Dave, I see your point and maybe “negating” is a bit strong. Superfluous might be better. The flareup with drippings will provide more charring. But, if you look at the next you tube video he does his indirect and it looks equally delightful.
It’s just a different take, I don’t see a hard line on either side. Both are valid methods.
And no, spatchcocking and flipping is not going to provide the same result as rotisserie method. I see your thought process but, I think it’s erroneous. The steak is flat on its faces providing more surface for the maillard effect to develop its brown seared deliciousness, a chicken is basically more cylindrical lending itself to spinning and the self basting that it entails.
When you spatchcock the idea is that it will cook more quickly, I do them indirect.
This isn’t really a big issue, just a point of discussion.
I just posted a query to Jamie Purviance for his opinion, then we will have probably a third (or fifth) opinion on this.
BTW, I want your Picanha!
Tim,
A little housekeeping first. Thank you! (and you too Larry). I appreciate the discussion.
To be clear, I'm definitely not saying that there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. I'm just explaining why I think that in some cases, direct heat would be preferred by some. When I do Picanha with direct heat on the roti, I can't recall ever getting any actual charring. The ring elevates the meat higher up than it would be on the grate of course. If for some reason the flame did come up that high, I'd dome it to snuff it out. The purpose of being directly over the flames really is go get the direct heat that's rising, to give a faster maiilard reaction to the meat. The way I do it, I'm actually quite happy if the meat is almost raw 1/4 of an inch in, while the outside is nicely browned and the fat is nice and crispy. I'll slice 1/4inch off the surface, exposing the raw meat underneatw, I'll salt the meat again and put it back over the flame for that raw part to brown. Rinse/repeat until I've made my way through the whole piece. To me, in this particular application, direct works quite well and even better that indirect. That said, If I was going to take all the pieces to a desired finished temp, so that I could plate entire pieces, then I'd go indirect so that the outside didn't get burnt to a crisp while waiting for the inside center of the meat to get to temp.
I guess another way to explain it would be to use a different example. Say we had 2 ribeyes. One was 1/4 inch thick and the other was 1 1/2 inch thick. Would you cook them the same? I wouldn't. On the 1 1/2 inch ribeye, I'd do a direct sear then finish indirect, or I'd start indirect and finish with a reverse sear. The reason for the 2 stage cooking is that while the inside of the steak will take time to get to temp, the outside would burn if you tried to go direct the whole way. However, on a 1/4inch little snack steak, I'd go hot and fast all the way. By the time the center got to mid rare, the outside would be browned nicely, not burnt. There would be no reason to sear first then go indirect as the steak would already be to temp in the center by the time the surfaces are nicely seared. Similar reasons against the reverse sear. If you slow cook indirect, the steak will be done in the center and you won't have any browning on the surfaces. If you did sear, you'd over cook it.
So basically, I'm taking the what is discussed above and applying it to Picanha on a roti.
WRT the chicken, it seems that the point I was trying to make didn't come through clearly. I chose spatchcock, but the chicken could be whole. Or it could be bone in breasts, or whatever. My point is that chicken cooked on a roti tastes different than if you put that same chicken down on the grate and grilled it via whatever manner you chose. There's a reason why places like Costco, Sams, and other places go through the trouble of cooking their chickens on a rotisserie instead of just throwing them onto a rack in the oven. The self basting aspect of it is one huge part. If you look closely in the vid I posted, you can see that wonderfully delicious liquid gold fat running down the surface of the meat and falling into the flames. I'd guess that there's also some impact of the meat itself turning and going through a kind of thermocycling where it's facing the direct heat one minute, away from the heat the next, then back to the heat. Can't say that I understand the specifics of it, or maybe it has no bearing on the discussion at all,?
BTW, I'm not sure what the "next video" is exactly, as I'm seeing something about "a Poor Man's filet"
I did see your thread to Jamie about this topic and look forward to reading his answer. As for my Picanha, thanks. You're welcome to come over any time and get some. Heck, when I shot that video, it was 19 degrees outside and there was snow and ice on the ground. In one of my other vids of that cook, you can hear the ice crunching as I walked around filming. I'm down for doing Picanha ANY time. It ranks up at the top as one of my favorites, along with hickory smoked PR.
