Good morning readers. I hope that each and every one of you had a tremendous holiday weekend. And, of course, it goes without saying a safe and sane one as well. I know this blog was supposed to be about hard money lenders, and I will get to that. I did not realize at the time this would fall on the 4th of July weekend so I’m going to exorcise my right and go a bit off track here today. I’m also going to create a new category for my blogs. We’re just going to call this one Food & Wine. In this particular blog I will be discussing the art of deep pit barbecue.
I am in no way an expert on how to deep pit barbecue so take this as it is offered, an introduction into the art of the deep pit barbeque. I will usually use my deep pit a couple of times a year in the summer so, with time and practice, I think I have gotten rather good at it. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, deep pit barbecue is a process by which you slow cook meat in what is, essentially, a hole in the ground. The keyword here is slow. The cooking process takes 10 to 12 hours, not including the preparation time which, depending on your set up, can add as much as another six to eight hours. In my case it’s about four hours and I will explain why.
First, of course, you need a hole in the ground. The hole should be about 3 feet long by 2 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Those are just rough dimensions. The size really depends on how much meat is going into the hole to be cooked. Digging the hole is what ads to the preparation time. If planning a large party, I advise drafting a friend or two to help dig the pit. Usually the promise of choice barbeque and a case of beer is all it takes. In my case, the house I bought in Bakersfield came with a deep pit already there, saving me time, trouble, and several cases of beer. This pit is round, about 2 1/2 feet across and three feet deep and lined with concrete. A little on the small side for larger parties but just fine for the size gatherings I typically will host, which is 20 people or less. By contrast, I have a friend that has a huge pit in his back yard and will typically deep pit 20 to 25 turkeys for Thanksgiving.
The real secret, in my opinion, to a good deep pit is the coals. They have to be just right. As I said, I inherited my deep pit when I purchased my house in Bakersfield. I knew nothing about the how to of deep pit barbeque at the time so the very first outing was definitely a learning experience. I spell that D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. The barbeque was on Memorial Day weekend, and I had invited four other couples to join us, making ten of us altogether. I purchased a variety of meats from a local butcher shop and asked for any tips. The takeaway from that conversation was to make sure the coals were hot and to let everything cook for a good 10 to 12 hours. Based on that information I decided to put everything into the pit at around 5:00 AM so we could eat between 3:00 and 5:00 that afternoon. I got up at the ungodly hour of 4:00 AM and proceeded to throw two large bags of Kingsford charcoal into the bottom of the pit. I threw in some charcoal starter fluid, tossed in a lit match and let that start burning. Meanwhile, I had prepped the meat the previous afternoon so, while the coals were heating, I proceeded to wrap all of the meat in aluminum foil and then wrap that in wet burlap cloth. I neatly tied the wet burlap with baling wire and, as soon as the coals were nice and hot, I lowered everything into the pit. I covered the pit with its’ metal lid and was back in bed by 5:30. When I got up later that morning, around 10:00 o’clock, I went out to check the pit. It was as cold as yesterday’s leftovers. Fortunately, it was early enough to switch to Plan B, which was to cook everything on a conventional barbecue grill. So, it wasn’t deep pit as advertised but still a good barbecue.
BUT WHERE HAD I GONE WRONG!
The next time I attempted to deep pit I actually did a little bit of research and used what I learned for, what was, a much more successful attempt. Since that first miserable experience I’ve used my deep pit more than a dozen times and I’ve slowly perfected my method. The first thing is to prepare the meat. This is generally done on the afternoon before the actual barbecue, anywhere 18 to 24 hours ahead of time. Lightly, salt and pepper the meat and then use a good dry rub. There are plenty of decent store-bought rubs, but I prefer to use my own recipe. Using my hands, I generously rub it into the meat, making sure the cut is covered entirely. Optionally, sprinkle some Lawry’s seasoning salt onto the meet in addition to the rub. I also like to drizzle on some Lee & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. This adds moisture and flavor. My advice is NOT to read the list of ingredients on the bottle. You will be unhappy if you do. I have used this method with beef, pork, and chicken but my favorite, by far, is pork spare ribs.
After seasoning, tightly wrap the meat in heavy duty aluminum foil. Make sure to wrap in two or three layers to make sure the meat is properly sealed. Place the meat in the refrigerator until ready to cook.
Preparing the coals. This is a crucial step that I managed to screw up nine ways to Sunday on my first attempt. First, a proper deep pit requires a nice hot coal bed made up of wood. I have used Hickory, Mesquite, and cherry wood in my deep pit. I imagine that the type of wood used will give the meat a certain flavor. I also think the only people that might notice that difference are the judges of barbecue contests. Kind of like a wine sommelier, your palette really has to be trained to taste the difference. The average person at one of my barbecues either likes it or they don’t. And who doesn’t like good barbeque? Nobody has ever criticized my deep pit barbecue ribs because they thought I should have used Mesquite wood instead of Hickory. The set up for my deep pit is really pretty cool. There is a round steel plate about 3/8 inch thick that fits into the bottom of the pit, sitting on three pegs to elevate it about two inches off the bottom. I suspect this is to allow circulation of air during the cooking process. There is also a metal hook at the center of the plate so I can lift it to clean out the bottom of the pit.
