Theory of Charcoal Spit Roasting

If you have ever grilled meat that ended up being charred on the outside and not cooked on the inside, the chances are you used the wrong grilling or cooking method. Direct and Indirect cooking are the two ways to grill food properly.

Direct Cooking

The direct cooking method, is similar to grilling. This is when the food is cooked directly on the heat source. Chefs often use the direct method for foods that take less than 25 minutes to cook: chops, kebabs, steaks, fish, sausages and vegetables. Direct cooking is also used to sear meats. Searing is the concept of sealing meat so that it creates that wonderful crisp, caramelized texture where the food hits the grill. It also adds visually attractive grill marks and adds some flavour to the entire surface. Steaks, chops, chicken pieces, and larger cuts of meat all benefit from searing.

Indirect Cooking

The indirect method is similar to roasting, but with added benefits of the grilled texture, flavour, and appearance that you can't get from an oven. A charcoal spit works as heat rises from the burning charcoal this, circulates around the turning meat to slowly cook the food evenly on all sides, much like a convection oven.

We set up your charcoal spit roast by spreading the burning charcoals evenly along the length of the cooking meat. We leave a metal prodding stick with you so that you can move the burning coals around. As each of the charcoal beads burn they create a white outer crust by gently prodding them occasionally this crust is removed and the beads can produce more heat to cook the spit roast.

We also place drip pan under the centre of the cooking meat to catch the drippings that this prevents flare ups when cooking fattier foods. One of the biggest advantages of spit roasting is that you have full control of the heat that reaches your meat.

While you cant control the source of the heat you can contol the distance the meat is cooking from the heat by moving the meat further from the heat. This flexibility is standard to the design of most charcoal spit roast grills. Rarely a spit roast needs to be moved once set up by one of our staff. If you need advice during the cooking do feel free to call us.