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Roasting on the Spit

JUST AS STEAKS and chops grilled over open coals are superior to kitchen-range-grilled meats, so is any roast done on a spit immeasurably better than the same roast worried to its end in a range oven. So you might as well install a spit in your barbecue fireplace at the very beginning, since your ambition as well as your appetite will eventually demand one, if you like the juiciness of a whole tenderloin or pork loin, or leg of baby lamb done hunter style-and especially if you or your friends hunt and you might expect an occasional brace of wild ducks, a cut of venison, or any game, in fact.

Never put the spit over the fire by choice. The best place for it is either in front or at the side, so the dribbling fat and juices are not lost by falling into the coals and do not keep the fire unevenly flaring up in flames. It is also well to plan the placing of the spit holders so your metal plate, used for cooking pancakes and the like, can be propped up at an angle to reflect the heat against the spit when it is in use.

Of course the point of spit cookery is to keep the meat rotating, not necessarily continuously, but kept moving enough so the offside of the roast never cools. The idea is to keep everything roasting evenly, and various ways have been invented to save the cook the labor of turning the spit with his own hands or feet. At an inn up in the Alps we once saw the house dog patiently pacing a treadmill set up beside the fireplace and rigged to the spit. As the lovely odors arose from a brace of fat fowl he was helping to their tenderest perfection, his lolling tongue dribbled in anticipation, for the guests usually rewarded him with tidbits from their plates when mine host had his back turned. But a still more ingenious device was one we ourselves enjoyed using for several months in northern Italy. Our ancient fireplace-in the room we used for a dining roomwas the kind that folks walk right into and sit down inside of, right under the chimney. It was equipped with crane, tripods, and a spit, and although meals were got mostly in the kitchen, something was nearly always simmering on the crane, or roasting on the spit in the dining room before a steady fire of oily olive wood. This special spit, however, was hitched to the works out of a grandfather's clock, and all one had to do was to stick the steel spit through the chickens like a sword, click it into place, pull down the weight of the clock and let the old works tick away until the birds were done. A part of this fireplace equipment was a special basting pan to catch the gravy, a design that some enterprising barbecue supply house might profitably put on the market. We liked it so much that we bought it from our landlord, brought it back to America with us and have used it ever since as a basting pan for roasting before an open fire either indoors or out.

It is made of tin-lined copper, long and narrow to fit under a spit, shallow, and with rounding bottom in which a spoon works easily. A longish handle is riveted at the middle of one side, and the special feature is a single foot, right under this handle, that keeps the pan always tilted just right to facilitate basting, to make it a pleasure, in fact. That is the reason we became attached to this inviting and useful contraption, for it was the duty of each one of us every time he passed through the dining room, to reach into this pan with a long-handled spoon and baste the chickens that nearly always were slowly roasting there, kept turning by the trusty grandfather's clock works.

There was nothing formal about our cooking there; everybody took a hand and the cook herself ran in from the kitchen once in a while, to draw the cork from a wicker covered flagon of white wine, that sat in the cool around the corner from the fire, and splash half a cup of wine into the basting pan, thus keeping the well-seasoned dribblings in liquid condition.

Incidentally, there is no better barbecue sauce for chickens than dry white wine modified with a bit of celery and parsley, or preferred herbs, and enriched with the butter that was well rubbed into the birds at the start. And there is no better device than the roasting spit for showing off the gentle art of barbecuing and barbecue sauce making.

Of course whole oxen can be turned on spits if the spits are big and strong enough-a sight that used to reward us when we made yearly trips from France to Bavaria's Oktoberfest. (See Baked Hens and Roast Oxen.) Trussing up one of those big beasts with the required number of shining steel bars was something to see, as complicated as mounting a Big Bertha. But after the electric current was turned on, Herr Ferdinand rotated as easily as any little pullet before a barrage of charcoal heat until after ten hours or so, he was succulently ready to fill a few thousand revellers with barbecued beef right up to the chin.

The most exciting things to do on the spit, of course, are whole animals. A baby lamb or a suckling pig, for instance, are within the talents of any barbecue enthusiast who has passed his first apprenticeship, and either of these can be accommodated on an ordinary barbecue fireplace or charcoal grill, and so, of course, can all game-if you are in a permanent camp and it is the hunting season. (See index for recipes.) After this challenge it is coming down a bit to suggest domestic ducks, chickens, squabs, and such. But they are all wonderful. Especially young turkeys that come very small (6-8 pounds) and tender these days, are great roasted on the spit and they are done nearly as quickly as chickens. And this method is perfect for a green goose-that is, a gosling not much more than a month old.

Unless you have lots of patience matched with quite complete kitchen equipment, it is best not to stuff animals and birds for the spit, beyond sticking inside them the necessities for flavor. After they are picked or skinned and thoroughly cleaned, season each by rubbing the cavity with a mixture of salt, pepper, and plenty of paprika. Without fail, cut up or chop heart and liver, together with kidneys of an animal or gizzard of a bird, and put them back into the cavity along with a little butter or bacon, and appropriate assorted herbs. Parsley sprigs, celery leaves, sage and bay leaves are the obvious ones, or you may have a more interesting choice growing in your garden. But if in camp you find yourself without even a packet of mixed poultry herbs, romantic substitutes will usually be found growing wild-pennyroyal, tender sassafras tips, wild onion tops or wild chives, wild mushrooms and other edible fungi with fine flavor, etc.

When all the flavorings are in, add a very little whiskey, applejack, or what-have-you, especially if you suspect your meat of being tough. (1-2 tablespoons of spirits is enough for a chicken, if not for a man.) Then stitch the openings shut with short skewers. Truss the little "critter" well, fastening legs, wings and neck tight to body with long skewers, and tie securely with string besides, to make a compact bundle. Put the spit through the center so weight will be evenly balanced, using wire if necessary to hold everything steady. Put spit in place near hot coals until meat is seared, then either move the spit or if it is immovable, push the coals farther away for moderate heat. At this stage begin basting with the barbecue sauce you have chosen (see index for recipes). Have a pan underneath if structure permits and use an extension spoon for basting -or have sauce in a dish close to spit and swab it on with a brush made with strips of cloth fastened to a stick. If you want to cook just to have something sustaining to eat, and most outdoors folks do, there are all the roasts , and most outdoors folks do, there are all the roasts from the butcher shop that will be better when you've 'cued them than any you've ever tasted out of your kitchen. cued them than any you've ever tasted out of your kitchen. The butcher will tie up especially for the spit, a leg of lamb , sirloin of beef, shoulder or loin of pork, etc., and bone them, too, if you say so. His best offering as well as his most expensive, will be a whole tenderloin of beef, which he will cleverly lace together with butcher's twine to keep it thick and juicy if he knows you are going to barbecue it. Then just spear your roast through its middle with the spit, sear it, and baste with your barbecue sauce before even, moderate heat until done.

One thing to remember in timing all spit cookery as well as skewer broiling, is that the metal spit conducts heat to the inside of the roast, so it is cooking as steadily as the outside, which wouldn't be happening in an oven, and thus the cooking time is considerably cut down by a spit.