Ever wondered what those bits and bobs are which come wrapped in a plastic bag, in the oven when you buy a new cooker? The chances are, if your cooker is from medium-price-range upwards, that they are the paraphernalia of a rotisserie grill, i.e. a device to allow you to spitroast food in your oven.
You will probably get a small handle, a long thin arm with a pair of adjustable (and very sharp) skewers, and a little tripod. The arm fits into the back of the oven into a small motor, and is turned slowly around whenever the correct setting is chosen. At the door of the oven, the handle rests on the tripod, making sure it is balanced, and the door of the oven is left open as the food rotates and cooks.
Manufacturers are increasingly fitting them as standard, says Margaret Whitla, of Kitchen Flair, in Sandymount, Dublin, "and there are other ovens where you can buy a rotisserie as an extra. But I'm not sure that people use the rotisserie very much, and I often think that they believe it will destroy the oven if the use it".
Spit-roasting is a technique which many of us believe is reserved for summer barbecues, when we can attach a small motor to drive a rotisserie on the barbecue, and produce succulent cuts of lamb, beef and chicken, as well as skewered vegetables, all basted as they cook gently. But it is a wonderfully simple and delicious way to cook in the kitchen, requiring little more from the cook than to occasionally baste the food as it turns. Furthermore, as it is a dry-heat method of cooking, it is very healthy: the food never sits in its own fats and juices.
The cooking takes much longer, of course, as you are using the ambient temperature of the entire oven rather than direct heat, but the only thing you have to master is to correctly skewer the food. This is important, especially with something such as chicken, where the weight of the bird is not evenly balanced. Skewering the food securely is vital, otherwise it will not brown evenly.
I have had marvellous fun spit-roasting chicken and boned shoulder of lamb recently, so do look in the cupboard and see if that plastic bag is there, unopened. Spit-roasting opens up a new dimension for domestic cooking, and is practically failsafe. And here is a cracking recipe to start with, classic Chicken on a Spit.
Chicken on
a Spit
One 2 kg (4 lb) chicken
2 teaspoons salt
2 medium-sized apples, peeled, cored and quartered
60 g (2 oz) celery leaves Lemon basting sauce: 2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
half teaspoon black pepper
quarter teaspoon dry mustard
cayenne pepper
175 g (6 oz) butter, melted
12.5 cl (4 fl oz) lemon juice
12.5 cl (4 fl oz) hot water
Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons grated onion (optional)
Rub the cavity of the chicken with the salt and place the apple quarters and celery leaves in the cavity. To close the body cavity, sew it up or skewer it and lace it with string. Fasten the neck skin to the back with a skewer. Tie the wings to the body. Insert a spit through the chicken. Tie the drumsticks to the spit by looping string over the tip ends and round the spit. Be sure the chicken is well balanced.
To make the basting sauce, stir the paprika, sugar, salt, pepper, mustard and a small pinch of cayenne pepper into the melted butter. Blend in the lemon juice, hot water and a few drops of Tabasco, and the grated onion, if used.
Place the chicken in the oven, with a drip pan underneath it. Cook the chicken for about one and a half hours or until the skin is well browned. Baste often to keep the skin moist and to add flavour. When the chicken is done, carve it and serve it with the remaining sauce, heated.