It has been 50 years since I've had a rotisserie for a charcoal cooker. I don't remember much about using it except that turkeys came out juicy and delicious but took a LONG time to cook.
I'm considering buying one for my SnS Kettle and have one question.
Would cooking times be substantially different than smoking with the meat lying on the grate?
Yes, for my Weber kettle, SnS and Cajun Bandit rotisserie set up, my cooking times are generally shorter depending on how full the SnS is with burning charcoal. I don't measure the temp in the kettle, I just stop the roti to check the meat's internal temp with an instant read thermometer. My vents are always fully open and if I need to cut back on the heat or slow down the cooking times, I will then adjust the vents. Have fun. Of course, YMMV.
I find the cooks to be about the same in duration, maybe just a tad bit faster depending on how closely I am monitoring the grill temp. I use a wireless Thermopro TempSpike probe which seems to give pretty accurate measurements of both grill and meat temps. I try to run the grill at about 350 +/- 20 degrees. I use the Weber charcoal baskets with one each side of the spit. Usually works out great. If it doesn’t, I’ve usually had too many cold ones along the way if you know what I mean. 😏😉
The only thing I've cooked with my Weber kettle rotisserie are chickens (usually two 4 to 5 pound birds) or a 19-20 pound turkey for Thanksgiving. I run with the vents wide open for poultry, with the coals either in the SNS or banked on the grate, looking for a dome temp of 325 to 350 or so. There are so many leaks with the rotisserie ring I don't even know if the vents matter much...
The chickens take about 60 to 75 minutes, give or take a few. The turkey takes around 3 hours off the top of my head. 20 pounds is about the limit on the Weber rotisserie motor.
So the time is really similar to cooking on the grates at the same temp, but you get nice browning from the radiant heat crisping the skin as it turns.
When you think you are getting close, you need to stop the motor, take the lid off and check the bird with an instant read thermometer, then start it up again. I usually start checking every 10 minutes after an hour on chicken, and after about 2 to 2.5 hours on the turkeys.
I want to rotisserie some other stuff like pork loin, Boston butt, beef roasts, but have not gotten around to it yet.
MAK 2 Star pellet
Big Green Egg
Fuego gasser
Pitboss ceramic griddle
Eastman Outdoors wok burner
Ooni 16 pizza oven
Cast iron chimenea with pizza steel
Breeo smokeless fire pit, with Titan rotisserie and Titan Santa Maria style adjustable grate
Oklahoma Joe Bronco
Presumably our expanded burn ban prohibits a BGE rotisserie. My limited experience, chicken, leg of lamb, pork butt, suggests slightly shorter cook times. The best thing is a wireless Combustion temp probe.
Unrelated, but am about to smoke a beef arm roast. Hopefully, use of some wood chips in propane smoker will not trigger a call for bail money.
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