Roman cooking spit

[Caballo]

I was asked a question last week, where- not for the first time- I didn't know the answer.

Did any Roman cooking spits survive, and what did they look like?

I imagine they would look like a medieval spit, but I am unburdened by knowledge here.........

[Peroni]

I was asked the same question! :wink:

[M. Demetrius]

Well, I've never been asked. Guess I run in the wrong circles?

(I run in circles, yes, from time to time.)

The function would dictate that it would probably look pretty much like any other spit, but the follow up question would have to be, did they use fire cranes, tripods, crossbars, or what? To suspend a pot for boiling over a fire pretty much requires one of those, doesn't it? There is no requirement that it be made of iron, though, if you pay attention, wood works just fine. If they used wood, we'd have not much in the archeological record to identify those sticks as being different from other sticks.

[Carlton Bach]

The only cooking spits I know from Roman contexts are relatively small metal skewers designed to be placed on a roasting grill, a lot like earlier greek oboloi. The technique works very well for small and medium-sized meat chunks and small whole critters.

I suspect most Roman cooks used grilles rather than spits. The square iron grille is a leitfossil of culinary romanitas in Western Europe, hardly a museum is without one.