CVR 1000 Vertical Rotisserie

The CVR 1000 Vertical Rotisserie has been reviewed by a host of other people as well, so I’ll share their thoughts here too. I figure it’s always a good idea to get as much input as you can before making a purchase decision.

For the most part, people are ecstatic with their CVR-1000 and gladly recommend it. Which is useful information if you are thinking of buying it for yourself, or perhaps as a gift for someone else.

So if you’re still not sure, or you’re just hesitating, read through the reviews below. Hopefully they will help you make up your mind.

CVR 1000 Vertical Rotisserie Reviews

I love it!!!! Best purchase I ever made – From JAH @amazon.com
I love this rotisserie – I use it at every opportunity. I hunt for things I can cook in it.
I have had it about 2 weeks and I have made 2 roasted chicken, 2 racks of lamb, steak shish-kabobs, veggie shish-kabobs, & pork chops. All were wonderful. I will recommend this to everyone I know.

My husband’s new best friend – From Lynn Kaplan @amazon.com
I bought this rotisserie after trying the roast beef and chicken at a friend’s house. He raved about the ease of cooking and cleanup. I ordered it and, now, I don’t know how we did without this for soooo long. My husband never liked chicken, and now requests it at least once a week. All I do is rinse and pat dry a whole 3-4 pound chicken, roll in EVOO and poultry seasoning and plunk it on the chicken skewers…no trussing, no tying. The skewers hold the wings and you can tuck the legs into the openings on the base. One hour and 15 minutes at 400 degrees, and the most perfect, moist and tender chicken with crispy skin! Yum. Pork roast is done similarly and comes out crisp and moist. What a wonderful product. It is not too large and sits proudly on my kitchen counter. I would recommend this rotisserie to anyone who loves food but also loves the ease of cooking a simple, wonderful meal. I will give this as a wedding shower gift!!!

Love it! – From Marge @amazon.com
I’m delighted with my rotisserie. For the first time in my (considerable) life, I’ve made a decent meatloaf! I used the basket and a recipe from Diane Phillip’s Ultimate Rotisserie cookbook that has minimal sloppy ingredients – I suspect that may be a key factor. The great part is, the meatloaf turns out crispy on all sides and all the grease drips out. The second tme, I brushed it with BBQ sauce a couple of times during the last 15 minutes and let that carmelize. Perfect cold meatloaf sandwiches. Have done a whole chicken a couple of times (light brine, 1/2 lemon in the cavity, rub with olive oil, cook at 400 for 20 min/lb – great). Only thing that did not work out too well was carmalized apple slices on the skewers – they slid off, and I suspect that is an issue with vertical skewers. However, alligator clips at the bottom of the skewers should solve that. Rotisserie is easy to clean, quiet (particularly if you put the little wheeled thingy that the tray sits on in correctly), attractive – what more could one ask for!

Better than anticipated!! – From Heather @amazon.com
I just love this rotisserie!! Thus far I have made scallops, shrimp, whole chickens, a beef roast, and a pork roast. Everything has come out amazing. Its extremely easy to clean and operate. I was amazed at how the juices are retained in the meat during the cooking process. I have yet to ‘brine’ or marinate anything that I have cooked, and it has all come out wonderful.

The only criticism I have is that it does not give you the temperature at which to cook different types of meats, unless there is a specific recipe in the book. (It does list the approximate time per pound it will take, and what the internal temperature should be when it is done, but does not list what temperature to set the rotisserie.) For example, with my pork roast, I had to guess what temperature I should cook it at, and adjusted it as needed so the roast would cook in a timely manner. However, even with me being a novice, the pork came out wonderfully. I am sure with time I will have my own method of cooking different meats.

I am a busy Mom of four young children, and this rotisserie makes my life in the kitchen so much easier. Don’t be afraid of the cleanup…its a cinch. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have the time, nor desire, to use it

Perfect Meal EVERY time – From D.B.47 @amazon.com
WE LOVE THIS ROTISSERIE! I gave it to my husband for his birthday, and we used it the very next day on Easter. We did a leg of lamb in it. It turned out PERFECT. The accompanying instruction / recipe book is AMAZING. The recipes are GREAT, and the instructions are right on. The next thing we did was a large 7 1/2 pound chicken ~ again, PERFECT. So easy to clean. I am extremely impressed and happy with this rotisserie! It is worth every penny. Spend the extra money and get the one that WORKS. Also it looks very sharp with the stainless exterior and is easy to store. LOVE IT!

