It’s simple to forget how much natural lump charcoal you need to cook on a charcoal spit rotisserie because most people don’t use them on a weekly basis.
As a general guideline, 1 kg of charcoal is required for every kg of meat. This will depend on the weather, such as the direction of the wind, and the thickness of your meat. If you’re preparing gyros, for instance, the cooking time may vary greatly depending on how thick and fatty the gyros are attached to the skewer compared to the long and thin distribution of meat along the length of the rotisserie skewer.
When you’ve roughly determined how much charcoal you’ll need, you add about half of it first and save the other half for top-ups. Once the charcoal is light, you can always add more charcoal by simply tossing it next to the already-lit charcoal. However, you are unable to achieve this with heat beads because they are artificial and processed with chemicals that release fumes that you do not want to cook into your food. If you insist on utilising heat beads, we suggest lighting the ones you’ll be using for top-ups in advance with a charcoal chimney fire starter.
See our below video to show how to use a charcoal chimney fire starter
How to Light Charcoal
Use the 8-second rule to determine if you need to increase the height of the spit or add more charcoal once the charcoal is burning and the meat is cooking.
See our video on how to use the 8-second rule
The Perfect Height for Spit Roasting
Redistribute the charcoal as necessary all around the spit rotisserie using a tiny metal charcoal rake or shovel. The majority of the meat is located towards the hips and shoulders when cooking an entire animal, therefore place larger charcoal piles there. For the stomach, very little charcoal is necessary.
Spit roasting is best done at a height where you can comfortably hold your hand for seven to eight seconds.
If you’re cooking different types of meat of various sizes on one skewer and you want them all to be ready at the same time, simply move more or less charcoal to the meat you want to cook faster or slower. Alternatively, the 3 skewers on the Cyprus Spit will also give you 2 different cooking heights at the same time.
Simply add more or less charcoal to the meat you want to cook faster or slower if you’re cooking a variety of meats of varying sizes on a single skewer and want them all to be done at the same time. Alternately, the three skewers on the Cyprus Spit will allow you to simultaneously cook at two different heights.
by: Rhiannon Peterson