SC - The Kitchen article

[Nick Sasso]

Jeff Gedney wrote:
> 
<<<SNIP>>>
> 
> > Animals were often cooked over the fire in the fireplace on spits.
> they were more frequently boiled, if the corpus of recipes I have seen
> are any indication
> (BTW Ras, I think a bed of wood coals would equate in the mind of a high
> school kid to "fire"... that is putting too fine a distinction here, don't you think?)
> 
> > Spits were long poles of wood on which an animal could be secured.
> metal, is more likely. a wooden spit can only be used a couple of times
> before they burn through 



When considering these two bits of information together, I suspect that
wooden spits were not as disposable as all that.  I have a motorized
spit for roasting up to 250 lb. animal on it.  It is an ash spit that is
quite reusable.  the man who built it has a spit that he has used a
dozen times without appreciable fire damage (6-8 hours of roasting per
session).  

By controlling the size of the bed of coals and banking, I keep the heat
restricted to an area roughly the size of the beast covering the pole. 
Less heat on wood and longer durability of spit.  This does not say that
iron was not used, only that my experience and observation indicates
that wood is durable in this application. (And the whole lamb is quite
divine!)

niccolo difrancesco