# How To Cook Meat... In The Ground (Picstory)



## Philligan (Feb 23, 2011)

I found this technique online called pit barbecuing, where you cook meat in a hole in the ground. My friend Jeff (jwatso89 on here) and I decided to give it a try. Here is what you need to do some pit barbecuing of your own:

-Meat (we used a regular beef oven roast)
-Tinfoil
-Burlap
-Chicken wire
-Wood
-Rocks

Let's begin.






^You start with the roast. We used a standard beef oven roast. Next, it'd be cool to try a brisket or ribs. We seasoned it with pepper and sea salt. Next time, we're thinking a saucy rub.













^Wrap it in tin foil. This keeps the dirt out.





^Then wrap it in burlap. Apparently we don't have sacks in Canada, so we got a ridiculously long roll of it, and used six feet or so. We soaked the burlap in water first. This keeps the roast moist.





^Then wrap it in chicken wire so it doesn't fall apart. We used a probe for the temperature. It's good we did, too - the roast cooked way faster than we were expecting.





^Then dig a hole in the ground. It's gotta be a couple feet deep, because you need a lot of embers, and rocks and a roast, and then pile dirt back on top later.





^Start a fire in the hole. You want give or take a foot of embers before you put the roast in. We burned some wood, then put the rocks in, and burned more wood on/around them.





^Put the roast in, on the rocks, kinda nestled in the middle if possible.





^Expect steam.





^Pile more wet burlap on top.





^Put dirt back on it. A lot, and pack it down well. We used some wire to tie the roast to a stick - this actually made it a lot easier to get it out.





^Now we wait. We cooked it 'til 160 F.





^Done! It actually only took an hour and a half, not the four or five hours we were expecting.





^Thar she be.














It was actually really good. This works well because you can use cheaper cuts of meat, and the cooking time breaks them down so they're tender. Next time, we're thinking saucier/stronger seasoning, and maybe waiting 'til the embers die down a bit more so it cooks a bit longer. As is, it was still potentially the most tender roast beef I've had.

It's really not too hard if you've got a day off. It's definitely worth trying. Worst case, it's still an awesome story.


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## nojyeloot (Feb 23, 2011)

You sir, are a man.


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## BigBaldIan (Feb 23, 2011)

Approved!


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## Chickenhawk (Feb 23, 2011)

I've done this a couple times. One time with an entire hog. Definitely worth the effort.

EDIT:

Just looked at the pictures again...now I'm hungry


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## Philligan (Feb 23, 2011)

Infinity Complex said:


> I've done this a couple times. One time with an entire hog. Definitely worth the effort.



That's amazing  We're gonna have to try that. As is, we're gonna wrap the next roast in bacon


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## leandroab (Feb 23, 2011)

Fucking awesome!


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## Chickenhawk (Feb 23, 2011)

Philligan said:


> That's amazing  We're gonna have to try that. As is, we're gonna wrap the next roast in bacon



Do it!! That sounds fucking great!


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## AySay (Feb 23, 2011)

Maybe it's cause of my ethnic origin, but pepper and sea salt ain't no fucking seasoning. 
You definitely need to go with some kinda sauce or dry seasoning mix (Montreal is good)


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## Customisbetter (Feb 23, 2011)

Also note this works in sand dunes.


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## Skin Coffin (Feb 23, 2011)

Nice, really nice! Here in Portugal, in the Azores, we have a method very similar to that one!


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## scherzo1928 (Feb 23, 2011)

That's pretty much standard in here. But it's made with lamb. My old house actually had a hole in the backyard for that, as well as a grill.

There are places where you get the full thing. They take you to choose your lamb, you kill it, take part in some of the gutting/cutting, and then in the digging/cooking. (it's for big groups of people)

Needless to say it's the bloodiest thing I've ever done. And while I'm in no hurry to do that whole thing again, I certainly learned to apreciate where my food comes from.


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## Philligan (Feb 23, 2011)

scherzo1928 said:


> That's pretty much standard in here. But it's made with lamb. My old house actually had a hole in the backyard for that, as well as a grill.
> 
> There are places where you get the full thing. They take you to choose your lamb, you kill it, take part in some of the gutting/cutting, and then in the digging/cooking. (it's for big groups of people)
> 
> Needless to say it's the bloodiest thing I've ever done. And while I'm in no hurry to do that whole thing again, I certainly learned to apreciate where my food comes from.



That's so awesome, man, I wish we had that here. When we were getting supplies, people were asking us what we needed them for, and when we said "we're cooking a roast in a hole" we got the weirdest looks haha.

It tasted good, but it just tasted like beef. I definitely wanna season it a lot more next time around. Maybe cook some other stuff in there with it.


