Tips & Tricks: Make a Medieval Meat-Roasting Pit

As any real estate agent will tell you, we humans love a good fireplace. It may no longer serve as our primary heating source -- thanks, electricity! But ever since that first hominid rubbed two sticks together to create a spark, we've been hardwired to gather around an open flame and just stare at it until we fall asleep. 

If you use a home fireplace to cheer your soul on winter evenings, we suggest you assign that handsome hearth a second job: make it a place to spit-roast whole animals for all your feasting needs. Yup, that's crazy. Until you consider the culinary cred you'll garner when your friends enter your living room to see some tasty beast crisping on a spit as a fire blazes in the background. Practical? Of course not. Amazing? You bet your ability to stand upright and employ critical thinking.