Whole baby lamb spit-roast

[BSK]

Help! I'm having a party for a large group in April and have committed to spit-roasting a whole baby lamb. Anyone ever done it before? I can find the lamb (I'll be in Charlottesville, Viriginia) but I need some advice on how to dig and build the spit-roast. Apparently it's a Druze wedding dish and I found something in inmamaskitchen but not very detailed. I have lots of land and strong men who are willing and able.

[Chris Amirault]

I'm sorry to say that, while I've eaten spit-roasted baby lamb in the Middle East, it was always prepared by other folks. It seemed like a pretty straightforward affair, however: olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a little lemon to start, then doused with the dripping fat as needed. (The heat usually came from the back side and not under the lamb, btw.) It was one of the truly fantastic things I've ever eaten, too, and seemed hard to do wrong. Good luck -- and please record it for us here. I'd love to see it!

[ned]

I had a real baby one--8lbs cooked on a thing called a spitjack. But it was over a hearth fire. Not a pit. Remains the best meat I have ever eaten.

http://www.spitjack.com/

[BSK]

Hi Ned - Thanks for the link. I've seen those spits in France - usually with a hand-crank and they are great. I didn't know you could find them here in the States. Do you remember how long it took to cook the lamb - people are telling me 3-4 hours? I'm trying to build one outdoors that can be used on a permanent basis so I was thinking just an old-fasioned barbeque pit maybe fashioned out of a cut open 1/2 oil drum set in rocks in the ground with some two by fours with dowel rods at three levels on the sides, metal skewers that can hold up to 20 lbs (since the baby lamb will be about that much with stuffing) but I need to figure out how to make a hand crank.

[ned]

Hi Ned - Thanks for the link.  I've seen those spits in France - usually with a hand-crank and they are great.  I didn't know you could find them here in the States.  Do you remember how long it took to cook the lamb - people are telling me 3-4 hours?  I'm trying to build one outdoors that can be used on a permanent basis so I was thinking just an old-fasioned barbeque pit maybe fashioned out of a cut open 1/2 oil drum set in rocks in the ground with some two by fours with dowel rods at three levels on the sides, metal skewers that can hold up to 20 lbs (since the baby lamb will be about that much with stuffing) but I need to figure out how to make a hand crank.

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It took a couple of hours I think. The chef had spitted the lamb in an extraordinary way that defies easy explanation. The effects were as if it had been butterflied. For 20 lbs I think three hours is a good guess. (Errant thought: have you thought about using a caja china? http://www.lacajachina.com/ It would be great for lamb) You should plan liberal use of a meat thermometer. Also the trick I learned from this guy in Italy is that the heat should never come from the fire. It should come from coals pulled from the fire. The flame is no friend of roasted meat. The fire should be off to the side and coals pulled from there to under the beast. Your mention of the drum is what sparks this thought.

Spits are tough. Have you thought of butterflying?

[BSK]

Thanks for yet another great site - how do you know about such things?!? I'm passing it along to my friend in Charlottesville for consideration (it's her house and land that is being donated for this event).

I'd rather not butterfly since originally I had been thinking of a Moroccan couscous/dried fruit stuffing and it's so unique to see the animal turning and roasting whole but it's a good idea from a simplification perspective.

I spoke with a French chef friend who did a bunch of baby pigs at a party a few years ago and he said the lamb could be done whole as long as it wasn't over 20 lbs. but he suggested that I don't stuff it because that will slow things down cooking wise and make it heavier.

I'm hoping that if we have some guys with enough beer in them to keep the handle turning constantly the time shouldn't be too much of an issue. Doing something electric would be great (sort of like old-fashioned versus new-fangled ice cream making) but it's beginning to seem too complicated to build and too expensive to buy. One of the kids is a great banjo player and he and his dad (who was in the Peace Corps in Mali years ago) just got back from the music festival in the desert in Mali so I am hoping that what with alcohol and music and stories nobody will much mind if there's lots of turning to do or even if the food isn't actually perfect.

[ned]

Sounds like you're going to have a lot of fun.

Another tip: balancing the animal well on the spit is really important, as well as fastening it rigorously to the spit-stick. Otherwise it'll flop around and/or spin on the spit rather than smoothly rotating with it.

