Ox on a spit

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 1 ox, hung for about 8 days, about 300 kg
• 20 liters of brine, 5 – 6°
• 8 liters of oil
• 2 kg salt
• 250 g pepper
• 10 kg onion(s)
• 5 kg leeks
• 5 kg celeriac
• 5 kg carrot(s)
• n. B. Garlic to taste
• 500 g salt
• n. B. Spice(s) to taste
• n. B. Stock cubes or instant stock to taste
• 1.2 kg sauce powder, dark
• 20 liters of water
• 10 kg herb butter with garlic for serving

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 10 hours; Total time approx. 12 hours

A whole ox is enough for about 500 portions – so festival dimensions

Preliminary note from the Chef’s Recipe Editing Team: You need special equipment and the appropriate experience to grill an ox. You’re more likely to hire a reputable butcher or caterer if you want to offer your guests ox on a spit. Nevertheless, we found it interesting to learn how it’s done in South Africa. Inject the ox with approximately 15 liters of 5-6°C salt brine. Then skewer it on the ox rack. Drill through the vertebrae with a drill and screw the iron bracket firmly onto the shaft. Bend the leg backward and secure it with the stainless steel rack. IMPORTANT: The ox on the spit must not wobble. To give the spit stability and balance, cut off the thick shanks from the forequarters, debone them, portion them, and cook them with the topsides from the leg, also cut off, in the oven for two and a half hours. Be sure to add the draining liquid to the sauce—it adds a great flavor! The sauce yields about 50 liters and is prepared as follows: Clean and wash the onions, leeks, celery, and carrots. Chop them finely and either mince them or puree them with a hand blender after the first cooking phase. Place them in a sufficiently large pot, add salt, garlic, spices, broth, and 10 liters of water. Let it simmer for 1 hour. Then dissolve 1.2–1.5 kg of dark sauce powder in 10 liters of water, add it, and bring back to a boil. You can keep the trimmed meat warm in the sauce. During the cooking process, while stoking the fire or adding more logs, trim some meat and try it—delicious! After it has cooled, you can cut the beef into 0.8–1 cm thick slices on a slicing machine and keep it warm in the sauce. This makes for a more attractive serving dish. Tip 1: We’ve had great experiences cutting a fresh piece of beef and adding it to a pre-cooked piece with plenty of sauce. The right bread, coleslaw, sauerkraut, even dumplings and red cabbage are excellent accompaniments. Tip 2: Do you have something that needs to be used up? Something crunchy? Something fattier? A bit of the end cut? Ask around, and you’ll find grateful takers. However, if you serve the same thing to the same guest, they’ll protest and not like it… Guaranteed!