It is fair to say that it greatly exceeded my expectations.
The first trial was a rolled pork roast. I pre-cooked the meat at 56C for two hours using an Annova 'Sous Vide' machine... (53C for 90min might be better). Even so, it easily rates as one of the best roasts I have ever tasted. The crackling was simply perfect (every bit of it), the meat was tender, medium rare-juicy all the way through and infused with a delicate smokey flavour. The broccoli pieces grilled on it actually tasted better than the foil wrapped spuds (with butter) cooked at the edge of the coals.
I too started with one similar to yours. Wasn't enough very quickly. Pork roast, then two chickens, then a piglet. Not enough...
Then, I built my own! This was last year's Australia Day feast beast. Everything a boy cold desire - play with fire from 6am, and tend to it for the next 8 hours, and be fed cooling ales. Was the finest lamb I've ever had. Yum, yum, yum.
If you ever do go for a whole beast, look to stuff the abdomen as this will give a more uniform cooking mass to the animal so that the waist isn't cooked way before the chest. This will also keep the inside very moist and helps baste the beast from the inside out. The lamb I stuffed with garlic, rosemary, salt, heaps of bread, olive oil and red wine. Stitched up and cooked over some six hours. A pig I did was more sweetly stuffed with apples and walnuts too.
But I'm crazy that way, . A neat little spit roaster like the one you listed Clive is a great culinary investment!
It is fair to say that it greatly exceeded my expectations.
The first trial was a rolled pork roast. I pre-cooked the meat at 56C for two hours using an Annova 'Sous Vide' machine... (53C for 90min might be better). Even so, it easily rates as one of the best roasts I have ever tasted. The crackling was simply perfect (every bit of it), the meat was tender, medium rare-juicy all the way through and infused with a delicate smokey flavour. The broccoli pieces grilled on it actually tasted better than the foil wrapped spuds (with butter) cooked at the edge of the coals.
You had to be there I suppose.
4.5 stars.
Serious value for money...
Why did you precook it ?
I rotisserie cook on our big BBQ a couple of chooks in not quite 2 hours or pork or lamb roasts without any precook process.
And you're right, it tastes beautiful
Here is a spit we did in Germany back in the mid 80s
Couldnt find a spit to hire anywhere, so used some ingenuity
Childs swing holds it all up.
Tarp was borrowed from the submarine yards ( its fireproof )
The spit was the shower rail from the house.
The wheel came from the boss's wifes pushbike :-)
The power drill is supported by old floorboards and has a high tech gravity loaded drive system with the bit of string controlling the pressure
The speed control was a wedge of wood jammed into a bit of string around the variable speed drills trigger.
Balance was adjusted as required during cooking, by tying wahatever was handy to a spoke.
The second tub was full of roast potatoes :-)
Yummmmmmmmmm
The following is adapted from an article by Jozef Youssef Sous-vide, French for “under vacuum”, is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time—72 hours is not unusual—at an accurately determined temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically between 53 and 60 °C . The intention is to maintain the integrity of ingredients and achieve very precise control of cooking. By cooking the food at a precise temperature, foods are cooked to perfection every time. You may decide that the ideal temperature for the interior of a cut of beef is 57 degrees, but by using any traditional cooking method, no matter how good the chef is, it’s pretty hard to hit that number exactly right every time, and there can sometimes by some considerable difference between the ideal and the reality. With sous vide cooking, a food wanted at 57.3 degrees, will be cooked at 57.3 degrees in simmering water, and because the cooking medium is not hotter than the desired temperature, the food can never be overcooked, no mater how long it’s left in. The second reason that chefs love this is for the intensity of flavoring possible. The food effectively cooks in its marinade, and since it’s vacuum sealed into the meat, the effects of the seasoning are more pronounced. Additionally, because the food is sealed while it is cooking , the natural juices are unable to escape from the meat, and the resulting food is much more succulent. Thirdly, the technique allows for a manipulation of food that is not really possible in any other way. Take short oxtail for example. A really delicious and flavorful cut of meat…but also very chewy, and as such the only way to cook it and make it tender is to braise it low and slow, and keep cooking it until it is thoroughly well done, and all of the collagen in the meat is transformed to gelatin. Trying to eat a medium ox cheek cooked conventionally would be close to impossible. But using sous vide, the ox cheek can be cooked over a very low heat for many many hours, and during this very long and slow cooking, the collagen eventually transforms to gelatin, and what you get is the texture of a sirloin steak, and the incomparable beefy flavor of ox cheek. Pretty remarkable stuff. Cooking at lower temperatures for extended periods of time also has these benefits:
Minimal loss of moisture and weight
Preservation of flavour and aroma as water soluble substances – especially aromatics – are not lost
Flavours are enhanced, colours retained and little or no salt is required
Nutrients are preserved as water-soluble minerals are not leached into cooking water, as cooking in a vacuum bag eliminates this
Research has shown that sous vide gives the highest retention of vitamins vs. steaming and boiling
Basically the sous vide guarantees you precision and uniformity, ie) the roast will be perfect from edge to centre. By reducing the time on the spit roaster to just long enough to get the millard reaction complete on the skin, you end up with less of a temperature graidient through the depth of the roast, and lose less moisture from the meat.
Nahh, he would have still been looking for the sheep.
Finding the full sheep carcass was actually the hardest bit, as the Germans didnt eat much lamb. It was actually easier to get a wild boar, but the spit couldnt hold it :-)
We ended up going to the edge of town where all the "guest workers" ( mainly Turkish ) lived and found a local butcher.
A few beers, the fact we were Australian and some cash did wonders :-)
Nahh, he would have still been looking for the sheep.
Finding the full sheep carcass was actually the hardest bit, as the Germans didnt eat much lamb. It was actually easier to get a wild boar, but the spit couldnt hold it :-)
We ended up going to the edge of town where all the "guest workers" ( mainly Turkish ) lived and found a local butcher.
A few beers, the fact we were Australian and some cash did wonders :-)
. A neat little spit roaster like the one you listed Clive is a great culinary investment! 
