The wheel is a style of roasting on a spit – a long solid rod used to hold food, it is cooked in the fire of the fireplace or campfire, in the oven or grilled skewers. This method is generally used for cooking large pieces of meat or whole animals, such as pigs, turkeys, goats or historically, entire cattle [dubious - discuss] rotation cooks the meat evenly in its own juice, can be easily access to constant self – basting.

In medieval and early modern kitchens, the spit preferred way of cooking meat in a large family. A servant, preferably a boy, sat near the spit slowly to a metal rod and cooking the food, he was known as “spit boy” or “spit Jack. Mechanical turnspits (“the roasting jack”), and later invented the first power dog on a treadmill, and then by steam power and mechanical clockwork mechanism. Spit by the turbine can also be mounted on the torque and speed of the chimney with the worm drive conversion power supply. Spit now usually driven by a motor.
The Rotisserie also refers to a mechanical device for barbecue cooking, or to one specializing in spit roast meat. The word comes from the French, the first shop in Paris in 1450. In addition, in the restaurant, by Escoffierian Tour de cuisine, rotisseur is responsible for all spit roasted, baked, roasted, fried foods chef in some cases.
[Edit] horizontal Rotisserie

This style rotisserie spit level. Installed They are usually used to cook a whole chicken or roast all kinds of meat, including beef and pork. The design may include a single spit mounted in an open broiler or grill, a single spit installed within a conventional oven, or many spits mounted in a large industrial furnace. The latter is usually used for large-scale production of barbecue sold to consumers.
In this style of rotisserie, balance is important. If the object to be cooked is out of balance, it will bring a heavy load on the drive mechanism, or result in the failure mechanism. Loose chicken legs or wings, can lead to the clogging mechanism. For both these reasons, some satirical skills are required.

Spit poultry rotation Dynamo beat up this figure dipper from Alexander, Bruges, 1338-1344 romantic (Bodleian Library)
The high-end consumer heaters are usually equipped with a rotisserie (or allow installation rotisserie as an option). In these cases, the motor drive mechanism is usually concealed inside the oven. The oven is used by removing the normal cooking rack, need a special carrier may be provided on one or both bearing points spit.
A rotational speed can be varied, depending on the type of food being cooked and close to the heat source. The large animals, such as whole pig, often cooked speeds range from 3 revolutions RPH. Ron Popeil, the inventor of the “Showtime” grill in Long Branch claimed 6 rpm, cooking a variety of foods is an ideal speed. Generally speaking, when the whole animal spit roast, it is the best rotational speed in the early part of the calcination, no burning of the appearance, to help the internal temperature rise. Once you have started the external crust, then the rotation rate is adjusted downwards to minimize dripping. This makes the juice and leaving water droplets, thereby maximizing taste. The latter is particularly important if you use the horizontal spitting, coal or open flame, in this case, the water droplets can not salvage basting. For horizontal spit it is preferably maintained at the beginning, infrared heating minimum further away from the heat source, while maintaining the air convection heating roast. Later, grilled to close the gap, so the combination of strong convection and radiant heating.
Supermarket common mass production using vertical rotisserie, metal strips, to keep the chicken place, hardly affects the meat itself pierced by the weakest link of the breast, but chicken remains firmly in the barbecue chicken located just below the chicken drumsticks, chicken the most intensive part.