Hog roasts and spit roasts are an ancient tradition that have recently and fairly suddenly been catapulted into modern man's consciousness. They are now the very height of the stylish outdoor entertaining. There are hog roasts sprouting up all over the country, at many a wedding reception, birthday celebration and festival from Sussex to Glasgow. They're not too rustic for Lords and Ladies, nor too theatrical for a casual summer supper.
The concept of the hog roast and the spit roasting method dates back thousands of years and is described in many terms including the more sophisticated 'rotisserie', the American sounding 'smoke jack' and a thousand and one variations in other languages all over the grand globe.
From the simple (but effective) UK supermarket chicken rotisserie, through to the perhaps less refined donner kebabs - the
spit roast style of cooking plays a very prominent role in modern British life, and has its roots in commonplace medieval cooking and far further back into the archives of history.
Dictionaries define spit roasting as "a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit - a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven", well that just about sums it up (not hugely succinctly I might add) and so it would seem that the testosterone fuelled environment of a sunday barbeque is the modern day interpretation of the spit roast.
Even Charles Lamb (1775 - 1834), of Lamb's Tales fame, has something to say about the legendary Spit Roast. In his essay aptly entitled, 'A Dissertation upon Roast Pig', he notes, "O father, the pig, the pig, do come and taste how nice the burnt pig eats." For anyone who has indeed sunk their chops into the juicy flesh of a slow cooked hog, you'll know exactly what he's on about. There's nothing like it. The skin is golden and glazed, and the meat as tender as you like.
Although the South Africans alongside the English claim the first usage of spit roasting as a common cooking tool, it is and has been commonplace for many centuries and will continue to be so, I hope at least. Now all you need to do is buy or hire your own spit roasting machine- or you could alternatively fashion one out of a log.
