A spit ram is difficult to attribute to popular dishes. Its preparation is not an easy task. And if you were inspired to take such a step when you saw a delicious sheep on a spit in the photo, then tune in a serious mood and do not exclude an unsuccessful outcome. Perhaps it’s worth trying to fry it for the sake of the ceremony of many hours of duty at the skewer in nature in the circle of relatives and friends.
Lamb selection
An aged ram is clearly not suitable here. The best option for a skewer is a lamb under one year old. Its meat is tasty, tender and juicy, and it cooks much faster. The maximum age of a ram suitable for cooking on a spit is three years, but it will be noticeably tougher. The optimal carcass weight is 6-8 kg. The maximum is 20 kg. As experts advise, it is better to choose a "girl" for frying.
Preparation
First of all, the lamb must be properly cleaned of blood and wool residues, then prepared for frying. Kurdyuk, as a rule, is almost completely cut off, leaving only a small layer, otherwise the fat will melt and flow to the coals. In addition, such a valuable part is worthless to torment, it will find application.
With the carcass they do the same as with any other meat that they plan to fry over the coals. That is, it must be salted or pickled by rubbing it with salt or marinade. Before that, cuts are made on the legs and back with a sharp knife, into which you need to try to push the lumps of salt. The prepared lamb is left to soak for four hours. Before frying, it is allowed to rub the carcass with salt again.
If you can’t pick up the dishes by size, you can take a large bag and put the carcass in it.
The simplest spit ram recipe:
- lamb carcass;
- a tablespoon of black pepper peas;
- about 500 grams of salt;
- sprigs of thyme and rosemary.
The carcass can be rubbed with vegetable oil, lemon juice and zest, spicy herbs, garlic, zira, etc.
Do I need to start
It is believed that it is better not to stuff the lamb, as the filling may simply not fry. But there is another opinion that you can stuff, most importantly, choose the right stuff. For example, take cheese: even if it is not baked, the dish will not be spoiled. If cheese is taken for the filling, the amount of salt should be reduced.
You can put a large amount of onion, garlic and rosemary inside - in this case the meat will turn out to be very aromatic. Having started a ram, it needs to be sewn up: to make holes in the meat with a knife, to pass the twine and to tighten.
What's with the bonfire
A bonfire must be made in advance immediately after the lamb has been pickled. Coals should burn well and give a lot of heat. Distribute the coals so that the greatest heat is under the thick part of the carcass, and the smaller where the layers of meat are thin.
How to make a sail
This is one of the most difficult tasks in the process of cooking a ram. It is necessary to thread the skewer with great care so that it is parallel to the spine. It is more convenient to do this together. He enters at the hind legs, and exits in the middle of the head.
The ram should be well fixed so that not only the spit rotates, but also the carcass during rotation. It is advisable to purchase a frying device with clamps for the ridge, front and rear legs. If there are no such clamps on the spit, you can fix the neck and legs with pliers and thick wire. If the ridge is well pressed to the skewer, the motor will be less loaded.
It is believed that a ram should be mounted on a spit before rubbing and stuffing it. You can pickle the prepared carcass all night, setting it upright and substituting some container for draining the liquid.
How to fry
Carcass should be installed above the fire when the coals have turned white. A lamb weighing 8-10 kg will be fried for about three hours. The first hour the skewer must be set to a high level and quickly rotated so that the meat does not burn, then rearranged to the lower level and slow down so that it fries evenly from all sides.
During the roasting of a ram entirely on a spit, you need to moisten it every 20 minutes. For this, oil, lemon juice, beer are suitable. As a result, the surface of the carcass is covered with a golden crust.
Another secret: the lamb is not uniform in thickness, so in the first hour of cooking the ribs need to be wrapped with foil.
Before frying, you can wrap the carcass with oiled paper several times and pull it with twine. You need to remove the paper near the end of the frying, so that the meat is browned and acquired an appetizing crust. When the lamb is baked in paper, it does not burn and it is not necessary to grease it with oil and lemon juice every 20 minutes. It is baked in its own juice.
The lamb is ready when the meat begins to separate from the bones. It turns out juicy, tender, soft. The crust is crispy but not at all stiff. There is almost no skin fat - it is all flooded. It is easy to separate the meat from the bones: it is enough to knock on the spit, as it itself will fall on the table.
How to serve
The lamb is placed on a large dish. Zazzyki sauce is served with garnish - rice or potatoes, fresh bread, fresh or baked vegetables. And, of course, alcoholic drinks will be appropriate.
Finally
There is an opinion that the preparation of a skewer ram is impractical due to too different meat in the carcass. It will not be easy to achieve even salting and frying even for experienced barbecue grinders. No matter how hard you try, there will still be poorly heated areas in the depths, and eating meat with a low degree of roasting is unsafe. It turns out that you have to cut off the thickest pieces and fry them separately, before putting on a plate and serving. Or cut off the top baked layer and serve, while the ram on a spit will bake further. Only the loin and ribs can be fried until fully cooked.