Pit Cooking

[echelon_john]

Do the pig in the ground...dig a pit, line with rocks, burn a shitload of wood to coals, wrap pig in burlap soaked in something, stick it on the coals, cover with a soaked tarp, cover with dirt, wait 24 hrs....best pork of any kind I've ever put in my maw, and I love pig.

We did it last summer as part of a bigger pig roast; I'll post pics.

[randonneur]

one of my favourite music blogs recently posted a guide to whole hog bbq'ing.

THE SOUL-SIDES “GUIDE” TO HOME PIG-ROASTING

[WadePatton]

[technically this is the first post, i pulled those "thread drifters" above and made an appropriate thread. thanks!]

Yes, mostly BBQ-style meats, but why limit yourself? I know i don't run the smoker without a pineapple ever anymore (and them there don't grow 'round heres atall) and you'll always want side dishes.

I've only seen it in pictures (moving mostly). IIRC what _really_ got me interested was some boys up in KY or WByGodV on a Travel Channel show (Bourdain(my fave) or Zimmern i forget which one) who pit-roasted a whole deer.

NOW that's some thinkin' there as you eat a bunch of it freshly cooked and the rest goes into the freezer pre-cooked and deboned and nary a saw or grinder is needed. Of course I'll still bone-out/grind and freeze some fresh, but that's my source for ground meat period. IOW, a fun shortcut/different/tasty way to put some meat away in the Fall.

ANYHOO, I started digging a pit today. It's about right for a butt or two now, and I do plan to test it with such real soon. The notion of loading the cooker and walking away for 12 hours w/o any need for tending is just too tantalizing to forgo.

I'm debating pre-smoking the meat. I loves my pink/smokey meat and always smoke on the front end of my normal BBQ cooking-wrapping about 1/2 way through. But maybe this isn't necessary. I'm also quite interested in the flavors of the _rest of the hog_ as far as pork goes.

The last time i had "foreign" Q, i knew instantly that it was "whole hog" NTTAWWT, it's just different from my normal Q.

The venison will require a good bit of supplemental fats-in the show they loaded the carcass with bacon and then some more on the outside...oh shazam i'm getting drooly thinkin' 'bout it.

SO HERE is the PIT COOKING THREAD! meat, potatoes, turtles, all. Just so long as it's a PIT-style,

which is (AFIK):

fire to heat cooking space
fire removed
food installed
buried/covered/contained
time
dig it out
eat
smile.

NOW yous folks who know something more about it, chime in and make this bit of cyberspace useful, thanks!

I'll share as i learn too.

wp

[WadePatton]

Do the pig in the ground...dig a pit, line with rocks, burn a shitload of wood to coals, wrap pig in burlap soaked in something, stick it on the coals, cover with a soaked tarp, cover with dirt, wait 24 hrs....best pork of any kind I've ever put in my maw, and I love pig.

We did it last summer as part of a bigger pig roast; I'll post pics.

arright, get up in here with the fotos yo.

[WadePatton]

one of my favourite music blogs recently posted a guide to whole hog bbq'ing.

THE SOUL-SIDES “GUIDE” TO HOME PIG-ROASTING

nice.

[Too Tall]

nice.

Added to the bucketlist. xxoo

[Jonathan]

If there are any central FL vsalonistas who want to do this I have the backyard, the block, and a source for whole pig.

[echelon_john]

I'll post pics when I'm on my other computer, but here's what we did.

First, we did one pig in the ground, and a pig and a lamb on a spit. This way, I figured if the pig in the ground went bust, I'd have backups to serve to folks.

So for the pit, I had a buddy with an excavator help me out and dig a square-ish hole about 8 feet long by 5 feet wide and about 5 feet deep. We then grabbed a bunch of BIG rocks from the woods around my house and lined the pit with rock. This is key, because the mass of the rocks is what will really hold the heat and give you a long cooking time. The dirt that was taken out of the hole was left in a pile right next to the hole. This is important.

