Rotisserie dogs are a mysterious kitchen breed that no longer exists.

All dog breeds existing today are divided into groups: hunting, service, fighting, decorative and herding. But if you were in England a couple of hundred years ago, you would also know about spit dogs. No, we are not talking about the exotic cuisine of Asian peoples, although the life of these pets was also far from easy.

The history of spit dogs goes back several centuries. The English bred and used them from the 16th to the end of the 19th century. Now the history of such dogs seems strange and cruel, but in those days the Turnespete or Turnspit dog breeds were as common as boxers are now.

Trochanter dogs were first mentioned in the book “On the Breeds of England,” published in 1576. They were kept at home, but there was no talk of an idle life on the master's bed or rug by the fireplace. The task of these dogs was to turn a spit over the fireplace in the kitchen. They set in motion a mechanism that ensured the meat was cooked evenly.

The breed was mentioned in their works by such famous scientists as Carl Linnaeus and Charles Darwin. Zoologists have described several variants of trochanteric dogs, both short-haired and long-haired, calling them Canis vertigus in Latin. Now this breed does not exist, but we can glean a lot of information about it from various sources.

Animals bred specifically to work in the kitchen could not be confused with others. Trochanteric dogs were small, with a long body and a massive body on short, curved legs. Coat color varied, but most animals were dark gray with prominent dark spots.

Unfortunately, the history of the appearance of the trochanteric breed is shrouded in darkness. It is unknown who and when first came up with the idea of using a dog to turn a spit and started breeding for this purpose. There are several assumptions about what breeds they came from. The most commonly mentioned are Welsh Corgis and Glen of Imaal Terriers.

Such dogs were not something interesting and attractive for the residents of Foggy Albion. The British perceived this breed as purely utilitarian and did not keep pedigrees. Because of this, trochanters gradually sank into oblivion and became another mysterious page in the history of cynology. Nowadays, only specialists know about these animals, who are trying to collect bit by bit information about the lost breed.

Cooking meat or poultry on a spit is not an easy task. It is necessary not only to properly cut everything and calculate the spices, but also to select the desired frying temperature. And then, when the spit takes its place above the fire, it needs to be rotated so that the dish cooks evenly and does not burn on one side. It was this responsible and monotonous task that spit dogs performed in British kitchens.

For dogs, a running wheel was built near the fireplace, similar to those placed in cages for hamsters and squirrels. Through a simple pulley system, the wheel was connected to a mechanism that rotated a spit over the fire. The dog walked steadily inside the wheel, and the spit rotated. In order for the animal to do its job effectively, it was trained from a young age.

When the carcasses of large animals were cooked on a spit, they used large wheels in which two or even three dogs walked. This breed was also used for churning butter. In this case, the pet in a special harness ran in a circle, rotating a vertical axis with blades. Often such dogs were used in other areas of human activity, far from cooking. For example, spit dogs could rotate the bellows drive that forced air into the forge.

In any case, the life of these dogs was difficult and joyless. They had a particularly hard time in large taverns, where they cooked often and a lot. The process of preparing meat was long, and baking a bull carcass could take up to four hours. All this time the dogs worked hard in the hot kitchen hell.

The services of spit dogs began to be abandoned at the end of the 19th century. At this time, steam and electricity replaced manpower. Unfortunately, cruel exploitation of animals is still practiced in Europe. An example of this is the fate of the Spanish Galgo greyhounds, which are treated as disposable items.