The Best way to Balance a Lamb on a Spit Roaster
To ensure that the load is balanced is the most crucial part of cooking on a spit. Balancing is simple if you’re cooking chicken or boneless meat where it’s simple to slide the spit roast skewer through the centre of the meat. Yet, it might be challenging to balance the meat properly when cooking a piece of meat with a bone in it, like a leg of lamb or a whole animal.
Why a balanced load is important
Some of you may have witnessed this before when the rotisserie motor would look to struggle on the upswing, briefly jolt at the top, and then drop on the downswing if the meat is not balanced properly. Every rotation, this will take place. Why should you care, then?
- Your meat will cook unevenly as a result of the frequent changes in speed.
- Your meat could get loose and fall off due to the jolting and wobbling.
- If the force and uneven loads are too great, you’ll be putting extra strain on your motor and eventually strip the gearbox.
The picture below illustrates what happens when you don’t balance your meat and don’t use a black brace. The lamb was unable to turn as a result of the uneven load, and it later caught fire. When a butcher actually skewered this lamb, it’s essential to know how to balance a lamb for spit roasting.
How can you tell if the load is balanced, then?
BEFORE you place the meat over the fire, skewer and prong it to make sure it is balanced.
You can test to see if the load is balanced once your meat is attached to the skewer and pronged in one of two ways.
The simplest method, if you’re by yourself, is to place the skewer into the spit roaster (without the motor) and see whether you can gradually spin the skewer by hand. You should be able to let off of the skewer when turning it by hand, and it shouldn’t move. If the load naturally leans to one side, this indicates that the load is unbalanced.
If you’ve already started the fire in your spit roaster and are unable to use the balancing technique described above, another option is to ask another person’s assistance and have both of you hold the skewer’s ends in the palms of your hands. You should be able to gradually turn the skewer by hand without the load falling to a heavy side.
How can an unbalanced load be fixed on a spit roast?
An unbalanced load can be balanced in two ways.
Give it another go without the skewer and prongs. You might be able to get the meat more evenly balanced by moving the position of the skewer and prongs inside the meat
Make use of a counterbalancing weight.
The piece that slides over your rotisserie skewer is called the collar.
Weight is the part that balances the meat’s imbalance.
The part known as a lever allows you to move the weight closer or farther away.
The part that connects the weight to the leaver is a locking nut.
Counterbalance weights – an insurance policy for your rotisserie motor
The lighter side of your meat gains weight from a counterbalance weight.
Once the counterbalance weight is put together, you slide the collar over the skewer at the sharp end, as shown in the video below. You slide the weight along the lever to add more or less weight depending on how unbalanced your load is. Less weight is supplied the nearer the weight is to the skewer. Physics gets involved and adds weight when you move the counter weight along the lever and the weight gradually decreases from your skewer.
How To Balance Your Meat on a Rotisserie Skewer YouTube
For your rotisserie, do you need a balance weight or not?
Customers frequently ask me if I suggest they acquire a balancing weight along with their spit purchase. As a general rule, if you’re cooking an entire animal, my response is YES, but not always if you’re only cooking portions of meat without the bone. Therefore, consider it an insurance policy for your rotisserie motor. $35 to $45 is a small sum to pay to make sure everything functions smoothly if you’re spending a few hundred dollars on a new spit motor or entire rotisserie set-up.