Here is the downside to deep pit barbecue. It is also the first of two mistakes I made on my first attempt. If serving dinner at 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon, you should start getting the pit ready at about 2:00 o’clock in the morning. First, crumple up newspapers and place them in the bottom of the pit. Next, add a couple bags of small wood chips as kindling or use charcoal if you prefer. Lite the kindling and get it burning nice and hot. Start adding wood logs. Wood logs can be bought by the bag at Lowe’s, Home Depot, or anyplace that sells firewood. The amount of wood needed will depend on the size of the pit. Through trial and error, I know that my smallish pit needs between 30 and 40 pounds of wood. Add a couple of logs at a time. They will take about 15 to 20 minutes to burn down. As they do add another log or two. Just keep feeding the fire. This whole process, done correctly, should take a good two-and-one-half to four hours depending on the size of the pit. NOT the 45 minutes I allotted on my initial attempt. In the end, all the logs will burn down to form a bed of red-hot coals 6 inches to 9 inches deep.
I will usually have a good three hours to kill while I’m getting my fire going. It’s all about the ambience my friends. Usually, my buddy Kevin will come over to the house for a couple of hours and we will sit in the backyard, feeding the fire, smoking cigars, drinking a good cabernet wine, and just passing the time. This last 4th of July, unfortunately, I was on my own. Not one to waste a good time, as I was feeding the fire, I poured myself a glass (or three) of wine, decided to forego the cigar this time, brought out my Bluetooth speakers and played a lot of Carlos Santana. On this particular night I was cooking one dozen chicken legs, nine thighs, three racks of spareribs, and a pork butt. That worked out to eight bundles so, as I was feeding the fire and drinking wine, I got the burlap out and cut it into sections about 2 feet long and 18 inches wide. About an hour before the fire was ready, I removed the meat from the refrigerator and began bundling the foil wrapped packages with the burlap. The trick here is to wrap the burlap tightly around the aluminum foil, folding the loose ends under. Using bailing wire, wrap it around the package in one direction. When the wire meets put a couple of twists in it and wrap it in the other direction, kind of like wrapping a Christmas gift. Where the wires meet in this direction make sure one piece is a good 6 to 8 inches longer than the other. Then wrap them together forming a loop.
I had thrown the last of my Hickory logs into the pit and everything had now burned down to form a nice red-hot bed of coals about 6 inches thick. I have a second plate with a hook in the middle of it, similar to the first, that I now lower into the pit to sit on top of the coals. That done I filled a large metal wash tub with water and began placing the burlap bundles in the water, making sure to submerge them, releasing any air pockets and thoroughly soaking the burlap. I have a wooden stick, about three feet long, with a hook on the end used to lift the plates in and out of the pit. I now use that stick to hook the wire loops in the waterlogged burlap bundles, lowering them onto the top plate.
Once all of the meat is in the pit, I have a cover plate. The top of my pit has a slight lip on it, so this plate sits down inside of the lip, almost flush with ground level. In a quick, do-it-yourself pit, once you have placed the meat in it, cover the hole with corrugated metal. This was where I made the second mistake on my first try. Make sure to cover the top of the pit with dirt or, in my case, sand. If any smoke escapes out of the pit, cover it. There can’t be any oxygen getting to the coals. If it does, it will cause a flare up and burn the meat. In essence, over the next 10 to 12 hours, the fire is going to slowly suffocate. But during that time, it is going to stay very hot and slowly cook the meat. On my first try I didn’t have any flare ups, fortunately. That was because I didn’t have enough coals to ignite. What happened in that case, was the additional oxygen that crept in under the top plate caused the coals to burn off faster, so the fire went out in an hour or two.
Over the years I have varied the length of time I cook items in the pit. On my second try I cooked everything for 12 hours. All the meat came out tasting excellent except when you raised the rib to eat it the meat literally fell off the bone halfway to your mouth. Just a little too tender. I have found eight to ten hours to be the optimal time for my pit. This is probably, at least partially, due to the fact that my pit is on the small side and the concrete lining holds the heat in so it probably burns hotter than typical. Other variations could include the type of wood being used, the size and thickness of the meat being cooked, and the depth of the coalbed.
There is one final step. What is a barbecue without barbecue sauce? After removing the meat from the pit and opening the bundles, place the meat on a standard barbeque grill. I have a Traeger. Heat the grill to about 375 degrees and generously slather barbeque sauce onto the meat. I prefer Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce. Let that cook for about 10-12 minutes, just enough time for the sugar in the sauce to start to caramelize. Turn the meat over and slather the other side with barbecue sauce, cooking for another 10-12 minutes. You will have some of the best barbecue you have ever tasted.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this blog. If nothing else, I hope it made you hungry. Deep Pit Que at my house Labor Day. Second, as I stated above’ I am by no means an expert on the art of deep pit barbecue. If you are reading this and have some experience in the area, please leave a comment. I would love to learn new ways to use my pit. And I’m sure any readers that are thinking of attempting a deep pit barbecue would welcome the input.
Okay readers, with that out of my system we go back to more serious matters in my next blog, How to Choose A Hard Money Lender. Until then hope you have a wonderful and normal summer.
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