Open Fire Cooking - Mechanical Spit Jack

It's time to make and install one of the most sophisticated tools in the 18th-century kitchen.

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[bill]

Townsends now represents the 1% of the 18th century. :D

[littlehills]

this is what youtube is for well done team

[stephisuesse]

I would love a longer cut of this video showing more of the forging, smithing and assembly of this build!

[robertpearson]

As an amateur machinist I’m very impressed with the blacksmithing skills needed to make this without machine tools. As someone who used to cook whole pigs over a wood fire I can appreciate not having the need to be located within a reasonable distance of an electrical outlet. I wonder if there were much larger versions made for cooking much larger animals or pieces of meat?

[jamesellsworth]

It takes a master smith to make this! What an heirloom this will be.

[phylliscraine]

The Salem Cross Inn in West Brookfield Massachusetts still cooks on an 18th century clockwork roasting jack. From November to April they have a Fireplace Feast event that is a full dinner cooked on their immense roasting jack. I've been lucky enough to have been at this event and the meat is so delicious, it tastes nothing like the roasts we produce in our modern ovens. The jack came from and old inn in Maine. It had to be disassembled, transported, new parts were made and then installed. With no drawings or instructions. The jack is immense and it fills up an entire fireplace that is 6 feet tall and at least 6 feet wide. One challenge is loading the spits with multiple cuts of meat tightly enough to keep the meat turning instead of just hanging on the spit while the rods turn.

[markpetten]

Absolutely amazing blacksmith work not to mention the ingenuity of those in the 18th century.

[garyrichardt]

What a magnificent piece of functional artwork by an exceptional artist.

[Tippswimmer]

Thank you everyone at Townsends for wonderful, entertaining, and informational videos!

[Lorriann]

Wonderful to see Brandon back with us for this episode. His blacksmithing skills are amazing. Thank you for this look into what was needed in the 18th century, by blacksmiths and cooks.

[Periapsis_]

Always great to see Brandon on the channel! Amazing work!

[RealityOrganized]

This is one of the best subject matters you've ever covered.

[amaruqlonewolf]

Brandon's such a trooper. The man does such fantastic fine work. I know who I want to be with if an apocalypse comes by.

[FrikInCasualMode]

Intricate and precise mechanism. Beautiful piece of engineering and craftsmanship right there.

[olddawgdreaming]

Excellent work Brandon and Jon. The Mechanical Spit Jack turned out remarkable Brandon, that was well thought out and perfectly worked to make everything run smoothly. Jon, the meat and mushroom ketchup looked delicious when you cut it into nice slices. Thanks for sharing and the fun you both had doing this video. Fred.

[Martial-Mat]

Wow, what a remarkable piece of engineering for the period. Fantastic craftsmanship Brandon. Really impressive!

[BuckMckawtheotherone]

Wow! What a work of art. Thank you for showing this. He truly is a skilled blacksmith.

[MarkyD.Ingram]

I would totally be interested in a video series much like the cooking video but instead more based on the hardwares of history much like this Spit Jack apparently there's a book from the 17th century called Mechanick Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works by Joseph Moxon with blueprints for another Spit Jack though it seems that was mounted differently according to a photo I saw. Either way, would be seriously interesting to see more mechanical or just generally hardware be it more simple or complex it'd still be interesting to see more metalworking or engineering efforts through earlier history.

[dwaynewladyka]

Incredible craftsmanship on making that spit jack. Well done. Cheers!

[sailorknightwing]

Always great when we get to see Brandon work