[wesza]

In roasting "Baby Lamb" either butterflied, split, quartered or whole it's important to keep in mind that most lamb thats considered baby often weights between 12/22 pounds. A good example of this is as served in Spain where 1/4 of a split roasted 12 pound baby lamb is considered a individual serving.

I generally prefer slightly heavier lambs in the 18/22 class {average whole spring lamb weighs between 36/42 pounds)

We sear them initially under higher heat for exterior color and allow slow roasting until done to the preferred temperature. Most middle easterners prefer it being done without any color. If it's cooked medium rare it suits guests from other regions.

Even if it being roasted on a split it wise to cut it into 1/4's or even 1/8's and stack it in pans being kept warm in a oven until ready to be served as it is easier to keep moist while basting with the saved juices during this period.

The butcher can precut the carcass so it's easily split and disjointed prior to serving if he has the expertise to know how the carcass breaks for serving. This greatly simplifies the service. If your familiar with preparing lamb this way , then I'm sure you will realize the impotence of doing this preparation ahead of time.

Enjoy, it's well worth the trouble to share the results as few things taste better then whole roasted baby lamb.

Irwin

[ned]

Here's a long thread about spit cookery that was initiated by the a post about the spitjack:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...613&hl=spitjack

[jmcgrath]

Weber makes an electric motor driven spit insert for their 22 1/2" kettle. I'm not sure the maximum weight capacity, but the picture shows a turkey being cooked.

Jim

[athinaeos]

hello, i have done this many times - it is the traditional greek food on Easter Sunday

here are the key issues:

- weight of the lamb: it should be between 20 and 30 lbs - if it is less, the bone to meat ratio is very high

- do not put anything inside it - the whole point of the exercise is to taste top quality meat - all you need to do is season the meat with coarse sea salt, pepper and garlin and oregano (if you like it) - rub the garlic and the oregano on the meat

- one of the risks in putting the lamb on the spit is that the lamb disengages form the knots and although the spit rotates, the lamb remains stationary - this is a disaster that can be avoided by asking practical advice from someone who has done something similar - i could not possibly describe how to do it here

- get real charcoal - the flavor of the meat will justify your choice

- place the lamb not directly above the fire, but slightly in the side

- allow for 30 minutes of cooking for every 3lbs (but this is valid only for the wight range i gave at the beginning)

- CRITICAL: at the beginning of the roasting you should place the spit relatively hich and rotate at high speed - you do this because yo do not want to burn the skin and the flesh - it will ruin the taste of the whole thing! after one hour of "warming up" you can start lowering the spit and reducing the rotation speed, but you should also monitor the fire - you do not want at any stage of the roasting the fire to be very strong, because even if it does not burn the meat it will dry it

- when is is done? the leg and sjoulder bones should be totally exposed

i hope this helps

[DerekW]

Preventing the beast from working loose from the spit:

Perhaps this counts as cheating, but when faced with a similar situation [pig on spit] I had good results using the spit claws pointing outwards, inside the carcase, and a wrap of chicken wire mesh round the outside. Some soft iron wire cinches kept it all in place, even on a rented spit which had a huge backlash in the gearbox, allowing the whole kaboodle to rotate in freefall about 90 degrees once every rotation.

cheers

Derek

[budrichard]

Weber makes an electric motor driven spit insert for their 22 1/2" kettle. I'm not sure the maximum weight capacity, but the picture shows a turkey being cooked.

Jim

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I have one of these and it is not adequate i.e. long enough for a baby anything. I had to cut the head off a 20 # suckling pig to get it to fit and out last 25# pig would not fit even with the head off. Too bad Weber doesn't make one of these for thier Ranch Kettle. -Dick

[ned]

Another trick for secure spitting is to use another short stick just a little longer than the beast itself. Fasten very tightly to the one passing through the inside, so that the animal is squeezed between the two.

Wish I had pictures. Ill hunt around for some. Did a got and a pig a couple of years ago using thiis method. Worked great.

Edited March 10, 2006 by ned (log)

[maher]

ive done a number of spit roasted lambs and baby pigs, so here are some random thoughts:

1. the absolutely critical part is getting the lamb on the spit right. it has to be very well balanced or it will either stop turning, the spit motor will burn out, or parts will burn while others are raw. you need to think of every cross section of the lamb as a circle around the spit with equal weight on all sides, or at least a good balance between the meat on one side and the spine on the other. spend as much time as you need doing this until it spins freely, and will not swing violently to the same rest position on the spit every time. use plenty of wire to tie to to the spit to get the balance right. i have found that i can help the balance with a couple of strategically placed metal skewers where the weight will not balance. i have also tied some metal bolts, or even an old metal fork or two to help balance the thing out. this part is a pain and takes forever but it is the critical one.

