Best for: The oldest grill-out in literature — mixed meats, one fire, and nothing but salt.
The record here is a poem, and it’s the first grill scene in Western literature. In Book 9 of the Iliad, envoys come to Achilles’ tent to beg him back into the war, and Achilles cooks for them himself: he carves the back of a sheep, a fat goat, and the chine of a great hog, slices the meat, and spits it, while Patroclus builds the fire high, spreads the embers when the flame dies down, lays the spits over them, sprinkles the meat with salt, roasts it, and serves it on platters. Three thousand years later, the method needs no improvement.
Our grilled take keeps the ancient discipline: mixed meats on spits over a real bed of embers, seasoned with salt and nothing else. Goat joins the lamb and pork if your butcher has it; lamb and pork alone still tell the story.
Grill: Direct heat over a mature bed of coals. Equipment: Grill or fire pit, long metal spits or skewers, instant-read thermometer. Course: Main dish.
Ingredients
Total: 45 minutes
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder or leg, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
- 1 pound boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
- 1 pound goat stew meat, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks (optional — butcher permitting)
- 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt, plus more at the table
- Warm flatbreads or crusty bread, for serving
Directions
Build the fire first. Light a generous fire or a full chimney of charcoal and let it burn down to a deep, even bed of glowing embers with no flame — Homer’s cooks waited for exactly this, and so should you.
Carve and spit the meats. Cut the meats into even chunks, thread each meat on its own spits (they finish at different moments), and keep the pieces snug but not squeezed.
Salt like Patroclus. Sprinkle the spits generously on all sides with the coarse sea salt — the only seasoning the poem allows, and all well-raised meat over embers really needs.
Roast over the embers. Lay the spits over the coals and roast, turning often, until the pork reaches 145°F and the lamb and goat are browned at the edges and rosy within, 15 to 20 minutes depending on the chunk and the fire.
Rest on platters. Slide the meats onto warm platters and rest them 5 minutes while someone tears the bread — Achilles served the meat himself; you may delegate.
Serve at the fire. Set the platters in the middle of the table with more salt alongside and eat the way the poem’s men did: hot, plain, and with your hands near the bread basket.
Grilling tip: Cooking over embers rather than flame is the whole technique — if flames are licking the meat, wait ten minutes. The patient fire gives you char without soot.
