Lamb on the Spit

A South African favourite for any special occasion with a lot of people is the Lamb on a Spit Braai. This can feed anything from about 25 to 40 people, depending on the size of the lamb and the participants appetites.


It can be an absolutely wonderful meal, accompanied by fresh bread and salads. However it has been many years since I have experienced a really good one. It is such a simple meal to cook that I am always amazed at how people can get it horribly wrong.


O.K. the first things are the fire and the actual spit. The fire needs to burned down to a good bed of coals and then the coals need to be heaped into both the shoulder and leg area's as these parts take longer to cook the the middle of the lamb. You need to have another fire burning so that you can add more coals as necessary. The spit should be made of Stainless Steel. A mechanized rotating spit works much better and requires much less basting than a hand turned one. As it is turning the fat from the lamb bastes itself as it is cooking. A word on the basting sauce. A simple basting sauce of sunflower oil, lemon juice and some braai spice is all you need. Forget about all these "secret" concoctions containing mayonnaise or whatever.


You need to braai for 4 or 5 hours until the lamb is ready. The cooking time is dependent on several factors such as the size of the lamb, the heat of the coals and the height of the lamb above them. I once went to a spit braai and the lamb had been braaied from 10.00am. The cook had placed the lamb too high above the fire and at 10.00pm that night it was still raw. It is trial and error and good judgement.


O.K. sounds simple. This is usually where things start to go horribly wrong. A lot of people, after carving the lamb up then start to do terrible things to it. A common error is putting it in serving dishes and then pouring some or other disgusting "secret" concoction over it.Usually containing mayonnaise, barbeque sauce, tomato sauce and a few other weird ingredients or a combination of all. You are left with a greasy disgusting mess. The perpetrators of the these crimes should be strung up and beaten. One guy I know wraps the whole lamb in tinfoil and braais it. When it is cooked, he cuts it up and immerses it in his own recipe sauce, probably containing all of the above and serves. It is one of the worst things I have ever eaten. At another work Xmas party there was a spit braai done by a "professional" caterer. The lamb was braaied somewhere else and bought to the party. Cold and congealed fatty crap was what I remember. I have yet to have one decent lamb on the spit prepared by one of these Professional Spit Braai specialists and believe me, I have had plenty.  


On a last note. A 1st grade lamb is often better than a "Super" grade one as there is less fat. Because you are cooking it for a long time, the 1st grade one is just as tender.