2. make sure you fasten the lamb to the spit very well. if you like your lamb fall off the bone tender, it can end up literally falling apart especially in the rib section where baby lamb is really tiny, and you end up with two pieces hanging off the spit,l or worse, two pieces in the dirt.

3. spread the lamb on as long a spit as you can, (arms forward legs back) to give you a long thin profile, this will allow better heat to all parts and you can control your charcoal, as you need a heavier amount of charcoal at the legs and shoulder where you have more meat, and less at the middle where you have less. as you cook and measure the temperature, you can adjust more charcoal to the areas that need it.

4. i agree with other posts that stuffing is a bad idea, especially for a first effort. also, with a baby lamb, the rib area isnt substantial enough to hold stuffing through the turning and cooking process, and it will leak out and most likely disintigrate.

5. you need some form of fat to keep the lamb moist. when using middle eastern lamb i use its butt fat, but if you dont have access to that i have had great results using caul fat which you can get from any butcher. this is a web like membrane that they get from around the heart and liver of pigs as i understand it and you can basically wrap it around the lamb periodically as you cook. this will melt as you cook and give an amazing flavor. of course if you have a dietary restriction to pork you can use either an oil based marinade or butter. you have to be careful with oil based marinades though as they can make the outside meat burn while the inside remains uncooked, especially in the leg.

6. i would spend three or more hours of the cooking with a low heat (you should be able to hold your hand close to the lamb for a few seconds before it is too hot to keep there) and then finish with thirty mins of high heat to brown. i find if you sear the outside with high heat first you end up with the lower heat not getting through to the middle as well. while i like most of my meat rare, i like spit roasted lamb cooked slow and long (think more like fall off the bone ribs rather than rare steak) if this is what you want, note it the inside will only be cooked through when the thermometer registers close to 200 degrees.

7. if you have access to a caja china, it produces amazing results. i have almost stopped spit roasting i like the caja china so much

8. i find spit roasting works really well when you have brined the lamb for 24 hours or so, and that the lamb needs about three or four days between butchering and cooking. otherwise the meat tends to seize up and be tougher than it should be.

i hope this has helped. if you have specific questions id be happy to take a stab at them

maher

[BSK]

Thank you all for such great advice.

I'm so looking forward to the event and it truly has become an EVENT. The local goat milk/cheese man knows a local farmer who knows a local rancher who raises grass-fed organic animals and will be providing the baby lamb in the neighborhood of 20 pounds. The local seafood provider knows a man who has built his own huge spit complete with electric motor and hollow rods and claws for holding the body onto the rods and he is supplying us with photos (unfortunately his spit is being used for a large family party that weekend but he usually grills twenty chickens or a couple of baby pigs at a time so it should work) and the local carpenter (and ex-Mali Peace Corps volunteer) is going to analyze the photos, talk with the spit owner and build one for us to spec. His son, recently back from the Mali Festival in the Desert, will provide music on his banjo and oud. We're planning on having a drip tray underneath filled with cipolline onions, baby beets/potatoes/carrots, whatever wild mushrooms we can hunt up, and whole heads of rose garlic so that should cover veggies. The local French wine/food chef is going to supply the wine (I'm hoping for some old 30-year-old Italian Barolas that I know he has stashed away behind all the great French Bordeaux although I'd be perfectly content with a decent Chateauneuf de Pape) and his French-trained chef/patissiere friend is bringing oysters and mussels (that we'll grill open-faced topped with basil pesto, tomato pesto and blue cheese for a tri-color effect and eat as starters with toasted baguette and some Spanish cava) and, of course, dessert. I'm arriving a couple of days ahead to start making a bunch of Moroccan tasting dishes (chick peas with cumin, carrots with ginger, herb-roasted tomatoes and peppers, marinated cucumbers, roasted eggplant, goat-cheese stuffed dates, lentil salad...) and my friend is working on pies and home-made ice cream and fresh-fruit sorbet. Needless to say the party is growing by leaps and skills and photos shall be posted for all to see. If you're in the neighborhood (Charlottesville the 23rd of April) give a holler, lend a hand, bring a dish and stop on by.