So now we had our pit lined with rocks. Time to move some wood. I brought about a half a cord or so of hardwood down there. The morning of the day before the party, I got the fire going, then fed it continuously all day, resulting in a bed of coals about a foot deep.

In terms of pig prep, I started with a gutted pig that dressed out at about 100 pounds. Rubbed him inside and out with garlic, then stuffed him with apples and liberal amounts of kosher salt. Stitched up the stuffed cavity with butcher twine and a good trussing needle. Then lots of salt on the outer skin. After this, I wrapped the thing in a brand new, untreated cotton tarp, then wrapped it up in chicken wire which I had burned in a fire previously to burn off the galvanization. Helpful hint: before the chicken wire, run a length of chain along the pig and several feet out both ends; this is really helpful when it's time to pull it out.

I then soaked the whole unit with some bourbon and apple cider. So now we're at about 8PM the night before the party. The coals are glowing (it's brutally hot around the pit), the pig is prepped, and we're pretty ready to rock and roll. Here's where some extra manpower is helpful, because a couple of the next steps need to happen somewhat quickly.

I soaked a couple of bike boxes in a apple cider and water until they were pretty limp and saturated. We then brought the pig down to the pit, and quickly:
- Laid a sheet of wet cardboard over the hot coals.
- Laid the pig on the cardboard with the chain coming out both ends
- Laid another wet sheet of cardboard over the top of the pig
- Laid another cotton tarp (also soaked in water) on top of everything, well covering the edges of the pig and the cardboard.
- Shoveled about a foot+ of dirt on top of the whole pit, burying the coals, the pig, everything. The more dirt, the better.

Now it was about nine thirty, and much fluid replenishment was needed after toiling by the hot fire. This was accomplished with bourbon and Vermont's own Whistle Pig rye. Mmmmm.

So, we then moved onto some prep for the spit pig, which I'll leave out here for now.

The next day, the pit looked like...a pile of dirt. Really impossible to tell if any cooking had happened from looking at it. Lo and behold, however, by about 10am the dirt pile was steaming/smoking slightly, and there was the definite aroma of pig and apples. Very promising.

4pm came, the spit pig and spit lamb both looked and smelled great. Now it was time to see if we would uncover a charred mess or...?

Wearing heavy boots (the pit was HOT at the top by then) we carefully shoveled away dirt until we came to the top tarp. Then it became more like an archeological dig, where we switched to smaller tools, and used our gloved hands to expose the entire tarp. It was singed at the edges, but upon peeling it back, the cardboard covering the top of the pig was intact. We carefully moved that (big rush of heat and steam), exposing our friend the pig. With 2 guys on each end, we found the chain, and did a clean lift of the pig into a waiting cart on my lawn tractor to much fanfare.

Up the hill, we then cut the chicken wire off the pig, and carefully lifted the pig-in-tarp up onto the cutting/serving table.

What happened next can only be described as magic. I slit the tarp lengthwise from the pig's snout to tail, opening it up completely. What we saw was a perfectly browned, steaming pig, face down. We gently rolled it onto its side, and I made a couple of lengthwise cuts in the skin. As the skin fell away, every bone in this thing's body fell like a series of dominoes--click click click--as all the supportive tissue, fat, EVERYTHING, had essentially melted into the meat. It quickly became clear that carving knifes were superfluous, and we served all the meat with tongs, as it was so soft. The cavity now held a porky, fatty, bourbon applesauce that was served in a dollop with the meat.

How did it taste? Hands down the best pork I've ever put in my mouth. And I like pork. Smoky, rich, well balanced...it was like the best pulled pork you've ever had, but maybe milder and moister. The spit pig and spit lamb were excellent also, but everyone commented that the pit pig was the best they'd ever had.

So...lessons learned? Next time a bigger pit pig, because really, the pit was easier to deal with than the spit. I made nice motorized spits for the pig and lamb, but they still needed basting, tending, stoking, etc. throughout the day. The pit pig just...cooked all day. So now that I know that it won't turn into a charred mess, I'd put more pig in the ground. The apple stuffing worked great and was simple; we weren't going for a luau, and since it's Vermont, the apple thing just worked. But you could certainly do lots of interesting stuffings.

I'd maybe put a thermometer with a remote readout in the pig just for the heck of it; be fun to see the temperature rise.

I think that's the quick and dirty description of what I did; let me know if you have questions on specifics of the pit, or on spit construction, and I can share any other tips. I'll post some pics in the next day or so.

Bon appétit!

[maunahaole]

I have seen this done a few times. Some key points: Your rocks may explode. Some nice hard river rocks are best, but dont be surprised if some of them break. Save your good rocks for the next time. Use a good hot and slow burning hardwood. Locals use Kiawe, which is similar to mesquite. Neither may be locally available for you, so ymmv. I have seen cut up banana tree stalks and leaves used before the wet burlap, but again, availability may be a problem. This is a great way to cook, and also a great way to get folks involved in the process, be it either helping dig and assemble/disassenmble or just hang out and enjoy each others company. Good luck!

[WadePatton]

SWEET! chit, now i may go buy a hunk of meat.

Yes, i thought about the thermometer, but then you're not adding fuel and the air supply should be steady. iow why bother, the "harvest" window is huge.

Rocks that explode are those heated too quickly for contained moisture to escape. Not much of a problem on top of the mountain...unless you fetch them from streams and ponds.

Not real excited about using cardboard, but have a real shortage of banana trees. Cotton canvas drop-cloth is what i'm planning on using in place of burlap-a new one if they still make 'em. Then it could be re-used so long as you keep the mice from eating it in storage.

personally have more wood than i can use. anyone local is welcome to all they want for cooking purposes (no saws loaned). i heat with the rest (and have already given enough heater wood away).

thinking aloud: wonder if green or soaked cornstalks* would work for buffer/barriers? these i can acquire local and free...heck so can most of the country.

*yes, a quick search reveals that this is commonplace. yahoo.

[maunahaole]

That cornstalk idea sounds like it would work just fine. Don't be shy with the water, the moisture is important in the cooking process with this almost as much as the heat.

[echelon_john]

Corn husks is a great idea. You might still need the burlap/canvas to keep the package together, although i guess you could try corn husks in the chicken wire. IMO you definitely need the chicken wire for structure, since once the thing's cooked it will have none of its own. I wasn't crazy about he cardboard either, but it didn't impact taste at all that I could tell. I used blank boxes; no printing. It was mostly a case of thinking on the fly: "Shit. If we just put the pig in the tarp on the coals, then cover it with another tarp, they're both gonna be on fire by the time we get the dirt on!" So we did the belt & suspenders route of tarp around the pig, cardboard top & bottom, and tarp over the cardboard so as to minimize the chances of the pig getting dirt on it.

I guess the ideal would be for the skin to get crisped, but I don't see how you could control that, and I'd rather err on the side of extra moisture/steam than have a burned pig. You could also cut the skin off at service and have one of your drunk buddies...err, sous-chefs...make crackling' with it. Probably a better bet.

I didn't have any rocks explode that I could tell; if they did, they probably just cracked in place. Some were really big--e.g. 30x30x30" give or take--and we filled in the gaps in between with smaller ones.

[maunahaole]

Some action shots of the after of the imu cooking. These are from the Pig Out, a yearly shindig thrown by a UH faculty member. Big food, live music, homebrew, etc. Over in Waimanalo. Bigbill, Moke, and Joostx know what I'm talking about.




Plus cool sounds from Natural Vibrations, a long running local band.

[WadePatton]

Corn husks is a great idea. ..
You could also cut the skin off at service and have one of your drunk buddies...err, sous-chefs...make crackling' with it. Probably a better bet.

apprentices yo.

and hells yeah. i never waste bones or skin any more. i used fat and stock from 3rd July cooking in risotto just today. (the day i learned to make risotto proper).

[WadePatton]

arright. i just gots me some wire for doing "mini-pit" cooking. mebbe even this weekend. oh snit, it's this weekend arreddy.

i better go makes a fire.