The origins of the Commercial Electric Chicken Rotisserie are very interesting subjects for me personally, as I LOVE chicken especially done this way.
So let us go a bit back in history to find out the story behind this unique and well-loved oven.
The word rotisserie is a French word and this way of cooking appeared first in Paris around 1450 in shops and restaurants that employed the Escoffierian brigade de cuisine, with a chef called a rotisseur that was in charge of the grilled, spit roasting, oven roasting and in some cases even fried food.
Today it has evolved into an oven that allows anyone with the know-how to roast poultry, meat, and even vegetables in any fast food or food service establishment across the western world. By slowly rotating the food items, sometimes more than one at a time, the rotisserie makes sure you get an even heat across the many items in the oven, cooking it to perfection.
Going back again in history the medieval cuisine and the kitchens of those times were equipped mainly with spits as it was the chosen way of cooking especially for large families.
Today it is all modern and driven by electric powered motors but back then it was the job of a spit boy or spit jack as they were known.
He would stand next to the fire with whatever meat on the spit and turn that spit until it was cooked to the master’s tastes.
” I wonder isn’t this may be where the idea and the fact that men are the preferred outdoor cooking or barbecue chef?”. Just a thought!
Later the spit boy was replaced by roasting jacks which was mechanical turnspits which were first powered by dogs on treadmills and then the invention of steam-powered mechanics and the clockwork mechanisms
So from that humble beginning of the spit boys to the modern era of the Commercial Electric Chicken Rotisserie, we can see how nothing much has changed and we still love that way of cooking.
In modern times we have two types of rotisserie, the horizontal and the vertical rotisserie.
The horizontal rotisserie is the traditional way since day one and the whole piece of meat gets cooked slowly while being turned slowly.
The newer version of the vertical rotisserie is when meat, sometimes different types are layered on top of each other on a vertical spike and also turns.
Sometimes they would out layers of vegetables in between the meat as well.
The main difference here would be that they don’t cook the whole lot all done at once, but the heat is either supplied from the side or from beneath and driven up along the outer surface and as that surface gets cooked they would shave the cooked meat off and served (especially with Schwarma’s) and the remaining uncooked meat would start cooking again and so it would go on.
So to summarize rotisserie cooking especially chicken gives you the right flavor and texture when cooked to perfection, so go out and try some.
No Comments