How to Balance a Lamb on a Spit Roaster
Balancing your meat
The most important aspect to cooking on a spit is to make sure that the load is balanced. If you're cooking chickens or boneless meat where it is easy to pass the spit roast skewer through the center of the meat, balancing is quite easy. If however you're cooking a piece of meat which has the bone in such as a leg of lamb or a whole animal, balancing the meat correctly can be a bit tricky.
Why a balanced load is important:
If the meat is not balanced correctly, the meat will turn unevenly on the skewer. Some of you may have seen this before when rotisserie motor will appear to struggle on the upswing, temporarily jolt at the top, and then drop on the downswing. This will occur each rotation. So why should you care?
- 1. Your meat will cook unevenly
- 2. You'll be putting extra strain on your motor and will eventually strip the gear box
So how do you know whether load is balanced?
Skewer and prong your meat and test it is balanced BEFORE you put it over the fire!
Once your meat is rigged up to the skewer and pronged, you can test whether the load is balanced by one of two ways.
- 1. The easiest way is to put the skewer onto the spit roaster (without the motor) and see whether you can turn the skewer gradually by hand. When turning the skewer by hand, you should be able to let go of the skewer and the skewer should not move. If it naturally falls to a heavy side, this is a giveway that the load isn't balanced.
- 2. If you've already lit the fire in your spit roaster and can't check the balancing method mentioned above, another way is to elicit the help of someone else and for you to both to hold either end of the skewer in the palms of your hand. You should be able gradually turn the skewer by hand without the load falling to a heavy side.
How to fix an unbalanced load?
There are two options to balance an unbalanced load.
- 1. Take the skewer and prongs out and give it another crack. By repositioning where the skewer and prongs are inserted into the meat, you may be able to get it better balanced.
- 2. Use a counter balance weight.
What is a counter weight?
A counter weight consists of 4 parts.
- Collar - the part which slides over your rotisserie skewer.
- Weight - the part which offsets the imbalance in the meat
- Lever - the part which allows you to slide the weight closer or further away
- Locking nut - the part which attaches the weight to the leaver
Counter balance weights - an insurance policy for your rotisserie motor
A counter balance weight adds extra weight to the lighter side of your meat.
As the below video shows, once you have the counter balance weight assembled, you slide the collar over the skewer at the pointy end of the skewer. Depending on how out of balance your load is, you slide the weight along the lever to add more or less weight. The closer the weight is to the skewer, the less weight that is added. As you slide the counter weight along the lever and the weight moves further away from your skewer, physics kicks in and adds more weight.
So do you need one or not?
I'm quite often asked by customers whether I'd recommend they buy a counter balance weight with their spit purchase. As a general rule, my answer is ABSOLUTELY if you're cooking a whole animal, but not necessarily if you're just cooking pieces of meat without the bone. That said, think of it as an insurance policy for your rotisserie motor. If you're spending a few hundred dollars on a new spit motor or complete rotisserie set up, $25 is a small price to pay to ensure everything runs smoothly.