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## vampiregenocide (Feb 23, 2011)

Seen Ray Mears do this, its pirty cool. That looks nom.


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## scherzo1928 (Feb 23, 2011)

Philligan said:


> That's so awesome, man, I wish we had that here. When we were getting supplies, people were asking us what we needed them for, and when we said "we're cooking a roast in a hole" we got the weirdest looks haha.
> 
> It tasted good, but it just tasted like beef. I definitely wanna season it a lot more next time around. Maybe cook some other stuff in there with it.


 
Well, for starters, instead of using tinfoil, we use leaves. Banana leaves might be your best bet if you want to try it(I think maguey is what is used, which is where your tequila comes from). The meat itself doesnt need much spicing, mainly because we end up bathing everything in salsa  (for this kind of meat, morita chile salsa is a must).


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## Philligan (Feb 23, 2011)

scherzo1928 said:


> Well, for starters, instead of using tinfoil, we use leaves. Banana leaves might be your best bet if you want to try it(I think maguey is what is used, which is where your tequila comes from). The meat itself doesnt need much spicing, mainly because we end up bathing everything in salsa  (for this kind of meat, morita chile salsa is a must).
> 
> IMO, the best part of making barbacoa is the ""



I'm gonna look into these banana leaves, hopefully we can get them here. That seems way better, they'd probably let a lot more smoke flavour through. The tinfoil was pretty impermeable


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## Ckackley (Feb 23, 2011)

My family does this once every other year with an entire pig.. Best meat ever .


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## heavy7-665 (Feb 23, 2011)

Philligan said:


> That's amazing  We're gonna have to try that. As is, we're gonna wrap the next roast in bacon



& bacon strips & bacon strips & bacon strips


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## Xiphos68 (Feb 23, 2011)

I gotta try this.



Thank you so much for posting this!


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## Furtive Glance (Feb 23, 2011)

A guy up here has done it since the '70s. You can't even fathom how awesome it tastes afterwards. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Although, once there was a bear in there. A big Grizzly. There wasn't any food in there, but the smell is so strong I guess it stays in the ground.


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## Philligan (Feb 23, 2011)

Furtive Glance said:


> Although, once there was a bear in there. A big Grizzly. There wasn't any food in there, but the smell is so strong I guess it stays in the ground.



Oh yeah haha, when I went to go check on it, I was getting huge whiffs of this barbecue sauce kinda smell coming up from the ground. It was pretty great haha.

We did it behind Jeff's house, because his back yard opens up to a nature trail sort of thing, and we could avoid putting large holes in our lawns  

I'm really hoping joggers went by and were like "the fuck is that smell?"


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## Jet9 (Feb 23, 2011)

I've got to try that, I'm just way too impatient.

This made me hungry and I just ate.


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## Philligan (Feb 23, 2011)

Jet9 said:


> I've got to try that, I'm just way too impatient.
> 
> This made me hungry and I just ate.



 It's really not that time consuming, man. The whole process only took maybe three and a half hours from start to finish. It takes longer to cook a roast in a slow cooker.


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## Randy (Feb 23, 2011)

You are a man of great rapport.


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## JamesM (Feb 23, 2011)

Baddas mate.


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## Philligan (Feb 24, 2011)

Randy said:


> You are a man of great rapport.


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## jwatso89 (Feb 24, 2011)

I'm definitely keeping that hole back there til summer, I've been thinking about a bacon wrapped roast all night, so we better make that soon


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## Philligan (Feb 24, 2011)

jwatso89 said:


> I'm definitely keeping that hole back there til summer, I've been thinking about a bacon wrapped roast all night, so we better make that soon



It shall haunt my dreams evermore. Shit's gonna be so tasty.


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## josh pelican (Feb 24, 2011)

So... I think Harvey and the dudes from EpicMealTime need to do this when one of their creations.


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## ry_z (Feb 24, 2011)

For a while, my family did this with the Thanksgiving turkey every year.


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## highlordmugfug (Feb 24, 2011)

We did this with hamburger meat and a shitton of seasonings and vegetables back when I was in boy scouts.

EDIT: this, ^, and ^^


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## BrainArt (Feb 24, 2011)

As a Hawai'in, I give you my respect. My people have been pit cooking for ages.

Kalua - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## BigBaldIan (Feb 24, 2011)

Additional props for using safety precautions (the thermometer for starters). Food poisoning is not manly and you got a perfect medium-rare by the looks of things.


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## Philligan (Feb 24, 2011)

ry_z said:


> For a while, my family did this with the Thanksgiving turkey every year.



That's what we were thinking - it would be amazing to dig your entire Thanksgiving dinner up out of the ground


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