For as long as he can remember, Chris Kottaras’ father would drag Chris out of bed early on Easter Sunday to help stuff and roast the celebratory lamb for the clan and pass on the secret Greek business of perfect spit roasting.

Chris’s whole, marinated, spit-roasted lamb

Chris’s father had been a motorbike courier from Argos, and he first learned how to cook spits when he did his two years of national service in the Greek army. When his Commander discovered Chris’s father was from Argos, an area famous for spit-roasted lamb, he immediately put him in charge of cooking the lambs to feed several hundred troops for their annual Easter feast. Despite never having cooked a lamb before, Chris’s father found himself overseeing 40–50 manually turned spits with the Commander expecting a tremendous result. As he told Chris, there was no room for error — and so he became an overnight expert.

When his father died, Chris took over the role of Easter spit-master, continuing the family tradition of stuffing the lamb with his father’s special recipe and cooking and carving for the extended family celebration. The rest of the family also maintain their tradition of reassuring Chris that they’ll be there early to help, then turning up 10 minutes before the lamb is ready to eat. Chris has been delighting us and our customers for years and if he ever moves to Greece we will miss him dearly.

Chris Kottras, spit-master and retail customer

Makes: Depends on the size of the lamb; a 22 kg lamb will feed about 45 people
Preparation time: About 30 minutes — make the marinade the previous day, the longer the flavours mix, the better
Cooking time: 14–18 kg (31 lb–40 lb), 5 hours; 18–20 kg (40 lb–44 lb), 5½ hours; 20–25 kg (44 lb–55 lb), 6 hours; 25 kg (55 lb) or more, 6 hours+
Special equipment: A spit, charcoal, kitchen string, needle, thin wire and pliers

10 lemons, juiced, skins reserved, plus 1 extra

Around 600 ml (20 fl oz/2½ cups) extra- virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

2 garlic bulbs

1 bunch dried Greek oregano (from select delicatessens)

1 teaspoon hot paprika

1 whole lamb (order from your butcher)

400 g (14 oz) kefalograviera (or another hard sheep’s milk cheese or a mixture of sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeses), half diced, half cut into thin strips

2 long red chillies, halved lengthways

Begin this recipe a day ahead. To make the basting marinade, measure the amount of juice the lemons yield, then pour the juice into a mixing bowl and add half the quantity of olive oil — for example, for 500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) lemon juice, add 250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) oil. Mince the cloves from 1 garlic bulb and add them to the bowl. Rub dried oregano between your hands so the leaves fall into the bowl and you’re left with the stalks. Keep the stalks; they’ll go into the lamb tomorrow along with the lemon skins. Add paprika and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Combine well, then cover and refrigerate overnight.

The day of cooking, set coals up in the spit — put a small pile at either end of the fire pit; you’re aiming for greater heat on the legs and shoulders and less heat on the belly. Light the coals about 45 minutes before you’re planning to put the lamb on so they have plenty of time to settle into a moderate, even heat — you want to start cooking your lamb slowly. When you light the coals, bring the lamb to room temperature — never cook with cold meat.

Secure the lamb on the spit pole and place it on a table ready for stuffing. Cut thin holes into the legs and shoulders, cut 6 garlic cloves into strips, and stuff them into the holes with the kefalograviera strips — these will flavour the lamb as it cooks.

Combine remaining garlic (about 6 cloves; keep these whole) with diced kefalograviera, chilli, reserved lemon skins, oregano stalks and a splash of oil. Season to taste, then use this mixture to stuff the lamb cavity. Sew the cavity closed with kitchen string and a needle and close up the chest cavity with some thin wire.

Check that the lamb is safely secured to the spit pole — tie all four legs and neck to the spit pole to keep it all together as it cooks. Place the pole on the spit and start cooking, maintaining a low heat at the beginning. As the cooking progresses, slowly increase the heat.

About 90 minutes in, you should see the lamb fat start to render out. When you see this, sprinkle the lamb liberally with salt to draw out the fat. At this point, fetch the basting marinade and let it come to room temperature.

About 3 hours into cooking, cut a lemon in half, dip it into the marinade so it soaks up the liquid, then use the lemon to baste the lamb. Continue basting the lamb with the lemon dipped in marinade every 30 minutes until the lamb is golden, crisp and tender and the core temperature in legs and shoulders is maintained for at least 90 to 120 minutes.

When cooked, most of the meat can be readily stripped from the bones by hand (wear a double layer of food-handling gloves). Discard sinew, excess fat and membrane as you go. You may need a boning knife to get all of the leg meat off the bone. Keep meat warm in a large metal tray positioned near the leftover coals.