Our policy has been to provide good quality food at reasonable prices and have this cooked over open fires and barbecues. We believe this provides the necessary atmosphere and that the high quality of food will mean people will return for more both this time and in the future.

Spit Roast

The centre piece of this is the roasting of pigs and lambs on a rotating spit over an open fire. If you haven't done this before take note of our advice which is experience gained over many years using a variety of equipment but note also that fires are unpredictable creatures and that all timing in particular is flexible. When organising your cooking area it's a good idea to place the spit near to the front so that the general public can see it. If they can look at what they're buying we hope it will encourage them. At least it gives them something to do if the queue gets too long!

A large supply of wood is essential to provide a depth of charcoal and ashes for cooking at length. We have lit the fire at 4am for cooking 7-12 for a small pig but now prefer lighting at 11pm for cooking at 4 -12 for a larger pig. In fact we now prefer charcoal, which, though it costs more, gives a fierce heat in much less time than wood.

Lambs take less time to cook but are more susceptible to burning. Pigs, protected by tough skin and a layer of fat, can cook endlessly in their own juice.

If you thought spit roasting simply involved sticking a rod up a pig's bottom, think again! Firstly the pig must be delivered, properly butchered and cleaned out, with the skin cut diagonally along its length, as near to the time of use as possible. We have used a refrigerated lorry as well as cool store, but you should avoid having to keep it for more than 24 hours beforehand.

Next the pig must be prepared for roasting, which involves in our case a long drill bit on an electric drill to drill through the spine of the beast and place lateral fixing rods in place. These rods are essential to allow the beast to rotate fixed firmly to the central post though locating and fixing them on the central post can be a problem. The diagram below drawn from above but at 45 degrees, shows the central post suspended on tripods over two separate pits.

A pig is flexible around its hips and keeping the beast rigid requires half a dozen lateral rods the length of the animal. Wiring up the carcase holds it firmly and improves rotation throughout cooking if it is tightly bound close to the pole. Too tightly wired, however, and the wire cuts through the meat. [see equipment list and timetable in appendix]

Either pigs or lambs can be attached to the pole in the "69" position where the carcase is nose to tail overlapping. The central pole must of course be long enough and have enough fixing holes but it is a generally economical use of time and equipment.

An alternative to the rather fiddly lateral rods is a device like a clamp with spikes facing in which, if two are mounted on the central post and screwed firmly can clamp the carcase in place as it rotates. There can still be a problem at the hips so at least two lateral rods are still recommended. The spike + clamps method seems to work better with a side of beef where the basic carcase structure is rigid.

Some people "crucify" the carcase so it can be splayed out and wired to a central post which has two cross beams - one for the forelegs and one for the back legs. This is quite easily wired up without the need for groping in the dark interior of the carcase. Picture below.

A further alternative is a cage which would surround the meat and hold it in place from the outside. We have not used this since it requires a lot of welding and still may be inflexible as to the carcase size, but it does have ease of use to recommend it.

A drip tray under the meat but at a distance from the fire can be useful for basting the meat. Pork generates enough fat to be self-basting but lamb can benefit from the juice in the tray. The tray can also be used to crisp up pork scratchings, which for some are a rare delicacy. If you use two fire baskets with a space between and the pig above the fat can drip into a drip tray laid on the ground below.

Rotating the Meat.

In ancient times there would have been man power available throughout the night to rotate the meat by hand. Modern man usually has better things to do with his time and so we make use of an electric motor. A pal of ours has, however cooked a side of beef on scaffolding poles housed in a hand made brick oven, rotating the scaffold poles every 15 minutes by hand. So it's possible.

The picture above, taken in Stratford in about 1895, shows a wooden cartwheel chocked into place on a long pole which may also be of wood or possibly cast iron. The wheel would have been rotated regularly but not continuously, while the brick walls would have retained and reflected the heat and been quickly dismantled when the itinerant pig roaster moved on. The pig is kept in place using double spikes on either side of the spine.

