So when we left our spit it was just starting - the food was (very professionally I might say) prepared and trussed onto the spit. The coals were burning nicely and the food was spinning. There was a light breeze from the west and it was a balmy 24 degrees (although this had nothing to do with the food).
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| Where we left our animals last time. |
The following is very early in on the cooking episode. In the beginning I was basting with some olive oil (and as the photo shows I liberally sprinkled cracked pepper and sea salt over it). Notice how the coals are not all white yet. Because the meat covered the whole spit I used a 10kg bag of briquettes and put all in at once. I had a spare 10kg bag but didnt use. Probably should have waited till the coals all white -- but patience was never my strong point.
In the following photo you can see that now the coals are all white (all right) and the meat has changed colour - so all looking (and smelling - although I havent quite worked out this smello-vision yet) good.
What about all that smoke you say? (Go on - say it). Well the secret to getting a nice smokey flavour on your spit roasted meat is .. wait for it ... smoke. You can tell I have two degrees to figure these things out. What I do is throw on a few bits of jarrah kindling (thanks Byron) over the coals and they smolder and smoke. The flavour is magnificent.
The meat continues to turn and cook.
From the next photo we are about 1 hour in. The outside of the meats have turned a nice light golden brown. In the photo below you can see the little ducky roasting. After about the second time I basted with olive oil I realised that it didnt need it. I did some spit roast research and basically the rotation of the meat means that any fats dripping out actually just drip back onto itself.
In the next photo you can see the chicken (and the size of it). Notice below the chook in the coals the piece of Jarrah just burning away. The heat comes from the coals but as I mentioned the jarrah adds some smokey flavour.
In the next photo you can see the coals starting to break down into ash. I would guess about 1.5 hours cooking time by about now. Note that I did not add any more coals during the whole process. The last time I cooked a spit (a pork and a beef - if i find photos I will post them) I used 20kg over 7 hours and was adding a few coals every 30 minutes. Probably didnt need quite so many then so used less now.
The meat is nice and golden brown now. Probably been cooking about 2.5 hours.
Around this time (maybe half hour to eating time) I wanted to crisp up the skin of the duck and chicken, so I dropped the height of the spit to closer to the coals and heaped the coals around the poultry.
The following photo is when it is just about done - just before I lowered the meat ...
.. and the final photo is when it is all cooked and just about ready to carve!
The end result was a spectacular duck that was a definitive hit. Crunchy skin and lots of juicy dark meat with just a hint of orange. The plate below shows the remainder of the duck after about 1.3 seconds of putting it down.
The chicken also was a hit. A tad underdone but a massive amount of moist white meat so we could leave what looked to be a bit underdone on the bone (which was thrown on to the spit and eaten later). The chicken was extremely moist for saying it was sitting around getting cooked for nigh on 4 hours. The lemon flavour was throughout the chicken and gave a hint of something extra. Definitely something I will do again (actually Michelle bought two chickens at the time and I have the second one in the freezer and for those paying attention they will know I also have a spare 10kg bag of charcoal so maybe I will cook it soon).
The goat was a bit fatty but tender. Probably wasnt the right cut of meat to be roasted. Next time a leg.
The kangaroo was cooked on the barbie (it was thigh fillets) and served as finger food when medium rare - a nice tender morsel (that we just kept cooking all night although more then once i recall being entertained at the bar and forgot about the roo bbqing so was cooked a but long and was dry but still all got eaten).
The emu sausage was a bit too chili for the youth.
All in all - enough food for everyone and a definite change from a barbie.
Definitely the chook on a lemon will be done again soon. The duck for special occasions I think.
Well - until I cook something else soon (maybe when I make pizzas at Taleahs school next week) - bye.
