Digging a BBQ Pit

[Nutterbuster]

Anybody have any words of wisdom? I've been thoroughly enjoying my gas grill and a few meals in the Dutch oven now that I'm out of a restricted living condition, but have been looking into branching out. Sous vide is going to happen, and possibly an electric smoker, but a deep pit seems like an inexpensive way to get into some more interesting cooking.

Any tips on the holes size, shape, or location? Best substrate to dig in? How do folks cover it? Do I need a grate, or can I just wrap everything and place it on the coals?

 

[Vtbow]

I dont have any good details, but I used to have friends in maine who would do temp. pits for steamers, lobsters/whatever and they were always scrounging the dump to salvage old weber charcoal grill lids and grates to use.

 

[donnieballgame]

Do you have access to a welder? I would scrounge around til I found an old metal tank, the old propane one's are pretty good, I think you want the metal to be kinda thick so it holds the heat better and I would turn it into a side smoker. You can build them for almost nothing if you have a few tools or know someone that does and a good sized one will cook anything! I will make one someday when I'm done moving every few years!

 

[Nutterbuster]

I dont have any good details, but I used to have friends in maine who would do temp. pits for steamers, lobsters/whatever and they were always scrounging the dump to salvage old weber charcoal grill lids and grates to use.

My father has had the same Brinkmann smoker for over 20 years, he has burned out many fire pans and racks, and has always replaced them by salvaging parts from grills left on the curb.

He may just have a rack I can steal....

 

[bigjoe]

If you can afford a Weber Kettle grill or a knock off, you can smoke on that. I use my Weber all the time to smoke pork butts, chicken etc. I picked up a slow n sear that I use with it to smoke.

 

[swampsnyper]

When we use to tent out in the marsh for duck season, all we use to do was cook on a fire. I had a grate with legs that we would sit over some coals and cook steaks opening weekend with potatoes wrapped in foil just thrown in the coals. No utensils or plates. Had a steak in one hand and a potato in the other, alternating bites. Lol
Ahhhh the good old days.
Use duck guts the next day to catfish with. Man man man. How I miss those days.

 

[Gicts]

He may just have a rack I can steal....

Back in my more resourceful and wiser days, I'd go grab the rack from the oven and use it over a fire.

 

[swampsnyper]

I’m loving my kamado joe. Never had a grill that regulates so well. I can just leave it for hours and come back and it’s holding the same temp like an oven. So much I can do on one piece of equipment.

 

[Seacowboy]

I have a pit at our club I built years ago, cook many a pig on it but been used less and less with kids in the picture now. Anyhow I went with a rectangle concrete pad, have to be sure there are no air bubbles or it will explode, will be using sand when I put a pit in at the house though. Then I used half cinder blocks stacked 3 high with small gaps on 3 sides for air flow, front side I left 2 complete openings but brought the blocks in a little bit. Can remove blocks for higher heat or raise them for lower heat. Use 1 side for burning wood down to coals then shovel to the other side, cook side is bigger. Split it 1/2 with another stack of half blocks, can use 1/3 and 2/3 if you want smaller fire box area. Then went to local welder and got 1 or 1.5" angle for a frame, cut to extend over short sides for handles then had expanded metal tacked on. Had 2 built same size even though they overlap fire box/cooking sections. Take 1 and out on top to flip meat. Can save money and use real estate yard signs doubled up with legs on opposite sides and expanded metal wire tied on to it.

Sorry no pics on my tablet but can get some when I go down next week.

 

[GCTerpfan]

Best deer steak I ever had I cooked over an open fire using an old shopping cart for a grate and a cement trial to flip it. It was late and there was a lot of beer involved but, I still remember 20 years later how good I thought that steak was at the time.

 

[Cbinderjr]

It's a above ground pit which I'm not sure your looking for, but super cheap and works awesome for large cooks, my buddy and I used a piece of plywood over the top layer of blocks to keep the heat in and used the holes in the blocks to adjust the heat, we held 225 pretty evenly for prolly over 14 hours.

For a smaller option that is also relatively cheap I do not think its possible to go wrong with a Weber kettle grill, I have a Weber smokey mountian 18.5 and a Yoder ys640 pellet grill and seem to keep going back to my Weber kettle for quick cooks

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[alpaca jeff]

Nutterbuster: Diging a pit sounds like a lot Work! Look at the ugly drum smokers, my brother built one for me for the cost of a couple weber grill grates and some bolts. I have competed with this smoker and it works as good as anything but the pellet smokers are nice! set it and forget it.

 

[Aeds151]

Rec Tec. Im Never looking back


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