	Our big engine has a motor rotating a two inch pole inside a cage over an open wood fire. The cage has sides to reduce heat on the operatives and to reflect the heat back on the meat. It can cope with a 150lb pig or two barons of beef with ease. It has wheels running on rails so it can be removed from the heat to cut off large chunks. Here's John standing proudly beside it. There's another picture above.
Crucified. We recently used a piece of kit with a "crucified" 80 pound pig laid flat and wired to a cross (see below). Being flat there was less of a problem heating it through (though the haunches were only just done in time.) The cross was rotated by hand for the 7 hours of cooking - one hour for the top, one hour for the bottom, then repeat; half an hour for the top, half an hour for the bottom, then repeat; fifteen minutes for the top, fifteen for the bottom, then repeat; the last hour at a higher heat to crisp it off. It worked beautifully and evenly.
	The Little Engine Our little engine's motor works off mains electricity and rotates every 10-15 seconds. Its drive fits on to a coupling on the end of the central pole and so can be coupled up when the beasts are set up. The pole is supported on u-shaped cradles and the motor is protected from the heat of the fire by a simple reflector. Wiring up the beasts as close to the central pole as possible and cooking two together helps balance the rotated weight and evens out the strain on the motor.
The Motor As the motor may have to work continuously for nine hours or so, anything which eases the load is to your advantage. This is our original motor, right, made from a Lancaster bomber's bomb-door motor. You may even work a simple hand cranked alternative using dexion for example in the event of the motor failing. Since the aim is to cook the meat evenly, a rotation of 40 degrees every ten minutes might be as effective as a continuous rotation. Though rather more tiring on the operator .... The crucifix position is probably better for hand turning as it offers more area and less density to the heat.
The Reflective Box A later adaptation to this system means we have added reflecting walls of stainless steel to creat an oven around the rotating pig or lamb. Less dramatic to watch, but quicker to cook. Incidentally this picture and the one below were taken at different Feasts. This explains why the motor enters from the left on one and the right on the other.
Here you can see the reflective box opened up. The motor, connected to an electric cable, sits outside the box and turns slowly by means of gearing. A socket connects to a detachable fitment on the pole. The lambs are secured to the pole by long bolts which enter drilled holes in the animals' spines and then through holes in the pole. The bolts are screwed tightly to the exit hole. The carcases then rotate with the pole which rests in a cradle at the far end. Note that the fire basket with its charcoal have been pulled out on rails made from metal rods in order to give access to the meat. The meat can now be cut off in a large piece, the basket and sides replaced for further cooking while the cut piece is sliced elsewhere for serving.
And here is a method I'd like to work towards. I call it The Iron Maiden because it recalls the famous instrument of torture where the victim is closed inside a hinged body-shaped box with spikes on the inside. What larks, eh? Anyway, here's a hinged oven with a hinged wire cage inside, size matching a standard pig carcase, the whole rotating inside the oven with a gas heat source below and to the side plus drip trays to collect the fat so it doesn't catch fire. The motor is attached to the pole protruding from the end of the cage. It would be inflexible if you wanted a larger pig next time but it does away with the tedious wiring and tying of the carcase.

A correspondent recently told us of a most ingenious device for rotating the spit. "A spit roast method I saw used in Bosnia during the war. A half lamb rack was skewered through (and probably wired up too) over a charcoal bed, but it was the rotating method that was particularly impressive: it was a bicycle wheel threaded onto the end of the skewer with plastic cups taped around the rim where the tyre would have sat. The skewer was then propelled by a garden hose feeding water to the cups, the speed being regulated by turning the tap flow up or down.
Crude but effective and the best lamb butty I've ever eaten."

We are often asked what would be the most suitable motor to create your own spit roast. Here is the opinion of a local engineer. Does anyone have other opinions?

See other people's cooking arrangements here

Cooking Times

We used to aim for cooking times of 7-8 hours for a 80 pound pig or 8-9 hours for a 100 pound pig and 5 hours for a lamb. Several times we have taken lambs off earlier than planned because they are more likely to burn on the outside. The problem then is that they cool off and after cutting into slices have to be given a second cooking on a barbecue.

In those days before our stainless steel boxes and charcoal, cooking times were generally longer.  Now that we enclose the beasts, times are significantly shorter.  Typically, the lambs cook in 3 hours, but sometimes 21/2 hours is sufficient depending on how stoked the charcoal boxes are at the outset.  The pork (140lb pig) goes on at 5:00am and is ready at 11:30 – 61/2 hours.  Beef (200lb total) on at 4am and ready by 12:00 noon – 8 hours but this is to “pink” medium rare on average with some parts better done and lots still on the rare side.  As it stays over the heat after being carved, it continues to cook while the mass of meat reduces.  This aspect is down to your judgment.

More about Food >>>