13/07/2017
Busy times at Dukes Kitchen with lots of Hogs going out this weekend....
HOG ROAST
A history of hog roasting
Medieval-Hog-RoastThe concept of the hog roast and the spit roasting method dates back thousands of years and is known by many names such as rotisserie, smoke jack and a thousand and one variations in the worldβs languages.
From the lowly UK supermarket chicken rotisserie, through to donner kebabs β the spit roast style of cooking plays a strong role in modern British life, and has its roots in commonplace medieval cooking and far further back in history.
Dictionaries define spit roasting as βa style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit β a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an ovenβ, and thus it could be argued that the testosterone fueled environment of a sunday barbeque is a modern day interpretation of the spit roast.
For historical references one source of information is the Google Scholar tool which lists all spit roast referenced articles it holds in its extensive database. Our favourite article is a Roast Pig by Charles Lamb (1775 β 1834) with its evocative quote βO father, the pig, the pig, do come and taste how nice the burnt pig eats.β
History of Hog Roasting
Although the South Africans alongside the English claim the first usage of spit roasting as a common cooking tool, it is and has been commonplace for many centuries and will continue to be.