Help me cater for Christmas
November 28, 2013 10:45 PM Subscribe
My family Christmas lunch has blown out from the usual 15 people to at least 27 and my original plan to roast a whole sirloin in the Webber isn't going to cut it.
I have a motorised spit-roaster (charcoal, rated to 25kg) and I need to cook beef. What sort of cut should I order from the butcher to feed the crowd?
I did a whole pig last year which was fantastic and surprisingly easy, but there were complaints from various members of the family about eating baby animals, it was too cute, it had eyelashes OMG and so forth. Apparently no-one has qualms about eating a cow, which is weird to me but there you go.
Ideally, I'd like something that I can mount onto the spit with a minimum of fuss. My spit looks sort of like this and has roughtly the same hardware - two multi-pronged forks, a single U-clamp and a double U-clamp, all adjustable. I also have access to large amounts of strong wire and skewers of various sizes.
I was thinking about rolling two sirloins together into a log, sliding the spit down the center and fixing them with the forks to stop it all spinning. The only problem I foresee is that this method has surface area which isn't going to get directly roasted, although it will probably get nicely basted from the fat on the sirloin top. I was also considering getting a whole large rump, cutting a tunnel through the meat and spitting it that way, but I'm concerned about the uneven thickness and suspect that I'll have some bits raw and others overcooked if I'm not careful.
I have access to great butchers who know a lot about meat but not about cooking it, so I turn to the hive mind.
What do I need?
I did a whole pig last year which was fantastic and surprisingly easy, but there were complaints from various members of the family about eating baby animals, it was too cute, it had eyelashes OMG and so forth. Apparently no-one has qualms about eating a cow, which is weird to me but there you go.
Ideally, I'd like something that I can mount onto the spit with a minimum of fuss. My spit looks sort of like this and has roughtly the same hardware - two multi-pronged forks, a single U-clamp and a double U-clamp, all adjustable. I also have access to large amounts of strong wire and skewers of various sizes.
I was thinking about rolling two sirloins together into a log, sliding the spit down the center and fixing them with the forks to stop it all spinning. The only problem I foresee is that this method has surface area which isn't going to get directly roasted, although it will probably get nicely basted from the fat on the sirloin top. I was also considering getting a whole large rump, cutting a tunnel through the meat and spitting it that way, but I'm concerned about the uneven thickness and suspect that I'll have some bits raw and others overcooked if I'm not careful.
I have access to great butchers who know a lot about meat but not about cooking it, so I turn to the hive mind.
What do I need?
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posted by SuzySmith at 10:10 PM on November 29, 2013 [1 favorite]