Hey all, if I can get a bear this season I am wanting to do a deep pit barbeque and have a lot of friends over, anybody know how to deep pit a bear?

thanks.

Red

Dago,

Here is how we cook a lamb or a goat.

WE dig a hole in the ground big enough to take the pot which is big enough to take the goat.

All the additions, like boiled eggs, vegetables and spices are added to the animals which is in the pot.

A fire started in the pit, and as the embers form, part is taken out, the pot is put in, the part of the fire that has been taken out is put back on again, and left to cook for at least 8 hours.

Enjoy.

Saeed: Goat is pretty hard to get here in Oregon, but what I have had has been darned tasty. What is the weight and age of a goat you would typically slaughter for cooking whole in Dubai? Any particular breeds favored for meat production?

D.R.

I think you will find a lot of "deep Pit BBQ" is done much like the pig is "roasted" for the Hawaiian luau.

The meat is treated in a particular manner, (rubs, spices and or vegetables) wrapped in several layers of some sort of moist wrapping ( the old "gunny sack" in the western U.S.) I don't know if the old natural fiber feed sack is still available since all feed sacks seem to be paper or plastic today!
The pit is filled with wood and the wood burned down to embers ( think they add Lava rocks in Hawaii). Some of the embers are removed and the meat placed in the pit, embers placed over the meat and the entire thing buried for several hours.
After the proper time period the meat is uncovered, carefully unwrapped and if done properly . . .

RAPIDLY CONSUMED

The BEST I ever ate was a beef (several) done by some brothers (sorry I have forgotten their family name . . . BUT NOT THE MEAT THEY COOKED back in about 71) for the "Bean Day" festival in Wagon Mound NM.

The other interesting thing about that meat/event was the fact that though there were several big dollar outsiders who had recently bought ranches in the area or in the case of Anderson, landowners who had been there a while, the beef was donated by a "new ranch owner" and this owner of that nationwide string of jewelry stores gained many supporters with that gesture to the locals.

When I asked for the spice list and method, they said spices were a family secret , and I can see why they kept it to themselves!

LouisB

It was so good and tender, it would "Make you slap your momma", as they say in the country.

TC: I passed through Wagon Mound just last week on the way from Santa Fe to Boulder. I would love to be there for "bean day."
My uncle used to deep pit barbecue huge beef and elk roasts using a method much like what you described. I wish I could remember more details, but it went something like this: Dig the pit ( something like 2 by three feet and a couple of feet deep) and build your fire, preferably with some hardwood fuels such as oak, maple or madrone (out west here, that's the best wood). While that become a bed of coals, prepare yourmeet with spices and rubs or marinades. You may want to bard the elk with some beef or pork fat using a barding needle. Then you wrap your meat in soaked burlap, then wrap again in several thicknesses of foil and seal well. I think then you put a shallow layer of soil over the embers and place the meat packets on that, then cover with another layer, then add a layer of embers, then soil, then a steel sheet and soil on top. My uncle would bury the meat the night before, then take it out the next day. I have never, never had meat so tender and flavorful.

Never had land critters out of a pit, but here in Massachusetts I've partaken of something cooked in a very simliar fashion.

A large pit is dug on the beach, then large rocks layered on the bootom. Then a large fire is made on top of same, using driftwood or whatever's handy. When the flames are knocked down and what is left is a nice big glowing bed of coals, a few armfulls of seaweed are tossed on top, effectively covering the coals. Now you're ready to add big wire baskets (or individually wrapped cheesecloth packets, if only for a few folks) of lobsters, clams, mussels, potatoes, corn, and peeled onions (and other shellfish and crustaceans if you like-- pretty much anything else that cooks well steamed will work). Then cover with seaweed again, and cover that whole shitaree with a canvas tarp. Some add a couple inches of sand on top of the canvas, but this may be more to keep the tarp from blowing off into the drink than anything else. Then have a few drinks, a nice nap, cast a plug a bit, whatever. A couple hours later, have your friends show up with requisite ice chests of beer, butter and lemon. Dig the pit up and prepare for a meal fit for a Poseidon himself.

BTW, a wise man digs his pit *well above* the high tide mark.

Cheers,

Leighton

[ 08-24-2003, 03:13: Message edited by: lhonda ]

D.R., Bill/O, lhonda

I think it is the long cooking time with low, moist heat that does it.

The burlap bag may be tough to find in todays world, but any washed undyed natural fiber cloth should work.

The spices for the rub would be the most critical thing anddepending on how prime the animal is, there should be PLENTY of fat to keep moisture and flavor in the meat. As I remember it, bear is the FATTEST lean looking meat I have ever cooked!

The method seems to be agreed upon, now "we" just have to find the spices required for the "RUB".

Bill are you an OTR driver?

LouisB

Dang I'm supposed to be chasing smallmouth and redeyes this morning and I goofed my back up!

For a community Bar-B-Q in 1976 had had a "Car Hood Hog". We go a hood from a wrecked car and sand blasted it clean. Dug a shallow pit and reduced oak & hickory logs and added mesquite chunks. the hood bent the hood into a shallow V drilled holes in it. Rubbed and wrapped a 1/2 big hog and wired under the hood through the holes. Took stump logs and suspended the Hooded hog ( or hogged hood ) over the coals and added small smoker sticks as necessary to keep the amount of smoke right. Turned out so well that this was repeated every 4th thereafter. I moved in 1982 but they may still be doing it.

TC,
You left out a few steps and created a disaster of cremation

Dig a pit about 3 ft. deep; burn a hardwood such as mesquite, oak or whatever you have locally and let it burn down to red hot coals; then cover the coals with sand dirt? several inches, then place goat, beef head, beef or pig in a wet toe sack; drop it in and cover with more toe sacks or even tin...then cover with dirt and leave for 24 to whatever....

Goat is better bar B Qued over open pit as it can get pretty stong in the burried pit...rub with plenty of olive oil and place on a spit over mesquite...Only weaning age goat on milk (6 to 8 months) is acceptable....Also cut into chunks about 1" x 1", double dipped in cornmeal and deep fried is fantastic...

Seems there is a few variations on "pit cooking"...I have cooked dishes in a few different ways... a stew in a cast iron pot placed in the pit effectively turns the pit into a "slow cooker"...Food can be placedd in dry and "roasted" and moist and "steamed"...

The main thing I found as that after preparing your bed of hot coals/hot rocks, you need to lift the food packages above them a few inches to prevent scorching...usually a few cold stones or even some greenhard wood placed inbetween the embers and the packages works well...

Just remember to corden off the buried food in case someone steps in the pit!

Regards,

Pete