Rotisserie

This is my entry for this week's LaPiS theme: kitchen gadgets.

From rotisserie

It was my husband's birthday gift for me...which I used yesterday for making lechon using ham (see pic below to judge for yourself how crispy it appeared.)

I saw this first at my friend Ana's house. She was making lechon manok with it using cornish hens (the small ones). It does a good job of basting the chickens with its own juice as it cooks.

I actually asked my husband for it. I wanted to see if I can make pork lechon crispy in it, while basting itself with its fat drippings as it rotates. Maybe the skin will turn out crispy if only fat will coat it, and not watery juice. Maybe it will stay soft. I plan to use only a small cut of probably shoulder ham with skin on. If it won't turn crispy I might just end up using the oven still.

We'll see...

UPDATE as of 12-21-08:

I used this rotisserie yesterday instead of using the oven for lechon. As usual, I boiled the ham in water and spices for 30 minutes (smaller cut than my previous), let the excess fluid drip. I used the rotisserie's spit rods to do this, placed in the rotisserie itself to drip on the pan, with door open. The surface was very dry the next day, so that crisping the skin was very good, better than deep frying like in lechon kawali yet, less

From rotisserie

fat!!! However, I started cooking about 2.5 hours prior to serving time (because that was how I guessed it would take to get the skin crispy and the interior hot enough), but it was actually ready after an hour! The burnt look here was because I re-heated twice: one was 30 minutes before the planned serving time, and the other 30 minutes before the estimated arrival of our latest expected guest. Next time, I will know to start running this one hour before lunchtime (or supper time). The skin was super crispy!


Hubby liked the meat portion of this ham. (Note: "Ham" is pork part from hip area to knee; it does not necessarily mean cured. However, all the ham I have in my freezer is cured. In the same manner, they refer to pork belly as "bacon," whether sliced thinly or not, whether cured or not. I have requested to keep slabs of pork belly instead of turning them to bacon, but apparently they are so used to curing these, that I ended up with slabs of cured bacon...maybe it will be ok to use for lechon kawali, or I might roast in this rotisserie as well.)