Rotisserie cooking

[Jeri Lynn]

Hi Everyone,
Hope someone can offer some advice.

I have a homemade charcoal rotisserie. It is made out of a 55 gallon drum and is powered by a motor. It has a cover that is usually closed while cooking.

I would like to make a prime rib on it, I have never done this. I am figuring the prime rib will be about 15lbs.

Would anyone have any idea how long this should cook?

TIA.

[SBETigg]

First, let me calculate how long it will take me to drive to your house. :) No seriously, I have no idea. But I think a cooking site somewhere might be able to tell you if you head to a search engine. Also, of course, keep a good meat thermometer handy. Seems it would be easy to miscalculate. Good luck with it! YUM!

[garymacd]

First, as SBetigg says, get yourself a good quality meat thermometer and make sure you have it calibrated. This is easily done. Let me know if you need to know how.

You can either remove the bones first (remove in one piece), or have your butcher remove the bones for you. (Keep the bones for making beef stock, or place it in the marinade.)

You can take a knife and pop holes on the inside and slip in cloves of garlic.

We marinade ours in a nice dark beer, such as Guinness for a couple of hours. Cut up onions and put some more garlic in the marinade Makes incredible gravy from the drippings.

Place the drip tray on the bottom of the barbecue with no coals underneath it. It will heat up nicely without burning and drying and ensure that any bacteria is dead. Add extra liquid such as beef broth as needed.

Roll and tie it up as tight as you can with butcher twine (Your butcher can do that for you as well. If you do it yourself, four hands work better than two.) and stick it on your spit.

Then cook covered until the internal temperature reaches:

Rare: 120 - 125 F. Centre is bright pink, pink to outside,
Medium Rare: 130 - 135 F. Centre is very pink, brown to outside,
Medium: 140 - 145 F. Light pink centre, brown to outside,
Medium Well: 150 - 155 F. not pink,
Well: 160 - 165 F. uniformly brown throughout.

Baste it occasionally during cooking.

I can't tell you exactly how long it will take; there are too many variables: the size and thickness of the roast, the temperature of the barbecue, how fat the meat is, how you want it cooked, how tight you tied it; but it shouldn't take more than two to four hours. So here's the plan: make one for all your Intercot friends and see how long it takes, (we don't mind waiting, right everyone?) then make the real one for your family and guests and cook it the exact same way, and dinner will be ready to serve when you say it is.

When you take it off the heat, cover it in foil, shiny side in, and let it rest in its own juices for about 15 - 20 minutes. This will let two things happen:
1. It will continue to cook during that time with the internal temperature rising about 10 degrees F., so make sure that if you want it cooked to medium, take it off when the internal temperature is medium rare.
2. It will soak up its own juices and make it more tender than just taking it off and cutting it. (A crime punishable by death in some places :blush:)

Remember that as it cooks, the ends will be done more thoroughly than the middle, so if you have a few who want medium, one or two want medium well or worse :sick: and several medium rares, cook the centre to medium rare.

When using the thermometer make sure to push it in deeply, but don't touch the spit! You will get an inaccurate reading. (I used to think the end of the probe was the sensor, but if you look closely, there is a hole part way up the probe. That is the actual sensor)

Strain the thick bits out of the the drippings and use it either as an au jus or make it into gravy.

Cut it into slices about 3/4" thick, and save me the centre slice.

I know this is probably more information than you wanted, and maybe a bit basic, but I hope you enjoy your meal.