SC - Aw, the Joys of the Florilegium -OT

[Stefan li Rous]

Daniel Raoul replied to my message with:
> Was written:
> << A while back on this list someone brought up their favorite idea of
> how to roast a chicken. Basically it was to hang a chicken by a string
> near the fire and twist the string tight. It would then unwind and
> start winding up the other direction and then reverse etc until the
> motion slowed down. At which time you wind the string up and start
> again. >>
> 
> Actually I seem to recall seeing an illustration which does this one better.
> Above the item to be suspended and thus roasted is placed a curved vane
> which extends into the fire's draught.  The vane, by the force of the rising
> heat, causes the rope to twist until the vane passes out of the draught.
> The rope then unwinds and places the vane back into the draught again.  A
> pan is placed under the meat to be roasted to catch the drippings for
> basting and sauce.  If anyone can help me track down the illustration I
> would be greatly obligated.  I have also considered the construction of a
> period clockwork weight driven spit turner.  If anyone has plans or a source
> for them it would be appreciated.

In the paragraph above and just above in the same paragraph I quoted,
C. Anne Wilson mentions two other spits,
"Meat was still spit-roasted. The turnspit boy was replaced in Tudor
times by the turnspit dog..."
and
"A third type was the smoke-jack, worked by a fan fixed into the
chimney and turned by the updraught from the fire. Its main
disadvantage was that a large fire had always to be kept up in order
to produce suficent draught."

Unfortunately, she shows no diagrams of these types of spits.

- -- 
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****