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Spit jacks have evolved from simple hand-cranked devices to mechanized jacks that use weights or clockwork mechanisms. Today, roasting sockets are often built into rotisserie ovens or attached to conveyor belts for cooking whole hog roasts.
A jack is a mechanism that turns a spit, usually over an open fire or fireplace. These could be or still are mechanical in nature or they could be simple hand-cranked devices which were extremely labor intensive. Most cooks will tell you that spit roasts are best when the meat is turned rotisserie-style, steadily and slowly, providing even heating on all sides.
While we often think of spit as horizontal across a fire, some of the earliest and simple roasting jacks were home made. The meat was placed on a string, which was then attached to a metal fixture at the top of the chimney. This hung the meat vertically, and simply required the cook to occasionally turn the meat to get it turning. This would create uneven cooking, as the top of the roast wouldn’t be heated as well as the bottom. Horizontal skewers might have handles that would be turned by hand by cooks, children, housewives, or other domestic workers to produce roasted meat.
During the 18th century, mechanized jacks began to emerge. Many worked on the same principle as a clock and had to be wound several times to create the necessary rotation. Alternatively, some did not work according to the fashion but instead used a series of weights, like authentic cuckoo clocks, which allowed for the mechanized spinning of the meat. If the meat stopped spinning, the weights were adjusted to maintain the spin.
The roasting vent was often built over fireplaces, and some fireplaces had large areas under the logs where the drippings could be collected. Sure, they might contain some ash too, but they could be saved, reused, or discarded. Today’s fireplaces tend to be much smaller and usually lack the height and depth needed to provide ample space for a roasting vent. If you’re lucky enough to live in a house dating back to the 19th century, you may very well have a fireplace large enough to try cooking in the hearth.
While most roasting jacks operated on charge and weight mechanisms, electricity resulted in less use of fireplaces for cooking and other means of turning meat. Huge rotisserie ovens existed before electricity became commonplace, and these types of roaster jacks tended to function like wind-up toys. The wrapping process was time-consuming, because some rotisserie-style ovens could cook numerous roasts at the same time. Some have been designed to cook over 100 roasts at once.
A roasting socket today is often an invisible mechanism, usually built into a rotisserie oven. There are also some electric turners attached to conveyor belts, used to turn spit meat over open fires. Whole hog roasts are now often cooked with these turners and most rave about the results.
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