open pit barbeque

[CaptJack]

[sliding_billy]

That is definitely old school. 

[RAD]

Great Video Jack

[hikerman]

That was way cool Capt. Jack! Thanks for passing it on.

[muebe]

Yes very cool!

[squirtthecat]

I wish we could do that at our place!

[teesquare]

Some of the old BBQ joints in the Low Country of South Carolina still cook this way. Really neat to see it.

[smokeasaurus]

That was a bunch of grub they cooked up.

[Jaxon]

We have a family reunion the first weekend of July and my baby sister's husband cooks a whole hog like this.  He has been cookin' like this for 30 years or more and cooks about 8 hogs a year for different family and fiends events.
He built a pit out behind his country home...has it under a tin roof with a few lights out there for his overnighters.
He has 3 sons - 2 are married - who he is passing this tradition down to.  They help him with every cook.
He uses a 55 gallon drum with a big hole in the side at the bottom for burning his wood down to coals.  Of course they feed it from the top and shovel from the bottom, spreading the coals under the hog in "just the right amount".  He also keeps a long slender branch close by so he can "spank" the coals when they get too much ash buildup.

Needless to say, he is very good at it after all these years.

[veryolddog]

I have only seen a variation of this once when I was in Groton, CT., believe it or not on a beach in that area where I was invited. They dug a huge hole in the sand and began burning logs of wood and charcoal until they were pretty well burned down. Then they covered the whole thing with sea weed and put on a couple of bushels of corn, potatoes, more seaweed and about 100 lobsters and a couple bushels of clams. Covered all of that with seaweed again and uncovered everything in a couple or three hours. Pretty tasty stuff naturally salted by the ocean and the seaweed. The kegs of beer provided a nice finishing touch. Similar concept. Good food.

Ed

[pz]

I'd love to do primitive cooking like that, but it appears to be more suited to large volumes, so I've never been able to justify it to myself.  Funny thing is that I have the concrete blocks and metal raw materials already in some of mu junk piles on the property.

I have only seen a variation of this once when I was in Groton, CT., believe it or not on a beach in that area where I was invited. They dug a huge hole in the sand and began burning logs of wood and charcoal until they were pretty well burned down. Then they covered the whole thing with sea weed and put on a couple of bushels of corn, potatoes, more seaweed and about 100 lobsters and a couple bushels of clams. Covered all of that with seaweed again and uncovered everything in a couple or three hours. Pretty tasty stuff naturally salted by the ocean and the seaweed. The kegs of beer provided a nice finishing touch. Similar concept. Good food.

Ed

That reminds me of our wedding where my wife found Hawaiian caterers that claimed they could do kalua pig (cooking pig in the hole).  I heard that they dug the hole, built a fire and let it go to coals, then piled in banana leaves, the pig, covered, and then buried with the dirt.

Although I was too busy to take pictures (imagine that), a friend who was the photographer was not really in to food, so these are the only shots we have of the process.  However, I ate the pork and it was among the most tender I have ever had.  I wish I had better pics

Very friendly chaps

The unveiling

You can see a bit of the pig here - I did not see it, but the story goes that it was so tender the head fell off during transportation to the table

[tnjimbob]

Great video and thanks for sharing.

several years ago, I worked with a guy who helped host a fundraiser for a local civic organization that cooked chicken halves on pits like this. They had premade square pits of expanded metal and angle iron, each about 4' x 4' square, and they sat on four cinder blocks each, with just enough height to shovel coals underneath. They burned hardwood (oak & hickory, iirc) in two 55 gal. drums, and the coals fell to the bottom where a 2' x 12" hole was cut across the bottom. They took turns feeding wood, shoveling coals from the barrels underneath the chickens, and mopping with a vinegar based sauce. Not a ton of smoke flavor, but the chicken was absolutely melt in your mouth tender after 4-5 hrs.

I still want to construct some sort of primitive pit like this, but SWMBO is already unhappy with five grills & smokers on the patio, so I won't push it... yet.