of smoke, producing a perfect flavoured golden roast meat or vegetable.
Why is my meat dry?
Rotisserie meat has the advantage over grilling and baking for even cooking and is known for producing tender meat, but sometimes conditions like wind dry the meat. Many cooks recommend mixing apple juice or oil and water to spritz or baste the meat as it cooks. Garlic, herbs, or lemon juice (or beer and wine) can be added to the mixture. Also, an inch of water (or flavoring mixture) in the drip tray will create steam and keep your meat juicy.
How do I speed up cooking time?
It's true that a disadvantage to this traditional form of cooking is that it takes time. Early man did not have our fast-paced schedule, nor did he have a microwave. Half-cook the meat in the microwave and then put it on the spit for that smoky flavor you crave.
Use only dry cured natural cut timber where possible,wet or green wood will give poor radiant heat and undesirable partially burnt gases and very strong smoke which can destroy the flavour of your product when spit roasting.
Each type of wood produces varying degrees of smoke strength,the following is a guide to different trees for required smoke strengths.
Cooking with charcoal is a convienient option where an open fire is not possible or wood not available. These are times for a FireTrough!
Charcoal produces a clean, radiant heat. To enhance the flavor, try placing small amounts of dry sticks or smoking woods like mequite occasionally off to one side to burn with the coals or wrapped in aluminum foil.Soaking woodchips for 30 minutes prior to use will offer a better quality smoke while taking longer to burn. We recommend hardwood lump charcoal as it burns clean and hot compared to traditional briquets and leaves less ash. Good charcoal makes a big difference in cooking times!
All Things Rotisserie
This section will evolve to become an exhaustive repository on all things rotisserie. As a starting point, we love this description of how one gentleman Andrew came into the wonderful world of rotisserie:
