In-ground BBQ pit

High Cheese

High Cheese

Saucier
This is something I've been wanting to do for a while now. I finally acquired all the equipment I'm going to need and plan on getting this going over the weekend. The plan is to dig a hole, line it with brick, build a fire in it long enough for about 10 inches of coals, add the meat (pork shoulder) and cover. I've been keeping an eye out on Craigslist for free bricks or stone and after about 2 months someone got their brick fireplace knocked down. "Sweet!" So now I'm just looking for any tips/cooking times from people that have done this sort of thing before. For the pork, I'm just going to season it and wrap it up in foil. I read about using banana leaves but I'm not sure if I can source them locally.
 
Sounds like fun. Good luck with it.
Some guys at my boat club used to do it, and we still have a PIT party every year, but no fire pit anymore. They told me they would dig the hole, fire up the charcoals put the meat (wrapped in foil), cover it and leave it overnight till around noon the next day. They were doing this on an island so I'm pretty sure they did not have the brick; so all that is probably not much help.
I will be watching and learn from your experience cause one day I plan to do the same.
 
One snag was a lid. I wanted to use corrugated metal roofing so I called my local lumber yards, no good. Quick Google search I found Lowes actually carries it! haha
 
Lid? Are you going to cover it with dirt too? I thought all pits just use dirt for the lid. :confused:
 
Lol!

I've been reading some forums and people saying that it's a good cooking method but you don't get any smoke flavor wrapping the meat.

So...

I think I'm going to place the shoulder in a hotel pan with veg and some water (like I would do with an oven) place that in the pit of coals with a somewhat loosely fitted foil top. Then seal it off with metal and dirt.

I'm thinking I should get the flavor of an oven cooked roast along with some smokey-ness from a smoked roast.....or something like that.
 
Orrrrrr, you could use a smoker.

The smoke has to penetrate the meat, so yes, wrapping the meat will prevent that.

If you leave the meat exposed to the smoke, you are in danger of getting dirt on it.

Barbecued pork butt is one of the most delicious things I've ever made/eaten. Takes 10-12 hours, but the time is cut down significantly by using a SMOKER instead of building a brick and dirt pit in the GROUND!

You lovable nut, HC!

Do you have a whole shoulder, butt and shank attached? Is it too big for any of your smokers? I forgot what you have.

Or do you just want to do this .....because. ?

Lee
 
I have dug a pit with my back hoe and laid 3/4"rebar in a rectangular grid across it. Get a good hot wood fire going and then add the charcoal and 1/2 a hog minus the head and put a 55 gallon drum slit lengthwise over the pig for a lid and seal it all up by shoveling dirt all around it and some on top. By the next afternoon it is to die for. Have an old picnic table with a throw away table cloth and drive a couple nails along each side so it don't slide off and let folks carve their own.
 
I decided to replace an old tree stump with the pit, so a little more work than expected. lol Gonna start the wood around 6am to get a nice pile of coals.
 
So, since I am new to this form of cooking, the pit I built is just stacked brick. The size may actually work out good so I'm going to mortar the brick to make it more permanent. The pit is about 24" square and about 15" deep.

IMG_5643.jpg


I started the fire around 7am, I used 3 wheelbarrows of wood. At just around noon, I had about 4 inches of coals. Articles I read said to have 10-12" which turned out, would have been way too much.

IMG_5645.jpg


IMG_5651.jpg


For the butt, I made a guajillo chili sauce:

12 or so guajillo chiles, toasted stems removed
4-6 cloves garlic
6 roma tomatoes, halved
2 fresno chiles, halved, stems removed
1 T cumin
1 t ground clove
salt
pepper
2 cups water

Add all the ingredients to a sauce pan and simmer for 30 minutes. Blend until smooth and taste for seasoning.

I marinated the pork with the sauce and placed it in a hotel pan on a bed of: carrot, celery, onion, garlic and jalapenos. I also added about 6 cups of water. You want about an inch or so of water in the pan.

IMG_5649.jpg


Now that the coals were ready, I moved the to either side with a shovel and placed two brick in the center to keep the pan away from direct heat. This is where I discovered a slight issue: getting near the pit. It's friggin HAWT! Make sure you have gloves and something like a fireplace poker. lol

IMG_5652.jpg


I set the pan on top of the 2 bricks and lightly covered in foil so smoke would still get to the meat.

