Spit Roasting a Muntjac.

[basil]

Has anyone done this?

 

[deerstalker.308]

You can get arrested for that sort of thing!

Pm stalker.308 he does one most summers for a party.

 

[davebeds]

You can get arrested for that sort of thing!

Pm stalker.308 he does one most summers for a party.

 

[stalker.308]

Ok, it went something like this:



followed by a very tasty meal accompanied by a barrel of homebrew!

Doesn't have to be a complicated setup as you can see. All I did was start a fire and keep two piles going one each side of the muntjac so it is not under direct heat, then go and turn every so often. It did take far longer than I thought it would as it is not direct fire, if memory serves me right it was ready it 4 hours, would have liked to have had it more done in places for the squeamish so maybe 5 would have been more spot on. It was fresh though i.e. never frozen and a week old.....

 

[stalker.308]

p.s. I had a bowl of oil with some chilly flakes in it and a turkey baster, and just squirted oil over it at regular intervals! The stick it was put on was freshly cut green wood so that it did not catch as readily, which it didn't!

 

[Pine Marten]

I would have thought a muntjac lacks enough fat to make it a decent spit-roasting candidate. That said, I think you could stuff it with a stuffing containing a fair amount of fat and moisture (herbs, breadcrumbs, fatty bacon, something like that), sew it it, and truss up the legs so that they're up against the body, as you do a chicken. You'd then be cooking a more homogeneous mass that would be to some degree self-basting.

 

[stalker.308]

I would have thought a muntjac lacks enough fat to make it a decent spit-roasting candidate. That said, I think you could stuff it with a stuffing containing a fair amount of fat and moisture (herbs, breadcrumbs, fatty bacon, something like that), sew it it, and truss up the legs so that they're up against the body, as you do a chicken. You'd then be cooking a more homogeneous mass that would be to some degree self-basting.

As you can see I had no intention of spending more than 5 minutes knocking something together and getting it on the fire. Fat or no fat, I am sure it does make a difference hence why pigs are always spit roasted, but all the same it was fantastic, the meat was so moist. I could of course have steaked it all up and just plain old BBQ'd them but where's the fun in that, I was simultaneously doing that with fallow steaks on the bbq!

For the money, the fun, effort and the taste, I will be doing it again!

 

[howy308]

I bet it cooks better with embers rather than wood. I thought you need hard wood to smoke?

 

[deerstalker.308]

A bowel of oil hey? Must keep you very regular........

 

[pete evans]

never tried this but Ive been to a few pig roasts that the fijian guys at my rugby club put on. The most simple set up had a forked stick at one end and a pallet at the other end. As the fire got cooler they chopped a bit off the stick and moved down a rung on the pallet.
If I was doing a muntie I suspect a a bit of added fat would be needed.