I almost forgot: they use it about once or twice a year, despite having been doing it for about 30 years and being well known for putting on a good feed. Partly because that's about how often they can get groups together to make it worthwhile, and partly because of how much work is involved and how much it takes out of the "core knowledge base" who even when they're taking a break are still answering a steady stream of "how do I...".
Some of the limiting constants have nothing to do with pork, and more on how often guests can take time out of their busy lives to show up.
I spent last week re-reviewing Historic Williamsburg (sigh).
The only two things that kept me interested were the print shop and the kitchens.
As time permits, I've decided to build a fully mechanical, escapement- style roasting jack.
Since it will handle at least 40lb of meat, it'll have to be equipped with counter-weights to balance the load, or else it would have to be set up with monster winding weights. I figure that a five-pronged "balance wheel" with sliding weights external to the cooker would be the easy way to go.
For the escapement - and because it adds visual appeal - I'm leaning toward the "flying ball on a string" mechanism, where, rather than a pendulum, the excapement is driven by throwing a tethered ball around a stanchion. Its inertia throws the stanchion in the direction of the ball's flight, and is given a slight push by the escapment to cause the ball and string to wind up. When it unwinds, it flys around to the other side of the stanchion to reverse the escapement lever.
I think the only difficult part will be to cut the reduction worm that was part of almost every colonial period roasting jack. Lacking a driven rotary table, I'll probably end up marking out and rough machining by hand, then filing the worm to contour.
Larry Jaques fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Some time shortly after Henry Ford invented the charcoal briquette, someone (or a bunch of someones) who didn't know the difference equated cooking over a high heat fire on a "grill" (a gridiron) with the low heat, slow cooking done mostly by country cooks and blacks.
The "barbeque grill" became a popular item, promoted mostly by Mr. Ford in an effort to sell his waste oak from car chasses, and spurred by the new-found leisure time afforded his highly-paid factory workers.
Most Americans continue to call a grill a "barbeque". One _can_ barbeque in a covered grill, but it's painstaking work to maintain a constant cooking temperature in one. A real barbeque relies either on an open fire in a pit or fireplace, or a contained fire in a "fire box" connected by flues to the cooking chamber that provides a gentle heat of only 200F-
220F for as much as 24 hours. The containing structure also traps smoke which flavors the meat.
A grill cooks over very high heat, usually with the fire directly beneath the meat, and only a small distance separating them. Where barbequeing might take a full day, grilling can be completed on something like hamburgers or not-thick-enough steaks in just a few minutes.
Both have their virtues, and most "real" barbeque-ers grill too, but not very many grillers barbeque. Mostly it's because barbeque is too much work, and takes too much special equipment and too much time.
My sister does her Thanksgiving and Christmas hams and turkeys in the covered grill. I flame-broil steaks on my portable grill. Both are propane, which I much prefer over the briquettes'n'kerosene stench.
Barbeque would probably generally use wood as a fuel, wouldn't it?
Got it.
Verily. Thanks.
-- Most people assume the fights are going to be the left versus the right, but it always is the reasonable versus the jerks. -- Jimmy Wales
Briquettes (quality ones) do not have any stench, and no real cook would start any of them with kerosene. Charcoal (lump or briquettes) is started in a chimney starter and is added to the smoker's fire box once it is well started and any residual volatiles are burned off.
Quality charcoals are made from wood, these are generally "lump" charcoals, but there are some briquettes made from lump charcoal production dust and bits and a minimal corn starch binder.
Actually, burgers made from freshly ground (minutes before grill) or adequately thick steaks can be grilled for a few minutes per side, then moved to the side of the grill for a few more minutes to get them done with a lovely outside and nice rare inside. Don't do rare burgers from long ago ground mystery meat though unless you want to get sick.
Briquettes use up so much oxygen that I can't stand being in the area with them. Besides, propane is much cleaner cooking and less messy to clean up after. Judging by the prices I've seen on briquette bags lately, propane is cheaper now, too. What's not to like?
Yeah, they do burn a bit more slowly.
Ah reckon.
-- Most people assume the fights are going to be the left versus the right, but it always is the reasonable versus the jerks. -- Jimmy Wales
When I'm grilling, I use the readily available mesquite charcoal, not briquettes. At least it's readily available here in central Texas, at just about any H.E.B.'s grocery store, 20 lb. bags.
For barbeque, it's wood. I use a little charcoal to get the wood going. I've used oak, pecan, mesquite, and maple in Michigan.
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