IMG_5654.jpg


The original plan was to add a lid (corrugated steel roof panels) and cover with dirt for insulation. I decided against covering with dirt in case I need to add wood or water, etc. Again, it was all new to me. I did use my remote thermometer though.

IMG_5655.jpg


I had no idea what temp the pit was, so right around 3 hours the meat was 190. I was pretty shocked. It was a little faster than if I was using my oven so I was a bit worried about the final texture. At the 3:45 mark the meat was 218. I quickly removed the pan from the pit and let it sit. A peak inside revealed a little liquid still in the pan (Yes!) and nothing was burned or anything.

IMG_5656.jpg


After 30 minutes of resting, I dug into the meat with a pair of tongs. Thinking the meat was going to be tough from the quick cooking time, I pulled out a nice chunk of tender, moist pork. :punk:

IMG_5657.jpg


For dinner, we sat by the pit toasting tortillas for tacos.

Besides making the pit more permanent, I want to add one of those hanging grills that uses something that looks like a plant hanger.
 
Awesome thread Cheese. :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
I sure learned something from all this. Love your pit and the meat looks great too. :D
 
Great post and gorgeous chunk of meat!

This made me lol: "This is where I discovered a slight issue: getting near the pit. It's friggin HAWT!"
 
Looks damn good to me! Adding veggies always helps cook meat thoroughly since they hold moisture and I think the plant enzymes tenderize the meat.Your pit looks similar to our old smokehouse one. Had a piece of cast iron sewer pipe coming in the side for draft and you could really lay the wet wood chips and slices to it after loading it with coals from the wood stove.
 
Turbo butt!

Did it pull nicely? It sure looks as if the meat pulled back from the bone nicely.

Fat rendered mostly out? Good smoke flavor?

Did you have fun? :-)

Nice job, Jay!

Lee
 
QSis said:
Turbo butt!

Did it pull nicely? It sure looks as if the meat pulled back from the bone nicely.

Fat rendered mostly out? Good smoke flavor?

Did you have fun? :-)

Nice job, Jay!

Lee
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Yeah, I was surprised how tender it was in that short of a time. It was most definitely pullable, as we just used a pair of tongs to pinch off a bit to load our tacos. when I brought it inside to store in a container the blade pulled right out of the meat with zero effort.

I bought the butt from a supermarket, they wrap them fat side down on a white pad thingy. When I unwrapped it I saw they pretty much removed the whole fat cap. I might do another cook this weekend but I'll use 2 butts in the one pan and get them from a butcher so I have some decent fat. I think the regular oven prep (veg and water) kept the meat moist and since the foil was just tented over the pan smoke still penetrated the meat.

for the next cook, I'm going to reduce the amount of wood/coals so I can try to achieve a minimum 5 hour cooking time. Usually on Sunday's I do a roast pork in the oven. Not to pat myself on the back, but I got pretty good at it over the winter, not even needing a thermometer. lol Comparing oven cooking to this, I'd say the temps of the pit might be around 350-375. A roast the same size at 250-260 takes 6-6.5 hours to get to the texture this one was.

Every roast I do is different. Varieties include: a paprika based rub (BBQ style), Latin style with an Adobo rub, dry herb and garlic rub, sometimes I add sliced jalapenos, Cuban style with orange juice and fresh oregano, etc. It's awesome now that I can get smoke flavor into the meat but still use a liquid.
 
When I got the farm tractor centered on the lawn, the War Dept issued a stop work order!! Just as well, it turns out that the "Bricks" that I got are actually "Block" made from cement rather than brick, or fire brick. (anybody need some cement pavers?) Apparently they don't hold up under the "friggn' hawt" environment. But, I intend to build a pit as soon as I get the rest of the materials together...and I guess it won't be centered on the lawn.

Good lookin' meat there High, thx

Scotty
:applause:
 
"Besides making the pit more permanent, I want to add one of those hanging grills that uses something that looks like a plant hanger."

HighCheese, I just read an article about these on NPR. Hope you enjoy the read.

Here's the article:

Creating A Schwenker World, One Backyard Grill At A Time

It sounds a little dirty, but a schwenker is just a German word for a swinging grill that looks like a tripod, set over charcoal. Schwenker evangelists are spreading the word about this unique grill around the world.
Read this story
 
That is a fantastic article, CalicoLady!!!

I am going to share it with some of my BBQ friends!

Thank you!

Lee
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top