I Love This Rotisserie! – From Maria Constantine
I have had the Cuisinart CVR-1000 Vertical Countertop Rotisserie for a couple of weeks now and I have finally felt the need to provide a product review. This is a fantastic product! I have cooked three elk roasts (my husband hunts), a 5 lb boneless leg of lamb roast (for Easter) and a 4.5lb whole chicken. Each has come out perfectly. So much better than conventional oven cooking and so much easier. Everything has been tender, juicy and perfectly done. I have followed pretty much exactly the directions provided in the included manual (cooking times, meat temperatures, marinades) and have been extremely satisfied. All the fat drains out leaving perfectly cooked meat. Clean-up is a breeze. For those of you who shop at Costco, the roast chicken made in this rotisserie is as good or better than Costco rotisserie cooked chickens and you will know what you have added to the chicken because who knows what they add?? Finally, ordering from Amazon was a breeze – price was perfect (way better than Williams-Sonoma) and delivery was right on time.

Easy, clean, attractive, quiet, and delicious results – From W.C. Bryant @amazon.com
Our first rotisserie was an older compact Ronco with a cylindrical cooking chamber and a horizontal spit, a nice enough product that delivered fine results — but it was a hassle. The chicken had to be very carefully and tightly trussed, because of the side-to-side orientation of the spit. The quad spikes that made up the spit had to be very carefully centered on the bird, so that the relatively weak motor wouldn’t hang up as it tried to lift the heavier side, a process complicated by moving bird parts if the chicken wasn’t perfectly trussed. Anything more than a 3.5-4 pound bird ran the risk of brushing up against the drip tray on every rotation, and in general, we found the whole process to be more trouble than it was worth. We just didn’t use it very often.

Enter the Cuisinart CVR-1000. Everything that was wrong about the Ronco was right about this one. The vertical spit, the spacious interior cooking space, the ability to choose different temperature settings, even the clean lines and stainless exterior. The cooking process couldn’t be much easier and more convenient. Because it’s a vertical spit, you just truss the legs together (or not), and slide the cavity of the bird down over the central support. That’s it. No sharp metal spikes to drive through the bird, no trying to properly orient the weight of it all, no trying to match the ends of the spikes to metal sockets on another round disk. The support sits in the round drip tray (looks like a small cake pan), and both come out of the oven easily. So you can set everything up on the counter, slip it right into the oven, turn it on and an hour later you have a wonderfully cooked bird.

Cleaning is a cinch. There’s a polished heat reflector behind the heating elements that just slides right out. The drip tray catches all the juices, so what’s left is just a quick and easy wipe-down on the glass door and interior walls.

The oven sports an interior light, which is really more novelty than tool, but it’s nice to be able to see a little more clearly how dark the skin may be getting.

I try to avoid superlatives in reviews, but with products like this one, it’s okay to fail sometimes. This is the best rotisserie I’ve owned. Performance and aesthetic appeal matched with wonderful ease of use and convenience. I do highly recommend brining your birds before cooking. While rotisserie chickens are often juicy and flavorful without, you can end up with some absolutely amazing results with. A delicious maple brine we use consists of 2 quarts water, 1 cup dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup real maple syrup, 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sea salt, 5 whole cloves garlic (peeled), 4 whole bay leaves, 2 large sprigs of thyme, 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns. Mix it together, bring it to a boil and cook it until all the sugars are dissolved. Let it cool to room temperature before adding the bird. Refrigerate both together (bird fully submerged — this is enough brine for one 4-4.5 pound chicken) for between 5.5 to 6 hours, then toss it in the rotisserie according to the included instructions (about an hour + 5 minutes for that sized bird). What you’ll have at the end is a subtly flavored smoky sweet very juicy and flavorful bird, superior to anything you might find at typical groceries or rotisserie fast food places.

Love this machine, and will highly recommend it to friends and family.

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So there you have it! Lot of rave reviews for the CVR-1000 Vertical Rotisserie. But has everyone that bought it thought it was the most perfect appliance they have ever bought? Is everyone 100% happy with it? Of course not. As with each and every thing in life, what works for one person or situation, may not work in another. In light of that, we’ve provided a pros and cons section. That way you can decide if what others perceive as a drawback or fault would be perceived that same by you.

Along with pros and cons we’ll also mention some tips and tricks that we’ve learned. In many cases they cancel out the cons. Things work so much better when you know what you’re doing, or when you actually read the manual!